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Captain John's Restaurant (1975-2012)

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Now that the waterfront, east of Yonge is being built up and cleaned up, the rusting Captain John's is looking increasingly out of place. It is obviously not being kept up and I believe the owner is trying to sell it for $1,000,000. I don't even know if it's still open for business. I'm not sure how the city treats something like this. Can they impose the same standards on the boat as they do on buildings as far as upkeep goes? I have no restaurant experience but I'm pessimistic the owner will find a buyer willing to run the restaurant as a going concern. Maybe most of the current value of Captain John's lies in it's value as scrap metal. What are your thoughts?
 
Right, its a piece of junk that i doubt is worth 1 million dollars of scrap metal, best thing they can do is take out to the middle of the lake and do a controlled capsize for future scuba diving scientific tests. ...
 
Unless you're into urban esotericism, Captain John's is worth little more than the steel that can be scrapped from it. Right now, its only amusement to Torontonians comes from reading the online reviews of out-of-towners who ate there and had the worst restaurant experience of their life.
 
androiduk said:
Now that the waterfront, east of Yonge is being built up and cleaned up, the rusting Captain John's is looking increasingly out of place. It is obviously not being kept up and I believe the owner is trying to sell it for $1,000,000. I don't even know if it's still open for business. I'm not sure how the city treats something like this. Can they impose the same standards on the boat as they do on buildings as far as upkeep goes? I have no restaurant experience but I'm pessimistic the owner will find a buyer willing to run the restaurant as a going concern. Maybe most of the current value of Captain John's lies in it's value as scrap metal. What are your thoughts?
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Is it possible that this is in the hands of the Toronto Port Authority and not the city?
 
I heard the only reason the owners selling this establishment is that the city demanded he pay property tax. For the longest time they got away without having to pay a dime in property tax, also the price has been dropped from original asking 1.5 million. I still think this ship should stay but can use some work/updating. It is a nice addition to the waterfront in my opinion, its Redpath that needs to go.
 
WaterfrontToronto has a wavedeck planned for this slip and a boardwalk around the Pier27 property. Cpt. John's is going one way or the other. I like the idea of a floating restaurant but the current owners aren't realizing the potential at all. I've heard some pretty bad stories about this place.
 
Apparently it's been that bad for decades, according to my friends who ate there... 15+ years ago. I've never eaten there though.

The one I recall being as bad as those reviews was Ed's Warehouse. That was truly disgusting. I've had hospital cafeteria food that was way better, and I'm not exaggerating.
 
I've never been there, but I imagine that a night out at Captain John's is like that scene in Summer Rental where John Candy and his family order food in a converted pirate ship and the waiter goes to the kitchen and unwraps the Captain Highliner.
 
Automation Gallery said:
Right, its a piece of junk that i doubt is worth 1 million dollars of scrap metal, best thing they can do is take out to the middle of the lake and do a controlled capsize for future scuba diving scientific tests. ...
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Sell it to the Tamil Tigers, they use rickier boats for their trips to Canada.

Seriously though, scrap that ship. That's going to become valuable mooring space for visiting ships and boats to Toronto's harbourfront. For example, whenever a warship visits Toronto it's always stuck down at the Maple Leaf Quay, whereas they should be at Captain John's mooring where everyone is visiting.
 
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