I recall my parents referring to the jewelery company as "Ryrie-Birks" and the sign in this 1934 photo confirms it.
From the Ontario Archives:
The Ryrie Brothers owned the most prestigious jewellery business in Toronto at the time this office building was re-modelled out of two existing structures by Burke, Horwood & White in 1913.
While the Ryries had their retail business down the street in "Diamond Hall" located at Yonge and Adelaide streets, this building at the corner of Shuter Street was an investment property. The Ryrie name survives in the Ryrie Building, but no longer in the jewellery business.
Ryrie Brothers amalgamated with Montreal jewellers Henry Birks & Son following the death of one of the three Ryrie brothers in 1917, and later in the 1930s another Toronto jeweller joined the company to form Ryrie-Birks-Ellis. For many years since however, the firm has been simply known as Birks.
Ryrie Building, 229 Yonge St., 1891; additions and alterations by Burke, Horwood & White, 1913-14; ground floor and basement remodelled for Muirhead's Grille and Cafeteria, Norman A. Armstrong, 1934.
1n 1947, the Siver Rail, one of Ontario's first licensed cocktail lounges opened in the Ryrie Building:
1954 view:
Cocktail list: