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Riverdale

Skeezix said:
Friendly Greek appears to have made the move. The old location is closed, and yesterday morning people were in the new location getting it ready.
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This is an incredibly huge reduction in their floor space -- I'm surprised they think this is even viable. They must have laid off most of their staff.

The African knick-knack shop, the one next to where the Friendly Greek used to be, is having a closing sale.
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That's not terribly surprising -- it seemed like a pretty specialized store, and somewhat out of place on the Danforth, where there are relatively few household knickknack shops.
 
The new location is fairly deep, but yes it is much smaller. I have no idea to what extent they were keeping their original space full on most nights, nor do I have any idea what the landlord was asking in rent for the original space. Probably a mint.

There are many successful restaurants in spaces roughly the size of the new Friendly Greek space, so if Friendly Greek has a business plan it doesn't surprise me at all that they think it is viable. There is nothing inherent about the size that makes a restaurant nonviable.
 
The original space was ridiculously massive, and really seemed like it was from a much earlier era of dining, so it's not surprising to me it wasn't financially viable. What I find odd instead is that they are really changing their business model by moving to such a smaller space -- it's like they're re-inventing themselves. I hope they do well, but I wonder if they can make the transition to a radically smaller space, as compared to a restaurant or chain that is used to making that sized space profitable.

This does open up a huge storefront on Danforth. I wonder if anyone will take the full space, or if it will need to be chopped up into smaller units.
 
Tulse said:
The original space was ridiculously massive, and really seemed like it was from a much earlier era of dining, so it's not surprising to me it wasn't financially viable. What I find odd instead is that they are really changing their business model by moving to such a smaller space -- it's like they're re-inventing themselves. I hope they do well, but I wonder if they can make the transition to a radically smaller space, as compared to a restaurant or chain that is used to making that sized space profitable.

This does open up a huge storefront on Danforth. I wonder if anyone will take the full space, or if it will need to be chopped up into smaller units.
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We passed by just before 10 p.m. last night. Dead empty.

I am worried that the only businesses that can now come in are the big chains. A Payless. A SportChek. A Keg. A Winners. I am pretty sure these would all be viable.

I have seen the Danforth change so much that I am disheartened. I have always tried to patronize the small indie stores and restos but they are disappearing ...
 
I don't see things as nearly so dire. Over the decade and a half I've lived in the neighbourhood I think it has become far more diverse, interesting, and useful. We now have numerous non-chain and small local chain restaurants that aren't Greek, including some truly excellent spots (Globe, Pizza Libretto, Greenwood), and the variety of ethnic dining is pretty fantastic (Greek, of course, but also German, Lebanese, Italian, Spanish, Cuban, Turkish, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, etc.). We have had a wave of sit-down cafés, such as Crema and Tsaa, in addition to the existing chains and indies, and numerous ice cream/gelato/fro-yo places, especially Dolce Gelato. There is now actually useful household shopping with the Canadian Tire Express and Kitchen Stuff Plus (as well as the more upscale housewares of IQ Living), where before most of that kind of thing was handled by a plethora of sad dollar stores. The neighbourhood still lacks good non-boutique clothes shopping (with the conversion of Mark's into CTE), but otherwise the Danforth strip is far more actually livable than it was when I moved to the nabe.
 
Admittedly, I don't think there have been any new sushi joints in the last 3 years or so (I think the last new one, IIRC, was Casa Sushi, which presumably sells Spanish sushi). Except Burger Stomper, no new gourmet burger joints (Slider Revolution didn't last long, got replaced with the far more interesting Greenwood Smokehouse; not sure if the replacement of Lick's with A&W counts). Am I forgetting anything?
 
Skeezix said:
Admittedly, I don't think there have been any new sushi joints in the last 3 years or so (I think the last new one, IIRC, was Casa Sushi, which presumably sells Spanish sushi). Except Burger Stomper, no new gourmet burger joints (Slider Revolution didn't last long, got replaced with the far more interesting Greenwood Smokehouse; not sure if the replacement of Lick's with A&W counts). Am I forgetting anything?
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I don't see that much improved diversity over the past decade. In the 90s, sure. But not for 10 years or so. Pizza Libretto may be good but we already had Il Fornello and Brass Taps makes some pretty good pizzas, IMO. The Globe Bistro and several others places, including a Spanish place, were on the Broadview end early in the 2000s. We lost the Mexican place just west of Logan. Pan (when it was good), Avli, and Lolita's Lust all opened in the mid-90s. But everything since seems to be pretty much all sushi and burgers.

Quite apart from restaurants, we've lost two indie shoe stores, including the excellent Labiri where I would drop a bundle. RK had great fashionable clothes for grown-up women. I still have many of their classic, well-made pieces. Avec Plaisir lingerie is gone. We had two hardware stores, the Home HW at Pape and an oldie but goodie near Bowden. The Greek Market offered excellent things like farm-fresh yogurt before it was trendy (and really not genuine.) Sun Valley sold CAVIAR and Dufflet cakes and saffron and everything a gourmet cook needed. We had two indie kitchen supply stores, not counting IQ but including the recently-closed one (my fave) just east of Pape. I guess New Balance is welcome, but I was already buying top quality runners at Foot Sensations and the place across the street.

I've lived in the hood since 1985 and yes, I have seen more welcome variety. But I have also seen a lot of homogenization.

Incidentally, I noticed yesterday that the NW -- oops meant NE -- corner of Playter and Danforth is now a parking lot. I would have thought that it would have been ripe for development. Oh and Louis Cypher is way too noisy for me.
 
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Do you mean the NE corner? According to Google Streetview, the old Mister Transmission was demolished sometime between Sept. 2007 and April 2009. So it's been vacant for awhile. Yes, a prime redevelopment site, but it's not unusual for landowners to sit on sites. Reportedly that's why Demetra's at Danforth and Logan stayed vacant so long, because he and his neighbour wanted to redevelop together but neither could meet the other's price (the owner of the site on the corner eventually went alone, as you know, so the other one finally leased to Jamba Juice/Yogurty's).

The site was for sale for awhile (or at least it was being marketed).

Wonder if they got site plan approval for the parking lot.
 
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Skeezix said:
Do you mean the NE corner? According to Google Streetview, the old Mister Transmission was demolished sometime between Sept. 2007 and April 2009. So it's been vacant for awhile. Yes, a prime redevelopment site, but it's not unusual for landowners to sit on sites.
The site was for sale for awhile (or at least it was being marketed).

Wonder if they got site plan approval for the parking lot.
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Yes, sorry, will correct my post.

Who knows if they got permission. They have a meter but I didn't get close enough to it to see what sort it was.
 
No application shown on the City's website. The BIAs are always pushing for more parking in the area, so maybe it was a case of act now, ask for permission later.

ETA: I see from this budget, that a parking lot on this site (242 Danforth) was part of the Toronto Parking Authority's 2015 capital budget. So it's the City itself that opened the lot.
 
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Whoa. Walked by the lot at NE corner of Playter and Danforth earlier today. No way that lot is TPA/Green P. The lot doesn't apply with any zoning requirements for a parking lot in the CR zone, and there is no way that quickie lot got site plan approval. I assume the owner just went ahead and opened it without any permissions.
 
Skeezix said:
Except Burger Stomper, no new gourmet burger joints (Slider Revolution didn't last long, got replaced with the far more interesting Greenwood Smokehouse; not sure if the replacement of Lick's with A&W counts). Am I forgetting anything?
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Patty and Franks, but I understand they will be moving very soon because of their lease.
 
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