Over the time I've lived off Church Street in Toronto, I've eaten at the 5 Alarm Diner at least once a week and often more often than that. The food was excellent, the staff were fabulous, and I was actually treated like a regular. Several of the waiters knew what I would eat before I had even looked at the menu. I used to meet my sister and her husband there for late night breakfasts and to celebrate good happenings.
You'll have noticed that I'm writing in a melancholy tone and in the past tense. This evening I strolled down for a late evening supper (perogies or bacon and eggs, I hadn't decided yet) and discovered that it had suddenly closed. I had just eaten there this time last week and there was no inkling then that the end was nigh. The explanation on the sign that they closed "due to circumstances out of our control" is ambiguous. I asked around at several restaurants in the neighborhood, including their neighbor Babylon, but no one seems to know anything. Does anyone out there have any information at all about this? Hopefully it will open again in another place but I'm not holding my breath.
And... in possibly related news, the Garage Sandwich Company, a couple of doors south of the diner has simultaneously closed up shop. Gladly, they'll somehow be affiliated with the Pusateri grocery in the neighborhood (not sure how that's going to work) but their old shop was pretty cool and they made the best darn sandwich in the city.
It's a sad day on Church Street...
Comments
m - September 7, 2005 2:16 PM
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Daniel Burka - September 7, 2005 4:12 PM
I spoke with the good people at Pusateri and Garage will be opening up a full sandwich shop next month in the store. Thankfully that doesn't sound like cellophane wrapped sandwiches. Look forward to seeing it...
martin - September 8, 2005 3:52 AM
Tragic about the 5 Alarm, but it looks like, bit by bit, Pusateri’s is turning itself into the best independent grocery in North America.
jackiegee - September 27, 2005 3:04 PM
That happened to me once. There was a chinese restaurant (Ying Hei) in Downtown Seattle that my family had gone to most Sunday afternoons for at least 18 years. We celebrated every major occasion there. One day I went to pick up some pan fried chicken chow mein and it had closed. No one had called to give us our last meal. It was very depressing. I have spent my days trying to find a place that makes chow mein that well. I think I might have actually found it in West LA at Royal Star. It was a 5 year hiatus.