Edward Keenan: Three nearly ironclad truths to keep in mind about Toronto and its restaurants
Loyal readers may know that at the upcoming city council meeting on Tuesday, a plan to take the CaféTO street patios that redefined the cityscape during the pandemic and make them permanent is up for debate. Thewas that this plan would all but kill the project. In response, the mayor has asked for some options to make changes. We’re all going to see how that works out.
As that discussion unfolds, there are three nearly ironclad truths, two about restaurants and one about Toronto’s government, that I think it behooves councillors to keep in mind.For any city, restaurants are an absolutely essential and defining aspect of urban life and culture. They define streetscapes, bring foot traffic day and night, they are the front line of how people experience the cultural texture of a place.
Likewise, many of us can note — and many councillors observed at a meeting early this week of the mayor’s executive committee — that the pandemic-inspired CaféTO street patios had a transformative effect on our main streets, turning Toronto into a livelier, friendlier place. That’s an asset to the city far beyond its benefits to any given business owner.Speaking generally, restaurants are run by terrible business people struggling to get by.
Restaurants everywhere are famous for their failure rate: as many as 80 per cent fail within five years, according to . At a meeting of the mayor’s executive committee this past week, representatives of Restaurants Canada said thathalf of restaurants had no profit at all. Then came years of closed dining rooms. And now, inflation in food and staffing costs. The CaféTO street patios, the committee heard, were a “lifeline.” But most restaurateurs don’t have much ready cash — or expansive lines of credit — ready to extend that lifeline.The city’s regulatory frameworks are where fun goes to die.
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