The news that Flo’s Diner in Toronto had closed hit me hard. But why? It was just a diner.
True, I’ve eaten there since it opened on Bellair in 1991, and long after it moved to 70 Yorkville. I was a regular and wore my old-guy-corner-booth-bacon-and-eggs persona like a medal. Not for me The Four Seasons or Park Hyatt, where a piddly bowl of porridge and coffee will now set you back $40.
I’ve always been a diner guy. Years ago, Brothers on Yonge just below Charles was my eatery of choice. It was run by two brothers who kept baseball bats behind the counter to go after anyone who forgot to pay. No one forgot to pay. But Brothers closed long ago, and the idea of opening a diner today seems as viable as the idea of buying a stick-shift car or a Hungarian restaurant on Bloor St.
Flo’s co-owner Pierre Hamel said it was a dispute with their landlord that led to its closing and laying off 15 staff. Hamel said: “We came out of COVID really, really strong, and we would like to stay as long as we can.”
But anyone who’s eaten at Flo’s since the pandemic can see another reason: 70 Yorkville is a 4-storey office and retail building in Toronto’s most expensive neighbourhood. Why would your landlord collect rents when he can sell that building to a developer who will tear it down and build luxury condos and make a fortune?
It’s one thing to say there are a lot of condos going up in Toronto. It’s another to see that every small retail and office building is falling under the wrecker’s ball. Every single one.
If that’s not ‘true-true’, it’s ‘feel-true’.
So it was a head-shaking surprise to hear that Pusateri’s Fine Foods on Bay and Yorkville had also closed last weekend.Pusateri’s opened there in 2003 with valet parking, private chefs and marble interior. Flo’s it was not. I rarely set foot there, and Pusateri’s gave no reason for their closing, but it’s not hard to think that Eataly, just two blocks away in the Manulife Centre, was eating their lunch.
But I mourn the loss of both Flo’s and Pusateri’s for the same reason Jane Jacob would have: “When distance and convenience sets in; the small, the various and the personal wither away.”
The first diner in the world opened in Rhode Island in 1872. There are still a few diners open in Toronto. But it won’t be long until the last diner closes here and our kids and grandkids wonder where they all went, the way we miss record stores and gas stations. Have you noticed how many downtown gas stations are being remediated into condos? So yes, gas stations too.
An era is ending; but I’m the kind of guy who could starve in front of a full refrigerator. I want my diner. I need my diner. I hunger for it.
1. A lecture on climate change. Last week the BBC’s Stephen Sackur, host of BBC’s HARDTalk, interviewed Guyanese President Irfaan Ali.
Ali won.
But maybe even capitalism can’t solve climate change. Maybe we won’t be seeing photos like these much longer.
2. Saudi Arabia Chairs UN Forum on Women’s Rights. Yes, you read that right.
Where women are making progress is in pro sports. Women’s soccer, hockey and basketball are all booming. And women’s college basketball in the US is even boomier. As The Financial Times wrote of Caitlin Clark, the 22-year-old senior and point guard at the University of Iowa: “Earlier this month, more than 3 million people tuned in to watch Clark break the all-time scoring record in college basketball — for men and women. It was better than the average network ratings for men’s professional National Basketball Association games this season. Last year’s national championship game between Iowa and Louisiana State University drew more viewers than baseball’s World Series.”
Meanwhile, one might well ask: “How is #MeToo coming along?” Well, if you’re in France, not well. Last month, Judith Godrèche used her win at the Césars (the French Oscars) to accuse director Benoît Jacquot of rape and physical abuse, and director Jacques Doillon, of sexual abuse. Said Godrèche: “We can decide that men accused of rape no longer rule the (French) cinema.”
3. A hotel for the neurodiverse. It’s hard to travel if you’re autistic. “Between 25 and 35 million people are parents to one or more children with autism and due to the current travel landscape, 87 percent of them currently don’t travel or take family vacations.” But Virgin Hotels is making it easier.
4. Toni Morrison’s rejection letters. Not the ones she received, but the ones she wrote to authors whose manuscripts she rejected. Morrison was not only a Nobel Prize-winning novelist, she was a Random House editor for 16 years. Her tone was invariably: “There is no point in my being other than honest with you.”
Speaking of letters, Blackrock’s CEO, Larry Fink, just published his annual chairman’s letter to shareholders. This one is about retirement. Since Blackrock is the world’s largest asset manager and holds $10 trillion in assets (nearly five times the annual GDP of Canada), people tend to hang on every word.
5. Will you please stop saying ‘populism’! It just encourages them and it’s a gift to the far right. That said, you may want to try English As She Is Spoke. And you’ll certainly want to use the Organizational Bullshit Perception Scale, first flagged last month by John Lorinc.
6. How can we get people to consume news again? Don’t give it away. And especially don’t let social media take it from you and profit from that, which Canada is now, maybe too little too late, reversing. What’s the cost of not consuming the news? Well, at least 64 countries and 49% of the world’s people are holding elections this year.
But the idea that ‘old media’ will survive in its present form, may just be magical thinking, something millions of us rely on. And why not? Nearly 7 in 10 American adults believe in angels and around 20% of Canadians think they’ll ‘win big’ in the lottery. The actual odds of winning the jackpot in the Lotto Max lottery are 1 in 33,294,800.
7. A total is much bigger than a partial. Here’s a beginner’s guide to the total solar eclipse which sweeps over our part of the earth this Monday, April 8th.
Your next chance to see one will be on August 12, 2026. But unless you’re in Greenland, Iceland, the Atlantic Ocean or Spain on that date, you’re out of luck. So, look up, up in the sky. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s…an interstellar event you need eye protection for.
8. Orchestral conducting used to be a boy’s club. No more. But there still aren’t many women conductors (and none leading Canada’s top orchestras). So Tapestry Opera created Women in Musical Leadership and brought in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as its lead partner to give young women conductors the opportunity to excel: with an orchestra, in front of an audience, and with intensive master-class training.
You can watch TSO conductor Gustavo Gimeno lead a masterclass with six young women conductors on Wednesday June 5 at 7:00 pm ET at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall. It’s intense, fun, revealing – and free. Just register here.
9. We have AI photos. Next is AI video. Sora is coming with AI’s usual knock-the-door-down insistence. Open AI, the people who brought us ChatGPT, will soon unveil how we can turn random text into coherent videos. Here’s a preview of what’s to come. As Paul Trillo, Open AI’s creative director, noted: “Sora is at its most powerful when you’re not replicating the old but bringing to life new and impossible ideas we would have otherwise never had the opportunity to see.” That, and a tsunami of ethical implications, of course.
10. Who will win a Gairdner Award? They’re one of the world’s top science prizes, and one in 4 Gairdner Awardees goes on to win the Nobel Prize. These Toronto-based awards (with $100,000 to each of 7 awardees) will be announced on Thursday, April 11th at 10 a.m. ET. You can watch it online.
11. What I’m liking. Don’t walk or even run; but leap to get tickets to Robert Lepage’s stunning new dance production of Hamlet, starring Guillaume Côté.
Not only will your eyes pop out, your preconceptions about dance and drama will fall onto the floor. I say “leap” because there are only 3 more shows at the Elgin Winter Garden in downtown Toronto: Saturday, April 6 matinee and evening, and Sunday, April 7 matinee. And if you just can’t make it on such short notice, keep your eyes out for next time. Yes, it’s that good.
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THE QUESTION ISN’T “WHY TRAVEL?”
IT’S “WHY TRAVEL WITH US?”
Because we do group travel for people who don’t do group travel.
We go places – like the Alta Valsesia in Italy and the Great Bear Rainforest in BC –which are empty of crowds and deep in beauty, authenticity and fun.
We also do things that change our view of the world, like immersing ourselves in Indigenous culture off Vancouver Island, or sailing in a square-rigger down the Amalfi coast.
To make this happen, we partner with the best people in the world of small-group travel, like Lindblad Expeditions / National Geographic and karibu adventures.
But the real difference is the people who join us on our trips. They are engaged and grownup, and in the words of E.M. Forster “sensitive, considerate and plucky.”
But most of all, they are curious.
Not as in ‘odd’, but as in eager to learn more about life, the world, and especially other people and cultures. Just like you.
Indeed, it’s this abiding sense of curiosity that keeps Jean and me exploring as much of the world as we can.
Because you don’t slow down when you get old; you get old when you slow down.
So join us, and whet your appetite for life.
Onward,
Bob Ramsay
