When it comes to restaurants, former Annex resident Joni Mitchell got it right: Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone.
Take the Hoof Café. How many times have you found yourself out on Dundas West on a Monday afternoon and, feeling a tad puckish, thought “some foie gras French toast drizzled in maple syrup would be just the thing right about now” only to remember that the legendary brunch spot closed almost a year ago, not because business was bad, but because it was too good?
Or Emilio’s, that pioneering panini shop helmed by Greg Couillard on Queen East at Jarvis that blossomed briefly in the early 80s. Too bad the building was sold to budding developer Harry Stinson who reduced the joint to a hole in the ground, a state it would stay in until it was turned into a condo 25 years later.
Some still get misty-eyed over Susur Lee’s Lotus on Tecumseth. I only caught the ground-breaking fusion bistro at the end of its run and thought the place a bit of a dump but then I still hold a soft-spot for the original Sai Woo in the old Chinatown behind City Hall.
Switzer’s? Ginsburg & Wong? Cluck, Grunt & Low? What shuttered resto do you wish was still around?
