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Drinks Food & Drink

The Shore Leave closed by landlord

Small businesses, including restaurants and bars, have been urging the government for rent relief during COVID-19 to stem the looming threat of mass closures.

This week, legendary pizzeria Vesuvio threw in the towel after seeing business drop as much as 70 per cent during the pandemic. Now, it seems that beloved tiki bar Shore Leave, which closed on March 16 under shutdown orders from the city, has been ousted from their Danforth home due to unpaid rent.

On Thursday morning, Toronto-Danforth MPP tweeted a photo of a note posted on the front door of Shore Leave that stated the building’s landlord had taken possession of the storefront for non-payment of rent.

Below the note, someone else had posted another: “What a cruel, short-sighted, Scrooge McDuckian move. Kick out a thriving, beloved small business that could have reopened, and replace it with an empty storefront! Disgusting.”

The bar’s last social media post was a note on March 16 — the date the city asked all bars and restaurants to close their dining rooms – saying the bar was “sadly closing along with the rest of Toronto because of that thing in the news, maybe you heard about it.

“Anyways, we hopefully won’t have to wait too long to open again and get back to normal! ‘Til then, stay safe and healthy and be good to each other.”

Officials had previously pleaded with landlords to work with tenants, and while Mayor John Tory has asked the province to put a freeze on commercial evictions, as they had done with residential evictions, no such measures have been taken.

NOW has approached Shore Leave for comment and will update with their response.

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Every Toronto restaurant that has closed during COVID-19

@nataliamanzocco

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