district 12

I was just watching the news this evening, and heard about how a big blaze took out Sassafraz. For those who do not know, Sassafraz is an upscale, celeb-spotting and hip restaurant here in downtown Toronto. It is pretty much the place to be seen in the Yorkville area. It is located right on the corner of Cumberland and Bellair Streets. With it’s bright yellow color and European style architecture, you cannot miss this building. The whole area itself is hard to miss, you’ll see all the high end exotics like Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, Porsche’s and all sorts along the strip of Yorkville. Sassafraz was like an icon in the area. Just hearing about the fire was quite sad…they may or may not reopen. Here is part of the Globe and Mail article:

But the launch of Sassafraz was something of a sign of the times for Yorkville, which in the 1960s became known as ground zero for Toronto’s hippie culture. However, over the next few decades it morphed into one of the most upscale neighbourhoods in the country, packed with pricey boutiques and illegally parked super cars.

The new restaurant cashed in on the shift in demographics, quickly building a reputation as the place to be for celebrity-spotters. Famous guests include Mick Jagger, Bono and Sylvester Stallone. Just about every celebrity who ever set foot in Sassafraz has been photographed and displayed on the restaurant’s website. The celebrity culture fuelled the restaurant’s success, especially during Toronto’s film festival season.

That success, in turn, helped pay for million-dollar renovations. Even though former employees say Sassafraz’s turnover rate was unusually high — the restaurant’s former head chef left recently, and a significant portion of the kitchen staff followed — it still thrived.

“One thing I do believe is that Sassafraz is the best location for a restaurant in the country,” Mr. Texier said. “It’s an absolutely incredible corner. I think that’s mainly why the restaurant was successful — any other location and it would have been a fiasco.”

You can read the Globe and Mail article for the full story.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 14th, 2006 at 6:54 pm and is filed under Misc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.