Duggan's Evicted?!?!

biegaman · Post by **biegaman** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:26 am

The front doors of Duggan's are all boarded up and nailed shut. There's an eviction notice dated today (April 19th) saying the landlord has taken back the property. That's all I know. Looks like it'll be closed for a while...

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:33 am

Wow, that's a shame.

A brewpub with well-crafted lagers is such a rarity, and it was a really great addition to the Toronto scene.

They must've spent A LOT of money re-openning that place.

IPA_Lover · Post by **IPA_Lover** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:34 am

Wow I know there's been some venom spit about Duggan's beers lately but man, Bartowelers don't mess around when it comes to taking action!

I still never got to try the food! And I have a growler to take back! I always thought the #99 was decent. Until I tried Hophead that is.

Cass · Post by **Cass** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:38 am

That would be pretty shocking. Seemed to be doing OK.

sprague11 · Post by **sprague11** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:40 am

Wow...

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:51 am

Big shocker, really? Same usurious landlord that ran out Denisons/Growlers, no? Also similar big kitchen with wonderful, expensive food. Huge space, maybe under-utilized.

Must be tough to weather the initial years of any resto like that. At least they made a go of it, and now perhaps beerbistro & others can sigh in relief for the return of a few percent of their business.

Best to Mike and others.

JerCraigs · Post by **JerCraigs** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:10 pm

I have always thought that it must be tough to make adequate use of such a big space for a restaurant. Its probably double the size of beer bistro even without the basement isn't it?

Its a shame really, since they were putting out some decent stuff (despite the nitpicking on the boards here). Hopefully they will rise again in some other incarnation.

JerCraigs · Post by **JerCraigs** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:11 pm

Belgian wrote:Same usurious landlord that ran out Denisons/Growlers,

Common sense would suggest that lower rent and longer term tenant generally wins out over higher rent and empty space for long periods at a time right? Who knows what the story is here though. Hopefully more details will emerge.

TheSevenDuffs · Post by **TheSevenDuffs** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:15 pm

The only surprise to me is that it was always busy the few times that I have been there.

Aside from that, all of the points that Belgian made are valid ones, so this really isn't all that shocking.

My personal opinion of Duggans was that the atmosphere was good, the food was good (but overpriced) and beer was below average (generally speaking).

mintjellie · Post by **mintjellie** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:51 pm

Much of the beer I tried was, imo, a bit worse than below average.

Hell, their weissbier was almost as bad as Circus Boy.

saints_gambit · Post by **saints_gambit** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:55 pm

Poop.

I liked that porter.

ninja edit:Actually I wonder how much more profitable the distribution of the beer through Cool and the LCBO will be without the upkeep on that palace.

Flood · Post by **Flood** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:57 pm

saints_gambit wrote:Poop.

I liked that porter.

+1

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 1:00 pm

I actually thought the food was good value for it's location.

I must've been lucky... I thought most of the beer was above average. I thought the hefe was great when I first tried it, but admittedly, it was mediocre on another occasion. Perhaps turn-over & freshness was an issue?

saints_gambit · Post by **saints_gambit** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 1:06 pm

Derek wrote:I actually thought the food was good value for it's location.

I must've been lucky... I thought most of the beer was above average. I thought the hefe was great when I first tried it, but admittedly, it was mediocre on another occasion. Perhaps turn-over & freshness was an issue?

Though you may not credit it, it seems like the issue wasn't that the beer wasn't turning over. It's that some of them turned over so quickly that the quality suffered. I'm thinking of some of the lagers here, which probably didn't get the full amount of time to condition. Was confirmed by an assistant manager back in the fall.

Sort of an issue of popularity leading to decline, which sounds counterintuitive, but... whaddya gonna do?

uno99 · Post by **uno99** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:01 pm

saints_gambit wrote:
Though you may not credit it, it seems like the issue wasn't that the beer wasn't turning over. It's that some of them turned over so quickly that the quality suffered. I'm thinking of some of the lagers here, which probably didn't get the full amount of time to condition. Was confirmed by an assistant manager back in the fall.

Sort of an issue of popularity leading to decline, which sounds counterintuitive, but... whaddya gonna do?

I agree with this. Went a few weeks ago and tried a few beers. Many of them were sold out and the Sorachi lager was very "green". I spoke to both Mikes about this (front of house manager, and Mike Duggan) and apparently the demand had been so high that there wasn't enough time to allow the beer to condition properly.

Any other beers I've had there have been good but not spectacular, and I found the quality to decline since the opening week.