Betty's on King St is Closing

[lister]

Dec 24 is the last day. Condos!

https://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2022/1 ... o-closing/

[Craig]

Oh hey neat, Betty's opened a second location where the Ceili used to be. That area used to be home for me, but I'm totally out of touch now.

Sad to see the original go, that was a fun place. Kinda a sensible spot for condos, I guess.

[shintriad]

There goes the neighbourhood! Hope they at least keep the takeaway spot they've been using.

[Tapsucker]

Sad day indeed. I was just there recently.

To be fair, that area does desperately need a Shopper's Drug mart.

[Cass]

I’m not surprised when anything closes nowadays, but I did enjoy Betty’s over the years so a bit sad it’s closing. I used to work on King St East during my university years when the area was only starting to redevelop and it was the only thing around with decent beer IIRC. It had good run.

[seangm]

I spent many a night at Betty's back in the day, lived just down the street for several years. Revisited the place a few years ago but I don't go out as much these days. Still sad to see it go, especially when you consider the likely replacement. Don't get me wrong, we need housing, but modern developers really fail to recreate the sort of lively street level experience that older buildings tend to. The Shoppers comment is spot on, no doubt it'll be a large sterile storefront leased out to the highest bidding pharmacy chain.

[Cass]

modern developers really fail to recreate the sort of lively street level experience that older buildings tend to

This really saddens me about what Toronto is becoming. Everything is becoming condos, and almost none of them provide the "bustling food and drink experiences" that the sales pitches promise on the street. The bar NIMBYism drives me crazy about how people want to be downtown 'close to the action' but never want restos on the ground level of their building.

I often think about a couple of examples...Ralph from Volo told me that on the very first night he opened, someone from the building came down in their pajamas to bitch. Another one was the guy from Northern Maverick had the foresight to buy another floor above him (not easy for most people to do) as a buffer between the bar and the residents.

We'll get Shoppers's, chiropractors, dentist offices, but never cozy local bars. When they get torn down, they most certainly do not return. It's truly something that is fading from Toronto. End sad rant

[Craig]

There are a couple of examples of places managing to open in condos. The Aviary and Longslice are maybe the only examples I can think of, and I wouldn't exactly call those places cozy either. It's hard to make a giant glass and concrete cube cozy.

[shintriad]

The place is across the street from me, and I hope they have something cool on the ground floor. Anything but a pot shop, furniture store, or nail salon will do.

Truth is, pubs don't work well underneath condos because of the late-night noise and constant smell of deep-fried everything.

[seangm]

modern developers really fail to recreate the sort of lively street level experience that older buildings tend to

This really saddens me about what Toronto is becoming. Everything is becoming condos, and almost none of them provide the "bustling food and drink experiences" that the sales pitches promise on the street. The bar NIMBYism drives me crazy about how people want to be downtown 'close to the action' but never want restos on the ground level of their building.

I often think about a couple of examples...Ralph from Volo told me that on the very first night he opened, someone from the building came down in their pajamas to bitch. Another one was the guy from Northern Maverick had the foresight to buy another floor above him (not easy for most people to do) as a buffer between the bar and the residents.

We'll get Shoppers's, chiropractors, dentist offices, but never cozy local bars. When they get torn down, they most certainly do not return. It's truly something that is fading from Toronto. End sad rant

Yep, I've always found it ironic when people move to a bustling part of the city only to complain that it's noisy. These brand new condo neighbourhoods are really just vertical suburbs, no life or character.

It's not all bad though, Toronto still has some good commercial strips left and thankfully Betty's will live on, but I do think we'll see a lot of cozy local bars disappear and not find a new space. Continually rising rents will make it tough for smaller, low frills places to live on.

[lister]

There are a couple of examples of places managing to open in condos. The Aviary and Longslice are maybe the only examples I can think of, and I wouldn't exactly call those places cozy either. It's hard to make a giant glass and concrete cube cozy.

GLB as well.

[S. St. Jeb]

modern developers really fail to recreate the sort of lively street level experience that older buildings tend to

This really saddens me about what Toronto is becoming. Everything is becoming condos, and almost none of them provide the "bustling food and drink experiences" that the sales pitches promise on the street. The bar NIMBYism drives me crazy about how people want to be downtown 'close to the action' but never want restos on the ground level of their building.

I often think about a couple of examples...Ralph from Volo told me that on the very first night he opened, someone from the building came down in their pajamas to bitch. Another one was the guy from Northern Maverick had the foresight to buy another floor above him (not easy for most people to do) as a buffer between the bar and the residents.

We'll get Shoppers's, chiropractors, dentist offices, but never cozy local bars. When they get torn down, they most certainly do not return. It's truly something that is fading from Toronto. End sad rant

Cass, wonderful post. You said things that I feel, but don't have the knowledge or experience to be able to say without it just being a vague opinion.

[Tapsucker]

I don't think GLB is in a condo. Isn't that a campus building?

As I understand, it's not all NIMBYism. It's got to do with how condos are managed. The boards just don't want to deal with independent businesses. Bars are too high of a turnover risk, they want people that have deep corporate pockets so they can just rent the space hassle free.

This really speaks more to how shitty it has become to try and launch and operate a small business in our corporate world.

[Cass]

Cass, wonderful post. You said things that I feel, but don't have the knowledge or experience to be able to say without it just being a vague opinion.

Thank you very much for the kind words!

[Cass]

As I understand, it's not all NIMBYism. It's got to do with how condos are managed. The boards just don't want to deal with independent businesses. Bars are too high of a turnover risk, they want people that have deep corporate pockets so they can just rent the space hassle free.

This really speaks more to how shitty it has become to try and launch and operate a small business in our corporate world.

This is a good point, thanks for the info. I guess my counter would be this is still about "not wanting it", but for different reasons than a classic NIMBY. Either way, it's about discouraging pubs & restos.