What’s Next for Toronto’s Greek Town?
Posted by estiator at 11 April, at 09 : 35 AM Print
Insiders share past, present—and future.
By Michael Kaminer
“The Danforth” doesn’t sound Greek. But in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, the name is synonymous with all things Hellenic.
Named for an American who built roads here, Danforth Avenue is the heart of the city’s Greek Town. Across 12 blocks on the city’s east side, it includes restaurants, bakeries, and stores whose Greek signs stand out alongside English.
But as a younger generation drifts away from cultural enclaves, and as Covid-19 devastates dining and hospitality, Greek Town’s future seems cloudy. “From the perspective of someone who grew up in the neighborhood, Greek Town feels a lot less Greek these days,” says Jim Bamboulis, founder of travel site TravelMammal.com and a resident of the neighborhood for decades. “Older owners are passing away, and their kids don’t want to take over the family businesses.”
Some history: In the 1970s and early 1980s, the area was considered the largest Greek Town in North America and had one of the highest concentrations of Hellenic immigrants living outside of Greece, according to the Torontoist blog.
The decades after the Second World War saw an unprecedented rise in the number of European immigrants to Canada, and Toronto specifically. In 1960, the Globe and Mail reported that close to 500,000 European immigrants had come to the Toronto area since the war. Toronto had maintained a small population of Greek immigrants in the first half of the 20th century. By 1960, Toronto’s Greek population was estimated at 12,500.
In his 1980 book, The Canadian Odyssey: The Greek Experience in Canada, Peter D. Chimbos noted that “an immigrant could enter the [restaurant] business with a small investment, no academic training, and little knowledge of the English or French language. In was an enterprise where the ambitious, talkative, and hospitable Greek had the opportunity to interact with his patrons, work hard to satisfy them, and become economically successful.”
In 1976, the Toronto Star claimed the Danforth was now known as “Little Athens,” and had a population of 30,000 Greek immigrants. “On Saturdays, from small homes and above-store apartments in the area [of Danforth and Pape], many of the more than 65,000 Greeks who live in Toronto emerge to walk the streets,” the Globe and Mail reported at the time. “They walk in families, the women dressed in black, the men flanking the small children, all of whom seem to wear white knee socks and stripped ribbons.”
It’s a different reality now, Bamboulis says. Covid-19 hit Greek Town particularly hard, he says. “At the same time restaurants had to lock down, rents continued to increase. Rents in Greek Town are really, really high, as much as $30,000 a month. If you’re a small business owner and restaurant owner, you’re living pretty much day to day.” Before the pandemic, Bamboulis also led Greek-themed food tours through the neighborhood. “Three or four of my vendors closed permanently because of Covid. It’s really sad.”
The businesses that can afford the Danforth’s prime real estate don’t necessarily connect to its history or character, Bamboulis says. “A lot of establishments that have moved in are much more mainstream, and that’s making the Danforth less Greek. It’s the Tim Hortons and Popeyes of the world. We used to have a variety—shoe stores, dress shops, specialty food. But the old owners are passing away, and the kids don’t want to take over family business.”
There’s still a lot to enjoy in Greek Town, though—and Greeks who moved to the suburbs still come in on weekends to savor it, Bamboulis says. “Greek Town’s still the place to get authentic food. You can’t get away with bad Greek food in Greek Town,” he says. “We are not a passive-aggressive people. We say what we think, and we’ll say what we think about your food, so you can’t take with shortcuts like you can in the suburbs. If you want that touch of authenticity, you have to come into Greek Town.”
Among Bamboulis’ favorite spots: “Soula’s is amazing. They do bouzouki nights, with dancers who perform on weekends. Mezes is a great spot. It’s family-owned, by a husband and wife, and it’s small and intimate.
“Athens restaurant at Danforth and Pape Avenue is run by a guy named George. Pre-Covid, an important part of the experience was having your server take you back to meet the chef, who would tell you what they had that day, and you would order à la carte. That’s very Greek,” he said. “And north along Pape Avenue, the Greek Grill has an outdoor smoker from Thursday to Sunday.” Bamboulis also singles out the Serrano bakery on Pape Avenue, and the Select bakery, “off the strip, but still in Greek Town, and family-owned for 25 years.” Christos Christodoulou, the co-owner of Soula’s Modern Greek Cuisine, shares Bamboulis’ outlook on Greek Town. “The Greek character of the Danforth is fading,” he says. Christodoulou’s wife and co-owner, Soula, is the restaurant’s namesake. “I’m 64, and I’ve been on the Danforth since 1979 in different restaurants. It was at its peak in the 1990s. It was beyond busy and beyond popular, not just to Greeks but to the general population,” he says.
More recently, economics and demographics have changed the neighborhood. “Rents went up. People started leaving. Other types of businesses moved in—Mexican, Indian, Japanese food. They tend to come and go faster, and don’t stick around as long,” he said.
Greeks who once lived in the neighborhood “sold their homes and bought bigger houses in the suburbs,” Christodoulou says. “Houses in this neighborhood are now worth more than $2 million, so people took the opportunity to sell.”
On weekends, he says, “we still get some nostalgic Greeks. Suburban people drive in to get Greek food, along with their fetas and food items. But many of those things are available online. So people go to different places to find them. The same thing is happening in places like New York, where Astoria is no longer the center of Greek life. Second and third generations change, learn the language, and don’t need to mingle with other Greeks from back home or reminisce.”
Christodoulou’s own story reflects the resilience, resourcefulness, and spirit that built Greek Town. After arriving in Canada in 1977, “after the war in Cyprus,” he says, he bought “a small greasy-spoon restaurant. I don’t even know how I got into the business—a friend thought it was a good idea. I didn’t have restaurant experience, so it was trial and error.”
Christodoulou struck gold by introducing pork souvlaki on a skewer—a first in Toronto at the time. “The place became popular, and we sold it by the thousands,” he said. Squeezed for space, he bought out a pool hall next door, increasing his capacity from 15 seats to 140.
After subsequent buyouts and expansions, Christodoulou’s restaurant featured 300 seats “and became the center of the Danforth.” Called Mr. Greek, it was sold in 1988, and became a popular Canadian franchise.
After Mr. Greek, he and his wife left Canada. “But things back home didn’t change, so we returned to Toronto,” he says. In 1990, Christodoulou launched The Friendly Greek, a restaurant that quickly grew into a franchise, which he also sold to a partner. Back on the Danforth, he took over “a rundown restaurant” called The Pan, made it successful, and sold it in 2018 after 15 years.
While he was still running The Pan, Christodoulou started renovating an older restaurant called Ouzeri. He renamed it Soula’s Modern Greek Cuisine; the restaurant has been a Danforth institution ever since. “Presentation is a big part of the cuisine for us, and people love it,” he says. Traditional items like spanakopita, saganaki, and calamari are his biggest-volume items, along with steaks and souvlakis.
These days, Greek Town “is still safe, clean, and well-kept. In the summer, we’re like a resort. We’re flooded with people on a nice day. Winters are always bad—we deal with snow and parking issues. You have to be like a bee—save over the summer, spend it in winter.”
What does the future hold for Soula’s and Greek Town? “Some ex-restaurants are becoming medical clinics. One of them used to be a Greek nightclub, which benefited me back then. The clinic will have fewer people working in it. So you will have fewer restaurants opening.”
A bright spot for Greek Town is the annual Taste of the Danforth festival, back after a two-year pandemic hiatus. Taste of the Danforth is Canada’s largest street festival, welcoming approximately 1.6 million attendees over 3 days, according to organizers.
The Festival is organized by the Greek Town on the Danforth BIA, a not-for-profit organization, run by a volunteer board and chaired by Constantine Voidonicolas.
“The festival began as a celebration of Hellenic cuisine and culture. It has grown to become a celebration of both its Greek heritage and the multicultural nature of the City of Toronto,” its website says. The festival began in 1994 when the Greek Town BIA wanted to find new ways to entice people to come to the Danforth and enjoy Greek cuisine. The idea was to set up “tasting tables” so that attendees could try food from a number of restaurants, and thus, the “taste” of the Danforth began. In order to encourage people to try various dishes, the prices were kept very low, and even today, no tasting item costs more than $6.
In the first year, approximately 5,000 people attended the festival. Twenty-three restauranteurs participated. Today, the festival has grown to approximately 1.6 million visitors during the course of three nights and two days. And while it’s still presented by Greek Town’s business association, the festival is now billed as “Celebrating Canada’s Multicultural Mosaic.”
