Toronto: Does this steak restaurant sound familiar? (BAK, I need you!!)
 

My dad keeps talking about this famous Toronto steakhouse (famous for prime rib?) that he ate at 30+ years ago. He doesn't remember the name - He said it was decorated with Tiffany lamps, stained glass etc. etc. Does this place still exist? What is the name? ... I am just very curious.

Just a shot in the dark, but there's a famous long-lived Canadian steakhouse called Hy's...

hmmm, I'm sure BAK would be of more help here, but....

Some old time restaurants it could have been are: Tom Jones; Barbarian's; Ed's Warehouse (no longer open); Bardi's or Tom Jones. Tom Jones might be the closest bet (www.tomjonessteakhouse.com) based on your description but the others could have changed quite a bit in the last few decades.

Hmmmm.

Thirty years ago...

Could be Simpson's On the Strand, a Toronto model of the London restaurant. Leather furniture, excellent roast beef. It was served on trolleys which a carver rolled to each table, thre were roasts of varying degrees of doneness. It was in the lower level of first Canadian Place, accessible from the street.

30 years ago Hy's was in tyhe Graphics Arts building, on Richmond Street between Bay and University. Same building as, back then, the Toronto Press Club. Again, ornate decor, excellent beef, and they served roast beef.

As I write this, it's coming back that pretty much all the steakhouses had fake / real tiffany lamps, ornate decor, red flocked wallpaper, etc.

Barberians was / still is, one of the best steakhouses, wentr through some management changes (friend of a friend owned it for a while but now Harry's son is the owner) and it too is ornate, It is a very old smallhouse, just off Yonge Street, a couple of blcoks north of Dundas, and has been in the same spot for forty years or so.

Can't remember if it served roast beef thrity years ago.

Hy's is a chain -- started in Vancouver. Tom Jones, as someone mentioned, fits the descrription and has been around since, I think, 1969. It's in a little house right beside the east side of the King Edward Hotel.

Tom Jones is still there.

So, in the same place -- Carmen's (don't think of it as roast beef;
mostly steak
Barberians
Bardi's (next to the west end of the Royal York Hotel

Moved -- Hy's

New -- Ruth's Chris, in the Hilton at University and Richmond.

Morton's, in the Park Hyatt.

If you dad's coming back to Toronto, it may be necessary to spend three or four dinners doing research.

BAK

Was it the Octagon?

Ed's Warehouse was famous for prime rib, and when Ed Mirvish opened the place there was a lot of fuss about his decor; he had picked up a huge number of Tiffany lamps that people were discarding, and had installed them in his restaurant. You could have bought a Tiffany lamp in Toronto in 1967 for a few dollars, and I don't mean the fake ones - there weren't very many fake ones! My guess is that this is the place your dad was talking about. It has, as Cat123 points out, since closed. (This is not exactly a tragedy - the food was pretty bad.) If you want steak, you can't go too far wrong with the ones BAK recommends.
Incidentally, the place wouldn't have been the Octagon; that's outside of Toronto in Richmond Hill or Thornhill, I can't quite recall which.

It sounds exactly like Hy's. Their prime rib was delicious. It was more of a standout many years ago, than in Toronto's cluttered field of restaurant excellence today.

Comments on the comments.

Octagon -- forty years ago, it was a fast food place, not a steak house. Don't know when the conversion took place.

Ed's Warehouse -- well, I think that was probably it. And it slipped my mind.

So, check with dad...

Does he remember a dress code, and the loan of a jacket and necktie? That used to be Ed's policy.

Two big white buildings next to each other?

Similar names for several retaurtants in the same building, but steak in one place, roast beef in another ( you could get steak in the roast beef house and roast beef in the steak house) and a seafood section and an oriental section?

Ed had a vast collection of antiques in his restaurant, including lots of Tiffany lamps.

Over the years, Ed's Warehouse closed, and then, more recently, Old Ed's closed down. I used to have "Brian's Table" there, generally held for my by Mike the Maitre d' until about 12:30.

It used to be managed by a friend of Ed Mirvish, Yale Simpson. Ed kept it going because of his friendship with Yale, and closed it after Yale died. It's now an antique center.

But, bottom line, my bet is that Ed's Warehouse, King Street West at Duncan, is what your dad remembers.

Ed is real. Edwin Mirvish is almost 90, got rich running a discount department store, developed the Royal Alexandra Theatre, rescued the Old Vic in London, developed the Princess of Wales in Toronto. His son David runs the theatres now.

BAK

Ate at Barbarian's last weekend -- great steaks and a very nice wine list, from locals to Calif. This was a business dinner with a group of (very loud) guys, so it was nice we had a private room. The waiter offered to seat us after dinner down in the patio area for cigars and cognac. Great place in a town with many good restaurants.

It sounds like Carmen's to me...

The restaurant he is thinking of was Ed's Warehouse. This was run by Ed Mirvish, owner of the Royal Alexandra and Princess of Wales theatres.
He bought an furnished the Warehouse to service the clients at the Royal Alex, and it becam a Toronto tradition with it's ornate antique decoration, and excellent roast beef and steaks. He later added Ed's Folly, and Old Ed's which were in the same block.
One of the joys of Ed's was the dress code which require a jacket and tie long after it was required at most restaurants. If you didn't have one after the long wait in line, the would happily supply you with one that was so ugly they hadn't even been able to sell it at Ed's other famous Toronto emporium, Honest Ed's department store (the ultimate in kitsch)
Sadly as the theatre distric grew, other trndier restaurants moved into the area, and trade declined to the point that the Ed's restaurants were closed one by one.
Old Eds is now occupied by the Peel Pub, and was for a time Michael Jordans

Hope this helps

Well, you are EXACTLY a year late ( :D How did that happen!) - but at least now my curiosity is satisfied.

Thanks

I loved Honest Ed's. Is he still alive?

Ed's alive, but he's slowing down, and does not go out much to public events.

Pictures I've seen of him lately show him in a wheel chair. The last interviews showed his personality is still intact, though.

BAK

I am betting it was Ed's Warehouse too. I lived in Oakville for a while more than 30 years ago and it was "the place" to go in Toronto for a fun dinner with kids. However we had a restaurant in West Vancouver called The Attic that Frank Baker opened and it was filled with Tiffany lamps as well. They had our local Lance Harrison a Dixieland music man perform. We always said that Ed copied Frank - those were the good old days. Food wasn't as important as having a fun place to go.

Traveller69...Just passing through the site. Frank Baker was my grandfather. Thanks for remembering....

Joe - That is great. Your Grandfather was such an interesting man. My history with his eating establishments goes waaaay back. He was co owner of Georgian Towers and I celebrated my 21st birthday at the Top of the Towers (drinking age in those days). Years later when my daughter was a pre-schooler until she was a sophisticated 13 the Attic was her restaurant of choice. We used to look forward to your Grandfather making his appearance and doing his trumpet solo (white suit and all). Of course the James Bond car was a big attraction. Even more of a connection - my daugher got her first "real job" at the Park Royal Hotel but I think your Grandfather had sold it by then. Great memories!!!!

I think it's Ed's Warehouse. My husband and I spent our honeymoon in Toronto 32 years ago and we loved Ed's.

I haven't thought about it in years!!

I was going to say Ed's too.

I remember it being wonderful.

Your father is thinking of Carmen's Club. It was a sweet, well-appointed house, 2 story, serving steaks, and seafood, behind Maple Leaf Gardens. It was furnished in the Ed Mirvish antiquey look of that era, but was much more intimate than the Ed's restaurants.
It was not a club, per se, in that one required membership to dine there. It was a trendy place, and the food was excellent.

That's what I LOVE about this site ... no one has a problem answering a post that is TWO years old!!!

:D

jilleliz, are you sure? So many other people had me convinced it was Ed's Warehouse (Dad has no idea)