Presenting – Mary Lee from Spiaggia Restaurant – A Hospitality Entrepreneur with a Heart for the Art
Mary Lee pointed out that she and herHusband John moved to the Beach in 1989. Before the couple to live into this quarter-hour earlier in an apartment on Sutton Place Hotel. When she noticed my surprise, Mary Lee said that the 19th on the 31st Floor of the famous hotel in Toronto were set aside for rent-controlled residential apartments. Even today some of the apartments are still occupied by original tenants. I had never known that there are private apartments in the Sutton Place Hotel. You never stopKnow your own city …
Prior to his appointment to the restaurant business, was an interior designer Mary Lee, while her husband worked as an architect at Bank of Montreal. Spiaggia was not her first foray into the building ownership, the couple had restaurants in Oakville businesses on St. Clair Avenue in Toronto. In 1990 they bought the building, which is the actual restaurant, it is home to five apartments and the small Spiaggia ..
Mary Lee and her husband nowthe renewal of property and when the demolition started set, they found papers in the wall from 1902. Throughout the renovation, they continue to operate the existing restaurant, and the guests enjoyed the ongoing work carried out on the stucco building, across the front windows.
Today, on the second floor is a beautiful apartment – Mary Lee has a few words up and I saw a spacious apartment with an unusual layout with manyAngle and a beautiful bright decorative scheme appears the results of its internal design talents. She took me to the rear balcony and mentioned that they can see all the way to Toronto City Hall from this location.
The couple spent three years repairing the building and be treated with the disturbances on the road. A local regulations require that they keep intact the old pipelines while the new pipes were installed. As a result, the building now has two types ofServices in that use only the new course, sanitation.
Mary Lee's real estate investment and renovation skills as well as their protective feelings about the environment became apparent when a video was on the other side of the road transformed into an adult video store. Concerned about the impact on the neighborhood, the couple bought the property and turned it into an art gallery. The adult video store went further west on Queen Street outside the BeachNeighborhood.
When her husband died in 1998, Mary Lee closed down the Art Gallery because they do not have enough time to have to manage both companies. A graphic design business now goes to the room. Mary Lee said that care during the difficult period around the death of her husband, her restaurant loyal customers for them. Your support and the increased workload, she was wearing from now helping her through a difficult transitional phase.
We talked about Spiaggiaand the unique features of this fine dining restaurant. Spiaggia is seven days a week for dinner from 5 until 11 clock. It has two sitting areas and the area on the north side of the building can be booked for private events. Often, this room has a very special events for up to 20 people.
The kitchen Spiaggia includes seven different types of pasta, fresh fish, seafood and veal dishes. Spiaggia is part of Eat Smart! – Ontario's Healthy Restaurant Program, an exclusive programOntario restaurants, the awards, the high standards of food safety, nutrition and non-smoking seats to be just. Mary Lee added that guests are able to custom meals that get in front of them prepared in the open kitchen. Guests always happy healthy and fresh foods Spiaggia.
As we sat there, Mary Lee told me some funny stories: the end of December she got an out-of-town reservation with a credit card from a prospective restaurant patron in the U.S.. They requested one weeksadvance in order to seat Spiaggia's New Years Eve Dinner Event. Mary Lee was wondering what had happened, if those customers are not displayed. A few days later she got a call from a woman in West Virginia, who said she was not able to locate at Spiaggia "on Queen Street, but was finally able to find it on Michigan Avenue – Chicago !
Apparently they had found information about Spiaggia on the Internet and planned to have a nice evening New Year's dinner in Chicago, but ended upthe reservation with Spiaggia Trattoria in Toronto!
Even more humorous and unusual is the story behind Mary Lee's espresso machine. In the 1970s she traveled to Florida with her husband in their Corvette. On the way back home, John discovers an unusual object in a shop window in Fort Lauderdale. He made an immediate U-turn and went into the store to inquire about this interesting-looking statements article.
It turned out that the object is an espresso machine was manufactured in Italy, but the1970 was a time before fancy coffee brew. When Mary Lee Mann asked what was the subject responded, the man simply in a southern accent: "It makes coffee." John had the espresso machine and have finally bought for $ 21,000 that was 30 years ago, more money than what he paid for the Corvette.
He'd just buy the espresso machine, and because there is not enough room in the car for Mary Lee and the espresso machine, he let them off at theAirport and drove home with the espresso machine on the passenger seat protruding from the roof buckled. Mary Lee laughed and said: "I am the only one who has ever been dumped for a large espresso machine." Today the machine is still used to make coffee.
Mary Lee told me about their ties to the beach neighborhood. She said she loves the area and enjoy the walk from Queen Street or on the promenade. It is a region with a very high quality of life, one of those TorontoNeighborhoods that even the life of a busy street on Sunday. She giggled when she mentioned a popular local saying: "You can not live in this area if you have a dog or a baby carriage." The beach is indeed very popular with dog owners and young families.
Unfortunately, international events have had an impact on the Beach. The restaurant owners in the Beach and Toronto in general were really affected by the slowdown in U.S. tourists in Toronto. Was taken in 2003 Torontomade by the SARS crisis and more recently, travel between Canada and the U.S. is more difficult due to the passport requirements and measures to prevent terrorism. Mary Lee has noticed a significant reduction of American customers in recent years. Moreover, the popularity of the Beach as an entertainment area rents for many vendors who do business in this area has increased more difficult. Mary Lee pointed out that she is happy because she has Spiaggia'sbuilding.
MaryLee explained that she has about 14 full-time and part-time staff members working at Spiaggia. Her chef Jacobo Guerra is originally from Ecuador and has been in Canada since 1979. He started in the hospitality industry 16 years ago after completing a chef’s course at George Brown College. In addition to his culinary education Jacobo also has a talent for arts and took a fine art program at the Ontario College of Arts. Jacobo’s assistant Victor hails from India and came to Canada in 2001. Spiaggia He has been working for almost three years and says he has everything he knows from the experts, Jacobo learned.
Art is a common theme at Spiaggia: Brittany Ross works part time as a waitress in a restaurant, and she owns her own photography and web design business. (She designed the Spiagga site.) During my visit I also had a chance to sit down and chat with John Dowding, a renowned local photographer and photography teacher, who regularlyparticipated in the Beach Studio Tour. John has an interesting event coming up in early February: a photo tour to Havana, where he and I agreed to a one-on-one interview, a chance that I would learn more about one of the many artists at the Beach .
John Mary Lee pointed out that an active sponsor of the Beach Studio Tour, and always be available, if the artists need something. He noted that over the years he has enjoyed a close friendship with Mary Lee and loves itcome here for a good meal.
After my conversation with Mary Lee and my conversation with John Dowding, I had the chance to sit down and try some of the kitchen Spiaggia's me. Spiaggia menu is extensive with many delicious selection, and a prix-fix menu with starter, main course and dessert, is the low price of $ 25.95 available.
I decided to go for the prix fix menu and a Caesar salad had a very tasty "Vitello alla Balsamico start, followed"- A delicious array of grilled veal, mushrooms, dried tomatoes, onion with balsamic-Dijon sauce and garlic butter on the side of capellini. I was accompanied usually not much of a meat eater, but the tender veal with an interesting array of tasty vegetable flavors. My partner had the dinner and Gorgonzola Carbonara commented that it was great was as well. After a delicious tiramisu, my favorite Italian dessert, Mary Lee, we treated a sample of the famous chocolateMousse with raspberry sauce. I can only say that I was glad that I finally see a hike up to Trattoria Spiaggia.
And I had a chance to meet Mary Lee, a talented interior designer who is committed to serve a restaurant-owner-quality fresh and healthy food and an entrepreneur with a big heart for art …
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