Author: Joey deVilla

Sassafraz

Photo by David Topping. Click to see the original on its page.

For those of you not familiar with Accordion City, Sassafraz was a restaurant in the tony boutique area of town known as Yorkville. The place had a reputation for so-so food at ridiculous prices (I’ve had brunch and lunch there, and yeah, you can get much better for the money), but that’s not why one went there. It was a big celebrity hangout. Whenever a big movie star was in town on a movie shoot or publicity tour — and that’s fairly often — they often ended up at Sassafraz.

I use the past tense because Sassafraz burned down yesterday afternoon in a five-alarm fire that brought over 40 fire vehicles and called for 135 firefighters. Here are some major news outlet stories on the fire:

• Fire destroys celeb hangout in Yorkville (Globe and Mail)
• Yorkville celebrity roost burns (Toronto Star)
• Star hangout burns (Toronto Sun)

And here’s what the online locals have had to say:

• Sassafraz on Fire, No Celebs Injured (BlogTO)
• SASSAFRAZ IS BURNING! (Raymi the Minx)
• Sassafraz in on Fire! (Torontoist)

My Cousin Works There

My cousin, Malou, is in the restaurant business. She worked in Manila for years, then in New York, and as of March, she’s been working here in Accordion City — at Sassafraz. Naturally, the first thing I did was to call her mobile phone and see if she was all right.

“C’mon,” I said to no one in particular while the phone rang, “pick up…”

“Hello?”

“Hey, Malou, it’s Joey — just checking to see if you’re all right.”

“All right? Oh yeah — the restaurant. It’s okay, I took a sick day today.”

“That’s got to be the best timing ever,” I said, “I’ve already told Mom that Sassafraz is on fire, so expect a call from her any time now. And hey, if you need anything, you know that you can call any one of us.” (The closest immediate family she’s got is in California; the rest are in Manila.) “I’ll see you at the Christmas party if not sooner.”

Whew.

Schadenfreude

I find it disappointing — but not surprising — at the various online comments expressing near-glee at the news that Sassafraz burned down (one commenter on BlogTO was hoping that the Drake Hotel was next). While I believe that celebrities are generally over-worshipped and overrated, I don’t see see much reason to jump for joy at the loss of a local business, especially one that played a key part in the Toronto International Film Festival, which in turn feeds one of the city’s most high-profile industries, the film industry. Consider also the people who worked at Sassafraz. Thankfully, none of them were injured, but consider that they’re now without a source of income, and we’re deep into the holiday season.

If local indie-hipster hangout 56 Kensington (a charming hole-in-the-wall in the city’s most boho neighbourhood) had burned down, there’d have been a benefit concert with the Barcelona Pavilion as the headline act, and there would’ve been a general call among the local underemployed arts graderati to save an important cultural landmark.

In my opinion, there’s room and need for local institutions of all sorts in this city — from hipster dive bars to Zagat top-rated restos. The sooner we get our collective heads out of our collective asses and recognize that, the better this city will be.