In 1955, 16-year-old Chris Balkos purchased a building and restaurant at the corner of Coxwell Avenue and Eastwood Road that came to be known as one of Toronto’s most famous diners — the New Town Family Restaurant.
Balkos ran the all-day breakfast diner along with his brother, Louis, which went by the name New Sunrise Restaurant for roughly three decades, becoming a neighbourhood staple for omelettes, sandwiches, fries and gravy, charbroiled burgers, and souvlaki.
Balkos’ son, Tom, who now serves as the Broker of Record and President at P3 Global Realty Advisors Inc. tells blogTO that the restaurant was a “typical 50s-style diner that never made it out of the 50s.”
Despite its vibrant legacy, the restaurant closed its doors for good in September, to the dismay of local residents and decades-long customers, many of whom have expressed concern about the gentrification in the neighbourhood.
“The lease was done, and the owner had not reinvested in the building and the business. So, he was struggling with a tired concept. We felt it was time to put in a restaurant that matched the vibrancy and the future of this corner,” Tom explained.
“It’s almost like Ossington East. It’s an emerging market. We wanted to find the absolute right operator that would anchor that corner with one of the coolest new restaurant concepts.”
Tom says they’ve received many offers for the space, but have not yet found a partner who will “capture the essence” of what the family is trying to create on the corner.
“We’re open to any concept that will match the essence of the neighbourhood, and is a natural fit to the evolution of the corner,” he explained.
Unfortunately, Chris Balkos passed away last December but wanted to ensure that his family continued to make strides in the city’s hospitality industry.
“He wanted us to continue the legacy of the family and in hospitality, which we will make sure that we find a way to do so with the right food partners in the space. So he asked us to take the building, refresh it, renew it, and keep it in the family,” Tom told blogTO.
The restaurant’s signature brick exterior has now been revamped with a fresh coat of dark blue paint, but its faded signage serves as a reminder of its history and the decades of gatherings, late-night laughs, and family breakfasts that took place inside.
“Spent many hours there eating fries and gravy with my friends. Playing songs on the jukebox, lots of memories,” a resident wrote on a community Facebook page.
One Toronto artist, Rodger Beck, even took it upon himself recently to create a miniature version of the restaurant’s exterior to honour its legacy. Beck says that he lived around the corner from the restaurant for 14 years.
Beck was recently invited to participate in a group exhibit at Blue Crow Gallery and decided to commemorate New Town Family Restaurant. The artist has built miniatures of several other businesses in the area in the past, including Birdie’s, Sanagan’s, Lazy Daisy’s, Furballs, Goodlife, and Blue Crow Gallery.
Beck says the New Town piece took about a week to produce, over the course of several late nights.
“I moved to the neighbourhood in 2010 and this was the first place I went to eat when I signed the lease,” he told blogTO. “It’s been a staple of Cowell/Gerrard for such a long time and I always remember it as my first intro to the area.”
The New Town Family Restaurant was located at 266 Coxwell Avenue.
