With the massive World on Yonge development building up across the street, a small family restaurant is determined to stick around. Frank Doria Jr., one family member who runs Golden Star Restaurant at Yonge Street and Meadowview Avenue, said the family is being approached constantly by potential buyers. According to a real estate expert, area land values are being driven to unprecedented heights as the city extends its transit lines there. But Doria laughs off the idea of “selling out.”
“We’ve got our children working here, too — third generation,” he said. “It’s hard to get rid of something like that, that’s been part of us for 47 years.”
Sam Chaim, a local Re/Max sales representative, told of a similar situation to Golden Star’s, wherein a different Toronto landlord may have waited too long. “We’ve had a complex of high-rises built around this tiny holdout landlord,” he said. “In essence, it now has put him in a position where nothing could be done with that land.” Doria said there may be some extreme circumstances in which the family would consider selling off the restaurant, but until then, he said the family is “quite happy flipping burgers” for their neighbours.