Who The Hell Is This Mike Guy Anyway?

The first of what I would call a fancy nice restaurant that I can ever remember eating at was Old Ed’s on King Street in Toronto when I was ten years old. During this time both me and my younger brother were being raised by our mother in a housing project and we had no money whatsoever to eat out at restaurants. Although, I do remember the three of us eating boxed chicken dinners at our local Red Barn on a few occasions. The Red Barn would best be described as the lower rung on the fast food ladder back in the early 70's.

My mother had always wanted to have some nice outdoor photos taken of my brother and me. Every few years she would have indoor photos taken at the Eaton’s store in the Yorkdale Mall. Eaton’s always held an annual promotion and my mother would eagerly sign up for the ridiculously low priced 8x10 colour photo.

If I recall the loss leader photo was just .99 cents.

The Eaton’s photographer would shoot numerous photos all with different poses. A week later our mother would always succumb to buying a couple of the ten dollar packages that included all the photos. I remember the wallet size photos were very popular and my mother gave them to our relatives.

Don and Marie were an older couple; they were friends of my mother from the Kingdom Hall. Don always had his camera with him and he fancied himself as a bit of a photog. One afternoon he offered to take some outdoor photos of myself and my brother. My mother loved all the photos. She was very happy with Don’s photography skills and all my mother ended up having to pay for was a couple of enlargements. Within a couple weeks there were two 8x10 framed coloured outdoor photos of me and my brother sitting atop a bookshelf in our apartment.

Don refused to take any money for taking the pictures so my mother insisted she take Don and Marie out for dinner as a thank you. They were very hesitant at first, but eventually agreed so long as it wasn’t any place too expensive. Everyone knew my mother did not have any extra money. All I knew was that the three of us were going out for dinner with Don and Marie and it wasn’t to the Red Barn.

A couple years earlier my mother had gone to see live theater at the Royal Alexandra Theater with some of her Kingdom Hall friends. They all went to dinner after the matinee performance to Old Ed’s restaurant. She loved Old Ed’s and for months later she went on about how great it was. She always wanted to take me and my brother there someday. 

"Maybe on a special occasion" she would often say.

I don’t recall many special occasions while living in the projects.

My mother figured that since Don and Marie owned a car, she would take us all to Old Ed’s. That is if Don didn’t mind driving us all downtown and Don said he didn’t mind driving at all. They had also been to Ed’s years earlier and looked forward to visiting again. They decided on a late Sunday afternoon in about a month since it would give my mother some time to put money away because she had no credit card. She knew that this dinner would be costing her much more than a few of our Red Barn boxed chicken dinner outings.

Before I knew it the five of us were now sitting inside Old Ed's. Back in 1970 Old Ed’s had a choice of three different two dollar entrees, chopped beef, chicken or fish. Don was a funny guy, he ordered the fish and I can remember him saying ‘he was just there for the halibut.’

Well, back then I thought he was funny guy.

I still have so many vivid memories of my first visit. I remember it was very busy and every waiter working at Old Ed’s was Chinese. After that Sunday, I too became a fan of Old Ed’s although it would be years later before I visited again. Many more dinners would follow over the next thirty years and I also ate at all of the other Ed’s eateries which were also on King Street. The Seafood, Chinese and Italian were also good, but the one I went to most often was Ed’s Warehouse. Ed's Warehouse was the upscale brother of the budget conscience Old Ed’s.

The menu was plain and simple at Ed’s Warehouse. You had just two choices, either steak or roast beef. All meals came with the same two sides of mashed potatoes and green peas. There were also unlimited kosher dills and baskets of rolls with butter. I remember on my early visits to Ed’s Warehouse I always had to wear both a jacket and a tie to dine in the restaurant. To prevent large groups from being turned away because someone had no jacket or tie, the maître d’ had an assortment of loaner blazers and clip on ties available. It would be many years later before the wearing of a jacket and tie was not required and absolutely no jeans or tee shirts were ever allowed.

No reservations were taken so there always was a wait in the cramped small waiting area. The actual restaurant was massive on multi-levels, yet most times I would have to wait for a table. The wait was never longer than thirty minutes and many other diners would not be willing to wait. They would leave to go eat at one of Ed’s other restaurants where it was less crowded and had no dress code.

Ed’s Warehouse was always busy and the late Ed Mirvish was a Toronto icon.

He was by far one of the most successful, wealthiest businessmen in the city. On top of his never ending charity work, he was best known for opening the world’s biggest discount department store and Toronto landmark Honest Ed’s in 1946. In 1963 Ed purchased the dilapidated Royal Alexandra Theater which had been slated for demolition. After refurbishing the old theater, Ed had singlehandedly revitalized Toronto’s dormant theater scene.

The Royal Alexandra Theater was built in 1907. It was located in an old run down, industrial area of the city mostly known for its factories and numerous warehouses. To liven up the neighborhood and provide patrons with a place to go before and after performances, Ed bought a nearby warehouse building. Shortly after he renovated the building into a restaurant and to cut costs, Ed's Warehouse served a set meal of prime rib, mashed potatoes and peas. 

Along King Street, he later opened Ed's Seafood, Ed's Folly, Ed's Chinese, Ed's Italian and Old Ed's restaurants. The area now attracted both local residents and tourists alike to the previously neglected King Street and served upwards of six thousand meals a night. Ed truly was a genius, he had created one stop shopping for both dinner and theater the Ed Mirvish way. 

In its day dining at Ed’s Warehouse was an experience unequaled anywhere in Toronto and the ambiance could best be described as circus like. Along with the red flocked wallpaper there were huge Oriental vases and hundreds of Tiffany lamps. There was bronze and marble statues everywhere along with an old Bonnie and Clyde era automobile sitting right in the middle of the dining room. There was also antique photographs, stained glass windows and large lamps with naked ladies and mermaids on their bases. From the moment the restaurant opened, the decor as much as the food became part of the attraction of eating at one of Ed’s restaurants.

Both large and small black and white autographed photos were plastered over all of the restaurants walls and support pillars. There were literally hundreds of signed photos from the many movie and theater stars who had appeared at The Royal Alex. Also photos of politicians, musicians, athletes and other famous people who had come to Toronto. They had all been guests of Ed and his wife Anne at Ed’s Warehouse.

For the most part, the photos were all framed in cheap black wooden frames and the exact same frames could be purchased at any local Kresge store. The framed pictures were affixed to the wall with small metal clamps on both the top and the bottom. On one of my visits, I realized that anyone with a small hammer could easily tap out one of the framed pictures from the clamps. 

I had a plan.

I decided I would implement my plan and on my next visit, Bonnie and I were having dinner with another couple. The four of us were sitting at our table where there were many of the 8x10 photos adorning the wall right beside us. I decided that I would exchange one of the famous person’s photos with one of my own. I took out the little hammer I had brought with me and over the course of our dinner, I took advantage when nobody would notice me lightly tapping out the picture. I can’t remember whose picture it was that I removed, but I easily replaced it with a black and white photo of yours truly. It too was in the exact same black wooden frame I had purchased earlier that week. 

To be honest it actually looked like it belonged on the wall.

I had also signed the photo “To Anne and Ed thanks for dinner” along with my signature. The photo was secure and tight against the wall by the time all four of us had finished our dinner. I threw the real famous person's framed photo in a garbage can on King Street after we left the restaurant that night.

For years every time I went back to Ed’s Warehouse, I would always make a point of passing my picture on my way to the washroom. It was always on the wall in the exact same spot and it was never removed. I assume to the hundreds of patrons who would have seen my picture, I would be just another famous person who had visited the restaurant. I am positive the question “Who the hell is this Mike guy anyway?” was asked numerous times by many puzzled diners.

The years passed and as time marched on, I easily visited Ed’s Warehouse over a couple dozen times. I also made many stops into the Ed’s Museum which was located right above Old Ed’s. The Museum featured thousands of unique and rare items from a five cent wooden button to a $50,000 marble statue. Ed sold all the old props from the various theater productions that had played at the Royal Alex. There was everything up there for sale from lifelike mannequins to working pinball machines, from wigs in every imaginable style to ancient pram baby carriages with lifelike baby dolls inside.

I myself purchased a vintage baseball glove from the ’50s for just a quarter.

I will never forget my final visit to Ed’s Warehouse back in December of 1999. I had no idea when I arrived that night it would be the last supper. While sitting at our table I was informed by our waiter that the restaurant would be closing in three weeks. Ed was getting out of the restaurant business after almost four decades. King Street was now booming with many more ‘chic’ newer restaurants and the Ed’s eateries had lost their lustre. There was a much younger, a much hipper crowd that now frequented the area and sadly the Ed's restaurants were now out of favor.

I was not very happy and I spoke to the manager about buying the tiffany lamp that hung above our table. He told me that everything was set to be sold at auction after the restaurant officially closed for good. The manager could tell how much I really wanted one of the lamps; he took me to the upper floor of the eatery that had already been closed weeks earlier. He said that the best lamps were up there anyway and I could have my pick of whatever one I wanted for $500. 

He turned all the lights on; there were dozens to choose from and after ten minutes I made my choice. I was also given a few other items from that night including our menus, our red tablecloth and a coat hook.

How many famous people would have hung their coat on my coat hook? I wondered.

That night after dinner I made my way back to my car carrying my huge tiffany lamp. I walked the same walk along King Street that I had walked when my mother took me for the first time to Old Ed’s thirty years earlier. King Street was so much different now and nothing from that evening was even remotely the same as it was back on that Sunday afternoon. 

With all of Ed’s restaurants now closing, all of the tiffany lamps that had adorned each of the eateries would also be disappearing, soon to be sold at auction. I am very happy to have my cherished mementos. 

Ed’s Warehouse will always be my favorite restaurant and I wish it was still around. There were lots of fun times and I have so many great memories. Every time I went there to eat, I would sit and stare at all the black and white photos. I would try to remember who those famous people were and why they were famous. Many of them I did not even recognize and I didn't have a clue as to who they were or why they were even famous. I had no clue as to why their picture was even on the wall.

Which reminds me who the hell was that Mike guy anyway?