I spent much of my life growing up in a family-owned restaurant in downtown Toronto. The restaurant bordered Chinatown, Kensington Market, the computer district and the University of Toronto. Between the age of six and twenty-five, I lived with my parents and brother on the second floor of our humble little diner.
Life was ordinary. My parents woke up every morning at nine o'clock, went down to the restaurant at ten o'clock and didn't come back up until eleven o'clock at night. My brother and I were ordinary kids: we went to school weekdays, watched TV and played video games the rest of the time, and helped out in the restaurant whenever needed.
My parents retired from the restaurant business a few years ago. My brother and I graduated around the same time, got jobs and bought a house in the suburbs of Mississauga. Our family has lived in Mississauga ever since.
Life in the burbs is plain. I find myself thinking a lot about the restaurant years. Here are things I miss and don't miss about the home-restaurant life.
The people – I miss socializing with the restaurant's customers. With the restaurant situated where it was, I had the opportunity to fraternize with people of all ages, all cultures and all economic backgrounds. In one hour, a professor could be explaining his research project with NASA. In the next hour, a single mom of two could be explaining the challenges of raising kids in a bad neighbourhood. On one night, a U of T medical student could be complaining about the competitiveness of his program. On the next night Mr. Motorcycle man could be reminiscing about his laid back life-style back home in Jamaica. These stories helped me put my life into perspective. They helped me appreciate the significance of my own achievements and challenges.
In the suburbs, I have to work a lot harder to find a pocket of interesting people. I suppose all the interesting people went downtown.
The food – Living on the second floor of a restaurant bordering several neighbourhoods meant I had a variety of foods to choose from. Food price ranged between $20 and free, with the average being $5. On a typical day, I'd go downstairs to have BBQ pork on rice for break fast, BBQ chicken on rice for lunch, and BBQ duck on rice for dinner. When I wanted something different, everything else was just a five minute walk away. Fast food to the north, Carribean food to the west, and all types of Asian food to the south.
Lunar new year – The days that led up to each Lunar new year were crazy. Stores and restaurants worked all night long to prepare for weeks of consumer frenzy. The nights before Lunar new year, my brother and I worked in the restaurant alongside our parents and family friends packaging food, stirring pots and chopping vegetables. We did this until three o'clock in the morning. As tired as we were, we enjoyed being together and we enjoyed working towards a prosperous new year. My parents always hoped that “this would be the year” that business would do well.
Bugs, rats and mice – Infestation is a big problem in Chinatown. The buildings are old and falling apart. No matter what pest control measures one takes, rats find their way into a building from neighbouring buildings. The deteriorating infrastructure in the neighbourhood prevents any single business owner from implementing effective pest control measures. Every summer night, I listened to rats squeal and fight underneath the grease barrels outside my window. Roaches crept along sink basins and shower heads in the washroom. Mice jumped out of the kitchen garbage can. Yuk...
Vandalism – About twice a year on a Saturday night, a party animal would smash our restaurant windows. Repairs costed anywhere between $300 to $1000. What was more distressing was waking up in the middle of the night to the shouts of hoodlums gathered just outside. Still half-awake, I'd hear crashing, smashing and glass breaking. By the time I could get downstairs, the hoodlums would be gone. My family would stay up the rest of the night waiting for the glass repairman and the police.
Nothing to Show For – Restaurant business in Chinatown is competitive. Everyone works hard and long hours for minimum wage pay. Those who work illegally in this country got paid even less. Every worker knows they have no future in what they do, and they do it so that their kids can grow up to be accountants, doctors or lawyers. It's depressing thinking about it.
My room with all the computers and junk.
My brother's room. He mounts the ladder with his gun to issue warnings to hoodlums.
My dad's room. A cozy little room.
Towards the final few months before my parents retired, we were already living in Mississauga. To help cover the lease, we rented out the second floor to some ladies who wanted to run a "massage parlour". We learned a month later that our tenants were running a not-good type of massage parlour. Still, my parents were ok with it because the tenants always paid their rent on time with tip.
From our experience, here are pros and cons about renting out a place as a not-good type of massage parlour:
Pro: Tenants always pay their rent on time. They're willing to help you out financially without asking for anything in return.
Pro: The tenants we had were very nice people. They frequently gave gifts to my parents. We got chocolate, ginsengs, and other novelty items.
Con: You get sketchy people going to the parlour that do nothing for the restaurant business below.
Con: In a short time, the rooms you rent out will wreak of a terrible stench. The tenants never open windows to allow for air circulation. The source of the stench seemed to be a combination of body odour, rotting food, and different types of bodily fluid ejections. A lot of clean up required if you want to rent out to different future tenants.
Con: I think it might be illegal?
John, you have to write the restaurant book, that the world should not do without.
The restaurant world, your growing is through a classic keyhole, that i am sure others wonder about. most people do not live above restaurants nor do they grow up in chinatown. so all in all despite the hardship, i think it is absolutely unique. thank you for blogging about this.
Alwin
Great article John. This really brings back a lot of memories of my childhood. I also had the experience of growing up in a restaurant and living in the apartment upstairs. My grandparents used to own a restaurant across the street from you and I remember buying vegetarian food from your parents' restaurant. They made the best!! And your mom would always recognize me as the girl that went to the same school as you. The restaurant life is a tough living for sure. I don't miss too much of it but It'll always be a part of me.
my parents owned/ran a store for a big part of my youth, so this makes me nostalgic for a lot of the ups (and mostly downs) of living such a life. it was a good three or four years before getting used to the fact that i'd have to pay for a chocolate bar, or a bag of chips.
having said that, 90% i don't miss at all.