I Blame Me. And You!

I hope you are sitting down.

Because this may come as a real shock:  Jilly's is going out of business!

Boy, Rob Ford goes out of town for a few days and a strip bar closes.

So the venerable great lady of Toronto's gentlemen's entertainment industry will soon be no more.

They say the closing will put 30 to 40 dancers out of work.   Guy beside me said, "Guess that means a wholesale ho sale."

I don't find that funny.  But maybe some of you Troglodytes do.

So the bar is gone.  But what about the building?

Designed in the beautiful Romanesque Revival style of architecture by one of Toronto's most famous architects, EJ Lennox (Old City Hall, Casa Loma, The Ontario Legislature Buildings to name a few), in 1893, the fear was that it would be torn down to make way for...say it all together now....condos!

But the purchaser says, "No!"

So that - at least for now - is good news.

However, that wouldn't necessarily be in keeping with the surrounding neighbourhood at Queen East and Broadview.

Some of you may have heard of The Real Jerk.  [Ed. note: we read your blog, don't we?]

Ha ha, The Jerk was one of the original Jamaican jerk chicken shops in town. It went down for the count and was replaced with this all too upscale Irish bar.

Now the question is, across the street, will Dangerous Dan's still survive.

For now he's alive and kicking.

But back to Jilly's.

For those in the know - and I'll take their word for it, of course, having no other way of knowing - the smart money was on coming around the side and joining the best party in town.

With "homemade cooking".

So started with a dig at Rob Ford and will wrap up with the same.

At one time, I believe in the 60's, the likely also venerable Ford Drugs resided in the same building.

At least according to the reporter from whom I stole this and the top photo. As how would I know, as the photos are inside the bar on the right hand wall, so I am told.

Not sure if that is a young Rob in the middle there.  Doubt it, but a good seque anyway, as I didn't like where that last paragraph was going.

So in summary; Jilly's gone, building stays, no condos for now.  Never been there.