Lunch Tuesday: Johnny G’s
Posted March 16, 2010 12:44 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The stretch of Parliament Street from Bloor to Carlton is full of restaurants with hand-written menus in the window and loyal customers inside.
There are a few newly renovated (or just plain new) places on the strip but most of the joints seem like they’ve been around forever.
Johnny G’s (478 Parliament St.) is one of those places.
The front door doesn’t close properly. None of the chairs match. There are hand-painted murals on two walls, one of which indicates a smoking section. The coffee mugs are printed with flowers and look like they cost a quarter at Value Village. The bench-style seating is in fact an old church pew.
“The restaurant looks the same as it always has,” waiter William Strang said.
He’s been working at Johnny G’s for five years, but the restaurant has been around for much longer – 30 years, by Strang’s count. Long enough, at least, that the original Johnny G is long gone.
“People come back quite often. I have people come in, I don’t even have to ask them what they want. They’re just not going to change. The same thing every day, every single day, for like five years.
“We have tons and tons and tons of regulars. We’re really busy on the weekend. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, sometimes there’s a line up at the door to get in,” Strang said.
The two items everyone wants are eggs benedict and burgers. I ordered eggs Neptune ($9.95), which replaces the traditional peameal bacon with smoked salmon, then chose salad instead of fries, and coffee, not tea.
“How do you like your poached eggs?” Strang asked.
I admit – I was stumped. I asked him about it later and he laughed.
“Customers are always like, ‘Oh, you give an option?’ Because most restaurants apparently don’t. Of course, you can have them soft, medium or hard,” he said.
I chose soft. The three eggs came wobbling out on English muffin nests, smothered in hollandaise and were gone in about three minutes.
Across the table, the Johnny G’s burger ($8.85) disappeared equally quickly, a juicy beefy patty topped with Swiss cheese, mushrooms, and bacon on a toasted bun.
But if it’s not on the menu, Strang advises, just ask. Most of the time, the kitchen can whip up just about anything.
“A lady came in the other day and she asked, ‘Can I have one boiled egg?’ And I said, ‘We don’t boil them.’ And she said, ‘It’s for my mother, she’s 85 years old.’ OK, no problem.
“Everybody tries to please the customers. I think that’s what keeps people coming back. It’s a friendly restaurant,” Strang said.
There’s a girl at the table behind us working on her homework undisturbed, another woman – a scientist, Strang says – with books and a laptop splayed on the table, a couple who bowed their heads to pray before digging in.
“You might find this actually really really strange, but when I’m not working, I come here to eat,” he added.
“Why, I don’t know, because it’s not like I get it free, I have to pay for it when I’m not working … I leave work at one o’clock, I’m usually back here by three. I sit up here until five, six, seven. Why, I don’t know. I’m married, I have a life. I just … it’s the customers. I always come back here every single day.”
Other Spots On The Strip
Gourmet Burger Company: If you’ve ever wanted beets, fried eggs, or a pineapple on your patty, this is the place. Excellent fries. Free newspapers.
I had a dance teacher who went to a wedding at Jet Fuel, a sentence that pleases me to no end. Oh, and the coffee’s delicious.
Need your Kawartha Dairy fix? Sweet Creamery is the place for ice cream and gelato made on-site – but you’ll have to battle tiny ballerinas from the nearby Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre for a seat at the table. In the summer, outside benches are much coveted.
erin.criger@citynews.rogers.com
