Carman's Dining Club, 1959-2009 (Photo courtesy of Google)
Arthur Carman’s storied and troubled steak house on Alexander Street went into hibernation this summer, never to wake up. This makes the restaurant—credited with introducing Toronto to garlic bread—the latest Village establishment to disappear in recent months (the list also includes Crews and Tango, Bigliardi’s, Il Fornello and Zelda’s).
When we called the restaurant this week, we were greeted with this voice mail message:
This year, Carman celebrated his 50th anniversary in the one and same location. He has decided he will not be reopening after 50 years and thought it was time to say goodbye and to say thank you this fantastically beautiful country of Canada. What he accomplished here he could not have accomplished in the country of his birth at that time. Thank you to the countless number of people who made this possible. Peace begins at home, Carman.
It is a truly sad day those loyal to the landmark restaurant. Toronto Life food writer James Chatto documents eating at the 19th-century mansion in his 2000 memoir The Man Who Ate Toronto, which includes a brief bio of Carman (born Athanasios Karamanos), who immigrated from Greece in the ’50s. Although Chatto describes the restaurant as one of the best in Toronto, recent on-line reviews suggest that the sizzle had gone from the steak house: “Sad to see this formerly packed spot deteriorate so dramatically,” wrote a Chowhounder in 2008. “Once the notoriously garlicky purveyor of hospitality, now it is insipid, unsophisticated and expensive.”
The celebrity clientele once featured on the restaurant’s menu and Web site (no longer functional) included Al Green, Nat King Cole, Lorne Greene and Sammy Davis Jr., a sign that this was a boys’ club hangout for the real Don Drapers, not his modern-day fans. (Sara Waxman once wrote about being the only woman in the place.) The decor, as most people described it, was dark, medieval and, as another amateur reviewer writes, “something out of a vampire movie.”
In the end, 50 years is many lifetimes in the restaurant industry—especially in Toronto. We hope that Carman’s will be remembered as the joyful, high-end steak house with the perpetual aroma of garlic, rather than the relic that was left behind during its neighbourhood’s gentrification.
Please also add Il Fornello to your ever-lengthening list of Village establishment to disappear in recent months.
November 19, 2009 at 12:34 pm | by WendyHi Wendy –
We checked it out, and it’s true. Il Fornello has also closed. We’ve added it to our list.
Thanks,
November 19, 2009 at 12:39 pm | by Torontolife.com StaffTorontolife.com Staff
I am very upset to hear that the BEST steak house in Toronto has closed.I have 40 years of wonderful memories of dining at Carmans. They had the best ribs in town. If you are reading this Carman, I want your rib sauce recipe. I will miss dining beside the clown picture in the back room.
November 19, 2009 at 8:23 pm | by MollieThank you Mollie, I will make sure Carman sees your note and as for Toronto Life the fact that they chose to put a negative slant on a beautiful lifetime of a honest genuine successful venture that lasted 50 years speaks volumes. They got there facts wrong as usual he retired as early as August and did not go out of business and of course the website would go down when he retired and at 83 he deserves a rest . Perhaps this is more about Mr.Carman having the courage to challenge Toronto Life and their duality of soliciting advertisement from restaurants and then rating them. For at least ninety per cent of his 50 years running Carman’s Dining Club he was at the to top of his game so to highlight the fickle few who took personal attacks is indeed malicious. Do your homework properly and objectively and you will discover CARMAN’S was rated consistently well and most important there were his loyal customers who were not swayed by the many trends of so many of the new restaurants. It was time to say goodbye and he did so with grace and was the recipient of many enroute awards ,the Key to the city of Toronto,many many travel book excellent ratings over the years and a lot of thank you from his customers . He often said I need your money but I need your thank you’s more and he did receive them. He stood alone at times and was not swayed by Walter Winchell types ,remembering when Walter Winchell from New York threw a coin down on the street in front of a estauranteur and told him to pick it up insinuating to the restauranteur if he didn’t he could close him down with a review. We all get older and we should not be punished for it. Was this article Blog really necessary,was it true reflection of 50 years of a successful business? Carman passed so many kindnesses on and so many people know this.
November 19, 2009 at 11:14 pm | by kathleenUpset? Disappointed? Depressed? These don’t even come close to how I feel. I would go here once or twice a year on special occasions and was easily my first choice in the steak houses of Toronto. The service was tops, the steaks were the best, and I *loved* the decor (Ruth Chris, a place some of my friends really enjoy and rave about, is sterile and vanilla in comparison). Plus the appetizers at the beginning of the meal were top notch – something you would never see a chain like Ruth Chris ever doing.
What will I do now? I have no idea. I need direction. I feel I lost a best-friend who said “Don’t worry … I’ll be back in a few months” and then was never seen again.
I need a moment. Where does one go now for a good steak in Toronto?
November 20, 2009 at 11:24 am | by Zoltan HawrylukCarmans was an amazing restaurant with great service, high quality and 5 decades of memories.
November 20, 2009 at 12:36 pm | by Maria JudasMy uncle worked there as a busboy when he was 17 when he came to Canada. He returned to Spain a year later.
Last year, he came to Toronto for a visit and we all ate at Carmans. He returned after over 40 years. It was a special moment for all of us, especially for him.
Thank you Carman and all staff.
Carmans was so great for so long – it’s so depressing that it is actually closed for good now. I have had so many great pieces of beef there over the years. I remember being taken there in the late 70′s by my uncle and I thought it was the most magical place in the world, then felt so amazing every time I returned as an adult with my own money. But my last few visits there last year were really depressing in there own right. Everything had gone downhill, even the service. It was pretty empty and really kind of vampireish, like the article says. All good things must come to an end, I guess, but it’s a shame that it went out with a whimper, not a bang. Still, I think I will always think of Carmans when I smell garlic! I think I will just remember it the way it used to be!! Farewell Carmans and thanks for all the good years!!!
November 20, 2009 at 1:07 pm | by ARPI am very upset to hear that the BEST steak house in Toronto has closed.I have 40 years of wonderful memories of dining at Carmans. They had the best ribs in town. If you are reading this Carman, I want your rib sauce recipe. I will miss dining beside the clown picture in the back room.
November 20, 2009 at 1:18 pm | by newbrunswicksteakZoltan: Go to The Fifth or to Jacobs & Co. They really are the best in town, even better, I’d say, than Carmans, although they lack that old-skool feel that you can only get in an room that’s been worn down for fifty years!
November 20, 2009 at 4:34 pm | by ARPNo way, no way.
Tom Jones is the best of the rest. The only place that can compete with the Carman’s atmosphere.
November 20, 2009 at 5:11 pm | by ItsNotUnusualToBeLovedByAnyoneCarol who posted a message to Toronto Life on November 17,2009 please call and leave a voice message at CARMAN’S. Paid gift certificates are fully refundable. He advertised on 96.3 F.M. for two weeks saying goodbye and thank you to his customers.
November 21, 2009 at 10:07 am | by kathleenIt’s too bad the headline on on this piece neither reflects the article itself, nor reality.
November 21, 2009 at 4:10 pm | by GarethShame on Toronto Life, bravo to Carman’s.
Thank you, Carman, for the good times and great food.
Wow – I did not like your negative article and the headline was terrible – Toronto has lost a landmark when Carman’s closed. You failed to mention his endless support of the Variety Club and other numerous charities. He was a humble most courteous person and dedicated to his customer who he considered his friends. My two daughters grew up in his restaurant and learned what great food tasted like and to respect the mighty garlic. My younger daughter had her wedding reception in his beautiful dark wood back room 26 years ago and is full of many wonderful memories. Paull and I send kudos to Arthur and so many thanks for all those wonderful memories. He will be sadly missed but remembered with great fondness.
November 23, 2009 at 9:18 am | by Sandy GerringThe headline really is too bad. Rather than focus on what might have been a short negative – it might have been more fair and accurate to talk about the majority of the 50 years that Carmens was at the top. We will always remember not just the great steaks and infamous garlic bread but the many family milestones and occasions that were celebrated there since the original Carmens Club opened. %0 years as a Toronto restaurant really is quite an accomplishment. Too bad some people only see the negative.
We will miss it dearly!
November 23, 2009 at 2:40 pm | by Lauraim sorry kids. i have been following these comments and feel i have to weigh in. theres no doubt that carmans was once great, but had you been there recently? the prices were appallingly high for what was served. and the place was not clean, not nice and, well, almost totally empty on a saturday night. i dont want to do any disrespect to the place because i really did love it once. very old-school and all that. but it stayed open and miserable for way too long after it went downhill.
November 23, 2009 at 3:14 pm | by TDOTFoodie