Urban decoder
Dear Urban Decoder: What’s the deal with Captain John’s, the restaurant-on-a-boat at Yonge and Queens Quay? I’ve never seen anybody go in or come out.—Karen Lin, DOWNTOWN
Posted on December 5, 2007First things first: Captain John is not a naval captain. He is, however, Toronto’s only floating restaurant entrepreneur, and that has to count for something. John Letnik is a Yugoslavian emigré who came to Canada in 1957. The ship that currently sits at the foot of Yonge isn’t his first buoyant business: the original was in a former ferry called the Normac. Things went swimmingly until 1981, when the aquatic eatery was rammed by the ferry Trillium and sank two weeks later (nobody was hurt, but dinner was ruined). Fortunately, a few years before the accident, Letnik had purchased a second, bigger ship: the Jadran, a Yugoslavian liner that once plied the Adriatic. With 16 sailors (a real captain presumably among them), Captain John sailed the vessel across the Atlantic to the spot where it’s moored today. Though the ship was designed to carry hundreds, the restaurant—not known for its world-class cuisine—hasn’t exactly been packing them in of late. At press time, however, it was still afloat.
- Categories: Miscellaneous
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Comments
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Fraser February 4, 2008 at 5:51 p.m.
Finally ate there late last year after being very curious for a long time. Be advised: I've paid too much for good food, and I've paid very little money for some truly terrible meals, but this was the most I've ever shelled out for the worst. The place was empty, the food was dreadful and the bill was insanely high. To top it off, we went the wrong way while entering (or, coming aboard) the restaurant and were rudely confronted by Captain John himself, who looked like a cross between the ghost of Jacob Marley and Captain Haddock and demanded to know who we were and what we were doing. Once we explained we were looking for the dining room he said nothing and wandered off. The whole thing was weird. Terrible weird. We ate there so you won't have to.
Beagle February 20, 2008 at 12:58 a.m.
Oh Fraser, ya sure took a hit for the home team.
Rowdyman March 9, 2008 at 1:38 p.m.
Thank You. My curiosity has been sated so my palette never has to be soiled.
Christopher April 30, 2008 at 10:07 p.m.
Captain John's was never hit by the Trillium. The trillium hit and sunk a smaller Captain John's eatery at the same pier in November of 1982. My Grandfather and I have pics of the wreckage.