Everything Old Is New Again

Before I checked out the Vivian Maier exhibit at the Stephen Bulger gallery on a beautiful Saturday, I was looking for a place to have brunch. I stepped inside the nearby Frankie's for some nosh. At first, I was confused as the name was quite familiar. In fact, Frankie's has been servicing Queen St. West residents for 35 years. But it turns out it was part of the TV show Restaurant Makeover recently.

So the booths, shiny bar top, and shelving were new and clean. But a scan around revealed the bones of the old place. The most obvious was the view of the kitchen. I suppose Canadian TV budgets don't include renovations of areas that are not usually visible. In fact, they don't seem to have enough for a thorough job either: the old dusty cash register remained; there are gaps between the joints of the new bar setup; ceiling tiles were painted but not replaced so you could still see the cracked ones. In any case, how is the food?

Despite coming on new dishes, the Big breakfast ($8.95) was an old-school offering: bacons, sausages, toast, home fries, and pancakes. Which is to say, they were as reasonably tasty as found in any diner in the city. Any fancy or updated touches were absent.

But one good thing about the new Frankie's, there's lots of young faces. Amid the cragged features of regulars, there was a sea of twenty-something coming in for some eats. I guess a bit of paint and some new furniture can bring in a different clientele. That should keep the place going into the future, but I wonder how his next-door neighbour (Tom's Family Restaurant), with their still faded facade, feel about the changing fortunes.