Some new business owners like a clean slate, wiping whatever came before unsentimentally away in pursuit of their own brand of success.
Peter Lilly is not that kind of business owner.
When he decided to expand his
Sweet Pete's bike shop business into the Annex from its west Bloor beginnings, he decided that the old Tap bar would be the perfect place.
"I've lived in Toronto for about 20 years," he says, "and I can remember being a patron of that bar a long time ago, so there was a bit of an attachment there."
So when you stop by, you'll see the old neon tap sign above the door. "We're going to restore that in the spring when the sign makers can get up to do the job," he says. He even kept the taps themselves, though he's not sure what he's going to do with those yet.
Which is not to say he just moved into the old space as is. "It was in pretty rough shape," he says of the old bar, which, he says, hadn't been in business for at least 8 months before he stepped into the place. "The basement was just filled with clutter, old paperwork and desks and freezers that were still running with food in them. It was insane how much junk there was."
The building had been built in three stages, with different coloured brick in different sections of the interior, so he hired Peter Woodworth of
The Brick Painters to paint each brick individually to achieve some consistency. (Lilly's contractor was Brian Zahra.)
It took about $125,000 and three months to finish the 1,400 square foot space, which now includes bamboo floors, new insulation and, shortly, a solar panel. But as far as Lilly's concerned, it's been worth it. "It's just a really, really, cool space," he says.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Peter Lilly
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