When a revered restaurant was put up for sale last summer, instead of introducing something avant garde and unfamiliar, one Toronto couple decided to pump new life into it.
The Ace, a beloved restaurant on the Roncesvalles strip of Toronto, has been a vital dining establishment in the west-end neighbourhood for decades. The restaurant is a restored 1950s diner, which is exactly what chef and owner Rafael Badell was looking for when he and his wife were searching for a space to open their own restaurant.
“We were putting a lot of effort into finding a place, but it was hard––we didn’t like anything,” said Badell. “Our realtor told me that the Ace was for sale and he told me to come by and check it out. As soon as we walked in, we said ‘okay, this is definitely the place for us.’”
To the dismay of the neighbourhood, the Ace shut down and had been listed for sale in the summer of 2020 after the impact of the pandemic weighed down heavily on the business. When Badell and his wife, Maggie Stackpole, took over the business in December 2020, they had no intention to change the name to preserve the restaurant’s legacy.
“I never thought about changing the name because it’s been like that since the 50s,” said Badell. “Why would I change the name of a place with so much history behind it?”
The food was also a driver in why the husband-and-wife team decided to keep the name, seeing as the previous menu already aligned with what Badell was planning on serving at his restaurant.
“I was planning on opening something on my own, but as soon as I saw the place and I saw the history behind the food they were making, everything made so much sense because it was basically the food I wanted to cook,” he said.
The restaurant boasts a small but diverse menu of classic diner fare and more elegant dishes, like chicken liver parfait and duck confit, as well as weekly Sunday brunch menus. What defines this restaurant as such a neighbourhood staple, though––and what Badell and Stackpole have managed to preserve well––is their dedication to keep the menu true to its roots while injecting new and original dishes, and offer up options for every diner––without a compromise on quality and taste.
Apart from an advantageous menu, the Ace’s cozy and charming interior is another draw to the restaurant––booths line the walls opposite a lengthy bar with a traditional pub-style look. Besides the dainty hanging lights that hover over each booth, a massive window facing the Roncy strip floods the front with natural light––making us long for indoor dining just a little bit more.
Opening a restaurant during the pandemic has proven to be a tough challenge, but one many resilient food entrepreneurs have taken up over the past 14 months. For Badell and Stackpole, their restaurant’s success will not be because of a brand new concept, but rather built off of decades of loyal customers and support of their community, which they say has been overwhelmingly present.
“People in the neighbourhood, in Roncesvalles, have been extremely supportive,” said Badell. “Everyone is so happy to see us open and what we’re offering.”
What many were excited about, according to the couple, was that the Ace was being pumped with new life and would not be another beloved restaurant to close down as a result of the pandemic.
“We have people on a daily basis coming in saying, ‘whoa, you guys are open I can’t believe it! I thought you were closed forever,’” said Badell.
Although, the closure of the restaurant last summer would not have been its longest hiatus. The previous owners of the Ace, who had rebranded and reinvented the business, took over the restaurant in 2011 after it had sat vacant and collecting dust for years.
The restaurant’s origins date back well over half a century, when it operated as a family-run Chinese restaurant until it eventually shut down sometime in the late 90s to the early 2000s.
The Ace is currently doing takeout until they can welcome guests for indoor dining again. With the province gearing up towards the reopening of outdoor dining in the next couple of weeks, as a part of their three-phase reopening plan, Toronto will hopefully get a glimpse of regular life soon. Although for restaurants like the Ace, which does not have an outdoor dining space or patio to work with, it could be even more detrimental to their business.
When patios were reopened in Toronto in early March, the Ace had noticed a decrease in orders, assuming it was linked to more folks getting out and dining at a restaurant’s patio. To try to remedy this, Stackpole has been exploring different options to set up a few tables outside their restaurant for when outdoor dining returns, but hasn’t found many options.
“We don’t have much space because we have bike lanes just outside the restaurant and a bus stop right in front of us,” said Stackpole, making them non-eligible for a curbside patio as a part of CafeTO.
While the challenges of opening a restaurant in the middle of the pandemic have been present in nearly every portion of their journey, Badell and Stackpole aren’t letting restrictions and limitations hinder their success. With the outpouring of support from their neighbourhood, they're hoping to bring new life to the restaurant while carrying on its legacy.
You can order from the Ace through Tock for pre-ordered delivery or pickup, or call and order from the restaurant directly.
