Fran's Restaurant
Fran's Restaurant is a small chain of restaurants based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its first restaurant was a haunt of pianist Glenn Gould. The flagship location was opened in 1940 by G. Francis "Fran" Deck at 21 St Clair Avenue West and closed in 2001. Fran's, originally beginning as a diner, had only ten seats, but later expanded to a small chain of restaurants in Toronto, including locations at 2275 Yonge and Eglinton (1945–2001), 1386 Bathurst south of Vaughan Road, Yonge and College (1950–present), Yonge and Dundas (1960–1984) and one in Hamilton. The head office was on Mt Pleasant Road north of Merton Street. Currently, Fran's operates two corporate-owned locations in Toronto, and one temporary location at the CNE during the summer months. Their current locations are 200 Victoria Street and 20 College Street, both within Toronto. The 33 Yonge Street location closed in early 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fran Deck died in 1976 in a car accident in Tucson, Arizona; the business was continued by his family. In the 1990s, the family-owned chain was sold to a group of investors who intended to expand the chain throughout the Greater Toronto Area. In 1997, the College St. location