Joso Spralja, a renowned folk musician who went on to found Yorkville seafood restaurant Joso’s, died at age 88.

He died in his sleep at his home in Zadar, Croatia, on Aug. 8, his son Leo confirmed.

The painter-sculptor-photographer-vocalist-guitarist-restaurateur was a success starting in the 1960s, when he ran a coffee house/art gallery at 71 Yorkville Ave. during the neighbourhood’s hippie heyday.

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Where strength meets whimsy

Spralja then moved Joso’s to a converted Victorian semi at 202 Davenport Rd., where, for 40 years, it has remained a favourite of well-heeled locals and visiting celebrities.

“Toronto lost a giant in the hospitality industry. He will never be forgotten,” said longtime friend and interior designer Sasha Josipovicz.

Joso’s was one of the first in the city to grill whole fish with just olive oil and lemon juice.

Such simplicity at a time of stodgy cream sauces was a wake-up call for Toronto diners. At Joso’s, they also found risotto stained black by cuttlefish ink, not to mention fried calamari, which Spralja claimed to have introduced to the city.

“Canadians thought they were onion rings, but once they tried it, they liked it,” Spralja told the Star in 2000.

Joso’s also became known for its nude art: Sculpted and painted breasts everywhere. Spralja created most of the work, inspired by his views on motherhood.

“He was breastfed until he was almost 5,” daughter-in-law Shirley Spralja told the Star in 2005.

The titillating decor includes a voluptuous torso in the main window “with big hooters that seems like the second-best Toronto landmark after the CN Tower,” said award-winning food blog First We Feast after Drake name-checked Joso’s in his 2013 song “5AM in Toronto.”

Also on the walls are photographs of celebrity diners such as Italian film star Marcello Mastroianni.

“Joso — for all of his ‘charisma’ and charm — had the rare, innate ability to take care of others, which he did tirelessly and genuinely,” Bobby Sniderman of The Senator restaurant told the Star in an email.

“That was the true gift of not just his success as a restaurateur but as a person,” said Sniderman, who met Spralja in the ’60s folk scene.

When Barbra Streisand came for dinner in 1988, Spralja asked Josipoviczto sit nearby to block curious stares.

“I was petrified, but Joso had confidence in me. I did spill tomato sauce all over me as my nerves eventually took over. (A) few days later Joso called: ‘Robert De Niro is coming over for dinner.’ ” Josipovicz told the Star in an email.

Spralja was born in Croatia in 1929. He came to Toronto in 1961 to visit relatives and liked it enough to immigrate. Wife Angiolina and children Leo and Elena joined him in 1964.

As part of ’60s folk duo Malka and Joso, Spralja and partner Malka Himel made three albums, hosted a CBC-TV music show and performed four times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

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He continued to paint, sculpt and photograph, using the top floor of his namesake restaurant as a studio. After retiring from running Joso’s in 1997, Spralja moved back to Zadar and built a home incorporatinga 12th-century castle.

Leo and daughter-in-law Shirley now run the restaurant.

“There was metaphorically always room at his table . . . and room in his heart,” said Sniderman.