Defenders of the sole-sourced lease extension granted to the Boardwalk Café in 2010 said the mom-and-pop operation had to be protected from a city tendering process that might be won by a chain such as Burger King.

George Foulidis’s Boardwalk Café is long gone, replaced by a much expanded operation that includes his seafood eatery, a small Greek café and, soon, a big Tim Hortons franchised from the world’s third-largest restaurant group, which also owns Burger King.

“It’s a bit of a slap in the face,” says Chris Yaccato, who led the unsuccessful fight to get Toronto council to make Foulidis compete for a 20-year lease renewal on the prime Eastern Beaches spot at Ashbridge’s Bay.

“The whole argument was that this was an independent family business, a mom and pop shop, and instead it’s a chain, Tim Hortons, one of many in the area,” said Yaccato, a longtime Beach activist who recently left the area.

“That sole-sourced contract didn’t allow for renewal — competition could have brought bold ideas, maybe new cafés, maybe splitting up the area for different businesses, or getting the Queen St. (E.) businesses to come down.”

The impending arrival of the once-Canadian chain steps from the sand is part of a long brewing controversy that has bubbled in the neighbourhood, at city hall and in the courts.

City council voted in 2007, despite a city staff recommendation to issue a tender, to give Tuggs Inc., the Foulidis family company, a 20-year unsourced extension of a lease it had held since the 1980s.

“It's that sort of mom and pop kind of operation that's a good one and a successful one, and I think it's the right fit with the community and he should be given first chance,” Sandra Bussin, then the local councillor, told her colleagues.

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti agreed, adding: “There's probably some huge conglomerate ready to gobble them up.”

When it came to light in 2010 that Tuggs had not signed the extension because Foulidis was trying to negotiate a better deal, Yaccato and others failed to convince council to seize the moment and issue a tender. Bussin, under fire for her support of the deal, abstained from that vote.

Tuggs Inc. agreed to keep annual rent at $200,000, pay $200,000 to beautify the area, spend $2 million on renovations and pay the city 15 per cent of gross revenue from beach events and activities which Tuggs controls — 5 per cent less than in the 2007 unsigned offer.

The family also operates a busy snack bar in the summer.

Tuggs also got exclusive rights to sell food along a long swath of beach and the right to sell city-approved merchandise, souvenirs and beach accessories.

Rob Ford criticized the Tuggs deal while successfully running for mayor in 2010, triggering defamation accusations from Foulidis and a lawsuit that the restaurateur lost.

The restaurant, Paralia, was closed Monday, with a note saying it was undergoing repairs/maintenance from January until April.

A server at the Athens Café, flanking the future Tim Hortons on the other side, read a book in a window seat as two customers ate Greek pastry.

“We’re running a business down here, that’s all — no further comment,” said David Valente, general manager of Boardwalk Place — an umbrella name for all of the beach-area enterprises — after coming out of the space under renovation. “Nothing has changed with the city.”

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Foulidis could not be reached for comment.

A brief statement from the city’s parks department said the Tim Hortons “is a franchise owned by the Principal of Tuggs Incorporated. This business operation is permissible under our agreement with Tuggs Inc.”

Councillor Michelle Holland (formerly Berardinetti), the parks committee chair who was elected after council voted on Tuggs the last time, said she understands the concerns.

“Another Tim Hortons in the area, in that spot, is going to ruffle some feathers, but (Foulidis) is within his rights, and I haven’t heard a lot of blowback to it in the Beach.

“I don’t have a major issue with it.”

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