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Food & hospitality

California Restaurant & Bar

Ресторан „Калифорнија“

Restaurant — Macedonian & Balkan cuisine · Toronto (East York) · Greater Toronto Area

Opened in 1968 under an American name chosen for its Pape Village neighbours, California is the restaurant Toronto's food press points to when asked where the city's Macedonian kitchen lives. Its founder, Milan Jurtovski, came from the Mariovo region; since 2006 it has belonged to Dragan Damceski, who left Bitola in the 1980s, and his wife Zanette, who renovated the old burger-and-wings room into a proper Balkan dining hall.

The menu runs from sarma, musaka and tavče gravče to ćevapi, gurmanska pleskavica and a hand-rolled Karadjordjeva schnitzel, with bread and sweets baked by Zanette's sister and live Balkan music on Saturday evenings. Toronto Life profiled it as a 'sort-of secret' — a kitchen with an American name and an Eastern European soul.

Details

Founded
1968
People
Zanette and Dragan Damceski (owners since 2006); founded by Milan Jurtovski
Address
914 Pape Avenue, Toronto, ON M4K 3V2
Telephone
(416) 461-1251
Social media

Sources (4)

  1. https://torontolife.com/food/sort-of-secret-california-restaurant-and-bar-a-pape-village-kitchen-with-an-american-name-but-an-eastern-european-menu/
  2. https://californiarestobar.ca/about
  3. https://eattheworldto.com/2022/10/07/north-macedonia-the-real-macedonia/
  4. https://torontomanyfaces.wixsite.com/ebook/47-the-macedonian-community

  • Coffee Time — Old Kingston Road

    Coffee shop (franchise) · Scarborough (Highland Creek)

    A Highland Creek coffee-and-doughnut shop that spent years as an advertiser in, and a pick-up point for, the community's Macedonia newspaper — the quiet signatu...

    Address: 371 Old Kingston Road, Scarborough, ON M1C 1B7

    Macedonian connection: This franchise location advertised for years in the Macedonia newspaper and distributed it to the community — the mark of a Macedonian franchisee.

    Sources: https://macedonianewspaper.com/files/uploads/June%202017.pdf

  • Crossroads Macedonian & Greek Restaurant & Bar

    Restaurant — Macedonian & Greek cuisine · Scarborough (Danforth Ave)

    A neighbourhood restaurant and bar on the Scarborough stretch of the Danforth that does something few Toronto businesses have ever done: it puts the word Macedo...

    Address: 3476 Danforth Avenue, Scarborough, ON M1L 1E1

    Macedonian connection: Names its Macedonian identity in the business name itself — a rare thing on the Danforth, where Macedonian-run kitchens historically traded under Greek or Canadian names.

    Sources: https://www.facebook.com/p/Crossroads-Macedonian-Greek-restaurant-bar-100077528048728/

  • Dave's Hot Chicken (Canada)

    Quick-service restaurants (master franchise) · Canada-wide (via Toronto)

    Community-affiliated

    The Canadian expansion of Dave's Hot Chicken runs through Obelysk, the Toronto investment house of John Bitove Jr. — the man who brought the NBA to Canada and w...

    Website: https://obelysk.com

    Macedonian connection: The Canadian rollout of the Nashville-hot-chicken brand sits in the portfolio of Obelysk, John Bitove Jr.'s Toronto investment firm.

    Sources: https://obelysk.com

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