Canadian Macedonian Heritage Society Canadian Macedonian Heritage Society
Become a member!
Become a member!

Heritage

3 Star Restaurant

Closed 1979

Diner · Toronto (The Beaches) · Greater Toronto Area

Tom Gulin arrived from Macedonia in 1948, aged twelve, shined shoes, waited tables, and by 1955 owned the 3 Star at Kingston and Balsam, working five in the morning to ten at night, six days a week, raising three children in the apartment above the dining room. He sold in 1970 and opened fish-and-chip shops in Aurora and West Rouge; the 3 Star carried on under the Mallinos brothers until 1979.

Beach Metro News told his story in 2023 — one Kingston Road diner standing in for a thousand Macedonian counters like it.

Details

Founded
1955 (Gulin ownership)
People
Tom Gulin; later Bill and Bob Mallinos
Address
919 Kingston Road, Toronto

Sources (1)

  1. https://beachmetro.com/2023/03/31/remembering-the-3-star-restaurant-on-kingston-road/

  • Bitove Corporation

    Catering & food services · Toronto

    Closed wound down after the 1990s–2000s

    Formed in 1989 by merging the Pearson Airport operation with the SkyDome fine-dining concession Bitove had won two years earlier with a five-million-dollar comm...

    Macedonian connection: The merger of York County Quality Foods with the SkyDome catering concession created one of Canada's largest privately held food-service companies, in the hands of a Gabresh family.

    Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bitove_Sr.

  • Cav-A-Bob

    Nightclub & restaurant · Toronto

    The nightclub chapter of the young Bitove portfolio — proof that the family read the whole hospitality market, from morning coffee at the Java Shoppe to evening...

    Macedonian connection: One of Bitove Sr.'s early hospitality ventures alongside the Java Shoppe.

    Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bitove_Sr.

  • Gateway Fish & Chips (Aurora) and Villa Fish & Chips (West Rouge)

    Fish & chips · Aurora; Scarborough

    After selling the 3 Star in 1970, Tom Gulin did what a Macedonian restaurateur did between restaurants: opened two more — Gateway Fish and Chips in Aurora and V...

    Macedonian connection: Tom Gulin's shops after he sold the 3 Star — the fish-and-chips trade was a Macedonian staple.

    Sources: https://beachmetro.com/2023/03/31/remembering-the-3-star-restaurant-on-kingston-road/

Back to the directory

Know a business that belongs here?

Tell us about it, or put right something we have got wrong.

Suggest a correction

Suggest a correction

A volunteer reads everything that arrives here. Nothing is published automatically, and a removal request is honoured without argument.

So a volunteer can write back if something needs asking. It is never shown on the website.

So a volunteer knows what they are reading. Write in whichever language you prefer.

Still trading?

If you are not sure, say so — a volunteer will check. A guess is harder to correct than a blank.

An owner, a founder, a family story — whatever you know.

One web address per line. A newspaper piece, the business’s own site, a community newsletter — at least one.

Address, telephone, website, when it opened, who runs it — whatever you have.

Compiled from public sources. Inclusion is not an endorsement; corrections and removal requests are honoured without argument.