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Heritage

York County Quality Foods

Closed merged into Bitove Corporation 1989

Institutional catering · Toronto (Pearson Airport) · Greater Toronto Area

In 1983 John Bitove Sr.'s York County Quality Foods took the ten-year food-and-beverage contract at Toronto Pearson away from the incumbent giant — the win that turned a restaurant family into institutional caterers to the nation's front door, and the direct ancestor of the Bitove Corporation.

Details

Founded
won Pearson contract 1983
People
John Bitove Sr.

Sources (1)

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

  • The Java Shoppe

    Coffee shops · North York (Toronto)

    Closed 1960s (absorbed into later ventures)

    A fourteen-stool coffee counter opened by a teenaged John Bitove Sr. — with Dotsa beside him — became five locations by 1962 and the seed of the largest private...

    Macedonian connection: The fourteen-stool coffee shop where the Bitove empire began; John Sr. was the Toronto-born son of immigrants from Gabresh.

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

  • The Toronto Raptors — the Bitove founding

    Professional basketball · Toronto

    Closed Bitove sold his stake in 1996–97

    On 30 September 1993 the NBA awarded Toronto its expansion franchise to a bid led by 33-year-old John Bitove Jr., who named the team the Raptors, served as its...

    Macedonian connection: The NBA came to Canada because John Bitove Jr. — grandson of Gabresh immigrants — won the expansion bid.

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

  • Toronto Travel Advantage — Danny Ry

    Travel agency · Toronto

    The society's news archive preserves the scene: a community charity evening, a 'lucky draw' of prizes donated by Macedonian businesses, and the grand prize — a...

    Macedonian connection: A community travel agency remembered in the society's archive as donor of the grand prize — a Florida trip — at a Macedonian charity evening.

    Sources: https://macedonianhistory.ca/news/macedonian-kolede-costume-ball — Society news archive — the Kolede ball, whose grand prize Danny Ry and Toronto Travel Advantage donated

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