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The Amato Pizza at Queen and Bathurst has been shuttered.
Since August 2005, the restaurant has been the centre of an organized boycott. Former employees charged that pay cheques were late or bounced, they were not financially compensated for overtime, and that owners Walter Cerenaka and Massimo and Giuseppe Colantonio also fired employees without severance. Now it would appear that the company has also failed to pay the rent. A letter dated March 23, 2007, states that landlord Harold Vogel has terminated the lease because of "arrears in rent and other charges" and that the owners had until March 29 to "remove all assets."
Today, curious passerby peeked in the windows to see that the place had been cleaned out down to the last pizza box. Comments overheard ranged from "huh?" to "well it looks like they got what they deserved." If anybody has more information, post a comment.
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I notice that the most godforsaken-location Amato of all--on Weston Road across from Phantom Hosiery--is closed, too; though that may not count as a surprise. OTOH another one's opened up just N of Dundas West Station...
The Weston road location just moved to Dundas near Bloor. It's still a strange place to find an Amato. I wonder how long this chain's gonna last.
Maybe someone who knows how to use a dumpster will move in there.
The rats will be sad to see them go!
We posted about this to TasteTO.com earlier today, and someone commented that they've seen several other locations closed recently. Considering that the Queen West location was pretty much the flagship location, it's probably a safe bet that the whole chain has gone down. Good news for Pizzaiolo, I guess.
I live just along the street from there. I never went to Amato, Pizzaiolo always seemed like a better choice in the area. But I'm baffled as to why there are two Pizzaiolos, one either side of Bathurst on Queen. I asked an employee and they didn't know.
I ordered a pizza from the Weston Road location once, and it was terrible. The toppings weren't fresh, and the price wasn't good either. Good to such a crappy joint go down.
But their Polo a la Mayonaisse -- it's so glorious...
I ate there once. My brother recommended it to me.
What a bastard.
As far as I know the one on College is still open. I got a slice there a couple days ago. It wasn't quite cooked enough to my liking.
the st.clair/christie location also closed a few months ago
I had a slice yesterday at the Amato's on Yonge just south of College.
I was at that Amato a few weeks ago and was asked to leave by the food inspector as he claimed that the place was being shut down right then! So, that may have been a sign of trouble.
The one on college had a "conditional pass" for the whole summer last summer.
The one on St. Clair close a few months ago, too. I guess they couldn't make it in this Italian neighbourhood. ;-p
jk: We did a story in the summer about the horrible health inspection record of the Amato at College and Borden.
I was in the Bathurst and Queen Amato last year and saw a mouse run from the counter area at the front to underneath their ATM machine. Also, the washroom had no soap or paper towels so I wondered how employees were supposed to clean their hands after using it! The City of Toronto Dinesafe website says that this Amato was closed down because it failed inspection March 2, 2007 (after 2 conditional passes earlier this year). One of the reasons was improper pest control, among others. Good riddance to these unscrupulous business owners!
I suspect the second Pizzaiolo near Queen and Bathurst was specifically intended to draw customers away from the Amato across the street.
their pizza sucked, so this is no loss.
while we're at it, maybe someone can send a memo to Papa Ceo's and ask them to start using cheese and not mayo on their pizza
The Amato at Yonge & Eg was renamed Mandanto a while ago. It is still the same as Amato, but running with a new name and new management. Awesome pizza though, way better than the Pizza Pizza next to it.
I guess I'm one of the few people who actually liked the pizza (from the College and Bathurst location at least), but a few weeks ago they reneged on giving me a discount I had been promised due to another delivery that was delayed a few hours, and actually accused me of trying to scam them.
Sounds like some cosmic karma payback going on... excellent.
no loss. their pizza sucked anyway. horrible stuff! my friends always wanted to go to the college/bathurst one when the bars closed and i would walk the extras 1.5 blocks to massimo's. mmm, greasy...
The Amato in the food court across from CityTV also closed up a few months ago. I think the sandwich box ran them out of town.
From what I've heard, all of Amato's locations are currently being "renovated." I have no idea if that's true, but an employee told me so. Their call center, at the very least, is now re-routing calls that they didn't use to re-route.
The past two times that I've been there (including last night, a day after I tried to defend the awesomeness of their Pollo a la Mayonaisse), the food quality has gone down drastically. I think I might be done with 'em.
I had to wait and hour and 50mins one time for a PICK UP order. And the fool would not even give me a discount. I could have ordered from Pizza Pizza and had it delivered twice in that time. Good ridins.
Like jk I also walked into the QueenW/Bathurst location about 3 weeks or a month ago only to be kicked out by a man, who I assume was a health inspector, who said they were closing right then and there.
Amato's has been going steadily downhill for quite some time, so this comes as little surprise or tragedy. Their pizza once gave me a violent case of food poisoning, as it did a friend of mine. Word of advice: don't eat anything with the word "pollo" in it.
Those bastards... they can a slogan: "How about a REAL pizza for a change?"
I guess that's what you end up wanting to ask the owner.
i used to work at the queen and bathurst location and also the queen and john location. the owners were pretty much jerks and it was widely rumored that one of them had a major gambling which is why employees got payed either late or not at all. i was also payed in cash at the john st. location.
Weird, I always thought their pizza was awesome. Pizzaolo, on the other hand, is that next shit. They need to extend their delivery range though, the lazy pricks.
I don't get the people who were going to the College and Bathurst location, when Massimo and Gi Gi are so close.
People do the darndest things.
pizzaolio's owners are assholes, do not support those guys! the best pizza in the city is from massimo's on college, magic oven on broadview & jefferson and ciccio's on dundas west.
trust me stay away from pizzaiolo, i live very close to them and their hygenie concerns are minimal with their food handling practices
pizzaiolo = bad news
I have no experience with the owners of any of these places, but, according to the city's DineSafe site, all of the Pizzaiolo locations have a couple of years of green ratings.
Food handling practices at Massimo's on College, on the other hand, have netted them frequent yellow “conditional pass” ratings and thousands of dollars in fines.
(Your other picks have much better records.)
They totally don't derserve to be in any business.
I used to go to the St. Clair and Christie location years ago. It was fantastic; fresh bread with olive oil and balsamic with every order, great martinis, and excellent beer for great prices (a pitcher of Amsterdam was $14, if I remember rightly). Then I moved, but went back a couple of years ago and they had lost their liquor license. Hmmm. The food was noticeably of poorer quality, and the staff (who had once been awesome) seemed bitter.
I went back once more and things had deteriorated beyond belief; the staff just stopped caring, I guess knowing what was coming. I think it is too bad -- it was a great chain, way better than Pizza Pizza (still the biggest), with a light shake of funk. That all got lost quick, I know, and it is now no great loss to behold.
Many years ago, Amato was the genuine article: fresh, innovative, and filling when you were in a hurry. Then they expanded their operation to like, a gazillion locations, they got greedy, and their quality suffered immensely. I've been out of the city for a year and a half, and have been subjected to the rest of the world's idea of good pizza (a sad comparison to Toronto's, let me tell you) but I still don't miss the sad product that Amato had become before I left. Instead, I'll be heading to Terroni as soon as I get off the plane.
"magic oven on broadview"
fuck yeah. best pizza in the city, and the tandoori chicken fettucinni is to die for. they make one hell of a greasy and delicious veal sandwich as well. to all of you folks claiming that massimos or piaziollos wears the crown, you need to get your asses east of yonge street sometime.
I also worked at the Queen & Bathurst location, the owner Guiseppe is stupid, rumoured to have a gambling problem, hence why no one was paid. The money just kind of disappeared, that branch actually did very well. When it was shut down he didn't call the employees, and still owes them money which they will never see - but hey, what's new.
On that Pizzaiolo thing, apparently the owner refused to serve people he saw going to Amato and all his staff were required to have a hatred for their neighbour, which means I won't go there either, I like Massimo's on College, and Magic Oven rules!
The guy who runs the Amato's on Dundas West is an asshole. He was beligerant when I called him up to complain that he'd given me the wrong pizza, saying that I had ordered it wrong (which I didn't), refused to give me a free one, and when we received the next pizza (which yes I paid for) it was not only extra large but it was a split-topping pizza - like I didn't know what the heck I wanted. It was a personal insult, and it was obvious. Wouldn't surprise me if he spat on it too.
If anyone know's of anyone that isn't paid, i'm pretty sure the law changes a few years ago that an owner of a INC company can be sued personally for unpaid wages. Hence why Canada 3000 paid there employee's before the creditors.
Food for thought!