By David Topping

Photo by Val Dodge/Torontoist.

The battle of the Baracks on the Danforth is over.
Earlier this week, Torontoist reported on two businesses named after Barack Obama right beside one-another in the city’s east end: one, the Obama Café, owned by Emmanuel Debass, was launched in early February to much media attention; the other, a few doors down, owned by Amveson Fitsumbrahn, was once United Internet Café and became Obama Cybernet Ltd. (or, according to its website, the Obama Cybernet Café) to coincide with the president’s visit to Ottawa in the latter half of February. Debass accused Fitsumbrahn—on Torontoist, and in the Globe and Star, which both picked up the story a few days after our article—of trying to profit from the publicity his store had earned.
But all is, apparently, good. Fitsumbrahn called Torontoist tonight to tell us that he and Debass met and discussed the problem, and that the two used “common sense” to solve it—Fitsumbrahn says he’s changing the name of his store soon to something not so Obama-centric. Debass, busy preparing for his café’s “grand opening” later this month (which Torontoist will be covering, of course) happily confirmed the result: he says that “we’ve understood each other,” and that Fitsumbrahn will change the name of his business “whenever he can.” Noting that both men share the same background, Fitsumbrahn is happy to make the change. “We have to set a good example.”