By David Topping

Big Fat Burrito is moving into Lee’s Palace, and the building’s iconic painted façade, featuring monsters of every colour and form stretching across the length of the building’s first storey and reaching up to its second, has been quietly moved out.
This morning, construction workers began to break apart the wall—painted by artist Runt twenty-something years ago—piece by piece, the result of a deal struck in June between Big Fat Burrito and Lee’s that will see the take-out restaurant lease out space in the music venue and the entrance to Lee’s moved to the building’s side. Standing beside a few pieces of the mural cut out and saved for Runt (most of the rest of it landed in a dumpster around back), Big Fat Burrito owner Mike Shepherd explained that his store will open in two weeks’ time, the new second location for a store whose flagship is in Kensington Market.
Rather than stucco and concrete and mesh, Shepherd said, the building’s new façade will be metal, and it’s that new façade that’s being turned over as a new canvas to none other than Runt, whose work will fill the wall anew by spring.
Calls to Lee’s Palace this afternoon were not immediately returned, but according to Shepherd, the rest of Lee’s will continue to function just as it does now, and, when it opens, Big Fat Burrito will be selling concert tickets, too.
All photos by Joel Charlebois/Torontoist.
Thanks to Danny Glenwright for the tip.