Jen Agg, one of Toronto’s most well-known restaurateurs, told her Instagram followers this week that her Trinity Bellwoods area eatery Rhum Corner might be poised for closure.
Agg said Rhum Corner, a Haitian restaurant she founded with her husband Roland Jean that just celebrated its 11th birthday, is not attracting enough guests on weekdays to keep it financially viable.
“It’s starting to feel like we can’t keep it going,” she said on social media. “As much as you might think Rhum is busy when you come there on weekends, that is not how the metrics of restaurants work, you need to be busy every day you’re open, or at least 80% of the time.”
“And that is just not happening for us during the week.”
“I truly don’t know how we make it through another winter and it feels crazy to try,” she wrote.
She said Rhum Corner’s rent is going up but the lack of weekday diners is the real problem. It’s also likely an issue for other older restaurants, per Agg, warning that Toronto diners often don’t know what they’ve got until it’s gone.
“If we don’t support our older restaurants that we think we love, they are going to disappear. I promise.”
No final decision on the restaurant’s fate has been made, according to Agg, who said she and her husband are at “an impasse” because the business’ Haitian food, character and community are so important to Jean, who grew up in the country.
Agg recently opened General Public, an upscale restaurant on Geary Street. She also operates Le Swan diner on Queen Street West, Grey Gardens in Kensington Market and Bar Vendetta, an Italian restaurant beside Rhum Corner.
Her memoir “I Hear She’s a Real Bitch” about entering Toronto’s restaurant industry made a splash when it was released in 2017. Agg has teased that she’s working on a second book.
