Finally got to eat here and get some shots of their neon too!
"Fran's Restaurant is a restaurant in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was once part of a chain known chiefly for one of its branches being a haunt of pianist Glenn Gould.
The flagship location was opened in 1940 by Fran Deck near the intersection of St. Clair Avenue West and Yonge Street. Fran's originally had only ten seats, but later expanded to a small chain of restaurants in Toronto, including locations at Yonge and College and Yonge and Eglinton, and one in Hamilton.
Deck died in 1977 in a car accident, and the business was continued by his family.
In the 1990s, the family-owned chain was sold to a group of investors who intended to expand the chain throughout the Greater Toronto Area. In 1997, the College St. location was purchased as an independent enterprise and remains open. The remaining locations were closed because of financial restructuring.
Because of the proximity of the College St. location to Maple Leaf Gardens, many of its clients were hockey fans catching a meal before or after a typical Maple Leafs hockey game. Moreover, many of its long time customers continued to frequent the location.
In 2004, the owners opened a new location housed in the Pantages Hotels and Suite on Victoria and Shuter Street. With the opening, Fran's modified its menu to include new fusion style cuisine alongside its traditional favourites.
Following the opening of the Victoria and Shuter location, Fran's expanded to Barrie, opening a restaurant on Bayfield Street in December 2006. While the two Toronto locations operate 24 hours, seven days a week, the Barrie restaurant operates 24 hours only on Friday and Saturday nights, closing at 11 pm the rest of the week.
Fran's Restaurant is the originator of the term "Banquet Burger."
In 2009 Fran's Restaurants will be opening their newest location in Kansas City, Missouri USA.
Fran's was a constant haunt of pianist Glenn Gould. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation profile of Gould notes:
"Sometime between two and three every morning Gould would go to Fran's, a 24-hour diner a block away from his Toronto apartment, sit in the same booth and order the same meal of scrambled eggs."
From Wikipedia. Fran's also has a website (
visit link)