Drake’s Pick 6ix Sports restaurant closed amid dispute with landlord

TORONTO — Drake’s Pick 6ix Sports restaurant in downtown Toronto is currently closed amid an ongoing dispute with the landlord.

A termination notice from property management plastered on the front of the venue states the closure is due to unpaid rent, but the owners say the doors at the Yonge and Wellington streets restaurant remain shut due to flooding, yet again.

The lease termination, which was issued on Nov. 18, says nearly $70,000 in rent has gone unpaid.

“The premises have been re-entered and the lease has been terminated by the landlord for default in the payment of rent in the amount of $67,514.73,” the notice reads.

In an Instagram post on Monday, the restaurant said it was “closed until further notice” due to flooding.

On Friday morning, alongside the termination notice, a printed-out sign from the restaurant’s team was posted on the building’s exterior.

The sign states that the restaurant’s team is “working hard to effect repairs to ensure your future dining experiences with us will be pleasant ones.”

The restaurant went on to apologize for “any inconvenience.”

In a statement issued on Friday regarding the matter, the team behind Pick 6ix Sports said they have “always paid rent on time.”

“This month is no different, despite a number of issues with the building – including two floods in the past two years due to issues with the pipes,” the team said. “We plan to continue to work with the landlord to resolve any misunderstanding and get back to repairing the restaurant from the water damage.”

The team said they have asked the landlord to remove the sign “as it is not only unnecessary and inaccurate.”

“We want to thank our customers for their patience and hope to reopen again in the new year.”

According to the restaurant’s voicemail on Friday morning, it is closed due to “flooding inside the restaurant” and will reopen in March 2020.

The project manager for the flooding repairs at the venue, Phil Strunc, said a leak occurred on the afternoon of Nov. 15.

“They had a flood from the roof, an HVAC leak, which caused a lot of water to enter into the restaurant and spread throughout the entire place so our team is here, we’ve been here for about three or four days now,” he said outside the restaurant on Friday morning.

“We’re drawing out the structure, removing all of the damage and wet contents and then spraying the place down for mould and bacteria growth to make sure there are no issues in the future.”

Strunc said it will be “a few months” before things are back to normal at the site.

The downtown restaurant affiliated with Drake reopened in the spring of this year with a new contemporary sports bar concept. The restaurant was previously called Pick 6ix and opened in January 2018.

The restaurant was closed during the summer of 2018 before the rebranding “for renovations following extensive damage from a storm.”