QUOTED: Captain John on his last-gasp attempt to save his novelty restaurant

QUOTED: Captain John on his last-gasp attempt to save his novelty restaurant

(Image: George Socka)

“I may be down, but I’m not out. I am not running away. What they are doing to me is not fair.”

John Letnik, the owner of Captain John’s Seafood Restaurant, on why he won’t succumb to efforts to rid the Toronto shoreline of his now-defunct nautical restaurant. The rusting sea vessel was shut down by city officials last year after Letnik failed to pay mounting realty taxes and other fees, which currently total over $1 million. The Toronto Port Authority filed an application in early December to seize and sell the waterfront relic.

Letnik launched a $1.2 million counter-suit last week in a last-ditch attempt to save the less-than-seaworthy ship, parts of which are reportedly rotting and contaminated with asbestos. Letnik is claiming that the city unfairly stymied his efforts to offload the boat by refusing to grant a long-term lease along the city’s waterfronta stumbling block to a potential deal last summer with an eccentric Slovenian multi-millionaire. While the month-to-month lease is certainly not ideal, we can think of a few other potential impediments to a sale: namely, the multiple sources confirming that the ship is more or less worthless, even as scrap. [Toronto Star]