A sad day for Windsor Saturday as one more piece of our past was lost to the wrecking ball.
As usual of late, a weekend rolls around, and something’s being demolished. Maybe someone out there knows the answer, but why are buildings never demolished during the week?
The Top Hat was one of the few remaining links, back to the days when our Downtown wasn’t set up to only cater to drunk children.
Thanks to Adriano from Windsor Eats for the heads up on the demo.
Photo c. Shawn Micallef
Adriano wasn’t the only one to give me a heads up. Even Shawn Micallef of Spacing Magazine was in Windsor this weekend, when I got a text message from him about the Top Hat coming down.
Photo c. Shawn Micallef
Shawn shot the two photos above, and he sent them to me to share with everyone.
On Monday morning, all was quiet. The Building Eaters were at rest behind the death fences, likely full from their Thanksgiving Dinner.
Irony, at its finest… A Burger King Cup tossed aside into the debris of the Top Hat. As you know, the future of the site is as a Burger King…
Only a few bits remain of the Top Hat. The Tunnel Bar-B-Q, freshly renovated stands out behind, one of the last remaining links to the past, and one of the few downtown businesses with over a half century in the core.
Support what remains, before it’s all gone.
great shots andrew! i really like the one with the casino in it.
and uh…pic #3, good thing that dude’s wearing a hard hat. i imagine it should keep his head safe when the 4 cinder blocks hanging precariously overhead, come down on his head! lol
that all looks so strange. i shouldn’t be able to see the chruch….weird.
do we know what’s to become of the booger king at the tunnel, or is that going to be another eyesore for us to stare at for years? maybe this new one won’t make me want to puke if i ever go there.
and speaking of history being knocked down for crap, i noticed the guy started building on to the stripmall that displaced the BMO. good thing too, i never thought we’d see the new, soon to be vacant extention on that place.
Hate seeing the Top Hat go–for all the reasons mentioned–even closed-up it reminded us of a time when downtown was truly an entertainment district. On my first trip to Windsor back in the early 1990s to stake out the U of W–the Top Hat was the first restaurant I set foot in downtown–it was great–good food set in a museum-like ode to another era–not unlike The Other Place on Dougall.
Damn.
It always looked like a great building and some of the other items, but every time i walked by it, it had a bad odor. This odor got worst as the years progressed, and you can tell its from items that were in the ventalation system from grease and a few other items. It is sad to see it go, but this building has not been able to be sold for a while, and does not look good for the market and would be an outrageous amount to restore and would not always be worth with the value of the building.
The Top hat: more nostalgia than any practical use
In this instance: tear that schitt down!
The Burger King and all of that area is suppoed to be levelled for the expansion of the Tunnel Plaza. But since Windsor doesn’t have a dime (yet we are still in talks with Detroit about giving them loads of money to run their side of the tunnel, no NOT OWN IT!) and the fact that traffic volumes are down almost 25% the plaza has been put on hold.
Does anyone have a photo of this “architecturally sensitive” Burger King that’s supposed to sprout up on this site that they can post so I know they’re not gonna simply put the one across the street on a flatbed and move it over here?
In regards to the question of, why are things demolished on the weekend only, I have a theory that it might be due to reduced disruption of weekday traffic and activity. That was my first guess, at least.
Justine, that’s a possible explanation… Be skeptical as I am, I always assume, it’s beacuse there’s less chance of an inspector coming by, and catching them doing something wrong… 🙂
David: http://www.travel-tidbits.com/tidbits/HamburgKing.jpg
Is there anything left on that block now besides TBQ? Or is it all surface parking now?
Chet, there are still 3 buildings, two houses that are tranformed into law offices and a Tim Horton’s. Yes Windsor’s downtown is alive and well with fast food joints.
OK, I remember the Tim’s on Goyeau. Are the houses on Goyeau as well?
Fast food joints aren’t necessarily that bad if they can be incorporated into existing buildings. The trouble is when you tear down buildings to build a Burger King that comes equipped with surface parking, drive-thru, etc… You end up with a lot of crappy buildings that are spaced far apart and don’t really make up anything that couldn’t be found on Huron LIne. Its not a neighbourhood, it just a bunch of buildings that aren’t connected to each other.
I actually walked by Top Hat when I was in town a couple weeks ago and thought to myself “it won’t be long…” Everytime I come back in the last 2-3 years it seems downtown is getting worse and worse.
Not to beat a dead horse, but as sitting Cabinet Members Pupatello and Duncan should be embarassed. Instead they keep quiet because they would rather position themselves to replace McGuinty. They have forgotten the community that they have been elected to represent.
Right on about Pupatello. I’d attempted contact over the years for some important issues. Initially, I’d get a response from her secretary, then not even that. Not even the decency to acknowledge calls and e-mails. She and her cronies have abandoned this community, and her agenda is Parliament. What a frightening thought that one of them could be Prime Minister one day! No community south of Toronto would exist in their own personal agendas. A prime example of initially caring about one’s roots, then transplanting them to a more self-serving community.
The Nut House moved from Ouellette Ave to one of the houses still standing about three years ago or so and it is vacant now, don’t know where they moved to.
Hey John Stefani, if the new TDCanada Trust don’t use the old TD bank in their new building, your link just hit an idea for its use. Good one!
So sad. Burger King, McDonald’s, Subway, Taco Bell…etc. I call that S.O.S (same old sh*t).
Urbanrat… sure, all they would need to do is chop out a drive thru window and build an architecturally sensitive canopy and VOILA!
If only Burger Kings in this city looked that nice, John, I’d be a very very happy Windsorite.
Where is that pic from anyway? Florence?
I’d guess the Burger King is in Hamburg Germany.
There lies the issue. Why do we have to tear down buildings in order to build new ones that don’t do anything for the architectural landscape? Chet is right! There will be surface lots and then a large space, another fast food place, surface lots and then space. No wonder the area is looking more desolate and barren; the density doesn’t exist anymore!
What a sad plight our downtown is and yet we seem to nly have 1.5 councillors who really give a crap. Halberstadt and Valentinis (to a degree) but where are the other downtown councillors? Why haven’t we heard anything about them?
ME – about the old burger king/tunnel plaza. do you have any idea what’s to become of goyeau if that takes place? i could only imagine shuting it down with a sidewalk between wyandotte and park, making park st. the enterance. which i suppose is actually a good idea, that intersection can be hell on wekends.
burger king should have just done some serious rehab on the top hat, it’s twice the size of the old place and they already have all the black top they need to make it work.
er….i ment making goyeau a 1-way FROM park.
On behalf of the Drakich family we thank you Andrew,the bloggers and the city of Windsor for the fond memories.
When Mike Drakich passed away the family decided to sell, as Mike was the Top Hat and Mary deserved a proper retirement.
Please do not vent your frustrations and anger towards Burger King but towards city hall for their interference in the sale of the Top Hat.
Thank you ,
Sam Drakich
Sam, you are correct that the nager should be towards city hall on that file. However what I am trying to state is that we keep tearing buildings down to bulid anotehr building that will be limited in use. IE: A burger King is built to look like Burger King and if they vacate what else would or could move there? Once again that would fall as well.
As a former patron of the Top Hat I would like to thank your family for great food and memories. Your bread pudding with whisky sauce was the best I have had anywhere and it is truly missed.
Aaron, Goyeau would be essentially closed between Park and Wyandotte (yet another “dead end street leading to no where) with the area being one big plaza (or parking lot due to traffic issues at the US border).
Yes a Burger King is a Burger King .
Saving buildings worth saving is a most noble cause and the promotion of esthetically designed buildings is worth championing The truth of the matter is that no independent is willing to invest in the city,. let alone downtown, thus we are open to more chains.
If city hall had a single living brain cell they should of purchased the whole block plus the properties surrounding the former bus depot to create a park.
I know I am jumping into this conversation a little late, but all this happened while I was out of the country that year. I heard about the Top Hat over the years from my parents and aunts and uncles. When I lived in Windsor for a few years, it was one of the spots I really liked to visit. Such nostalgia! And this is happening all over, not just Windsor.