Tuggs Inc.’s grip on a beachfront restaurant site at Ashbridge’s Bay is a “continuing disaster,” Mayor John Tory says, from which the city appears to have no escape. “I think it’s a tragedy for the Beach, and for the residents and visitors who use those beaches so frequently in the summer and all year, that there isn’t an operator in there using all of those premises,” Tory told reporters when asked about Cara restaurant Carters Landing moving out after a legal fight with Tuggs owner George Foulidis. Tuggs leases the city-owned building and has exclusive rights to sell food and novelties at nearby parks.“I think it’s part of the continuing disaster that is this man’s tenure and it was extended in a way that I think we had very few legal avenues to pursue, and I just feel very badly about the whole thing,” Tory said. “And I think there’s not been a single good part to it as far as I can tell, including this latest development.”Foulidis did not respond to multiple calls and emails from the Star last week requesting comment on Tory’s statements and the latest twist in his Beach tenure that has generated headlines since the 1980s, when he won a lease for a restaurant on the boardwalk along the hugely popular eastern beaches.Instead of kicking off prime patio season this May long weekend, Carters Landing will serve its final customers before closing Thursday after less than two years. When Carters Landing opened in 2016, Foulidis had wanted Cara to take over his city-assigned lease. Court records reveal Foulidis and Cara fought over parking revenues, area liquor sales and more, and the deal was never completed.A string of Foulidis-operated restaurants — Tuggs, the Boardwalk Cafe, seafood eatery Paralia and Athens Cafe — have also come and gone, leaving, at the moment, a Foulidis-franchised Tim Hortons and a new Johnny Catch Fish and Chips.City staff say they do ...
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