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A group of Upper Beaches residents is fuming over smoke coming from a nearby restaurant, but there appears to be little local authorities can do about it.
The residents say pervasive smoke and fumes from the Beach Hill Smokehouse, which opened on Main Street at Gerrard Street East about eight years ago, are so overpowering they can’t enjoy their backyards.
“It’s unbearable to be outside,” said Kevin Lacombe, who lives in a townhome behind the restaurant. “The smoke — it’s in your eyes, in your throat.”
He’s one of 78 residents who has signed a petition calling on local and provincial authorities to put a stop to the emissions.
But city staff say there may be little that can be done about the complaints, since it appears the restaurant’s owner, Darien List, is complying with Toronto Public Health regulations.
Thick, pungent smoke wafts from the smokestack of the Beach Hill Smokehouse into a residential laneway in this picture from 2024. (Submitted by Kevin Lacombe)
“Beyond regular and ongoing restaurant related inspections from TPH, the City’s Municipal Licensing and Standards (MLS) division also last inspected the business in May 2023 following a complaint regarding the strong odours,” city staff said in an email to CBC Toronto.
The email says the inspection was conducted with the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks and “included a review of the property’s ventilation system discharge.”
“At that time, the business was found to be in compliance with relevant bylaws enforced by the City.”
‘I’ve passed all the inspections’: restaurant owner
Videos and still photos provided to CBC Toronto show a blanket of smoke billowing through the area behind the restaurant, where there are townhomes, apartments and detached homes.
Residents say the smoking at Beach Hill happens several times a week for about 20 to 30 minutes at a time. List told CBC Toronto that estimate is correct.
Darien List, owner of the Beach Hill Smokehouse near Main and Gerrard, says he’s complied with every inspection and regulation that he’s been presented with, since moving into the neighbourhood eight years ago. (Mike Smee/CBC)
However he also said he’s not sure why residents are complaining.
“We’re governed by the city. I’ve passed all the inspections; I do everything by the book,” he said.
“I don’t know what the problems are.”
Lacombe’s neighbour, Guillermo Gabrielli, who started the petition, said it was sent about two weeks ago to Toronto Public Health, Mayor Olivia Chow, his local councillor, Brad Bradford and provincial politicians. He says he hasn’t yet received a reply.
Gabrielli, who has lived in a townhome behind the restaurant with his wife Maria Parisi for 25 years, said he wants List to install a filter on the smoke stack, which appears to be about three metres high, to cut down on the smoke and any dangerous chemicals that may be emitted from the stack.
“Why is it that we have to endure this pain? You know, it’s uncalled for,” he said.
City has found no wrongdoing
Bradford told CBC Toronto he is well aware of the controversy. He says he sympathizes with the residents. But like city staff, he says the restaurant’s operators are playing by the rules.
He said the residents’ problems may just be one of the side effects of living in a busy, crowded city.
City Coun. Brad Bradford, who represents Beaches-East York, said the residents’ problem may just be a part of living in a crowded city, where people with different interests lived close by one another. (CBC)
“The smoker is properly and correctly installed,” he said. “The chimney meets all of the requirements, all of the environmental regulations. It was inspected as recently as last spring.”
One passerby, Renan Lopes, said he walks his dog past the restaurant almost every day.
He said the smoke is usually tolerable, but on some days can be quite thick, extending for about a block, a metre or so off the ground.
CBC Toronto asked the provincial Ministry of the Environment to respond to allegations from residents that the stack could be emitting unhealthy particles into the air. Ministry staff referred questions to the city, which said no wrongdoing has been found.