{"id":543404,"date":"2026-03-18T00:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/543404\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T00:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:21:16","slug":"edward-pottinger-founder-of-iconic-toronto-caribbean-restaurant-the-real-jerk-dies-at-69","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/543404\/","title":{"rendered":"Edward Pottinger, founder of iconic Toronto Caribbean restaurant\u00a0The Real Jerk, dies at 69"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The founder of the iconic Toronto Caribbean restaurant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.therealjerk.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Real Jerk<\/a>, Edward Pottinger, has died at the age of 69.<\/p>\n<p>Pottinger was born in Jamaica before coming to Canada, bringing along his lifelong passion for Caribbean cooking. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe \ufb02avours, traditions, and spirit of Jamaica shaped not only his recipes but also the warm hospitality he brought to everyone he met,\u201d read his obituary. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was often the life of the party, dancing to lively Caribbean music with customers, family, and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pottinger and his wife Lily first opened the restaurant in 1984 at Greenwood Avenue and Queen Street East before moving down the street to Broadview Avenue and Queen Street East <a href=\"https:\/\/toronto.citynews.ca\/2012\/05\/08\/the-real-jerk-closes-doors-at-end-of-month-new-location-to-be-announced\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">where The Real Jerk spent two decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Their third move to the current location at Carlaw Avenue and Gerrard Street East in 2013 after a new owner purchased the building.<\/p>\n<p>The Real Jerk also made headlines in 2016 when Rihanna, alongside Drake, filmed a part of her music video \u201cWork\u201d in the Riverdale spot.<\/p>\n<p>In lieu of flowers, Edward\u2019s family asked for donations to the urology or cancer care teams at Humber River Hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The founder of the iconic Toronto Caribbean restaurant The Real Jerk, Edward Pottinger, has died at the age&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-543404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}