Most shops at Cumberland Terrace, a 1970s Yorkville shopping complex long considered a dead mall, closed this past summer ahead of its planned demolition to make way for condos. But signs of life remain: Esther Joseph is still serving her mulligatawny and Sri Lankan seafood curries to loyal customers at her longtime lunch spot, Esther Queen of Soups. She’s the last food vendor left, and not quite ready to go.
Still, after nearly 25 years, she knows her time is limited. She’s now on a month-to-month lease and doesn’t know when her last day will be. In the meantime, she’s searching for a new location — hoping her business won’t disappear as one of the last affordable places to get a home-cooked meal in the increasingly high-end neighbourhood.
As the name suggests, soup is the main attraction at Esther’s, located at 890 Yonge St., just across from the Yonge-Bloor subway entrance. The mulligatawny is a two-day process: it starts with chicken stock made on the first day, followed by diced potatoes, carrots, celery, a bit of lemon juice, and roasted, ground whole spices like cumin, turmeric, and black pepper. It’s one of 34 soups on rotation (others include beef barley, split pea, lentil, and chili) that can be eaten as a meal on its own or paired with a wrap. The veggie option is another delight: peas and tender cubes of potato tossed with garlic, ginger, onions, chili powder, turmeric, and cumin, contrasted with the crunch of fresh lettuce and cucumbers.
The mackerel curry is another highlight. The fatty, flavourful fish is paired with a tamarind sauce spiked with curry leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and turmeric, served on a bed of rice and a small ladle of curried daal and sweet eggplant. With most items priced under $15, online commenters have long praised Esther’s as a bright spot in the fading mall. Her kitchen setup, complete with home kitchen cabinets and stoves, gives the impression of someone’s house transported into a retail space.
“‘You’re coming into my kitchen, you’re coming home.’ I always say that to my customers,” laughs Joseph.
Born in Hatton, a town in central Sri Lanka, Joseph later moved to the coastal capital of Colombo, and worked in the textile industry until she left for Canada in 1995 due to the ongoing civil war. Upon arrival in Toronto, she worked at a catering company before she branched off on her own to open Esther Queen of Soups inside the Cumberland Terrace in 2001. Though she had no restaurant background, she believed a high-volume food business catering to office workers in a mall connected to two subway lines would thrive.
Cumberland Terrace opened on October 14, 1974, as a luxury shopping destination featuring Canadian retailers like furniture store DeBoer’s and shoemaker Dack’s. The Yorkville area, once known for its 1960s counterculture scene, was becoming a playground for the wealthy and influential, especially with the launch of the Toronto International Film Festival nearby.
Over the decades, the mall became something of an anomaly. Outside the mall there was a boon in luxury retailers and hotels, but the Cumberland Terrance gradually lost its posh stores and gained the reputation of being a dead mall by the 2000s.
It served largely as an underground thoroughfare for commuters passing between Bay and Bloor subway stations and drew a mix of urbanists, as well as those priced out of Yorkville, who still enjoyed the mall.
The former love the untouched brown tiled floors, brick and mirrored walls, and signage that still screams the ‘70s (including a directory that still had the old Bay logo from 1965), a haven from the sterile modern mall. The latter sought a moment of peacefulness in the underground food court that until recently still had a handful of vendors like Made in Japan: A Teriyaki Experience and Roasty Jack that served an all-roast turkey menu.
Upstairs, Esther Queen of Soups still did steady business from the office crowd as well as older folks looking for a home-cooked meal. When she first opened, a typical lunch rush would have her and a staff of eight serving 200 people. She was busy enough to open Ceylon Spice in 2017, a dedicated Sri Lankan takeout spot serving curries and string hoppers in the lower level. But when the pandemic hit and commuters stayed home, business never recovered, and the new takeout spot shuttered.
For years, there was talk of the unprofitable mall being redeveloped into mixed-use condo towers but it wasn’t till this past summer that the plans seem to be finally happening. The handful of vendors were told to leave and a goodbye party was held at the end of June. Some retired, others found new locations with help from the mall’s landlord. Joseph, however, remains in limbo. The mall’s landlord allowed her to stay open while trying to find her a new location. But today’s commercial rent in downtown Toronto don’t fit with Joseph’s business model of from-scratch soups made in small batches each day.
Ayo Dunmoye works in the building and says she’s been getting lunch at Esther’s three times a week for the last four years. Her favourites are the seafood curry and biryanis. “The food is so homey and you can feel that motherly instinct from Esther. I’m from Nigeria so the flavours (of Sri Lankan cooking) are very similar and she makes it extra spicy for me,” she says. “It’s unfortunate because she’s been here for more than 20 years and a lot of people in offices come here. I understand why the mall closed, but it’s still going to be a big bummer.”
“I want to stay in the neighbourhood but the rent is very high,” she says, adding that she’s looking at a minimum of $5,000 a month to stay downtown. Her nephew, Johnne Phinehas who owns Saffron Spice Kitchen, offered her a role to help out at his restaurant but she said no. “I still have the energy. I’m still young. I still want to do this.”
