adamson bbq

Adamson BBQ is selling off its equipment now that it's closing over vaccine passport mandate

If you're in the market for a piece of Ontario anti-lockdown protest history — or, you know, just a smoker for some brisket — you can now get your hands on some of the equipment from Adamson BBQ, the restaurant that notoriously opened up for multiple days of maskless indoor and outdoor dining last fall in contravention of provincial pandemic orders.

Enraged over the new vaccine passport mandate that the province implemented on Sept. 22, Adamson proprietor Adam Skelly decided to shutter all of his locations until further notice, stating in an Instagram post that he "can't, in good conscience, comply with these orders" and that any defiance would lead to a contempt of court charge given his history and court order to comply with the Reopening Ontario Act.

"This industry is not the space for a liberty-minded entrepreneur, so I will no longer participate," he later told blogTO.

While his Aurora outpost was closed in April due to non-payment of nearly $50k of rent, Skelly still had establishments in Leaside and Etobicoke, with hopes to reopen indoor dining at both before his decision to shut down as of Sept. 19 instead.

Though the Instagram post says there is "more to come, this is just the beginning," it is hard to imagine the restaurateur cooking up much of anything in the future without some of the appliances now available via online auction.

"BBQ pits and smokers, restaurant, food processing, bakery, cafe and bar equipment and furniture," reads the tagline of a Benaco sale of the contents of Adamson, along with 16 other businesses.

Meat grinders, ovens, vacuum pack machines, coolers and freezers, prep tables, sinks, charbroilers, deep fryers, assorted smallwares and more are all listed, with a closing date of Oct. 21 for any eager buyers.

It is unclear which Adamson location(s) the contents are from, though there don't appear to be enough pieces listed to constitute nearly the entire inventory of all three locations. As Benaco notes, though, there are hundreds of items yet to be posted.

Meanwhile, Skelly supporters are awaiting updates about the constitutional challenge he launched against the province in June.

The case was thrown out by the superior court justice overseeing it because of issues with the paperwork filed, but Skelly's team vowed to take the battle all the way to the Supreme Court, if needed, saying in a blog post that their fight was "far from over."

Lead photo by

Hector Vasquez


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