Nearly 100-year-old Toronto restaurant got a helping hand from its biggest fan

Don Coleman was five years old the first time he set foot inside Danforth East's legendary Len Duckworth's Fish & Chips. That was nearly 60 years ago, but his passion is still very much alive.

There aren't many specifics he remembers about those early trips with his father to the Danforth Avenue chippy, save for the big Coca-Cola cooler he could only just manage to reach over in the middle of the restaurant and Len Duckworth himself, the man behind the counter.

Though Len Duckworth's sign proclaims the restaurant was established in 1930, Coleman informs me that, really, it was 1929 by Jack and Edith Duckworth, whose maiden name, fittingly, was Fysh.

A photo of the titular Len Duckworth still hangs in the restaurant.

These are the sorts of details that could only be carefully held and cultivated by a true fan of the restaurant, and, as far as Len Duckworth's goes, Coleman is as big a fan as they come. Think of him as the Nav Bhatia of Len Duckworth's. 

If ever there was a fish and chips shop in the city worthy of such devotion, I would argue, it would be Len Duckworth's.

Founded in 1929, the restaurant has maintained a reputation for serving some of the best fish and chips in the city from its comfortable East End haunt for the past 96 years.

The restaurant is named after Jack and Edith's son, Len, who later went on to run the shop when the couple retired in the '50s, and is now operated by Len's own children, Dave and Deborah — a true family affair, just the same as it is for Coleman.

Coleman's affiliation with the restaurant doesn't stop with his mere adoration for it, or warm memories of the crispy halibut and thick-cut chips he shared with his late father, though. 

Nearly ten years ago, Coleman had been living in New Brunswick for around 15 years, only finding the time to come back to Toronto around once a year, when he was struck by just how little online presence Len Duckworth's actually had.

"I googled the place, and I found a stagnant, one-page website that had inaccuracies on it, and I realized that the business has been thriving on word of mouth without bothering with all this website stuff and Skip the Dishes and social media," Coleman tells blogTO.

Inspired solely by his passion for the restaurant, he reached out to them, offering to build an entirely new website and a Facebook page for them.

"I get a kick out of it and the website itself. I'm not an expert, but, you know, I use a platform that I feel like I designed a really slick and current-looking, functional website, and people write us there, and I respond to all those or forward all those emails to the powers that be," he says.

There's no monetary gain in it, Coleman admits, but being able to play a part in maintaining a part of both Toronto's and his own personal histories is reward enough.

Nowadays, the Facebook page for Len Duckworth's Fish & Chips boasts 3100 followers: no small number for a small, family-run restaurant that's been around for nearly 100 years. The page's top post? Coleman's own story of visiting Len Duckworth's as a child.

"It may sound a bit sappy, but I find it very emotional. I'm proud of it and happy to be a part of it," Coleman says. "It just creates that continuation of the legacy of my dad a little bit."

Len Duckworth's Fish & Chips is located at 2638 Danforth Ave