Violins and tambourines
and this is what
we think they mean
It's hard to say
it's sad but true
I'm kinda dumb and
so are you
Another Tuesday... another Taste! It's a dandy this week: a Scarborough legend. An east institution for over half a century that found a recent second life, so beloved that its demise was an exceptionally brief one. Most people I've met who grew up in Scarborough seem to very much know what McCoy's is. Heck it even appears in this music video* (around the 2:12 mark) by this very famous band...
As far as long standing burger joints in Scarborough go, only Johnny's Hamburgers can really compete when it comes to sheer iconic aura... and even then. The Real McCoy first opened its doors in 1969, an era where most of Scarborough was still in the process of transforming from scattered farmland into populated suburb. The Mihail family, primarily father Louie with his brother-in-law, were semi-recent immigrants eager to start their own restaurant business, deciding on hamburgers and pizza for its quick serve simplicity and broad appeal. Fast food at this point in time was still a young growing concept, don't forget... a type of frontier where no one yet was quite totally confident what meals could really appeal to a market and sell.
Louie Mihail's son George, a grade schooler when The Real McCoy grilled their first burger, gradually became more and more involved with the restaurant as he grew up. Eventually, in the 1980s, George secured enough funding to buy out one of the original founders and become a key owner of the business himself... setting forth notable changes and improvements to the menu and general quality of the food they were serving (such as doing away with their old frozen burger patties for something more homemade). He's been the hands-on face of the restaurant essentially ever since, working long hours behind the counter and conversing with the considerable number of customers that have entered through the doors over the passing decades.
It's hard to make it over half a century as a restaurant without making yourself a noted friend of the nearby community, to which The Real McCoy seems to have done exponentially so. In 2022 when the final day for the restaurant was announced as Christmas Eve that same year (the family had known about the looming condo redevelopment of Brimorton Plaza for quite some time before)... there was an enormous public outpouring of love and surge in their business. Hordes of longtime patrons and locals making sure they came back one last time to revisit memories and say goodbye. For the first time in the restaurant's history they even ran out of bacon one day. Alas Real McCoy did shut its doors that December of 2022, never to return to the now-erased Brimorton Plaza.
In a Hollywood-like twist, however, a pair of investors (Brett Punchand and Saye Sathiyakumar) soon teamed up with George Mihail (who at 60 was not yet keen either personally or financially on heading into retirement) to help find a suitable new location for Real McCoy to reopen. Mihail was adamant any new restaurant remained in Scarborough and no more than eight months later, McCoy was reborn at its new and current home at Lawrence Avenue East and Bellamy Road (only a handful of kilometres away from where the original spot on Markham had been). Sathiyakumar at the opening described how important the restaurant had been to the neighbourhood and to himself during his youth, explaining "we weren't ready to let it go".
Quite a tale, and with an (atypical) happy ending to boot! The Real McCoy is still slinging out "mojo burgers" (long story, something to do with a radio contest) fries and pizza slices to this day, six dates a week. I'd never made it to the original spot (an old work friend and I talked about going for like a year but it never came together)... but on a summer Friday evening I rode up from the Eglinton GO station to at long last give them a look at the new place.
While nothing can replace the storied walls of fifty years, the new McCoy does its best to recapture the simplified and friendly vibe of the old one (even bringing back some the distinctive wood paneling for the front of the counter). On a side wall are framed newspaper articles, published accolades and photographs of various celebrities who have come through over the decades. There's a jovial vibe to the place: George (still working the counter and the phones) and his kitchen staff are exceptionally pleasant, greeting a delivery driver with a familiar "hey Uber!" like they'd been a regular for a decade. Business was fairly slow when I arrived just after 7pm but within fifteen minutes as I was chowing down, the phone was ringing constantly and walk-in orders were flowing in. It would seem the shift in location has done little to diminish their popularity.
The menu is a bit confusing in its minimalist presentation: what the actual difference is between their regular burgers, their "homeburgers" and the "famous Mojo Burger" is left completely unspecified in print. Looking into it after the fact (I hate being one of 'those people' who asks a million questions in the moment) homeburgers are bigger and the "Mojo" is basically a banquet burger... nevertheless I presumed the homeburger would be a better representation of McCoy at their best and so got a cheese one with a side of fries. Like Harvey's (though this place probably well predates** that chain) and many other old school burger spots, you can choose your toppings beforehand... lettuce, relish, mayo and mustard for me.
Starting with the fries... you've got a bit of that pre-frozen numbness in the flavour (common among cheap diner french fries) which mutes a lot of the potato taste. Not great... but, the texture and crispiness of these fries is very darn good. They also leave the seasoning up to you (there's a condiment station by the front door) so as is, these fries are just pure fried potato.
Not amazing but entirely decent thanks to that oily crispiness and texture, particularly when fresh from the fryer. They even reheat semi-okay (in an air fryer) also.
Quite certain my first thoughts were: "wow, this is a big honking burger" as I'd temporarily become a 1950's era cartoon character apparently.
I confess to carrying some serious trepidation going into this particular cheeseburger. See, while I love the charm and perseverance of these old school burger joints... I also have to be honest in these reviews about whether the food is actually any good. Indeed, I actually tried Johnny's Hamburger's for the first time last autumn and well... there's a reason I never wrote that review. All I'll say is... it's good that such a classic place is beloved even though it may very well be for the wrong reasons.
So yeah. I was a bit nervous Real McCoy would also fall into that category and... well...
...fortunately, this burger is indeed a couple notches or so above that.
Getting into it, this burger really reminded me of a neighbourhood/family backyard cookout... you've got a good amount of char flavour from the grill (like you can still taste the flame in the meat) the toppings are fairly standard stuff but do the job of not taking anything away from the beef, plus the damn thing is enormous. I hadn't eaten much all day and was coming off a bike ride from the Pickering waterfront... I did not think one burger like this would make me as full as it did.
The texture and taste of the beef has a bit of a meatloaf thing going on... quite thick and finely blended, although still juicy enough to avoid any dreaded dry chewiness. It's not exactly a mind-blowing burger or anything, but it is genuinely tasty from start to finish... an impressive feat considering its size and inevitable coldness once you get to the end.
My biggest complaint is the cheese: you don't get much (if any) of that taste or presence in here at all. Possibly because the burger and bun themselves are simply too big for that little slice of fake American cheese... whatever it is, calling this a 'cheese'burger gets close to being a misnomer (while eating it I'd almost forgotten there was even cheese on here at all).
All in all though... it's actually a perfectly decent burger. There isn't much else to it really, very simple stuff... but it works and is generally satisfying. Phew! I can exhale now, no need to slag a beloved iconic (and extremely likeable) Scarborough flagship.
---
Real McCoy also does pizza, which while tempting... that's a lot of food for one day. I mean, a giant burger, fries, and a whole pizza in one order? Surely it would take some kind of madman... a true pizza reviewing maniac so obsessed with trying every single pizza he or she can find... to actually order an entire pie in addition to all that food already on the table and yeah here's the picture already:
Something happened here which I did not anticipate the possibility of even slightly: I actually liked the pizza considerably more than the burger. The burger like I said was perfectly fine, something I would order again if feeling a certain craving (and actually lived in the area)... but this pizza was legitimately good. Perhaps I was expecting a fairly thrown together "we offer pizza for the sake of offering pizza" novelty type offering, which is not this at all. You can tell this was made by pizza cooks who know and care what they're doing here.
It is extremely doughy (some spots in the middle maybe even a tad undercooked) and cheesy, so if softer pizzas aren't your thing you might not enjoy this as much as I did. I'm not picky when it comes to style though and I thought this pizza had terrific balance between those layers: not too much cheese or bread to totally dominate the texture, and a good amount of sauce to offset both anyhow. For a doughy pizza to work, you need both that balance and for the bread itself to taste fresh and soft even once cold... which this indeed does.
Pepperoni was my solo topping of choice and I must note how these slices of pepperoni are much larger circumference-wise than your typical pepp: these seemed more like thick mini-salamis than anything. No complaints on that, as they were quite tasty, mild in spice and gave very little grease or aggressive saltiness. I am pleased the cheese is also of a solid quality, not going dry and plasticky once cooled off (it even regains some of its wonderful gooeyness on the reheat in the toaster oven!).
While a healthy amount of tomato sauce is always a good thing in my books, this tomato sauce is on the sugary sweet side with very little acidity... not really my thing (and often a hallmark of cheaper canned sauces). Still, the rest of this pizza has goodwill to spare and it's hardly a critical flaw. My best description of Real McCoy's pie is that... it tastes like really, really good school cafeteria pizza. Imagine it's a fresh slice, the school had extra cheese they had to get rid of so they threw it on there...
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Overall! I can summarize the three items I tried thusly: fries "meh", burger "solid", pizza "good!". Again I was very surprised the pizza ended up being the true star of the occasion, while I'm most of all relieved that any of this was indeed quite good at all. Like I said... it's such a heartwarming story and I'd hate to be that guy saying "true, but..."
Would I recommend The Real McCoy? Absolutely. Not just as a legendary spot in Scarborough history (which is a load bearing part of its charm) but the burgers are worth a try as far as old fashioned style burgers go, while the pizza checks even more boxes. I'll give the pizza a strong "B-" for the record, which seems fair considering the flavours aren't exceptional but as a simple pie it all just works together quite nicely and it reheats excellently... very similar to Il Paesano on the exact opposite side of town, now that I think of it.
A terrific experience all told. Here's hoping they've found a home at Bellamy/Lawrence for another half century.
*Bruce Cockburn's original version of the song still remains significantly better
**it actually doesn't! The first Harvey's opened up in Richmond Hill in 1959
Tuesday Tune
Seemed fitting considering the place we reviewed this week, plus this is just one of my very favourite Hip songs regardless. When the mystic varies thus...
That's it for this week! Until next time, stay cool (seriously it's blazing out there) stay safe and most of all...
.......don't spill that mustard.
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