Our Story
The Fran's Story
It all began in 1918 when Francis Deck and his brother opened Deco refreshments in Buffalo, New York. Deco quickly grew to more than 50 locations when Francis decided it was time to expand.
Fran's through the years
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1940
Francis "Fran" Deck and his wife, Ellen Jane, move to Toronto and open a modest 10-seat diner at Yonge and St. Clair.
Glenn Gould, the famous eccentric Canadian pianist, was a regular at the Fran's on St. Clair Avenue. He would arrive at 2:00 AM and always order a plate of scrambled eggs.
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1941
Francis creates the first known bacon cheeseburger and names it the Forest Hill Burger.
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1945
Fran's expands to Yonge and Eglinton.
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1950
Another Fran's joins the family at College and Yonge.
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1985
Fran's removes the famous rice pudding from the menu and takes some heat. "No rice pudding at Fran's?" wrote Star columnist Gary Lautens. "That's like a Toronto without the Leafs, a Toronto without Rosedale, a Toronto without the Ex, a Toronto without a four-mile backup on the 401, for heaven's sake." Two weeks later, we brought back the pudding.
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2004
Doors open across from Massey Hall.
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2010
Fran's opens another location at Yonge and Front. Despite a successful 10-year run, we were forced to close this location permanently due to the COVID-19 lockdowns.
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2014
Fran's debuts at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). We unveil the Thanksgiving waffle, a waffle made from homemade stuffing topped with roasted turkey, cranberry sauce and turkey gravy, and earn Best Food Booth of the year.
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2016
Our milkshake trailer on the CNE grounds made almost 10,000 milkshakes in 18 days. It became known for its outrageous milkshakes, including its PB&J milkshake, coffee & donut milkshake, and pie milkshakes featuring full slices of pie stacked on top.
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2021
The launch of Fran's Bar, a sister restaurant to Fran's featuring a rooftop patio with a menu inspired by comfort pub food.
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Today
We're still a family-owned and operated restaurant serving home-style cooking in a warm and welcoming atmosphere.
Proudly Canadian
Home-Style Cooking Since 1940
From late-night regulars like Glenn Gould to our milkshake trailer at the CNE, Fran's has been part of Toronto since 1940.
- Our batters are made in-house every day, and made to order.
- We make all of our burger patties in house, from scratch, every day, using AAA Canadian beef.
- Our meat chili is our original hearty 1940s recipe, and our shepherd's pie and meatloaf are our original recipes too.
- Fran's invented the banquet burger more than 75 years ago.
From Our Kitchen
A few of the dishes we're known for.
Photography by TBD: the photographer's name, Robin Waters or Robin Watters.
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