Ed Pottinger, Co-Founder of Toronto's The Real Jerk, Dies at 69

Ed Pottinger built The Real Jerk from a single east-end Toronto restaurant into a four-decade institution that put Jamaican cuisine on the city's map, hosted music video shoots for Rihanna and Drake, and survived an eviction battle that drew media attention for weeks. He died at his north Etobicoke home on March 12, surrounded by family. He was 69.

Born Edward John Pottinger in Kingston, Jamaica on April 9, 1956, he developed what his online obituary described as "a lifelong passion for Caribbean cooking" before immigrating to Canada. He and his wife Lily co-founded The Real Jerk in 1984, at a time when, as The Toronto Star noted, Toronto had few Jamaican restaurants and Pottinger was "instrumental in helping put the cuisine on people's radar." The restaurant was known not just for its jerk but for a vibrant, laid-back space that welcomed anyone through the door.

The Pottingers were later forced from their longtime Riverside location through eviction. Long-time friend Rob Davis helped them obtain an injunction to stay past a 30-day eviction period, and when Pottinger went to share the news with his staff and the assembled media, Davis had bought him a large "OPEN" sign to carry. About a year later, the Pottingers reopened at 842 Gerrard St. E. at Carlaw Avenue, the location that would eventually make international headlines when Director X used its signature red, yellow, and green interior as the backdrop for Rihanna and Drake's "Work" music video in 2016. Today, stills from that shoot are displayed across the restaurant's tables like a scrapbook.

Additional Real Jerk locations later opened on Kingston Road in the Upper Beach and on College Street in Little Italy, though both have since closed. Pottinger also owned The Jerk Pit, a music venue that is now closed.

In his last years, Pottinger battled a long-term illness. Last September, the family sold The Real Jerk to a longtime manager, keeping ownership within the circle of people who had built the place alongside them. His family said in a statement that "despite local fame and notoriety, Ed never lost the common touch."

Davis, writing on Facebook after learning of his friend's death, called Pottinger "one of a kind" and said he "put Jamaican and Caribbean food on the map in Toronto." Lily Pottinger told The Toronto Star that her phone and her children's phones had been "flooded with emails, texts and phone calls from people expressing their condolences.