TORONTO — Daiter’s Fresh Market, a family-owned business in Toronto, will close its doors for the last time on April 2 after more than 50 years at the same location.

Joel and Stephen Daiter, the brothers who operate the Bathurst Street landmark, announced that they have agreed to lease the premises first acquired by their father, Ron, and mother, Rene, in 1964. A children’s clothing store will take its place, along with four rental units on the second floor where the restaurant’s kitchens are currently located.

They had announced in October 2013 that they were prepared to sell the premises and eventually wind up the business, but in late 2014, they decided it would be best to retain ownership and rent out the space.

It’s time to let go, the brothers said wistfully, as they reminisced about the store they began working in as kids. 

The deli has always been a good business, but as they close in on 60 years of age – Joel is 59, Stephen is 55 – they said it’s time for a change. They’re no longer willing to put in the long hours and time away from their families that running a hands-on retail operation demands. And their children, witnessing first hand the kind of grind that’s needed to make the business flourish, are not interested in maintaining the family legacy, they said.

The family business was originally started by their grandfather, Harry, in the late 1930s with a line of dairy products. In 1959, Ron moved the business north to Bathurst Street, a few buildings over from its current location, where Tov-Li is now situated. In 1964, they acquired the current premises, which was at the time a lumber store.

For the brothers, shuttering the shop is not a simple decision. The store was more than a business, it was like a Cheers, where people came not just to purchase the cheeses, salads, herring, lox and baked goods for which it became famous, but to shmooze and exchange news.

They grew up in the store and knew generations of customers by name. In some cases, four generations of the same family shopped in the store.

Customers were treated like family. In the few hours spent by The CJN at the store, the Daiters were greeted by a saddened clientele sorry to see the shop go. Tears and embraces were exchanged by the merchants and customers.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do now,” said Nikki Halpern, a longtime customer. “My earliest memory is coming here and your dad giving us pressed cottage cheese. I had to be three or four years old and I’ve been coming here ever since. I still get the cheese for noodle pudding, and the blintzes.”

“You’re closing? Where am I going to get my cottage cheese?” asked Marvin, a Filipino who is known to the shopkeepers in the neighbourhood as Moshe. “It’s the best cottage cheese in the entire world, not just Toronto.”

Marvin, a personal assistant for a neighbourhood resident, said he’s been shopping at Daiter’s for eight years. The person he replaced shopped there for 22 years.

Margaret Yanicki makes the trek to Daiter’s a couple of times a month from her home in the High Park area. Sometimes she shops for a friend who lives on Queen Street. Daiter’s caters to her low-sodium diet with cheeses that are fresh and tasty, she said.

“I get really fresh food. I’m going to miss the latkes. You can’t find these kind of latkes,” she said.

Yanicki, who hails originally from Saskatchewan, was in the store to shop for Ukrainian Christmas. In addition to the latkes, she also loves the borscht and the hamantashen.

“I’m just going to sit outside the store and cry,” she said.

There were tears aplenty from the Daiters as well.

When the rental deal closed on Dec. 31, “it was very exciting, scary and surreal,” Joel said.

“This is our lives,” he added. “Anyone in a retail business knows it’s not just a job. It’s your life.”

“I find, and Joel also, that it’s bittersweet,” Stephen said. “I’m not going to miss the hours [12 or 13 a day] and the physical work. But we’re definitely going to miss our clientele.”

After the store closes, just before Passover, the Daiters will take a rest. They plan to take the summer off and spend time with their families. After that, the future is unclear. There are investments to manage and perhaps new opportunities to pursue.

But it won’t be in a retail setting like the deli.

Joel said he regrets that his father, Ron, who suffers from dementia, is not able to grasp what is happening, But his mom, Rene, who also worked in the store, gives the boys her blessing.

“It’s time my kids had a break,” she said. “They’re living their father’s life and it’s time they had a break. Life changes. The old days are finished.”

Customers can be heartened by the fact that the store’s fresh products – its shmaltz herring, lox, salads and such – will be available right up to closing.

After that, you’re on your own.