Chatted with Jesse Skinner for a Toro magazine question and answer piece on the book. We met at Prohibition Gastro Pub & Oyster Bar at 696 Queen E. (just west of Broadview), which gave me a chance to scope out the venue for next Thursday’s book launch, starting at 7 pm.

There’s a public parking lot if you turn north on Broadview from Queen E., between Dangerous Dan’s Restaurant (at the corner of Queen E. and Broadview), and the Royal Canadian Curling Club ( a few doors north on Broadview). It’s across the street from impossible-to-miss Jillys Exotic Dancing in the old New Broadview Hotel. 

It’s amazing what gentrification has done to the old neighbourhood of Ripper Fullager, one of the Bandidos’ senior members. Kintyre Ave., where the Satan’s Choice gang used to meet, is nothing short of trendy, worthy of ad executives. If you wander into the back alley, however, you can still make out the fenced compound where club members would keep their Harleys.

Prohibition’s far from a greasy spoon. The menu features Cobb salads, grilled vegetable penne and lamb burgers. The fries are now called frites.

The basement’s where the No Surrender Crew of the Bandidos used to meet, back when the building was under different management. It’s all tidied up now, but if you listen hard, you can almost hear Frank (Cisco) Lenti yelling at Frankie (Bam Bam) Salerno, back in the mid-2000s. 

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