Magazine editor pilots Brunswick House through some neighbour troubles

The owner of the well-known/infamous Brunswick House in Toronto is Abbis Mahmoud, the owner and editor-in-chief of Urban Male Magazine, who also owns several bars in Ottawa. But he's facing some heavy duty criticism from his neighbours in Toronto's Annex neighbourhood who don't like the way the traditional jug-o-beer watering hole, favoured by university and college students, has been gradually transformed into something more like a nightclub, according to a story in the Toronto Star.

The complaints are that the so-called "entertainment district" downtown has started to move uptown. The neighbours and neighbouring businesses say an emerging "clubbing" scene has sprung up in the Annex, not only at the "Brunny" but also the Wreck Room, the Labyrinth Lounge and others, and with the scene has come noise and violence. For instance, on July 26, a 23-year-old man was shot and killed in a random robbery in the alley behind the Brunswick House.

When Mahmoud took over the Brunswick House in 2005, he met with the neighbours and told them his plan was to remake the Annex landmark as a family friendly restuarant with a full menu, open 7 days a week. At the time, he acknowledged that the pub had a long history to live down, for drunkenness, disorderly conduct, overcrowding and serving minors; it had led to several suspensions of its liquor license. Mahmoud had even considered renaming the joint. But protests from neighbours and patrons led him to keep the name.