Drake Really Sucks at Opening Restaurants

Update: This post has been updated to include a statement from Pick 6ix Sports.

One of the benefits of being a rich artist is you get to open restaurants willy nilly, sell overpriced wings to clout chasers and tourists, and not give a shit if the place actually succeeds or not.

Drake appears to have mastered this sequence.

In January 2018, he opened Pick 6ix with his head of security Nessel “Chubbs” Beezer, the Sabah Nissan Group, and Montreal chef Antonio Park. Located in the financial district (obvi), it started as a restaurant, selling dishes like $40 spaghetti Bolognese.

The place hit a road bump public relations-wise, when a man was shot dead leaving there in May 2018. (It should be noted that Drake’s PR people then claimed he had nothing to do with the restaurant, despite the man’s Instagrams to the contrary.)

Then it shut down due to flooding, and re-opened as Pick 6ix Sports this past March, complete with blue velvet upholstery and encased bottles of champagne.

Like clockwork, it’s closed again, this time due to unpaid rent and/or flooding.

According to a post on Pick 6ix’s Instagram feed from Monday, the venue is closed until further notice due to a flood. The restaurant’s voicemail said it will re-open in March 2020.

However, a letter from Pick 6ix’s property managers posted to the side of the building tells a different story.

As reported by the Toronto Star, that letter is a lease termination stating that Pick 6ix is behind on paying more than $67,000 in rent. I guess us plebes aren’t the only ones feeling the pinch of the city’s insane rental market.

In a statement to VICE, Jeff Darby, operations manager for Pick 6ix denied the business has ever been late on rent.

"We have always paid rent on time and this month is no different, despite a number of issues with the building, including two floods in the past two years due to issues with the pipes," he said.

"We’ve asked the building management to remove the sign as it is not only unnecessary, but also inaccurate."

But Pick 6ix isn’t the only one of Drake’s restaurants to tank.

His first Toronto venture, Fring’s, shut down last June after two years of selling items like $25 ceviche and $18 “waste man” cocktails.

Here’s hoping his foray into legal weed goes better.

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