A Tribute to Toronto Restaurateurs Naomi Green and Eithcliff Green

By Neil Armstrong 

Photo contributed       Naomi Green and Cliff Green of Diners Corner

I was dumbstruck when I received a telephone call on Sunday (May 31) informing me of the passing of Naomi Green who many also know as Miss Sonia or Aunty, a longtime restaurateur and a community advocate.

Naomi and her husband, Eithcliff (Uncle), who passed away a few weeks ago, were always visible at their restaurant, Diners Corner at 3 Gloucester Street, just off Yonge Street in Toronto. They operated the business, which closed in 2016, for almost 20 years. She always had a smile and her laugh was infectious. The conversations we had were many on the patio.

A couple weeks ago she called me to let me know that Cliff, who was in a long-term care home, had passed away. Knowing that in this pandemic funerals are now very small gatherings, she was hoping to celebrate his life at a later time. We chatted about other things as well and promised to keep in touch.

This is why Sunday’s call was surprising because I thought my friend was misinformed when he said, “Aunty died last night.” I asked if he was sure it wasn’t Uncle that he heard about. This call also came a day after I saw a message she sent to a mutual friend informing him of Cliff’s death.

I can’t remember how we met but I know that our friendship grew and the restaurant became the locale for some of the interviews I conducted with various people for news stories. I organized a panel with André Marin, then Ombudsman of Ontario, for a series of stories in the Jamaican Gleaner; had lunch and dinner dates with family, friends and co-workers; co-created with my friend, Kevin Ormsby, ‘Dine & Lime,’ an event to welcome Black, Caribbean and African LGBTQ+ delegates from various countries who attended WorldPride in 2014. The event continues to celebrate the community here at annual Pride festival weekends, and for many years Diners Corner was a popular spot for me to walk to from the annual Afrofest in Queen’s Park to just relax and have a cool beverage and something to eat. The choices were many.

Diners Corner drew many visitors and locals to its patio on Caribana weekends and Aunty made sure that the space/place was festooned with flags of many countries, rainbow flags, and decorations which changed weekly, it seemed. It was the venue of many birthday and other special celebrations – lots of reunions too.

Naomi, Ms. Sonia, Aunty was community-minded and while we had our disagreements at times, as friends often do, we reconciled and oftentimes laughed again.

Cliff was usually busy cooking in the kitchen and we subsequently didn’t see him around as his health declined. 

“In these moments when the survival of Black lives are even more important and in focus, Aunty left a mark on the Black restaurant industry that will never be forgotten. Her openness to suggestions, people from all walks of life, and to share are only a small portion of her legacy. She took time to converse with you, gave that traditional Jamaican pat on the shoulder and a smile. ‘Dine N Lime’ just wouldn’t be a gathering and networking space for the Black LGBTQ community if it wasn’t for her generosity and openness to serve,” says Ormsby, who is also the artistic director of KasheDance company.

Itah Sadu, co-owner of the bookstore, A Different Booklist, and managing director of A Different Booklist Cultural Centre – The People’s Residence, has fond memories of Ms. Sonia, as she calls her. The bookstore held some of its end-of-year holiday celebrations at the restaurant.

“Ms. Sonia was the face of Africa and she had a spirit of the universe, and you just felt warm and beautiful in her company anytime and her great hospitality and food.”

Karlene Williams-Clarke, manager of direct services at the 519 Church Street Community Centre, was a frequent diner at the restaurant.

“Once she’s there and you walk in and she’s at the front, always very pleasant smiling, welcoming too. She doesn’t have to know you,” she said, noting that if she wanted something extra on her plate Aunty never said no.

She was “just a very cheerful and kind person, her welcoming made the place warm, always giving some jokes and people laughed” and she would tell stories about the pictures hanging there with various celebrities.

“That made my dining experience there very memorable and I’m always willing to go back. When I ordered fish and I said Aunty I want your biggest fish, I don’t want the tiny one’ and she would say they’re all the same and I would say I want the one that looks like it’s a little bigger,” said Williams-Clarke laughing.

She said Aunty had staff who were working with her for a very long time and that must have been a signal of something special about her because in the restaurant business “if you’re not nice you’re not going to have people working there for a long time.”

“She was really such a kind soul, very kind soul.”

I’ve included in this tribute a story that I wrote for a Mother’s Day feature in Canada Extra, a publication of the Jamaican Gleaner, in which she spoke about her work.

It was always a joy to visit the restaurant and see her extended family and friends helping out.

My condolences to her family and friends. 

Naomi and Cliff will be missed but the memories of them will live on.

A Celebration of Life for Naomi Anita Green (May 20, 1948 - May 31, 2020) was held on June 23, 1:00 p.m. at Ogden Funeral Homes, 4164 Sheppard Avenue East, Toronto. Interment at Duffin Meadows Cemetery, 2505 Brock Road, Pickering. 

Naomi immigrated to Canada in 1974 and was married to Eithcliff for 43 years. She was a loving sister to her brothers Vivian, Derrick, Roy (predeceased) and Jim, and sisters Valda, Rose, Dor and Delores. Naomi was mother to Charles, Anthony, Sheron, Johnny and Franz, grandmother to Sherica, Anthony, Terrence, Antonette, Tamara and Angelina, and aunt to many nieces and nephews.

"Her lifelong career in various roles in the food industry saw her excel from nourishing young, eager minds at York University's Glendon College, to her dream of touching more lives than she could count through owning her own restaurant, Diners Corner. Naomi showed love through her food; it warmed her heart to see someone enjoying the meal she prepared for them," notes the obituary at ogden.funeraltechweb.com.

It continued in part, noting that, "She was a breath of fresh air whose big smile could light up a room."

[This story was updated on June 23, 2020 after the Celebration of Life for Naomi Anita Green.]