A neighbourhood Italian restaurant in Toronto is under new ownership: a group of friends who purchased the spot in order to live out a lifelong dream.

It sounds like the set up for a new sitcom: four friends, comprised of two couples, buy and operate neighbourhood Italian restaurant on passion alone, but for the new owners of Frankie's Italian in Leslieville, it's simply reality. 

It wall started when married couple Sneha and Sharan went camping with their friends Kamal and Sushma, and Sharan shared his dream of owning and operating a restaurant. 

"We met Kamal and Sushma in 2021," Sneha tells blogTO. "Sushma and I went to the same grad school, I met her for the first time here in Canada [...] and over time, we turned into this food-loving crew – a family away from home."

Sharan, Sneha's husband, following his passion for food — which was fostered within his relationship with Sneha and friendship with Kamal and Sushma, decided to quit his job.

"It was an easy decision" for Sharan, says Sneha, "because it felt right."

When Sharan shared his dream with Kamal and Sushma, Sneha says, they were instantly on board, and when he found Frankie's up for sale online, all the pieces fell into place.

"He went down to check out and bam! Love at first sight," Sneha tells blogTO, and despite a narrow miss with another bidder, on Sept. 15, Frankie's was officially theirs.

The couples don't live in Leslieville themselves, but "dig the vibe," of the neighbourhood, according to Sneha, and hope to continue developing and growing Frankie's into a stalwart in the neighbourhood.

In the months since taking over ownership, the group has shaken up the restaurant's brunch and dinner menus by adding new pizzas and small dishes, as well as introducing a daily happy hour on week days.

While it's certainly a group effort to keep the whole operation on its feet, according to Sneha, Sharan's the main man in charge, while the other three — who all have full-time jobs in addition to the restaurant — pitch in as much as they can.

"Sharan's the face you'll see when you walk in – mixing drinks, being the ultimate host," says Sneha, adding that the journey so far has "been a wild ride."

"It's not always smooth sailing, but Sharan's passion keeps us going strong," she says.

And, indeed, were it not for Sharan's passion, they might not be in this sitcom situation at all — but for these four friends, they're beyond grateful that they are, in Sneha's words, "just a bunch of friends turning dreams into reality, one plate at a time."