I caught a ride from work tonight with a colleague and got dropped on College St., where I took a westbound-streetcar home.

But at Bathurst and College, I noticed a disturbing sight: the KOS sign had been replaced with on reading 'Picadilly,' offering Italian and Middle Eastern fare.

To that I say, WTF?!?!

KOS, in its old incarnation, was a greasy spoon diner on the north side of College St. whose best feature was a cheap all-day breakfast option. It was acceptably tasty and never left me with food poisoning.

What more can I ask for? :^)

Well, one other good thing was the well-mannered, sheltered people I once worked with pronounced themselves "scared" of KOS -- which meant the chances of our paths crossing were almost nil. Woo-hoo!!

It actually attracted a fairly mixed crowd -- from college to College types, along with anarchist punks on Sunday nights and always a few older guys who were down on their luck.

Frankly, I've never seen any reason to be "scared" of anyone in that place. I suspect those who feel otherwise had a veryconstricted upbringing that made anyone different (read 'poorer') seem scary to them.

Anyway, if you're not familiar with west Toronto, KOS was right next door to Mars, another greasy-spoon diner that's existed forever.

Actually, the whole strip between Spadina and Bathurst has long been low-rent at worst and shabby chic (Rancho Relaxo, Free Times Cafe) at best, especially compared with the glam of Little Italy's resto-bars. But that seems to be changing.

For martini bars, the cool-kid hangout is Cobalt. A few doors down from it, Henry's Hunan Palace has shut down. A new Japanese resto opened up a few months ago.

Down in Kensington Market to the south, new, upscale resto-bars have been opening. On Dundas St., the next major east-west thoroughfare running east and west, little restos and bars are opening up amongst the mom-and-pop businesses.

All this is part of the rhythm of capitalism in a big city; businesses fail in a shabby but charming part of town, entrepreneurs read the changing demographics, see an opportunity to get cheap real estate and establish something more high-margin, and on life goes.

And eventually, you get Yorkville -- from hip to plastic in 30 short years!

To me, one interesting question in all this is what soulful, cheap alternative will materialize for artists once this generation's yuppies finish colonizing west Toronto south of Bloor?

As for the Picadilly, I don't wish it ill, but if it doesn't offer a decent all-day brekkie, they won't be doing much business with li'l 'ol me.