‘Canary Restaurant’ Tee
Birds x Neil MacCormick
These tees are a collaboration between Birds of North America and artist Neil MacCormick. Neil has painted full time since 1984 and co-owns Birds of North America with his partner, designer Hayley Gibson. The two have shared a studio since meeting in 2006.
‘Canary Restaurant’
Bird related things obviously hold a special place in our hearts here at Birds of North America, but honestly, everything about this painting is an absolute delight to me - the name of the business, the hint of curved balcony above the sign and, of course, the sweet yellow canary!
I loved this painting of Neil's long before finding out what a famous restaurant this was in Toronto. It was situated at the intersection of Front Street East and Cherry, and was open from 1965-2007. There is now even a district in the city called the ‘Canary District’ named after it!
Neil took the photo inspiration for this painting in the early 90’s and remembers that the restaurant stood alone in what felt like a completely deserted industrial neighbourhood at the time, perhaps because it was in transition. I imagine they may have levelled many of the local buildings in preparation for development, and as a result there was virtually nothing around it at the time the photo was taken.
The sign is long gone now, but I delight in how unlikely it was for him to have stumbled upon this amazing sign in such a desolate landscape, and how wonderful it is that he was able to capture its weathered beauty in a painting before it was gone ❤️
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These tees are made in a Toronto factory out of locally milled, medium weight, 100% organic cotton jersey. These tees can be machine washed and tumble dried. The classic tees will shrink 1" total in length with a wash and dry, and the cropped tees will shrink just 1/2" total. We haven't found there to be any width shrinkage with washing and drying.
In these images, Hayley is 5'7" and wears our size XS Cropped White tee, and Neil is 6'1" and wears our size 2X Classic Black tee. These tees fit on the larger side of the Birds size chart, but for your everyday classic T-shirt, that fits a bit more generously, they fit 'normally', or as you would expect them to.
If you're going by your regular size in the Birds size chart, we recommend that you take a full size down. If you normally take a S in Birds, the XS will work for you in this. If you normally take a 3X in Birds, the 2X will work for you.
A tip for fit - if you have a favourite classic tee at home, and you'd like the same fit, just lay it flat and measure across the chest to find the closest equivalent in the charts below!
Cropped Tee
Classic Tee
Everything at Birds of North America is vegan and has been made ethically in Canada since we began in 2007. We have a strong focus on sustainability, and strive to create high-quality garments that last a long time. You can browse vintage Birds styles that we've gathered back as part of our buyback program in our ReNesting section!
