Yesterday's restaurant on Sparks Street closes for good

A downtown Ottawa restaurant thats been a staple of the Sparks Street pedestrian mall for several decades closes its doors for good on Sunday.

Yesterdays restaurant has been open for 55 years at the corner of Sparks and OConnor streets serving politicians and public servants in the nations capitals downtown core.

Manager Phil Poirier said the restaurants owner, 71-year-old Stan Ages, wants to retire, so he sold the restaurant to someone who wants to open a new restaurant.

The owner was so attached to the restaurant because thats where it all started for that family it was all or nothing. Sell the building or not, said Poirier.

The building that houses Yesterdays and the neighbouring Centretown Tavern was first built in the 1870s. The site is where Irish Catholic journalist Sir Thomas DArcy McGeewas assassinated.

The building also used to house Bryson Graham, one of the citys largest and oldest department stores, between 1880 and 1953.

Accountant Joseph Ages then opened Yesterdays in 1959 under the name Sharrys, which was his daughters name. The restaurants name was changed a few years later, but the companys name continues to be Sharry Restaurant Realty.

When Joseph Ages died in 2008, his son Stan Sharrys brother took over the business.

Yesterdays will officially close the night of Sunday, March 9, 2014.