Toronto woman’s ‘Win a Restaurant’ raffle hits snag

A Toronto woman is hoping to relight the fire under the contest to raffle off her restaurant.
Ruthie Cummings, owner of Das Gasthaus German eatery, hit a roadblock when the website Eventbrite pulled the plug on her Win a Restaurant draw in September, after 500 tickets were sold.

U.S.-based Eventbrite was prohibited from operating a contest on this side of the border, according to Canadian Restaurant News. Cummings had to refund about half the tickets while she searched for another host, but last month she teamed up with Moneris to process online payments and still plans to sell tickets up to the original deadline, Dec. 24, or until she sells 4,000 tickets — whichever comes first.

Tickets are $150 apiece. A winner will be randomly drawn on Dec. 30. Cummings renovated the 1,200-square-foot restaurant when she took over in 2012. It comes fully equipped, furnished and staffed, but the new owner will be free to change the name, the menu, the decor and anything else he or she wishes, according to the detailed rules and regulations posted on her website.

It’s a bittersweet endeavour.

“I’m selling the restaurant not because I want to but because I have to,” she says in a video on her site. She says she is putting her dream “on the backburner” to care for her elderly parents.

They live about three hours from Toronto, and aren’t well.

“I would love to see someone with the same kind of passion I had being able to walk in here and take it over and create what they want to do, make it their dream,” says Cummings, who saved for 10 years to open her business, which she thought would be her “forever restaurant.”

Cummings says the assets of Das Gasthaus — which is German for “the guest house” — have been valued at $144,550 by an “independent professional.” There are no liens, taxes or debts associated with the restaurant. The winner can “start making money the moment you open the doors,” she says.

Source Sherry Noik, Daily Brew