Faced with an archaic liquor license application system and a curmudgeonly puritanical city councilor business partners Jennifer Decourte, Peter Tsang, and J.P. Challet's wide-eyed optimistic has turned into disillusioned frustration. Back in the beginning of July, the Toronto Star ran an article that captured their aggravation with their inability to obtain a liquor license for a small, sophisticated French bistro called ICI. Now, close to three months later, they haven't made any progress and are considering pulling the plug altogether.

"I can't say for sure that we'll stay," sighs Decourte. "If you had asked me a few weeks ago, I would've told you we'd keep fighting until we could get open, but now I just don't know. All we've been able to do is wait for the process to continue, but my partners and I have to decide how much longer we're willing to wait."

It would have been impossible to predict ICI having these kinds of problems. Having earlier held down the kitchen at The Windsor Arms, Le Select Bistro, and Auberge du Pommier, J.P. Challet, is one of the most respected veteran French cooks in Toronto, the venue only has a capacity of about 24, and everyone involved is over 50 years old. But the location, at the corner of Harbord Street and Manning Avenue, happens to be located in an area populated by schools, and the space once held an arcade in which an 18-year-old student was stabbed to death by a 15-year-old student.

Seeing a liquor license application hanging in the window, Rodrigo Fuentes, principal at Harbord Collegiate, wrote a letter of opposition to the Alcohol Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and convinced Clinton Street School principal Wendy Hughes to do the same. Sensing danger, the Palmerston Area Residents Association (PARA) also opposed the license. Since then, PARA have removed their opposition. The school principles, on the other hand, have visited with the partners and expressed confidence that the bistro provides no danger to the neighbourhood, but have yet to retract their letters of opposition.

A place like such as ICI depends on wine sales to drive profit, so opening without a license is out of the question. "The AGCO doesn't care that we have at least 200 names in support. What matters are these few letters of opposition. We need to get open if we want to be able to make any money, but there's no sense of urgency from them," says Decourte. "I guess it's easy to write a letter, but it's hard to stand by your word and have some personal integrity."

A further obstacle comes from Deputy Mayor and city councilor for the area, Joe Pantalone. According to Decourte, Pantalone has "never visited to see what we stand for or what we're all about, but has made it clear that he will oppose us at every junction." Given his predilection for cracking down on nightlife, we don't doubt it. Pantalone made headlines back in may for instituting a surprise one year moratorium on new bars and restaurants on Ossington Avenue. Pantalone claimed that the suddenly hip bar-saturated strip between Queen and Dundas was incompatible with the residential aspect of the neighbourhood, a similar argument that had earlier been taken in Toronto's club district.

Harbord Street, however, is nothing like either Ossington or Richmond Street. The area around Harbord and Spadina is teeming with upscale restaurants and bistros, but the area west of Bathurst, although zoned for the same commercial use, is nearly barren of businesses. Some have asserted that it's a slippery slope – one licensed operation will bring others in kind – but ICI would hardly be a place to attract debauchery or licentious behaviour. "What Pantalone doesn't seem to realize is that having a few coffee shops and bistros would actually be good for the neighbourhood," Decourte continues. "I don't know how you're going to create any sort of culinary tourism or thriving economy if you can't be progressive."

With all this opposition in place, ICI now has two options. They can either wait for the normal appeals process, which will include a full public hearing, or opt for a smaller meeting of just the oppositional parties and get them to unanimously retract their opposition. Either way, it'll be a lengthy process and the partners are losing money with every moment wasted. All this for a tiny neighbourhood bistro.