...and a little bit further down Memory Lane

#34 THE ANNEX: SIGHTS ON BLOOR

This walk's highlights include youthful pubs, a shoe museum, and a dash of history that give this neighborhood its buzz.

DATE: Saturday April 2nd, 2011.

TIME: 4:16pm - 7:00pm

On to walk number 2 of the day. It takes off right where the last left off. We've definately strolled down this stretch of pavement plenty of times - what UofT student hasn't. So I guess it'll be a trip down memory lane.


Unlike Mon, I didn't spend so much time here during University. Actually, I probably spent more time on campus after graduating since I always got this uneasy feeling when stepping onto UofT property. Particularly Canadiana Galleria. 
But I digress...
The Annex is one of our go-to neighbourhoods, since we used to patronize sushi on bloor like no tomorrow.

1. Honest Ed's (581 Bloor St. W)

A city landmark/department store known for its great bargains and tirelessly kitschy self-promotion.

Ahhh... Honest Ed's. It's been ages since I've been inside. No fantastic memories here. One summer my brother Carl participated in a hockey camp at St. Mike's College. My mom and I would take the TTC down with him and then while he was at the camp my mom and I would just go places. And quite a few times we'd make our way down Bathurst to Honest Ed's. I remember kind of getting lost in there once - which doesn't really mean much cause everyone gets lost in there. What I mean is, I got separated from my mom. Obviously, we found each other.

Yeah, if you ever mention honest eds to either one of my parents, they'll probably tell you when they first got to toronto, they lined up to get a bag of rice for a quarter or something ridiculously cheap.  Honest eds is known to have some crazy bargains... but i guess I'll always know them for... the bag of rice, the signage and for the free turkeys during thanksgiving. They're good like that.  

So, if you have never been inside Honest Ed's, you couldn't possibly be a true Torontonian. The place is a chaotic mess of.... stuff. We should try playing hide and go seek in there. Though, it'd take all day. Lot of discount items. We spent some time going through the DVDs. Lots of movies we'd never even heard of before - and sometimes with people who are somewhat famous now. We considered getting a random movie to watch... but they all look horrible.

Yeah, Alex and I were there once to get away from the cold... and they had these 25 cent movies... they were from a series called Geppetto's workshop, which were suppose to teach kids about dealing with their feelings and with bullies! I was really curious about them and for only a quarter... why not?! .. well we didn't buy one and when I was with mon... they were gone... it wasn't meant to be.
And yes, to playing hide and seek! We should try doing a scavenger hunt! Oh my, we can have teams! It'll be fun!



Happy Easter! So colourful! I like how they displayed these chocolate eggs!

I was on a mission to find a couple of items. Mainly a muffin tray. We actually came across the area with the muffin trays early in our wanderings of the store, however we missed seeing it amid all the other stuff. But somewhere along the way we came across a guy that was carrying one. Alma got really excited, and said "OMG, where did you get that?", or something like that.  It was kind of funny cause the way she started talking to the guy it first seemed like she knew him and was excited to see him. Like an old friend she hadn't seen in ages. They guy had a vague idea of where he got it, he was totally turned around. We did find the muffin trays in the end, but they were kind of pricey so I didn't buy them. I did end up buying some salt and stickers (Thomas the Train for Liam and Little Miss and Mr. People for my students).
Tee hee... I just got really excited in seeing the muffin tin! 





We totally forgot to take our standard starting photo earlier. But better late than never!

I like it!

2.  Lee's Palace and Dance Cave (520 Bloor St. W.)

...where parts of Cocktail were filmed.

Another place I haven't been in a long time.

As for Cocktail, where hasn't that movie been filmed? A couple of summers ago, the twins and I went on a tour of the Don Jail before it closed its doors for renovation (into a health center) and they said that the bar scenes from Cocktail were filmed there.

I don't think I ever watched a concert here... but it's turned into a burrito place. I think. For my "Paint the City" course... we had to do 5 minute sketches around the Annex. I drew some people inside this venue and they totally knew I was drawing them. I wasn't being discreet at all. Oh well.
They did redo the painting for this building... I don't know the artist, but it looks pretty cool!

This is not a posed picture. I was actually reading the card...however, not very well, as you will soon see.
Mon fools me all the time...
she's always pretending to read stuff. 
Actually, I can hardly read infront of someone. 
Ask me to read something on the spot and i get nervous and my eyes get blurry.
So... don't do it.

3. Seekers (509 Bloor St. W.)

A bookstore for those seeking spiritual enlightenment

Oops! Sooooo totally my fault! I cannot be trusted. We missed looking out for this place cause of me. I guess I totally skipped over this one on the cards and we ended up going straight to Book City. So mad at myself when I realized this. But then I found these pictures. Someone posted pics of the place and based on their descriptions of the place... well, lets just say Alma and I could totally be friends with "Jimi S". Check out his pictures and what he has to say about the place. Funny stuff!

http://www.yelp.ca/biz_photos/YIy-YsNhgdxNIFT6OtVA_A?select=OdWBnx5PhoxUd5EVYwEekg

No worries, Mon. You're still a good navigator. We can blame it on the cards somehow.

4. Book City (501 Bloor St. W.)

For general interest titles 

Second time a Book City has appeared on a walk. What's up with that? Why not the BMV?
Good question! BMV is huge!





This is where Mon tells me that she's no longer collecting these books. 

:(


While we were in the Children's section, there was a little boy and his father on the other side of some books from us. Can't remember exactly what they were talking about or which book they were perusing, but the name Nicolas came up and Alma heard the boy say to his father "There's a Nicolas in Harry Potter". At the time I was having an uncharacteristic Harry Potter brain cramp and couldn't retrieve the reference immediately. On the subway ride later that evening it came to me. Nicolas Flammel! The created of the Philospher's Stone! What's truly ironic is that the same thing happened to Harry Potter. He read about Nicolas Flammel on the train over to Hogwarts and forgot about him. And then when his name came up later in the school year when he and his friends were trying to solve a mystery he knew he'd heard the name before but couldn't place it properly.
This happened...though it was a girl, not a boy. this was not a forced Harry Potter reference made by Monica.  



5. The Outer Layer (420 Bloor St. W)

To shop for cards and gifts

I had never been here before, but I liked it. Lots of cute stuff.

Great fish face, lady!

She kinda looks cross-eyed too!

I like this shop too. Though it can be kinda pricey.  

6. Future Bakery (483 Bloor St. W.)

I always thought it was Futures (with an "s" at the end). Are the cards wrong?


Think the cards are right... (it's funny saying 'the cards wrong'... cause it sounds like we're speaking of tarot cards or something of the like)
... check out the blue sign in the picture below, it says Future. It's hard to see because of the interior. But look closely to the top right panel next to the door.

Definately have been here a lot. One of our go-to places for me and the Loretto girls when we couldn't decide where to meet or go. Back when Sean and I were on our La Paloma carrot cake mission we ended up here at the end of an unsuccessful night and Sean ended up buying a slice of carrot cake here for his sister. At the time we didn't realize that the La Paloma cake was a Dufflet's cake and so are the ones here at Futures - so it actually was the long sought after carrot cake!
Hey, remember the time we went out to dinner here and you had mashed potatoes... and there was this couple that looked like they were on a first date?! They looked so shy around each other waiting in line for cake. So cute.
And of course there's Labyrinth that attached to Futures which has $3.50 martinis on Wednesday nights.  
I've only been to Labyrinth once and let's say it was an interesting evening. Damn tequila.

Hmm... I want cake!

7. Green Room (296 Brunswick Ave.)

These girls were looking for the Green Room too! They looked unsure on approaching the place and I don't think they stayed. Do you think they were doing a walk!? I kinda doubt it. Anyhow, I've been here only once for Lindsay's birthday. I couldn't stay long for some weird reason, but it looked like a cool place, where cool people hang out. I not being one of them..

8. Brunswick House (481 Bloor St. W.)

A pub attracting old-timers and frat boys alike

Oh, the Brunny. Haven't been here since 1st year. What a dive! I still have my VIP card that we got in our frosh kit. Liam found it a couple of weeks ago and was walking around and playing with it. I let him think it was a credit card.
I remember that card! Wait.. is it red?! 
It was!

 

9. Trinity-St. Paul's United Church (427 Bloor St. W.)

Home to the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Choir, one of the world's premeire period-music ensembles.

For several of my music classes, I had to attend different musical events and write papers about them... I attended Tafelmusik twice and enjoyed it quite a bit. The sound of these instruments are so much more warmer sounding and it being in some church makes the performance that much special. I'm not sure how much performances cost these days, but as a student... it was pretty cheap. 
Aside from Baroque music... they hold salsa classes here. Sean still goes?! 

Sorry, that's a pretty horrible picture...

We stopped for dinner at a Thai Restaurant across the street. Mmmm.... spring rolls
We ordered the same thing! 
Or that's what i remembered....
did we?

Ummm.. possibly. Pad Thai? I usually remember this kind of stuff...hmmm

10. Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre (750 Bloor St. W.)

I thought it was hilarious that Angelina Ballerina was playing at the theater here and so it became a bit of an overused joke by me for the rest of the evening. Later when we came back to use the bathrooms, there was a long line - undoubtably cause of all the Angelina Ballerina fanatics (none of which where children!). And when we sat at the Second Cup - not this one but the one on the other side of the street - and played "1,2,3 he's your's!" and other people watching games, Angelina Ballerina patrons did come up a few times.

The lighting is nice... what a nice evening!

Greg's ice cream! Mmmm.... I'm convinced when they were at their old location (further east on Bloor) they had more flavours.
This is part of the walk? 
You took this pic, Mon?!
Remember when Greg's ice cream used to be by St. George station, near philosopher's walk?! Oh those were the days...
What's your favourite ice cream to get here?! I had a favourite, I just can't remember it... it's been that long. Let's do ice cream, Mon!

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO SCHOOLS

Arguably Canada's most academically stringent high school, it's known for producing Nobel laureates and Rhodes scholoars.

Why didn't they make this an official venue on the walk? They have more to say about it than some of the other places on the walk.

Lots of stories about UTS. My friend Andrea went here. And she says that every year, that graduating class pulls off a crazy prank. For her year, they got into the school at night and removed all the seats from the theater style auditorium - not an easy feat! The only ones they left, were the ones designated for the their grade. Oh those crazy nerds!

This building is also known as little OISE because it houses some OISE (UofT Teacher's College classes). I had my Science classes in here so spent a lot of time here, hnece the reason why I have lots of memories here. There's also a library in here that's on our to do list. But its a tricky one, cause we're not exactly high school students. We tried to do it once, but I chickened out.

I was thinking about that time too when I saw the building... yeah... I didn't think it'd be that big of a deal when we went inside. We should've just went in because we were hanging outside the library for such a long time. I think that was more awkward than it would've been to go inside. Anyhow... I was surprised that Mon wanted to skip out on this library because she's awesome in getting us into places we don't belong... i.e. EJ Pratt... upstairs library and that time when we tried getting into MS building after school hours. So good! Don't know what happened here...

Hmmm... so somewhere over here, across the sctreet from the Maddy, Smashfest III came to a premature halt before we could make it to the Labyrinth because someone (cough, cough - ME) had a bit too much at the prefestivities at Vikki's place (just down the street). I had to sit down on the picnic benches that were here while someone went to fetch me water. But within minutes I was completely back to normal. I recover quickly.

11. Madison Avenue Pub (14 Madison Ave.)

Oh, the Maddy! Never gets old. I spent the most time here during OISE. It's like the official OISE bar. At least once a week, after OISE Bio class, my little clique of friends and I would head over here for some hardcore bonding. Then one day, we were waiting around playing pool and waiting for someone to come by and take our order and no one came. So we finally flagged someone over who got us a menu but didn't come back. So we got tired of waiting, and left and went to the Fox and the Fiddle instead. And thus started our buoycot. We were so annoyed. We were regulars! Didn't go back until we had our end of the year thing there on the patio.

Is that the same day that I met up with you?! I recall you and Dave hiding in the corner of the pool room. That was so bizarre! "He's so animated!"... I think is what I said to Mon the rest of the night... as we went to Future and... that's when we saw that couple on their first date! Wonder if they're still together.
Yes, this is the same day that we went to Future's afterward for dinner.  And just to clarify, Dave and I were hiding from Emelie who was in the bathroom. I'm not sure why... I remember needing to sober up after which is why Alma and I lingered at Future's so long.

Canoe with plants in it... that sounds way too familiar.... 

Name the walk...

 The aforementioned Fox and the Fiddle. Not actually apart of the walk, but significant to us. Not only did it become our new OISE bar, but it somehow by default has become our (Alma and Monica's) bar. Too often we've been in the area, and it's the only viable option. Like St. Patty's 2010. Or anytime we see a play at the Hart House Theater. And we always get the same waiter who is a little bit incompetent a slow with the orders. The night we saw a Midnight Summer's Dream we totally misjudged the time we had and our appetite. We ordered nachos to split and our own entres. We ended up eating the nacho's but taking our entres to the theater and then home.
Oy! Remember when I had ordered the nachos, he thought that I was ordering them for myself... alongside the burger I probably got. Who orders a plate of nachos for themselves?! Did he invite himself to eat the nachos with us? Or did I make that up?!
You didn't entirely make it up - I think you just got in confused with another outing. We had a recent outing at Jack Astors and the waitor became fast friends with us. He helped himself to my hand sanitizer and then another waiter came by to try it too. When he brought us the nachos he made a comment about them looking yummy and kind of implied he wanted some.
We also came here to meet Sean and his friends (who turned out to be Immanuel!) before seeing High Fidelity... the musical. It wasn't that good... 

12. Bata Shoe Museum (327 Bloor St. W.)

An exhibition space shaped like a show box, illuminated the history of footwear.

We've been here too. A few years ago when the Winners on Bloor that used to be a Chapters had openned up, I got a free pass for 2 when I made a purchase. So we went. I remember it started off okay. A lot better than I thought it would. I mean, its a shoe museum. The lowest level where we started had shoes of different cultures and different purposes, and I liked that. But somewhere along our way through the museum it got a little to repetitive and boring. At the very end there were tons of shoes that all looked the same.

The following pics are of the street dispays. They are always quite nice.

Willow Books moved?! We should check if they still have a store open along bathurst. was it bathurst?! Check the blog.. wait... I'm on the blog. Oh well... 

 there's a willow books in uxbridge! we should go there next corn maze outing!

MONICA RATING: Fun times. Definately a trip down memory lane. But I wonder if someone who doesn't have sentimental attachments to the area would enjoy this walk. Honest Ed's though alone is an experience. Later I realized the cards didn't include the Bathurst Street Theater which I totally think it should. Hmmm... not sure what to give this one.... another 3 I guess.  3 pints of beer out of 5 - an ode to the annex bars.
  

Alma Rating: The annex is a pretty hip and happening place to be... (who says that?! i guess just me. oh well...). But yeah, it's a cool area to hang out... i mean, the girls and i always have sushi here and always have to make a stop over at the bmv.... things that aren't on the cards. But the cards have some of the top places that people do tend to venture to when in this area... so like mon... I have to give this walk a 3 out of 5. (I was just thinking about my wording of top places... maybe that wasn't correct... but I don't feel like editing it.).