Toronto/The Annex

From World travel guide

The Annex is one of Toronto's oldest neighborhoods, characterized by its distinctive tall narrow houses, and lively community along Bloor Street. Considered a food and shopping mecca, this district is well known by Torontonians as one of the friendliest neighborhoods in the city.

Contents 1 Get in 1.1 By Car 1.2 By Subway 1.3 By Foot/Bike 2 See 3 Do 4 Buy 5 Eat 5.1 Bloor Street 5.2 South Annex 6 Drink 7 Sleep 8 Contact 9 External links

Get in

By Car

From the Don Valley Parkway Exit at Bloor Street, follow Bloor Street West to Spadina.

From the 401 Exit at Allen Road. Follow Allen Road south until Eglinton. Turn left on Eglinton, and right on Bathurst. Follow Bathurst to Bloor.

Or, Exit the 401 at Avenue Rd., proceed south to Bloor St, where you make a right turn and continue until you reach spadina.

From the Gardiner Expressway Exit at Spadina. Follow Spadina north until Bloor St.

By Subway

Head to Spadina or Bathurst stations along the Bloor-Danforth line. Fares are $2.50.

By Foot/Bike

Bloor Street runs east-west across the city, and is north of downtown. It's best to ask directions, everyone will know where Bloor and Bathurst is located.

See

• Bata Shoe Museum, 327 Bloor St. W, 416.979.7799. Tu,W,F,Sa 10AM-5PM, Th 10AM-8PM, Su 12PM-5PM. A strange idea for a museum, but more interesting than it would seem at first glance. Exhibits range from the historical to the incredibly eccentric. Adults $8, Seniors $6, Students $6, Children (5-17) $4 (Free on Thursday between 5PM - 8PM)
• Casa Loma, 1 Austin Terrace, 416.923.1171. 9:30AM-5PM everyday. A European-style castle in the heart of Toronto, Casa Loma is certainly a unique attraction for a North American city. The gardens in particular are worth the visit. Adults $12, Seniors (60+) + Youth (14-17) $7.50, Children (4-13) $6.75. (Parking is $2.75/hr) http://www.casaloma.org/
• Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queens Park (at Bloor), 416.586.5549. M-Th 10AM-6PM, F 10AM-9:30PM, Sa-Su 10AM-6PM. Canada's largest museum, focusing on the cultural and natural history of Canada and the world. Artifacts from Egypt and Europe are particularly well represented. The museum can easily take more than a day to fully explore, it might be best to pick and choose what you think would be most interesting. A new civilization wing is currently under construction, apparently designed to resemble the Louvre pyramid exploding. Adults $12, Seniors $8, Students $8, Children $7. http://www.rom.on.ca/

Do

Buy

• Shopping in the Annex is centered around Bloor St W, the Annex's focal point. Numerous curio stores are dotted along the sides of the street - highlights include a few ethnic/tribal stores, some of the best stocked book stores in the city, a few art/print stores and, one block south, Green Beanery, where you can obtain 50 varieties of unroasted green coffee beans.
• The area around Yorkville Ave. has many small but expensive stores.
• Kensington Market (West of Spadina, South of College): One of Toronto's two main markets, Kensington is a 2 block area of fresh fruit and vegetable stores, spice stores, butchers, fishmongers, with a bit of used clothing and odds and ends. Incredibly fresh produce and quality meat can be found in nearly any store in this area. Best seen on a Saturday when the market is in full swing.

Eat

The Annex has more restaurants packed in per square inch than any other area of Toronto, and finding an excellent restaurant usually requires no more than half a block's walk. Generally the restaurants are ethnic, with sushi and thai food particularly well represented, but as a rule, if a particular type of restaurant exists, there's at least one of them in the Annex.

Some general highlights of the Annex include:

• Sushi! The Bloor St West strip in the few blocks between Spadina and Bathurst plays host to no less than five, sushi restaurants. All are quite popular and have their own devotees. New Generation Sushi on Bloor Street is a good choice, but all of them have excellent quality sushi for a non-coastal town.

• Pizza! The Annex is home to what are widely regarded as many of the best pizza joints in the city, most specializing in take-out slices, though they will deliver as well. All are open quite late, well into the early morning. These include Cora's and Papa Ceo's on Spadina at Harbord, just south of Bloor. Debate rages as to which of these two offers the better slice, though Cora's is the original. Pizza Gigi on Harbord St, east of Bathurst, south of Bloor, is very good and quite popular despite somewhat disconcerting open kitchen facilities. Amato Pizza on College St, west of Brunswick, offers a very wide selection of slices and is open every night until 4am.

• 24 Hour Groceries - The Annex also offers two of the downtown's only 24-hour grocery stores (rather than the more common but higher priced 24-hour mini-marts). There is a Dominion supermarket on Bloor St just west of Spadina, and the Bloor Super-Save is only one block west of that. Dominion is frankly a mediocre grocery store, despite being a major chain, and the independent Super-Save survives only a block away by offering an often better selection at better prices, particularly in fresh fruits and vegetables which are notoriously poor at Dominion, no matter how perfect they appear on the shelf.

Bloor Street

• By The Way Cafe, Bloor and Brunswick, 416.967.4295 . 9AM-11PM everyday. Very popular patio in clement weather, as well as good food with daily specials at decent pricing. The weekend brunch specials are especially good and you can stuff yourself on a specialty omelette with all the sides for under $10. $10-$20.

• Fresh: By Juice for Life, Bloor St. just west of Brunswick, 416.531.2635. Mo-Fr 11:30AM-10:30PM, Sa-Su 10:30AM-10:30PM. 20-30 options for fresh juice, running the gamut from Immune Boost (beets, carrot, apple, ginger) to elaborate espresso-based smoothies. Their food menu is almost entirely vegan, making it an ideal choice for veggie diners, a fact adored or despised by most visitors. Food is reasonable, juice can be expensive. $10-$20 (juice runs $5/glass). http://juiceforlife.com/

• Future Bakery, Bloor and Brunswick, 416.922.5875. 9AM - 2AM everyday. A cafeteria away from their cafeteria for University of Toronto Students. Famous for excellent bread, and friendly staff. Also serves a complete cheap breakfast all day. $10-20.

• Gazzele, Bloor St, west of Bathurst (next to Bloor Cinema). 12PM-4AM everyday. Excellent Middle Eastern food for incredibly affordable prices. Not so much a restaurant as a counter and a lineup, the staff is friendly and quick, and there's always some interesting conversations waiting in the line. Many vegetarian options. $5-$10.

• Swiss Chalet, Bloor and Markham, 416.972.6831. Mo-Th 11AM-10:30PM, Fr 11AM-11PM, Su 11AM-10PM. A mega-popular Canadian chicken chain infamous for their "Chalet Sauce". Get take out and eat it in the park. $10-$25. http://www.swisschalet.com/

• Green Room, Bloor and Brunswick (alley just south of Bloor St), 416.929.3253. 11AM-2AM everyday. A staple of U of T art students, this hard-to-find and seedy looking bar offers some surprisingly affordable and good menu. Be advised that their on-tap beer is rarely cold, stick with bottles. $5-$15.

• El Basha Falafel, Sarah's Falafel and Aida Falafel, Bloor St (West of Spadina). Falafel, Grilled vegetables and chicken are highlights. $5-$10.

• Chippy's, 490 Bloor St (West of Spadina). Great fish and chips, scallops, salmon, and sole as well. $8-$11 for a good sized portion.

South Annex

• Aunties and Uncles (74 Lipincott, at College): Located at the extreme south end of the Annex neighborhood, is a jam-packed little cafe very popular with the young local crowd for it's simple yet sophisticated, and cheap, eats. Also a very popular weekend brunch spot with patio. Only serves until 4pm, closed for dinner. Space is extremely limited and the restaurant is known to close for no apparent reason, so it's best to call ahead. Open until 4 PM. Meals from $10.

• Kensington Kitchen (Harbord Street, just west of Spadina): Another popular destination for vegetarians. They offer a delicious Mediterranean influenced menu that also caters well to meat-eaters. Pricing is reasonable.

• Free Times Cafe (College St, two blocks west of Spadina): Offers a fabulously traditional Jewish Sunday brunch at the south end of the Annex. From 11-3 every Sunday, the owner welcomes guests for an all-you-can-eat buffet of traditional Jewish dishes (bagels, assorted fish dishes, French toast, croquets, blintzes, danish, pickled salads, etc). Very popular, currently costs $16.95 per person. Arrive early in you don't want to wait, reservations essential for groups larger than 4. Don't eat the night before and wear loose pants. Meals from $15.

Drink

• The Madison is just north of Bloor West in the Annex, on Madison St. A very popular meeting place and singles bar populated by young single professionals, frat boys, and preppy university and college students. They also serve food but do not expect to find a table if you do not arrive early, despite several floors and an extensive patio.

• The Brunswick House, on Bloor St west of Spadina, is the closest thing to a campus beer hall in Toronto. Famous for its long weekend line-ups (no matter what the weather), watered down beer, live bar-rock, and very impatient bouncers. Caters to frat boys, college football players, party girls who like cheap beer, and associated hangers-on. Not recommended for people outside those groups except as a social observation experience. Warning! Do not so much as stand up unexpectedly if you wish to avoid instant expulsion by the bouncers, who are famously proactive in dealing with theoretical trouble-makers. Recently renovated after decades of neglect.

• College and University student pubs, it should be noted, are largely non-existent in Toronto. Due to the location in the active downtown of most colleges and the University of Toronto, students have traditionally gravitated to the multitude of bars nearby rather than school-hosted pubs. Certain faculties and student residences may have local favorites, but these often change from year to year. One of the few longstanding pubs is called Suds--basically a Friday-night pre-pub-pub run by the University of Toronto's Engineering Student Society. Expect zero ambiance, but plenty of cheap beer -- located at the basement of the Sandford Fleming Building, 10 King's College Road.

• Lee's Palace and the Dance Cave on Bloor St west of Brunsick in the Annex. Lee's is one of the premier performance venues for current live music, catering to a wide range of tastes. Bands play almost every night of the week and ticket prices at the door range from $2-$25 generally, depending on who's playing. The Dance Cave, upstairs from Lee's, is a dance club that runs almost every night of the week, leaning towards house/goth/industrial music. Of note is that the age range in the Cave is unusually broad, so if you are 19 or approaching 40 and like to dress up in black and go dancing, you won't be entirely out of place.

Sleep

• College Hostel, 280 Augusta Avenue (in Kensington Market), 416.929.4777. Great location, in the heart of Kensington Market. Private and communal rooms available. $17-$42.

• The Planet Traveller's Hostel, 175 Augusta Avenue (in Kensington Market). Cozy, friendly communal atmosphere. Located in a gorgeous Victorian house. Rates can't be beat considering the location. $17-$25.

Contact

As with the rest of Toronto, phone coverage is not a problem. Full digital cell phone coverage, and pay phones are ample.

Bloor Street between Spadina and Bathurst has 5 Internet cafes to choose from - the prices are the cheapest in the city due to the increased competition, and they're open 24/7.

External links