|
King West Nightlife in Toronto
The Best Bars in this Hip Area
The lovely ladies of Toronto are flocking to King West for nightlife.
Head West, young man.
And woman.
That's just what many of Toronto's young and fun partiers have done, moving their nightlife nirvana from downtown to another part of the city.
It's the wild, wild West of Toronto, King Street West.
This cool cat likes to have drinks at 2 Cats.
This is a look at the pubs, clubs and bars of King West, home to Toronto's hip and happening crowd.
The king of King West is not even on King Street, but it's close enough to be considered part of the area. The Drake Hotel (1150 Queen Street West) is a two-level bar that's hotter than Toronto in August and busier than the Gardiner at rush hour.
It's dynamic at the Drake, especially for those on the deck.
Many in town consider it Toronto's best , most happening club and that assessment would be bang on, for the it would a mistake to discount the Drake. On nice or even decent nights, the objective is the large upstairs deck. Between the two bars are waist-high tables for resting the arms and drinks, flanked by rows of sit-down spots. Downstairs bar is packed, mainly with people having drinks waiting to get upstairs.
This is not a huge, multi-level,mega dance club, rather an upscale but unpretentious bar with a happening social scene. It's also a boutique hotel with just 19 rooms and diners are rewarded with what some in town feel is Toronto's best burger. It also serves lunch and has weekend brunch from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Other than those headed to the sex club just down from the Drake – it's certainly worthy of having the cab slow down when passing this place – the busy corner of King West is at Portland Street. On this spot sits three bars with another just bar a block away. This area is teeming with people walking up and down King and popping in and out of the bars.
The beer drinkers and the band at the Bier Market.
A good starting point is Bier Market and its wildly popular patio. In fact, the Bier Market is #7 in PubClub's list of Top 10 Patios in Toronto. It's busy day and night and it's not a bad idea to call up and make a reservation on weekends.
Yet the patio is just the starting point, for the real bar scene is inside. There is a HUGE L-shaped bar; it needs to be that long because the places serves 100 different beers. It flows and so do the people with the scene. A cool, fun band that plays "just about anything" (well, mainly rock tunes) rocks the place. But the sound level is not too loud to drown out conversations, and that's a Bier Market benefit.
Across King, KiWe Kitchen is a restaurant that often gets a spillover crowd from crowded King West. For those checking out the scene and making the rounds, it's always worth a look.
The scene in the mind-numbing 2 Cats Lounge.
Some of the city's cool cats hang at 2 Cats Cocktail Lounge, the club, of sorts, in the area. King Westerners who want a club feel without the club prices and lines pounce on the place. Here it's up some stairs into a warm, loud (some would say thumping) environment. They claw their way to a long, narrow bar and a narrow "hanging out" area along the bar.
There's more space and a dance floor at the back, but many find best to just slide up to the bar, grab a drink and enjoy what could be a mind-numbing experience. There's not a lot of thinking and talking that can go on in here; hand signals may be a better option.
Music is from a DJ playing house, rock, alternative and '80s, the guys at the door are friendly and there's no cover charge. The dress is casual and the crowd is, primarily, late20s/early 30s and forward.
 One interesting thing do so before walking into, or walking out of, Two Cats is observe the strippers on break from For Your Eyes Only club next door.
Down an alley through a parking lot at Adelaide and Portland is Devil's Martini. It's a spacious, fairly upscale bar with music from a DJ. Generally, it's a destination primarily of the 30's-and-up set.
Just down King, Club 606 (606 West King Street) is
longtime favorite of Toronto's cool crowd. It's long been hip without being vain.
There is no cover charge and the dress is everything from classy to
casual.
While it's not what it once was, give Club 606 credit for this fact – it was one of the first bar/clubs in the city to set up in this area, so it would be safe to consider it a Toronto trend-setter.
On the pub side, it gets no more traditional in Toronto than the Wheat Sheaf. This local dive is the oldest bar in the city, sitting on the corner of King and Bathurst. It's known for its sports, cheap beer and good wings.
The Foggy Dew is an Irish bar with live music and a relaxed day and night patio (good food). It's located at King and Niagara.
And it may be a bit of a stretch to say the Brazen Head is in King West – technically it's Liberty Village – but this up-and-coming area gets much of the same fun and mostly single crowd of the other places. The best thing about the Brazen Head is its three patios on different levels; the $5 appetizers on Tuesdays from 4-7 can fill 'em all up on nice evenings. So, too, when FC Toronto plays home games. The food here is decent though not spectacular.
The Foggy Dew and Brazen Head each made PubClub's list of Toronto's top patios.
PubClub.com is an international nightlife guide. © 2010. All rights reserved.
 Related Article: Toronto's Top 10 Patios!
|