Distillery District, Toronto
Sometimes the most special parts of a trip are also the most spontaneous. On a recent trip to Toronto, I had the opportunity to explore an interesting area of the city – and the added treat of an insider perspective.
The Distillery Historic District is filled with Victorian-era buildings that have been transformed into something very unique. The intersecting cobblestone streets are lined with art galleries, cafes, and shops.
Luckily, PWAC colleague Dee Gibney agreed to show Bonnie Zink (my roommate for MagNet 2012) and I around the area. Dee lives there, so she gave us the insider tour, explaining the recent changes as well as the spirit behind the transformation. It was an unexpected treat – and really made my day! (Thanks again, Dee!)
What a view!
As we saw, the true flavor of the Distillery District is not the traditional Victorian village or historical site. Instead, it’s a blend of the “now” – in a setting from “then” – resulting in a totally-Toronto experience.
Contemporary art galleries and shops abound. Craftspeople ply their wares in a combination of historic indoor venues and street-side vendors. Crafts range from purses made of colored seat-belt material, to jewelry made from recycled zippers, coins, and other materials.
Cafes offer a choice of outdoor patio or intriguing stone-and-wood interiors. Dee showed us the best places to enjoy the real flavor of the district.
Mill stone, Distillery District, Toronto
We had a coffee from Balzac’s, and dropped into the Brick Street Bakery for a “Coronation chicken sandwich.” Real chicken pieces mixed with bits of apricot and slices of apple. It was a sandwich I could have eaten with a fork!And we enjoyed it while chatting on a bench beside the old Mill Stone, with the sights and sounds of Luminato‘s opening weekend teeming around us. (Check out my Facebook for a few more photos of our day.)
Have you visited the Distillery District – or any other special area of Toronto? Please leave a comment and let’s share memories.
I’m drooling just reading about that sandwich! If I didn’t have a flight home, I would have joined you. Sounds like much fun. Thanks for sharing.
That would have been fun Sandra! And the sandwich was incredible! Thanks!
You got the flavor Marie even despte the race around tour we had. Nice summary.
Doreen, how could I not take these special ladies around and not stop at Soma. But by then we were racing against the clock because a taxi would be waiting for them to take them to the airport in a matter of minutes. So we stuck our heads in the door (it was packed) everyone breathed deeply of the rich choclate aroma; I showed Bonnie and Marie the chocolate machinery at work barely visible over the heads of the packed tiny crowded and store, and I told them about the free trade beans and liquid espresso shot chili/ginger pure chocolate offering — that also comes with steamed milk as a hot chocolate. Then it was on to a quick in and out of Young People’s Theate and a bit of background on that.
We literally ran from one gallery and restaurant to the next — but did stop at the Boiler House to take a few shots, courtesy a very helpful bar tender, in one of the unique little raw lumber booths (which incidentally, was a set for a scene in Little Mosque on the Prairie — most inconcruous as this is a very hip urban bar/restuarant with a unique design and very identifiable.).
There’s a tremendous amount of restoration to the site incorpoating the original equipment like the heavy brass fire hoses several men had to wield. They, as much of the old equipment have been turned into story telling sculptures. These are right outside my door and we did not even have time to see them. We took a quick look down on the site, the lake, the Toronto Islands (and the construction for the new Pan Am Games site under construction) from the garden terrace of my building then high tailed it to Balzac’s for a coffee. We could have spent hours there alone.
It was hard to get a sense of the Distillery with all the President’s Choice promotional booths and branding walls everywhere but Marie you managed to shoot above the fray. There are so many venues we had to skip — including the artitsts’ studios where one can watch artists at work in their studios. Even Balzac’s upstairs photo galllery was given a miss.
It was a whirlwind and Bonnie and Marie were a wonderful audience, truly interested and taken with the environment. We all played camera routlette, so there would be some more shots in the offing.
I will think about a tour for next year’s Magnet. The thing is I would probably have to theme it because there is far too much to take in in an afternnoon. I might see if I could get access to now closed places as well. When the site was under restoration I would worm my way into all kinds of nooks and crannies, discovering rooms untouched since the Distillery closed in 1990. The original machinery was intact, dust filtering in through the original old windows. Ghost like — as if the workes just suddenly walked away one day and did not return. Managed to get myself locked up on the roof of one of the buildings I had frequented during the restoration stage and almost spend the night there. No access any more to any of this. But I’m sure I could still have endless stories — how all the cobbles are correct and original for the era as the Distillery did not want ersactz anything.
They discovered, while Cleveland was restoring its streets that 100,000s of deep brick cobbles, exactly like the ones that paved the main square of the Distillery, lay beneath the asphalt. So truckloads of 100,000s of thousands of these 18th century bricks were imported from Cleveland. And every single one of them was cut to size by a giant whining saw under my window which took a year. I love the area but also have a very ambiguous feeling towards it given the daily disruptions of never ending construction noise.
It’s the only intact set of Victorial buildings in all of North America. Even Victorian industrial architecture was beautiful. The detainiling of the iron support pillars inside the buildings are like Ionic columns. Care was taken with every detail.
The modernization of the site with giant out of proportion sculptures that few people like, have changed the character of this lovely Victorian site to a large degree and there is a push to turn it into corporate party central during the week and to hold giant promotional festivals like President’s Choice mega branding this past weeknd that blanketed the site with food venues. It’s a big draw but we residents feel it takes away from the site. As I speak (it’s around 1:00 a.m.) the metal tent poles are crashing to the ground and clanging and reverberating along the cobbles keeping everyone awake.
Visitors are always taken by the extraordinariness of the site but we the resdients steel ourselves to the impact of these events. Still, I enjoy showing people around as it is very special and there is nothing like it in North America.
Thanks Dee – Your expertise is greatly appreciated! And thanks for taking the time to show us around your neighbourhood!
OMG! Don’t tell me you didn’t get to SOMA Chocolatemaker!
They are one of the 2 best chocolate shops in Canada, and the only one of the top 2 that makes their own chocolate (i.e. roasts their own beans.) Wish I’d known you were going there. I could have given you a list of amazing chocolate treats to taste. If you’re interested, here is a link to the posts I’ve done about them: http://diversionswithdoreen.com/?s=soma.
It does sound like you had a great time, though, and indeed the architecture in the Distillery District is eye candy enough for most of us.
You can see SOMA in the photo – and we did pop in long enough to breath in the wonderful aromas. Thanks for the link – I’ll check it out! – and next time I hope we’ll have time to stop and taste.
It’s also very close to Berkley Castle, the back-in-time location for my YA novel The Mirror, so I was quite excited to wander around by myself a few years back. Wish I could have gone with Dee though.
It was great – and Dee was a wonderful host. We’ll have to exchange notes about YA novels someday Kate!
Beautifully written. Thanks, Marie, for posting a snapshot of our fabulous visit with Dee. This neighbourhood, according to Dee, is the oldest collection of Victorian buildings in North America. We did not have enough time to truly appreciate the unique, modern aspects of this neighbourhood as they blended with history. What an amazing afternoon! I am looking forward to returning and exploring it even further.
Thanks Bonnie! I would love to explore it more as well. Maybe it could be a PWAC tour for MagNet 2013? (hint hint PWAC planning committee…)