News   Mar 18, 2024
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Coffee Time

"Worker crowd", maybe? (Though don't know why here--but still; I suspect that CT has a stronger "survival rate" among its industrial-wasteland outlets than along downtown main streets)
 
Oh, and one mythic Coffee Time that (as of posting) endures: the one next to the entrance to Jane Station off Bloor...
 
Isn't the Queen and Niagara one pretty mythic? Well, it is for me. A decade ago I was an anti-coffee snob and only had coffee there! Hilarious considering Dufflet's, Terroni etc had the better stuff. I finally stopped going there after getting mugged one fine summer's evening while waiting for the ttc stop outside.

How the hell did we survive before hipster indie coffee hit the streets of Toronto?

Now, I'm so tired of these indie places I love going to the Old Weston Rd & Dundas West coffee time...a good pick up joint if you're into cab drivers I suppose...
 
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The one at Eglinton and Chaplin, which was "under renovation" for a while, is now dead.

That was another one of those really surprising ones in the middle of a pretty well-to-do neighbourhood. It was almost always completely empty except for the token sketchy character in the back. No idea how it survived.
 
The one at Eglinton and Chaplin, which was "under renovation" for a while, is now dead.

That was another one of those really surprising ones in the middle of a pretty well-to-do neighbourhood. It was almost always completely empty except for the token sketchy character in the back. No idea how it survived.

Replace it with a Tim Hortons and it'll be instantly full with lineups.
 
There still one south of Bloor on Dundas (in the Zellers / Loblaws plaza). Total grub hang-out, but I suppose it owes its survival to the High School directly next door. There was this totally sketch blue rusty cargo van that would sit in the parking lot at all times of the day with the motor running for quite a while, haven't seen them for a few months.. guess the cops busted them.

Interestingly though, the plaza (looks like crap) actually has a time capsule buried under the covered walkway between Zellers & Loblaws, 1960-something I think, when the property was owned by Towers.
 
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Interestingly though, the plaza (looks like crap) actually has a time capsule buried under the covered walkway between Zellers & Loblaws, 1960-something I think, when the property was owned by Towers.

I'd really like to see that waste of space plaza developed into something dense with retail and residential. It's so banal that I'm surprised to hear about the time capsule.
 
One of the last downtown Coffee Time holdouts has closed. The one at Yonge & Gloucester shut it's doors today. I don't think it will be converted to an Eggsmart like many others because they usually put up a sign saying the store is being renovated. The sign on the window simply says this store is no longer in business.
 
Okay, then. W/Yonge + Gloucester kaput, what's left in (or closest to) the core, Coffee Time-wise?

(Oh, yeah, I think QQ + Lower Spadina's still going. But what else...)
 
There's one at Parliament and Winchester, too. It's right across from a Tim's, so it's doomed in the long run. There's still one at Parliament and Richmond, as well.
 
I think there's still one at Esplanade near Sherbourne but I haven't been down there in awhile. Also Dundas & Broadview.

Yeah that location at Princess and Esplanade is still hanging in there. It is my dream to see it close and be replaced with... well, anything, frankly. I notice that the hours are much more reduced than they used to be, and now it closes quite early. Which is kind of a shame because the one useful purpose it had before was to shed some light on the corner late at night and make the area seem a bit less deserted on those rare occasions I was out in the wee hours.

There is a relative scarcity of Tim Hortons in the immediate area. I would love to see a Tim's replace this Coffee Time, but I suspect a more likely location would be the former cafe/bank on the northwest corner of Front and Sherbourne, or perhaps a unit in the former Toronto Sun building once the retail fills in there.
 
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Is the Coffee Time on Yonge, between Bloor and Wellesley still there?
 

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