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Church Street Bars/Clubs/Restos

This place was horrible. I never did like it all the times I went. The smell of poppers was such a turn off. It never did feel safe, even before the structural damage.

If it is brought back, who even knows if it will be brought back in it's current shape. They could level it and rebuild for all we know.
 
That was the appeal - the ick factor and the slight fear of being burned alive in the place. Without those, it would have been another generic bar.
 
If any of the recently arrived gay members of this forum are interested in meeting some the rest of us - we've been getting together at Pride, or for a party at someone's place, or at Halloween on Church, or to go out for a meal, or a drink, or to a mad tea party or garden party in the nice weather, or for a walkabout, or to drive out to the hinterlands and tributary municipalities of Toronto, etc. etc. - please feel free to contact any of us.
 
The Urban Toronto gay group UTGA meets quite often and includes moi; interchange42; Simply Dan; Darkstar416; FutureMayor; AlvinofDiaspar; Archivist, BuildTO to name but a few, as well as an extended network of friends and former members of the forum ...
 
299 bloor call control. said:
yes, that is a part of it, and i'm not saying it's a bad thing. but would all these events have moved into College West and Queen West in the first place if there wasn't a moratorium on clubs in the village and there were sufficient venues?
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That's partially it, but I think it has more to do with a maturing of our gay scene (across the city) and that the more arty/edgier queers didn't really feel at home in The Village.

RJR123 said:
I used to love going to Buddies for their alternative nights. It was such a nice change of music from the usual Euro-cheese that was played in so many clubs.
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Buddies used to be pretty progressive musically. It was a strict non-pop music playlist of alterna-tunes, Brit Pop, indie rock, electro, retro and industrial. It was the first gay club in Toronto that I can say I sort of felt "at home." It's pretty much everything but the above now.

deerparker said:
The former Babylon space is currently undergoing renovations. It appears the success of Voglie and Fuzion are helping to bring the north end of the Village back to life.
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Good to hear. Hopefully MLG's impending Loblaws and the reopening of The Barn brings the south end back to life.

Urban Shocker said:
The Urban Toronto gay group UTGA meets quite often and includes moi; interchange42; Simply Dan; Darkstar416; FutureMayor; AlvinofDiaspar; Archivist, BuildTO to name but a few, as well as an extended network of friends and former members of the forum ...
Click to expand...
For sure! The more the merrier. Just send anyone one of us a private message via the forum and we'll add you to our e-mail list.


------------------

Pssst. I posted a link to this convo on Facebook's discussion group about The Barn. I'm assuming that is where the newbies found us via.
 
hazed?

yes, there are the rigorous hazing rituals to go through. you'll be tested on your ability to name the architectural styles of buildings we pass by as you ride nude in the back of a convertible, for example

it's all good

42
 
Urban Shocker said:
I suspect that the question will be met with a deafening silence, since it dates me to a Jurassic epoch even earlier than Tewder's, but does anyone remember the first Buddy's bar, downstairs at 64 Gerrard East? It was open from the early to late 1980's. The entrance was from a laneway off Church. 'Twas my favourite bar of all time. And the Manatee was my favourite dance club ... a decade earlier. Elton John used to go there when he was in town, though I never rubbed up against her.

Rick Bebout's website Promiscuous Affections: A Life in the Bar 1969-2000 is worth checking out for anyone interested in the early days of the out-and-politically-active gay community in Toronto.
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Geez, I remember leaving the August Club to go to the "Opening" of the Manatee. Guess that makes me pre-Jurassic.

Oh, and I remember the opening of Buddies as well - imagine a gay bar that wasn't dark and dirty! and Crispin's, an actual gay restaurant!

I was sitting at my cousin's computer in Melbourne when he googled my name and damn if Promiscuous Affections: A Life in the Bar 1969-2000 didn't come up and there I was. Thankfully, Rick was kind to me.
 
Omigod jaborandi, we've probably met before in the seventies at the same demonstrations. I knew several of the Body Politic and Glad Day crowd and shared accommodation with one of the CLGRO founders who later went on to become an Ontario Human Rights Commissioner. Rick didn't mention me - I'm nobody, just nobody - but I'll have to guess who you are.

I started going to the Manatee around 1974.

Somewhere around 1980 we started getting friendly and comfortable bars, restaurants, clubs and the like that were actually run and owned by gays - and what a great leap forward that was.
 
Urban Shocker said:
Omigod jaborandi, we've probably met before in the seventies at the same demonstrations. I knew several of the Body Politic and Glad Day crowd and shared accommodation with one of the CLGRO founders who later went on to become an Ontario Human Rights Commissioner. Rick didn't mention me - I'm nobody, just nobody - but I'll have to guess who you are.

I started going to the Manatee around 1974.

Somewhere around 1980 we started getting friendly and comfortable bars, restaurants, clubs and the like that were actually run and owned by gays - and what a great leap forward that was.
Click to expand...

It's quite possible we've met, though I must warn you, I've changed just a little (no more headbands). Yes, I think "friendly and comfortable" boosted our collective ego no end but nothing beat those frenzied Saturday nights at the Maytag under those glorious art deco light fixtures.

P.S. I'm nobody either
 
Wow, crazy memories... Manatee, Colby's/Katrina's, Boots... There was a cool club on Hayden Street just around the corner from Yonge beneath Kitchen Stuff Plus/Mango-Mango... and a cabaret club/piano bar on Yonge south of Bloor. The 80's were so great.
 
Urban Shocker said:
If any of the recently arrived gay members of this forum are interested in meeting some the rest of us - we've been getting together at Pride, or for a party at someone's place, or at Halloween on Church, or to go out for a meal, or a drink, or to a mad tea party or garden party in the nice weather, or for a walkabout, or to drive out to the hinterlands and tributary municipalities of Toronto, etc. etc. - please feel free to contact any of us.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the invite, I'll have to take you up on it.
 
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