Retro Toronto Thread for Nostalgia Purposes.
- Thread starter black booty lover
- Start date
Storks, a retail store on Queen and McCaul St. selling fresh chicken and whole turkeys. You knew the turkeys were fresh if you happened to check inside the back room and saw the old women plucking them after they were just cooked.
The female ushers in the gold seats at the Gardens. Dressed in blue skirts, heels and pantyhose. Also free Marlies games on Saturday afternoons.
Anyone remember the Victory Theatre? at Dundas and Spadina, a burlesque house that turned into a chinese movie theatre in the mid 70's.
Crazy. Even Kensington Market, when I was young it was so fun to go down there in the Chinatown/Kensington area and see duck and chicken hanging from the windows, and all these old school fruit stands.
There are still a few, but they are fading away.
I had just moved to Toronto in 1973 and ZZ Top was booked to play the Victory Theatre. They cancelled. They played later that year I believe as the warm up band for Alice Cooper "muscle of love" tour.
Going way back, can't remember the year, we would go to MLG on Sundays to see the Maple Leafs play, standing room only for $2.00. But if you had to go for a pee, you would lose your spot.
I can remember during intermissions walking through the concourse and I swear, it was like walking through clouds there was so much smoke in the smoking areas...lol.
And how about the horizontal urinals, it was like 20 guys pissing shoulder to shoulder.
Who could ever forget the troughs at Maple Leaf Gardens? It was insane how if there was even just a little space, there was always some weirdo that squeeze in and make things totally awkward and uncomfortable. To be honest, that's not really nostalgia for me. I try not to remember those times.
Constellation Hotel for brunch and a swim.
Go under the flap and swim outside in the winter.
Go under the flap and swim outside in the winter.
Regal Constellation
Built in 1962. The hotel which focused on trade shows, which consisted of two 15 floor towers, a six story atrium a Chinese restaurant and 800 rooms. Once a popular hotel and convention venue, the...
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The Vic. It was owned by the father of a friend I had in high school. I believe it was the "Victory Burlesque".
essguy_ said:
There’s nothing really special now, but you need to remember that when it opened there weren’t a lot of Jewish deli restaurants in Toronto. I remember being taken to the original Shopsy’s downtown and Moe Pancer’s up North (Bathurst Wilson area). Other than that Toronto was pretty plain vanilla for food. Only a handful of Chines restaurants too. Shopsy’s was bought out and the brand sold and the original Moe Pancer’s closed but was reopened by the kids.
Switzer's was across the street from Shopsy's.
There’s nothing really special now, but you need to remember that when it opened there weren’t a lot of Jewish deli restaurants in Toronto. I remember being taken to the original Shopsy’s downtown and Moe Pancer’s up North (Bathurst Wilson area). Other than that Toronto was pretty plain vanilla for food. Only a handful of Chines restaurants too. Shopsy’s was bought out and the brand sold and the original Moe Pancer’s closed but was reopened by the kids.
Switzer's was across the street from Shopsy's.
Deli restaurant on Dufferin and Lawrence called Coleman's served terrific Montreal Smoked Meat sandwiches. Of course there were few Chinese restaurants back in the day because the Chinese population was quite small back in the day. You had to go Chinatown at Lichee Gardens, or No. 12. Also, there was a great late night spot on Spadina and Dundas that served Hot and Sour, can't remember the name, but if you wanted to catch your mouth on fire that was the place to go.
I remember a Coleman's at Bathurst and Lawrence.
You are right, the one on dufferin I recall now was Katz Deli. Also very good.
