In high school, you’ll come for the Converse high tops and vintage t-shirts, marveling at the sushi restaurants, creperies, the iconic Toronto landmarks (MuchMusic's street-front studios, for one) and record stores your lame-ass suburb just couldn’t provide. But by third year university, you’ll wonder why the strip seems to be comprised of me, you, and everyone we know.
While gentrification critics bemoan the chain-store takeover of Toronto’s cultural graceland, beside the H&M and Urban Outfitters lies the beating heart of hipsterdom — just east of the new Queen West. Stake your claim at resto-cafes like the
Queen Mother (208 Queen W., 416-598-4719,
www.queenmothercafe.ca),
Tequila Bookworm (512 Queen W., 416-603-7335,
http://tequilabookworm.blogspot.com) and
Czehoski (678 Queen W., 416-366-6787,
www.czehoski.com), and gulp down culture at venerable, career-launching concert venue
The Horseshoe Tavern (370 Queen W., 416- 598-4753,
www.horseshoetavern.com),
Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson, 416-504-7529,
www.passemuraille.on.ca) and comedy/music mecca
The Rivoli (334 Queen W., 416- 596-1908,
www.rivoli.ca).
Immortalized in Reg Harkema’s 2007 film
Monkey Warfare, The Deadly Snakes song “Gore Vale” and between-sketch-sequences in
The Kids In The Hall, Queen West yields a boho charm that’s all in the details — from the giant red ants (created for a 1984 papal visit to protest dire living conditions in the apartment upstairs) crawling up the precipice of art bar
The Cameron House (408 Queen W., 416-703-0811,
www.thecameron.com), to the famed “albino squirrel” who roams Trinity Bellwoods Park.
But that’s not all. Though a devastating fire took out such local favourites as Suspect Video, National Sound and Duke’s Cycle in February 2008, the blaze corralled our city’s love for Queen West's multi-faceted position as Toronto's textile district, punk-rock runway and fashion-plate HQ. Whether you’re sun tanning in Trinity Bellwoods (which also boasts a wading pool, dog walk and tennis court), picking up the latest Animal Collective vinyl at indie-rock clubhouse
Rotate This (801 Queen W., 416-504-8447,
www.rotate.com), scoping local novelists at
Pages (256 Queen W., 416-598-1447,
http://pagesbooks.ca) and
Type Books (883 Queen W., 416-366-8973,
www.typebooks.ca), or merely buying fresh kicks, one thing’s for certain: first we take Queen West, then we take Berlin.
CHANDLER LEVACK