Beer in Toronto - Muddy York Brewing Co.

Location: 22 Cranfield Rd.

Date photo taken: 21 March 2017

Toronto is home to over 60 craft breweries which means that it's a good place to be if you're a beer fan. Distribution across the city is markedly uneven however and if you live in East York, your options are limited. Luckily, one of the choices is Muddy York Brewing Co. It's a small batch brewery located in an industrial park between O'Connor Drive and the Don Valley. One thing that sets them apart is that while they offer a range of different types of beers, their mainstays are more traditional styles often overlooked by other brewers. Personal favourites of mine in this category include Muddy York Porter and Major Small Best Bitter. Opened in 2013, they've slowly been expanding their operations and now their location includes a retail bottle shop. Perfect for stocking up for the long weekend!

Mother and Child

Location: Baycrest Health Sciences Centre grounds, Bathurst St. and Baycrest Ave.

Date photo taken: 27 August 2015

This sculpture, entitled Mother and Child, sits in the green space in front of the Bathurst Street entrance to the Baycrest Health Sciences Centre. It is one of a surprising number of artworks owned by Baycrest and displayed throughout the facility and grounds. According to their website "Baycrest’s unique art environment encourages cognitive and social engagement, factors known to promote brain health and healthy aging." To facilitate enjoyment of their collection and to spark conversation, they offer a number of Art Walk booklets modeled after the Museum of Modern Arts’ Meet me at MoMA program. This piece, created in cast aluminum by artist Aharon Bezalel in 2010, was donated to Baycrest in 2011.

Campbell House

Location: Northwest corner of Queen and University

Date photo taken: 6 May 2016

This stately Georgian-style building sitting in park-like grounds at the corner of Queen and University is a fraud. The building itself is genuine. Built in 1822 for Chief Justice William Campbell, it's the oldest surviving building from the Town of York. And that's the clue. This building originally stood near the corner of Frederick and Adelaide, or Duke Street as it was called at the time. In the 1970s, the building's owner decided to demolish the house to expand their parking area, but the Advocates' Society stepped in and purchased the building, on condition that they would move it. They worked with the city planning office to find a suitable location and in 1972 the house made its slow way across Adelaide to its new home. Today Campbell House functions as a museum, event space and unique theatre venue, and while the grounds are maintained by the city as a park, the building itself is operated by the Sir William Campbell Foundation.

Images of the building in its original location and during the move down Adelaide are available online through the City of Toronto Archives.

Dinosaurs

Location: St. James Avenue near Ontario Street
Date photo taken: 26 October 2012

This polka dot dinosaur never fails to make me smile. It can be found on the south side of a parking ramp enclosure in the middle of St. James Town.

Enercare Centre Living Wall

Location: Enercare Centre, Canadian National Exhibition grounds

Date photo taken: 24 August 2015

This beautiful wall of greenery isn't your typical indoor display of carefully designed synthetic plants. All of the plants on this wall are real and together they work to clean the air inside the Enercare Centre. The Living Wall Biofilter is a system designed to increase indoor air quality and eliminate the need for pumping fresh air in from outside, which saves on heating and cooling costs. It's not the actual plants that clean the air, they just look nice. It's the microbes on and around their roots that do the actual work. Together they make for a wall that is both pretty and pretty cool. The system was designed at the University of Guelph's Controlled Environment System Research Facility and financed in part by the Canadian and European Space Agencies. 

Tembo

Location: Commerce Court courtyard

Date photo taken: 30 December 2016

This is Tembo, Mother of Elephants. She is striding purposefully to water, in this case a fountain, leading her two small charges, unseen in this photo. This life sized bronze began as a 20 cm tall model created by Toronto artist Derrick Stephan Hudson which was then 3D scanned and scaled up to create this imposing creature. It is the second cast, with the original residing in the Windsor Sculpture Park where in 2014 it was voted the most popular piece in the park by Windsor Star readers.

Zanzibar Circus Tavern

Location: 359 Yonge St., just south of Gerrard

Date photo taken: 4 April 2013

Club Zanzibar is a bit of a relic. It's one of only 16 active "adult entertainment clubs" operating in the city of Toronto and one of only a few left in the downtown core. Back in 1978 the city changed its land use rules making it pretty much impossible to open a new strip club, but it allowed the 63 currently in existence to remain open. Over the years, that number has dwindled but the Zanzibar has remained. Its gold facade and neon lights are now an icon on the Yonge Street strip. The building wasn't always a strip club of course. Before Zanzibar it housed various businesses, such as a butcher's and a photography shop. Right before it was Zanzibar it was the Rosticceria Tavern. The Zanzibar Tavern first opened its doors in 1959 as a live music venue, part of the happening Yonge Street music scene. By the late 1960s it still featured live music but it was more of a dance club, complete with topless go-go dancers. In the 1970s it made the switch to strip club and the show hasn't stopped since.

Note: The TD Gallery at the Toronto Reference Library is currently hosting an exhibit that looks at the city's early attempts at moral reform. Vice & Virtue is on until April 30 and it's free.