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Saturday, July 05, 2008

The JTC Top Ten Pubs in Toronto

We here at JTC recently realized that we love pubs, we spend a lot of time in pubs, and we support a lot of pubs financially, and yet we never seem to write much about pubs. Realizing this egregious error, we sprang into action, ran to a pub, and quickly put together the earth-shattering:

JTC Top Ten Pubs in Toronto!

Here they are, in no particular order (except I put the best one first):

1. The Only Cafe
General comments: Hands down the best pub in Toronto. Coincidentally, about a 5 minute walk from my front door.
Place in JTC History: The start of "Remembrance Day Pub Crawl I: The Forward Danforth". Curiously, also the starting point for the more recent "Reverse Danforth", which Co-Co was pretty horny for.



2. The Rebel House
General comments: Quite tiny, but one hell of a pub - great food and a good beer selection
Place in JTC History: Visited during "Descent into Madness '07". Co-Co was ridiculed here for his directional idiocy, in making us change directions during a pub crawl.


3. The Dora Keogh
General comments: Fuller's London Porter ON TAP? Fuck and yes.
Place in JTC History: The ending point for "Remembrance Day Pub Crawl I: The Forward Danforth". Notable for the fact that I couldn't feel my hands and was having trouble seeing at that point. Wouldn't Mom be proud.


4. The Fox and Firkin*
General comments: The first of our entries that requires an asterisk, meaning that explanation is required: we wouldn't REALLY recommend this pub anymore, but felt compelled to include it because...
Place in JTC History: Not only did we hit this pub on about 8 different "Descent into Madness" and 4 "Roaring Bender" pub crawls, but it was the birth place of our hit sitcom - "Human Style" (still in development).


5. The Auld Spot
General comments: A Scottish pub? On the Danforth? And they have Mill Street Tankhouse on tap? Check, check and check.
Place in JTC History: Hit on all Danforth pub crawls (both forward and reverse), and the site of a damn fine St. Paddy's Day if memory serves.






6. Scotland Yard
General comments: Probably the only real pub on The Esplanade, and the least pretentious place near the centre of the universe that is King and Bay. Currently losing points for removing one Golden Tee machine, and taking Tankhouse off the taps because, "people don't drink dark beers in the summer". What. The. Fuck.
Place in JTC History: Current site of the JTC weekly after-work meeting, and where we wrote this exquisite list you're currently enjoying.

7. The Granite Brewery
General comments: A damn fine micro-brewery. Coincidentally, less than a 5 minute walk from my old apartment.
Place in JTC History: The start of many a "Descent into Madness" pub crawl


8. The Rose and Crown*
General comments: Deserving of the asterisk because it...uh...is shut down. Interestingly, the web site is still active.
Place in JTC History: Hit on numerous pub crawls (noting a pattern here?), and also one of the places that I lost the JTC notebook.


9. The Irish Embassy*
General comments: Keeping good diplomatic relations with the Irish is very important to us. But despite that fact, this place gets an asterisk because it's kind of annoying going there and finding all tables reserved, and a mosh pit of suits around the bar, however...
Place in JTC History: Original site of the weekly after-work "JTC Operational Metrics Meeting". In fact, the recurring invitation on my calendar still reads "The Embassy" as the location.

10. Well, we don't actually have a 10th, because we decided that there weren't ten pubs in Toronto that deserved a place on this list - that's how discerning we are. Of course, if you have a suggestion, feel free to add it to the comments.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would like to see these operational meterics!!

JohnnyM said...

Well, here's the agenda from the invite:

1. Roundtable discussion: Items for review / new issues
2. PMT - review Q4 '04 additions, review use frequency of existing entries, forecast Q1 '05 volumes.
3. Jokemaking Rate - data indicates a serious disruption in the frequency and quality of jokes being produced. Need to develop action plans and short term mitigants.
4. Operational performance of the Saab factory for January.

It's a little out of date, but I'd say we're 'green' on all the metrics.

Anonymous said...

I walked by the Rose and Crown recently and there was a sign on the door that says "The Rose will bloom again". Stay tuned for asterisk removal...

Anonymous said...

The Rose and Crown re-opens this weekend! Sat. Nov 22, 2008!

Unknown said...

It’s not too long since I have returned from my last trip to Toronto, I am very happy that I found few of top pubs in Toronto and enjoyed there a lot. I was with my friends. We basically wanted to enjoy our evenings so we headed to Bar Hop. The taste and the environment there is something which can always be relied on.