Bar areas in Toronto

[ziggystardust]

Some friends and I are planning to do a pub crawl so we need suggestions as to areas or streets to go to. We're not interested in high end, club or lounge type places. We'd like to find a place with a relatively high concentration of bars and if they're on the divey side, even better.

[haggisdragon]

I'll give a shout out to my neighbourhood. The Danforth. Head east, starting at Broadview, and you'll hit The Old nick, Dora Keogh, Allens, The Black Sheep, Factor Girl, Auld Spot, Brass Taps, Fox and Fiddle etc.... Bonus, chances are you won't run into a single hipster.

[Bobby Wham]

Dundas west. Start at Camp 4, then Red Light, move to Unlovable then Black Dice etc.

[ziggystardust]

Dundas and what intersection?

[tasoid]

Dundas just west of Ossington.

Lots of bars on Ossington between Dundas and Queen.

[foodinspace]

Ossington is the new, hip strip. There are lots of small places that draw a crowd. I've enjoyed it the couple of times I've been (as a 30 something looking for a couple of beers where there are people out casually enjoying themselves listening to decent music.)

[crawfish]

We did a crawl starting at the Magpie at Euclid and Dundas and headed west hitting the Press Club, Opera Bob's, and the Communist's Daughter.

[Gary]

Or Queen/Spadina working westward... Horseshoe Tavern, Rivoli, Wide Open, Cameron House, Hideout, Java Hut and others are all within a short distance, and then you can just keep going west on Queen though it doesn't get that interesting again for a while.

Kensington Market and its immediate surrounds also have a few options clustered together with Ronnie's Local, Embassy, Graffiti's, the Silver Dollar, the Red Room/Lounge, Cloak & Dagger, Sneaky' Dee's, and then many more options westward along College if you're still upright. These are quite varied in character but most are quite divey in their own special way.

It's not as hipster, but the classic area for this sort of thing used to be Eglinton East: you'd start at Mt. Pleasant with the Granite Brewery, then work your way westwards hitting the Unicorn, Scruffy Murphy's, a Firkin and some other places along Eglinton that keep changing names, before finishing with Duke of Kent and Rose & Crown on Yonge just north of Eglinton. They're all typical dive-ish pubs except the Granite, which is a brewpub with great beer and okay food.

[ziggystardust]

Thanks Gary that's helpful

[crawfish]

Keep working west on Queen:

Bovine Sex Club, Velvet Underground, Michael's (really scary dive bar - I dare you!), The Paddock, Squirrely's, Done Right Inn, Sweaty Betty's, Then you could head up Ossington or continue on into Parkdale.

[ingloriouseater]

Queen street. Start at roncesvalles and work east.
1st dive bar is at queen west and triller-called grace place

[ziggystardust]

Good suggestion, thanks.