In defence of Toronto
The charms of Ontario’s capital can be more elusive than those of its showier counterparts, but former local Alex Mcclintock is here to help you find them
One thing you often hear people say about Toronto is it’s “like a cleaner New York”. I’ve always thought this was a strange claim. For starters, if your city’s top selling point is its cleanliness, you might be in trouble. Worse still is that Toronto is nothing like New York, especially for visitors. It has no attractions that come anywhere near the bucketlist status of the American Museum of Natural History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Statue of Liberty, Broadway or the High Line. In fact, if you’re a sightseer, it’s possible to wonder what there actually is to do in Toronto. The CN Tower is quite impressive, but let’s be real, there are lots of tall buildings in the world and it hasn’t been the tallest for nearly two decades. Things don’t improve as you go down the list – the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum, Ripley’s Aquarium, the Bata Shoe Museum. Nobody would dispute they’re very nice places to spend a day, but they’re not exactly the kind of thing you fly halfway across the world to see.
Before all our Canadian readers rush to send off their (very polite) letters of complaint, I need to state that I’m actually a massive fan of Toronto. I lived in the city for three years, and I think it’s more than worth a visit. It’s just that its pleasures take a little more work to find than a quick scan of Tripadvisor.
So what are those pleasures? Meandering down leafy streets through neighbourhood after neighbourhood, each with its own unique character and charm. Spring and summer afternoons in the city’s enormous parks and by Lake Ontario, when it seems like every man and his dog (and his dog’s dog) is out soaking up the sun. Taking your pick of hundreds of cocktail bar and craft brewery patios and settling in for drinks until the sun sets at 9pm. Gorging yourself in a dining scene that encompasses everything from First Nations-influenced fine dining to glorious street food from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and beyond.
But the thing is, it took me about a year to work all this out, and if you’re visiting for a few days, it would be easy to miss the best bits and conclude Toronto is a boring concrete jungle. Here’s how I’d avoid that. It’s a mash-up of the best days I spent in the city, a love letter in the form of an itinerary.
I’d start on the city’s Eastside. Cut off from downtown by the Don River Valley (and the giant expressway they built inside it), Toronto’s eastern neighbourhoods feel like a whole different city. Riverside and Leslieville are the coolest of all: a long strip of trendy shops, breweries, restaurants and cafes centred on
Queen Street East.
The coffee at Boxcar Social is up to Australian standards, so that’s a good place to start. Don’t be confused by the mumbled “roomformilkorcream?” if you order a filter coffee – they just want to know whether to fill it up all the way. The best brunch in the whole city is at Maha’s – a seriously trendy Egyptian joint. The wait is worth it when you try the ful: fava beans blended with tomatoes, onions and aromatic spices. It’s sloppy in just the right way.
You really can’t go wrong from there; there are so many cool little shops to visit, from crazy thrift at Gadabout to truly unique spots like Surf the Greats (yes, people surf in the lake) and the Irish Design House. And make sure to pop into local favourite, the Leslieville Pumps, a former petrol station where poutine is served amid the lottery tickets and smokes.
When evening falls, grab a Bike Share Toronto bike from one of the many streetside racks and go for a cruise down the Leslieville Spit. This narrow peninsula juts 7km into the lake and is an important habitat for migratory birds. I once saw a beaver there. More interestingly for the visitor, it offers the best view in the city of downtown’s towers alight at dusk. If you’ve still got the energy,
head to Lake Inez for its six-course mystery patio dinner. The menu is ever-changing, but the vibe remains the same: hip but friendly, classy but rambunctious.
Over the other side of the city there’s even more on offer.
You could quite easily spend days wandering through Toronto’s West End neighbourhoods. There’s Kensington Market with its weekend carnival atmosphere, Little Portugal’s bakeries, Little Italy’s restaurants, and The Annex’s odd mix of hippy charm and Korean culture.
But my pick has to be Trinity-bellwoods, the well-heeled but trendy suburb around the park of the same name. On a summer’s day, this is the place to see Toronto being most itself: shirtless bros playing Spikeball, immigrant families picnicking, young lovers making out. Grab a mixed pack of cans from the incredible Bellwoods Brewery and go soak it all in.
When you’re done, Ossington Avenue is a street away. Routinely listed as one of the world’s coolest streets, it offers a heady mix of urban fashion, trendy restaurants and cool bars. On a hot day, it’s hard to go past an ice-cream sandwich at Bang Bang, and Sweaty Betty’s is a great old-school North American dive bar if that’s your thing (and you didn’t already quench your thirst in the park).
My penultimate Toronto tip would be this: leave. Not because there’s nothing more to do, but because there’s so much natural beauty just out of town. If outdoorsy stuff is your thing, a canoe trip through Algonquin Provincial Park, a vast expanse of lakes and forest, is a must-do.
The bad news: you will have to portage (carry your canoe and gear between the hundreds of small lakes). The good news: this means you’ll soon find yourself alone on a glassy, mirrorsmooth expanse of water, the pine trees so perfectly reflected in the lake you’ll barely know which way is up and which is down. Algonquin Outfitters can set you up with a boat and all the gear.
Alternatively, you could just stay at Killarney Lodge. It’s rustic and wholesome but luxurious. Think log cabins and apple crumble in the communal dining room. You’ll leave feeling not just relaxed, but somehow more wholesome as well.
My last piece of advice goes for both the city and the countryside and is simply this: do not go in winter. You’re travelling for fun and there’s no reason to do that to yourself. There are three other perfectly good seasons in which to suck the juice out of this great city. Leave that one to the Torontonians.