Church Street Pawn Shops

This month was voting day in Ontario and our polling station was at the Metropolitan United Church on Church Street in Toronto.  There’s a couple of blocks of Church between old Toronto and the Church/Wellesley village where things get a bit seedy and there’s a concentration of pawn shops, loan outfits and nail salons. As I looked at this colourful block early in June, I noticed upstairs windows papered over and empty stores. I suspect this block is going to be developed soon. Probably they’ll keep at least the older storefronts.

Sketching Bombay Palace

When I got my first job in Toronto about 20 years ago, the staff at the theatre took me out to lunch at the Bombay Palace where they had a great Indian lunch buffet. Over the years I’ve seen it have boom times and bust times but it keeps hanging on. It’s a bit off the beaten track tucked away on an unfashionable end of Jarvis Street but just across from the lovely St. James Park.

Mercury Cafe

A Leslieville favorite, I first visited this cafe after it had moved a couple of blocks and it didn’t have a sign up. I remember that they told me that this sign was “temporary”. It was more than 10 years ago.