Toronto is made up of different neighbourhoods, each great in their own right. Often it doesn’t take much guessing to figure out why! Take the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood for example. It’s great because of, well, the St. Lawrence Market! Trinity Bellwoods’ piece de resistance is obviously Trinity Bellwoods Park itself! What makes Toronto’s waterfront so special? The waterfront, of course! There are so many great aspects of living on the waterfront year round that make it an amazing place to be. Here are 5 reasons to love living on the water! Continue reading
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Explore the Toronto Music Garden
As we zoom through the latter half of August, the urge to fit as much summer into a short amount of time becomes all the more pressing. We look over our bucket lists at the remaining activities and make every effort to pencil them in the coming weeks. The good news is that once August ends, the weather will still be gorgeous (if not more so), and the summer activities will still be available to you! One such ‘must-do’ activity that continues into September is visiting the Toronto Music Garden. Continue reading
Spending the Perfect Day on the Toronto Waterfront
The Toronto Waterfront covers quite a bit of space on a Google map. Technically it’s a 46 km area running between Etobicoke Creek in the west and the Rouge River in the east. For our purposes, we’re confining the Waterfront to the area near Pier 27, and most accessible by transit and biking – we’re talking Spadina in the west and Yonge Street in the east. As you can imagine, there are endless things to do along the Waterfront – do, see, eat and enjoy. The area is bustling with Torontonians and visitors alike, as well as the spot of a major revitalization. Here’s our guide to how to have your own perfect day on the Toronto Waterfront. Continue reading
Winter Events at the Harbourfront Centre
The Harbourfront Centre on the Toronto waterfront has been one of the city’s main creative and cultural hubs for a few decades now. Thousands of events pass through there on an annual basis focusing on everything from theatre, literature, dance, music, film, crafts, and visual arts. If you’re an artistic person or just enjoy being entertained, you belong here!
Even though it is situated on the waterfront, the Harbourfront Centre is active all year round (mind you, during the winter most events are indoors!). As always, this winter is full of great programs and classes you and your friends and family can enjoy together. So, let’s take a look at what you can get up to in 2016:
The Power Plant: Winter 2015 Exhibitions
Starting on January 30th, you can go and explore the amazing works of four talented artists – Leslie Hewitt, Patrick Bernatchez, Aude Moreau, and Carlos Amorales – whose exhibitions are big, bold, and beautiful. Whether you’re into photography, videography, or visual arts, you’ll find something you love there.
World Stage
Each year the World Stage exhibition brings some of the best contemporary works of art to the Harbourfront Centre. This performance event has been happening there since 1986 and is an eclectic mix of art forms that always wow audiences. It’s one of the most unique events that happens in Toronto each year, and we highly recommend you don’t miss it.
Dance Ontario
Fan of all types of dance? The Dance Ontario 2016 weekend will be sure to entertain you then. This weekend brings together dancers from companies all over the city to perform mostly traditional dances from around the globe.
Glass Blowing
On the weekend of January 15th, you could learn all the techniques of glassblowing! The class covers both solid and blown forms of glass, as well as colour application, hot and cold techniques, and how to use the equipment. So cool.
Pottery
Always wanted to learn how to make your own cups and bowls? Sign up for the 8-week course on either Tuesdays, Thursdays, or Saturdays starting in January and learn how to throw, coil, slab, trim, and decorate your own pottery pieces.
Don’t forget you can also grab your skates and hit the ice at the Natrel Rink down at the Harbourfront. This rink has been a crowd favourite for over 30 years in Toronto! It’s free to use, there’s a heated indoor change room, and they host awesome events like DJ Skate Night and their annual New Year’s Eve Skating Party.
The Amsterdam BrewHouse on the Lake
If there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that Torontonians love their craft beer. We believe that the recent spike in craft beer popularity is all thanks to the wonderful people at Amsterdam Brewery… but we may be biased! The folks at Amsterdam Brewery have been making craft beer in Toronto since the 80s, long before it was a big trend here, and we were ecstatic when they opened up with harbourfront location back in 2013. The Amsterdam BrewHouse is now a neighbourhood staple for good food and drink.
It has been a crazy journey for them to get to where they are today. Their first location was on John Street, which they opened in 1986 and finally had a big space to brew their own beer. This was back when it was called the Amsterdam Brasserie and Brewpub. During this time their Nut Brown Ale became extremely popular, which is now known as the Downtown Brown. In 1988 they sold the John Street location, moved to King Street and was renamed the Amsterdam Brewing Company. Just under 20 years later, they outgrew this location and moved to a spot on Bathurst Street, and seven years later outgrew that outpost which sent them to their current location in Leaside. The Leaside location is where all of your favourite Amsterdam Brewery beers are currently made, in addition to a small on-site brewery at the Amsterdam BrewHouse on the Lake.
It’s such a fantastic restaurant and bar to have nearby because not only does it have tons of drink and food options, but it’s huge, has lots of indoor and outdoor seating, has a retail beer store (which means you may never have to go to the regular Beer Store again!), and is located in a beautiful, historical building. The BrewHouse building is actually a big old boathouse on Pier 4, which means it is literally right on the water! The space, of course, hasn’t been a boathouse for a while now and used to be home to the Toronto Maritime Museum before it made its way into the hands of our friends at Amsterdam.
Check out these photos which compare the building in the 1980s to today:
![Harbourfront. - [between 1977 and 1998]](http://pier27tower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s1465_fl0145_id0005.jpg)
Photo via City of Toronto Archives
If you feel like making a trip to the BrewHouse to see what all the hype is about, we recommend you go on one of their free brewery tours (Monday to Friday) and then sit down for a tasting flight, or two.
Enjoy!
Fall Events at the Harbourfront
Just because fall is here doesn’t mean the excitement at Harbourfront is over! There is still a full lineup of great events to check out by the water that will keep you occupied until the snow comes. Here’s what we’re looking forward to checking out this fall on the Harbourfront. Continue reading