Beer Fest 06 - Toronto

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Hey now! This past weekend Hope and I jetted to Toronto for the 10th annual Toronto Beer Fest. We left late afternoon Friday and I drove the Mustang, top down, while Hope dreamt about being with the SC pose off champion.

Shampoo confiscating borders, QEW accidents, and rush hour traffic cramped our style, but we eventually made it to the Sutton Place Hotel. (By the way, border agents don’t seem to care for me, it may have something to do with my olive skin and passport photo***photo down due to terrorism warnings, for real***, see below.) The hotel was decent and its location excellent. We met up with our friends Storm and Amanda (I’ve played alongside of Storm in several bands since our days back at the UM). Amanda is a Canadian connoisseur and citizen. She and Storm showed us all of the good shopping areas near our hotel. Storm and I rummaged through record shops while the girls shopped for clothes (Hope did have to buy some panties, she forgot to pack them.)

So post panty raid, we showered up and headed out to dinner. Amanda’s grade school friend Jenn and her boyfriend Jeff joined us. Jeff was an excellent tour guide, as he pointed out not only embassies and monuments, but also red light districts, Hezbellah rallies, and street break dance competitions. (I encouraged Hope to show those dancing hacks up but she refused, boo.)

Dinner was at an excellent Thai restaurant called Spring Rolls. We enjoyed Asian beers, an assortment of spring rolls and some of the best Pad Thai, all at a reasonable price.


After dinner we checked out several bars in the area. We had agreed to call it an early night as we had a big day on Saturday.

Saturday started with coffee and food, as we needed a base for the Beerfest. Last year Hope and I happened upon the festivities and had such a great time that we returned. The fest was sold out upon arrival but we had reserved our tickets online. The line was at least 100 people deep at several entrances. My initial guess was a few thousand fellow parties. $25 CDN covered entry to the fest and 5 tokens for 4 oz beers. Additional tokens were a loony apiece. We immediately bought 20 more and I believe we reinvested again. (For two years straight Hope and I have used our good looks to buddy up with a pourer to ensure that when out of tokens, the party keeps going. This year I was able to score gratis Ukrainian beer for hours on end.)

The fest was spread out over a huge park. I would guess about 10 football fields worth. Beer tents centered the grounds and a stage bordered the seating/picnic area. The stage hosted less than Canadian music talent and the short, shirtless, sweaty MC who we dubbed “Canadian Regis.”


But entertainment ranged from Red Stripes Hoorah for Beer DJ (an 80 year old Jamaican), girls dancing on tables, and of course foosball.

To keep from wasting away while sipping beers of the world, I hammered down a monstrous plate of ribs. Much to Hope's to dismay, I also had a cigar or three. (Good and good for you!)


The ever outgoing Hope and I befriended several young Canadians. We braved the entire fest, rocking from 12pm to 8pm. After we were escorted out we headed back to the hotel for a refresh and more bars. I was a bit whipped and ended up nearly face down on the restaurant table. At least I wasn't greased up this time...

Check back for our trip out West...

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