Well, no, not ruins exactly
The Distillery District is a shopping/arts destination in Toronto that occupies the grounds of a Victorian Era distillery that had remained active and in business till the 1990's. Finally ceasing to function as distillery, this huge collection of buildings and structures was used as a location for dozens of Hollywood movies including the remake of The Fly
We love this area, much of the brooding yet stylish Victorian architecture has been maintained from giant smoke stacks to cobble stones bits and pieces of its brewing past. Atmospheric is the word that comes to mind: Red brick, limestone, massive facades with tiny windows, covered walkways, oblique angles; it's the like the imposition of will. It is all function, a place of work and old school smokestack industry but there is craftmaship here, hand hewn and hand cut and in that yes, I find beauty
Nowadays the Distillery is home to shops, restaurants, the Mill Street Brewery and arts spaces. It also hosts many concerts, art shows etc. This weekend we were at the Distillery for an event extremely appropriate to the location: The Toronto Food and Wine Expo.
Yippee. Bottoms up.
It was a perfect night for it, warm with a nice breeze, clear skies. This is one of those deals where you buy food/drink tickets and are a given a sampling glass. This was no little thimble glass too, most of the samples we got were pretty significant
Beer, wines, coolers, cider, spirits, there was a lot of variety, most of it from Ontario. One product that stands out was Victoria Gin, a small family owned business from B.C. As it turns out Collette and I were both gin drinkers in our past and over the years fell out of favour with this spirit. Victoria Gin was good enough to rekindle the romance as it were.
There was live music here and there, stuff to eat, and lots and lots of good stuff to drink. On a pleasant summer night amidst this impressive Victorian architecture what could be better?
Here's a little video, just giving a few highlights of the Distillery. Now I'm going to go wring out my liver. The music is Frank Sinatra. It doesn't exactly go with a massive Industrial Revolution factory, but it was a booze festival, like an extended cocktail hour. Bottoms up.
3 comments:
Where is the Seth Brundle´s warehouse where filmed The Fly???
I believe that scene was actually filmed at the old carpet factory at Dufferin and King
Please, tell me where is located the old carpet factory at Dufferin and King, I want to locate the adress at Google Earth. Thank you!
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