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Digital Archiving Completed by the Ethnography Lab, A University of Toronto Anthropology Initiative<br />
and Produced in Collaboration with David Perlman/Wholenote Media Inc between July-December 2015.<br />
The Kensington Market Drum, <strong>Nov</strong>ember <strong>1990</strong><br />
The Heart of<br />
Saturday Night.<br />
Nancy Harvey, Doug<br />
Macfarlane and Colin Puffer<br />
After listening to an old<br />
Tom Waits album the Drum<br />
staff decided that Market<br />
residents needed a deep<br />
analysis of Kensington's varied<br />
billiard parlours. The<br />
first billiards championship<br />
of Upper Canada was held in<br />
Toronto in 1864. Experts<br />
aren't sure whether it took<br />
place at Eddie's, Spadina<br />
Billiards or possibly even<br />
K.C.'s. So, on a damp Saturday<br />
night, 3 Drummers<br />
grabbed their cues and headed<br />
out to shoot a few games<br />
and report their findings to<br />
the community. ·<br />
The Criteria<br />
We decided to look at each<br />
pool hall under various headings;<br />
number of tables, cost,<br />
quality of capuccino, snacks<br />
etc.<br />
Tivoli Billiards<br />
(268 Augusta)<br />
Conveniently located<br />
across from a laundromat,<br />
The Tivoli is the perfect<br />
place to shoot a few games<br />
while the clothes are in the<br />
washer. Almost always<br />
crowded, The Tiv has the<br />
feeling of a private men's<br />
club. The only woman inside<br />
during our game was The<br />
Drum researcher.<br />
The Tivoli boasts - 14<br />
pooi/snooker tables and 2<br />
billiards tables, all well lit,<br />
with plenty of straight cues,<br />
chalk and talc available at<br />
each table. Great capuccinos<br />
and espressos were delivered<br />
promptly to our tables and<br />
the bar (non-alcoholic- none<br />
of the visited halls is<br />
licensed) was stocked with<br />
soft drinks, gum, chips,<br />
cigarettes, muffins and meat<br />
sandwiches. The men's washroom<br />
was pretty clean but<br />
the women's loo was in need<br />
of some attention.<br />
If you just want to soak up<br />
atmosphere you can sit at the<br />
bar and watch TV, play<br />
video games or have a bash<br />
on one of the beautiful old<br />
fooseball tables.<br />
Tivoli Billiards is open ·<br />
from 8 to 1 a.m. Monday<br />
through Saturday and 8 'til<br />
midnight Sunday. You can<br />
1,UT1,i F'll1,1';<br />
Famous Foods<br />
World wide deli imports<br />
and chinese products<br />
• Coffee Beans<br />
• Cheese<br />
• Chocolate<br />
• Smoked Fish & Meat<br />
• Dry Fruits<br />
• Dry Nuts<br />
• Caviar<br />
Under New<br />
Management<br />
64 Kensington Ave.<br />
Toronto Ont. MST 2Kl<br />
593-9281<br />
rent a table for ortly $3.00 an<br />
hour.<br />
Eddy's Bilrlards .<br />
(294A College)<br />
The first thing you notice<br />
when you enter Eddie's iS the<br />
stamp of flamenco coming<br />
from Don Quixote next door.<br />
.The crowd at Eddie's is quite<br />
a bit younger than at the<br />
Tivoli and there were even a<br />
few women playing pool, one<br />
of the many video games,<br />
fooseball, or watching TV.<br />
The capuccino was deemed<br />
better than the espresso and<br />
the bar offered a selection of<br />
nuts, soup, cigarettes, beef<br />
patties and even Perrier<br />
water. Rules of play<br />
appeared to vary a bit here.<br />
Instead of having t.o keep one<br />
foot on the floor it seemed<br />
you had to have at least one<br />
·foot on the table to make a<br />
legal shot.<br />
Eddie's has 8 pool tables, 6<br />
snooker tables and a billiards<br />
table, all reasonably well lit.<br />
There were good cues, chalk<br />
at the table and baby powder<br />
available at the bar. The<br />
washrooms were functional.<br />
This parlour opens at 11<br />
a.m. every day and closes at 1<br />
a.m, except Friday and Saturday<br />
when it stays open until 4<br />
a.m. Tables here cost $3.20 an<br />
hour,<br />
Spadina Bnliards<br />
(468 Spadina Ave.)<br />
A proper pool hall should<br />
have cigarette smoke swirling<br />
over the tables and Spadina<br />
Billiards was the only place<br />
visited that did well in this<br />
category. There was no<br />
capuccino or espresso but we<br />
were so buzzed on caffeine<br />
from all our sampling that we<br />
didn't care. The bar, tended<br />
by a friendly owner served up<br />
the usual fare: pop, patties,<br />
chips - and cigarettes.<br />
Here, the,re was by far the<br />
best selection of video games,<br />
a fooseball game and, mercifully<br />
(the Leafs were getting<br />
creamed again), no TV.<br />
Spadina Billiards appears<br />
to be a popular place and<br />
almost all of the 8 snooker<br />
and 3 pool tables (well and<br />
evenly lit) were in use. The<br />
women's washroom was<br />
locked so it was maybe a little<br />