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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 />

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