Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrewjm3D
I can only name 2 suburban restaurants (Hooters and East Sides)in the entertainment district and about 50 none chain independent ones. If by entertainment you mean night clubs that are only open 2-3 nights a week then yes that is dieing off but there is so much more to do in the entertainment district then just get drunk and dance to bad euro trance. Toronto's Entertainment District is morphing into a real neighborhood and not just somewhere young people can get drunk and stupid.
I don't like to assume but I'm going to guess you're not from Toronto, if you were you would know the bar scene has gotten much better here over the last few years. Perhaps the night clubs have been dieing off but the demographics here no longer support them.
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East Side Mario's is at Front and Simcoe. I'd be a bit of a stretch to include that area in the Entertainment District.
Anyway, there's also Boston Pizza, Milestones and Jack Astor's, but like Hooters, they're all regulated to John Street (along with the Chapters and the Scotiabank Theatre). There is indeed a lot of chain-retail along that strip, but that's really only a small portion of the Entertainment District, which has slowly expanded to the King West neighbourhood over the last few years, as the area around John & Richmond has gentrified.
It kind of reminds me of Queen West. These days you'll notice a lot of suburban chain retail among the bars and independent shops, such as H&M, Le Chateau, Lululemon and Lush. Accordingly a lot of the independent retailers have moved into West Queen West, which is now teeming with boutiques, galleries and the like.
It's typical. As areas become hip and trendy, rents increase and big name retailers move in to capitalize on the cachet. The smaller, independent ones then migrate over to the next neighbourhood, which in turn becomes trendy, starting the whole cycle over again. What's left behind is ideally a nice mix of chain and independent retail.
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