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Keeping Warm in Gay Toronto
By Andrew Collins

One of the largest cities in North America, Toronto also endures some of the continent's coldest winters, with temperatures averaging 15 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Unless you love navigating icy sidewalks and donning layers of clothes, you might not think of Toronto as a great winter destination. But this stately city with a world-class queer scene has plenty to offer even when temperatures dip below freezing.

It helps that city planners built a vast network of tunnels beneath downtown, many containing shops and eateries, and created an efficient, user-friendly mass-transit system. Winter is also rife with hotel bargains and typically without long lines for queer discos, museum exhibitions, and other events that can be packed during the summer high season. And if you're visiting from the United States, keep in mind the favorable exchange rate - $1.00 Canadian is equal to about 65 cents U.S.

From noshing on delicious food to holing up with your sweetie in a romantic inn, taking the chill off Toronto's frigid winters can be awfully fun. Here are seven great ways to enjoy yourself.

1. Hit the museums.

The immense Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) contains enough fascinating material to keep you engaged for hours - even days. Highlights include the dinosaur collection, a tremendous assemblage of Roman artifacts, the fifth largest textile collection in the world, a highly regarded gallery of Chinese art and antiquities, and the ancient Egypt gallery. Another place to lose yourself for hours is the esteemed Art Gallery of Ontario, which hosts several exceptional exhibitions each year and includes the Henry Moore Sculpture Centre, an impressive wing devoted to Canadian painting, and works by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Picasso, and Degas.

Imelda Marcos' shoe closet may have garnered more attention, but Toronto's Bata Shoe Museum is Valhalla for footwear fetishists. All displays are devoted exclusively to footwear, tracing its evolution since ancient times. Although not a museum per se, the CN (Canadian National) Tower, whose 1,465-foot-high Space Deck is the tallest observation platform in the world, is a must-visit on clear days or evenings.

2. Shop till your heart's content at Eaton Centre.

Shopaholics should make a beeline for the mammoth, 3-million-square-foot Eaton Centre, an amazingly comprehensive survey of middle- to high-end shops and restaurants. If you're a real die-hard, stay at the 18-floor Marriott Toronto Eaton Centre, a lavish, upscale hotel with cushy furnishings; it's connected to the mother ship via an indoor hallway.

3. Catch a show.

Toronto boasts the third-largest theater scene in the English-speaking world (behind only London and New York); in just 40 years, the number of professional theaters has grown from two to more than 200. For the latest on what's playing, log onto the Toronto Theatre Alliance website, www.theatreintoronto.com, which also has links to T.O. Tix (a half-price-ticket finder). Full-price tickets normally go for $20 to $30 (CDN) but can cost considerably more for top musicals and less for smaller-scale performances.

4. Plan a romantic dinner.

Superb restaurants abound in nearly every Toronto neighborhood, including the Gay Village, centered around the intersection of Church and Wellesley streets, where the sleek Cafe Blu serves creative pizzas, light panini sandwiches, and other sophisticated but affordable Italian fare. You can chill after your meal with a dish of authentic Italian gelato. This sexy space with back-lit blue walls and low-slung mod furnishings is also a visual feast of well-dressed dykes and fags. Relatively nearby - in the Danforth neighborhood, which is best known for its outstanding Greek restaurants - you'll find the city's gay-friendliest Irish pub, Allen's. It's a lovely and affordable spot for sampling imported ales and whiskies, famously delicious french fries, and stick-to-your-ribs meat pies, stews, and other Celtic treats.

Few restaurants outside the Iberian Peninsula serve better Portuguese fare than Chiado, where velvet armchairs, warm-golden walls, and starched linens lend a dignified air. The food is authentic and sophisticated - from rabbit braised in Madeira wine to poached salt cod - and the staff charming. Toronto has a wealth of superb Asian eateries, among them Susur, an austere dining room in which celeb-chef Susur Lee's artful creations take center stage. The ultimate way to enjoy dinner here is by ordering the spectacular eight-course tasting menu - at about $100 (CDN) per person, it's a very special treat.

5. Get down and dirty at a dance club.

Toronto's Gay Village has dozens of queer bars, including a handful with lively dance floors. The premier lesbian hangout is Pope Joan (open Friday and Saturday), which occupies an attractive redbrick building a short walk east of Church Street. It encompasses a snazzy dance space, a basement pool hall and lounge, and a theater for live music and cabaret. Another weekends-only venue, Fly feels like a big circuit party, with its buffed crowd, high-energy music, and many lounges and dance spaces. _Queer as Folk_ often films here (the show, though set in Pittsburgh, is shot mostly in Toronto).

The Barn/Stables bills itself a leather-and-Levi disco, but the crowd is actually quite eclectic. There are three floors, the second being the most popular, with a dark, action-packed dance floor. One of the best hangouts outside the Gay Village, El Convento Rico draws a mostly Latin and mostly gay but increasingly varied crowd. It's a beautiful basement space with a nice-sized dance floor and ample seating from which to take in the festive cabaret and drag shows.

6. Get even more down and dirty at a sauna.

In a city whose name means "meeting place" in the indigenous Huron language, it's not surprising that "hooking up" is a favorite activity in the gay community. Several bathhouses here act as clean and relatively safe "meeting places," the darling of bathhouse aficionados being Spa Excess, a relatively new, four-story playground with a friendly staff. Bathhouses are not just for men in Toronto - Pussy Palace Toronto is an organization that sponsors and staffs occasional women-only events (which also welcome transgender people) at area bathhouses normally open only to the guys. These evenings are scheduled rather erratically - check the Palace's website for details.

7. Book a room at a cozy inn.

Perhaps nothing takes the nip off a chilly night better than snuggling under the covers with your honey in a big bed at an inviting inn. A particularly romantic, gay-friendly place for this is the Gloucester Square Bed & Breakfast, which comprises three century-old properties, each within a five-minute walk of Church Street bars and eateries. These meticulously restored mansions contain every creature comfort, from in-room DSL ports to tip-top concierge service to luxurious massage sessions, body wraps, and mud baths at the inn's small but impressively equipped spa. This is Toronto's classiest inn, gay or straight. And who wouldn't like an inn with the motto, "Sleep with Friends"?

A more affordable Gay Village inn, the restored, 1894 House on McGill occupies a quiet, tree-lined side street. Each of the six rooms is themed around (and named for) a color (blue, green, yellow, etc.). Furnishings are surprisingly lavish for accommodations so inexpensively priced, though all units have shared baths. But if you don't mind this, the House on McGill offers a wonderfully warm and cozy way to experience Toronto without facing the chill of a high tariff.