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Distillery District

It may help that it opened a week earlier this year too.

ETA: Probably not. Even though it opened a week earlier this year on Nov. 20, James appears to have gone on Sat., Nov 27 this year. It was open on the weekend last year corresponding to James' visit this year, so the earlier opening probably had no real impact on James' visit.
 
Well, another Christmas Market come and gone, and I have to say they did a much better job this year than last. The extra week, and weekend admission charge seemed to spread out the crowds, so nothing felt too crushed. As a resident/pedestrian - I really didn't feel too effected by anything other than busier sidewalks and a tougher scene on the TTC at rush hour.

Now, I've heard horror stories from other residents about half hour waits trying to get to their parking spots in their respective buildings, and from what I saw, traffic was a real snarl. Thinking ahead though, I'm wondering if perhaps closing Mill St. off to everyone but local traffic, delivery vehicles, TTC/Wheeltrans is the solution. It really seemed to puzzle me as to why everyone seemed to need to be on Mill St., when the best options for parking were North and South of the Distillery itself.

Perhaps paring down Mill St. traffic, in addition to the opening of roads to our east, the King Streetcar loop on Cherry, and whatever is going to happen to the 172 bus linking to Union can best help things next year. Always curious to hear other experiences and possible solutions.

I also know there are some that want the whole thing cancelled, so I'm super interested in hearing why this year was the final straw
 
I didn't manage to make it this year :(

We did have friends who went on a Friday night and left because they said it was just impossible to move, you couldn't see anything, and the line ups were crazy.
 
I went on a Wednesday night and it was pretty good. It was busy, but not elbow-to-the-ribs packed. I was puzzled as to why the Parliament street parking entrance was closed for exit only. I didn't know, and the security dude tried to get me to turn around after I had already entered, but I saw a parking spot just up ahead. Oh well, next year I'll look for the alternate parking entrance.

I was hoping for more food/hot beverage stalls actually.
 
jsmith77 said:
I'm wondering if perhaps closing Mill St. off to everyone but local traffic, delivery vehicles, TTC/Wheeltrans is the solution. It really seemed to puzzle me as to why everyone seemed to need to be on Mill St., when the best options for parking were North and South of the Distillery itself.
Click to expand...

That puzzled me too. Long lines of car snaking along Mill, and along Trinity north of Mill. Why would anyone assume they would find a parking spot there?
 
I went twice. Once on a Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. or so. It was very pleasant in the morning, although the crowds were starting to gather when we were leaving. Then I went this past Sunday evening (the last night), arriving at 4:30 p.m. or so. It's so lovely in the evening with the lights, but jesus those crowds.

There is a spot where Gristmill Lane opens into Trinity Square where they created a massive pinch point through the placement of crowd barriers around the stage area. At least they had a security guy standing there keeping people moving along and yelling at the people who inevitably blocked all the traffic by stopping to take selfies.
 
I visited the market about half a dozen times (I'm in the Distillery on a daily basis) and I think things ran noticeably smoother than previous years in terms of crowd control. People really seemed to enjoy themselves.

The food options were extremely lame, as usual. It's a shame that the restaurant conglomerate running the Distillery food monopoly isn't open to allowing food trucks or outside caterers and vendors, like the ones that show up at the Brickworks farmers market, for instance. It would be a huge improvement to the Christmas market overall versus the dull pseudo-Bavarian heat-lamp buffet pan crap they keep serving year after year.
 
jsmith77 said:
Well, another Christmas Market come and gone, and I have to say they did a much better job this year than last. The extra week, and weekend admission charge seemed to spread out the crowds, so nothing felt too crushed. As a resident/pedestrian - I really didn't feel too effected by anything other than busier sidewalks and a tougher scene on the TTC at rush hour.

Now, I've heard horror stories from other residents about half hour waits trying to get to their parking spots in their respective buildings, and from what I saw, traffic was a real snarl. Thinking ahead though, I'm wondering if perhaps closing Mill St. off to everyone but local traffic, delivery vehicles, TTC/Wheeltrans is the solution. It really seemed to puzzle me as to why everyone seemed to need to be on Mill St., when the best options for parking were North and South of the Distillery itself.

Perhaps paring down Mill St. traffic, in addition to the opening of roads to our east, the King Streetcar loop on Cherry, and whatever is going to happen to the 172 bus linking to Union can best help things next year. Always curious to hear other experiences and possible solutions.

I also know there are some that want the whole thing cancelled, so I'm super interested in hearing why this year was the final straw
Click to expand...

I went to the Christmas Market last year and I thought it was okay -- the decorations and vendors seemed pretty average but the crowd/traffic was unbelievable.
It felt like all of Toronto was trying to squeeze into that area and really turned me off from the idea of buying a condo in that area.

That's good to hear that the admission seems to have helped ease the traffic and congestion. But if I was living there, I may be one of the residents that want the whole thing cancelled as well.
 
I actually don't know any residents who want it cancelled though. In fact, residents get free all-access passes to go into the market on weekends to enjoy the festivities themselves.
 
I went a few times on Friday nights, when it was busy but not thronged. On the last Friday it was open, it was jammed so we skipped it, because I did not actually NEED to buy and eat another stollen.
 
With the craft distillery boom going on in Ontario, have you heard of any actual distilleries moving into the distillery district?
 
Tranquillity said:
With the craft distillery boom going on in Ontario, have you heard of any actual distilleries moving into the distillery district?
Click to expand...

Well, there was this tantalizing building permit that appeared in the City of Toronto database back in January:

http://app.toronto.ca/ApplicationStatus/details.do?folderRsn=3882262

"55 MILL ST: Proposal for multiple projects to covert existing retail space to a distillery. Scope of work includes interior alterations, new entrance door on east elevation and modify west stair and loading dock - "York Distillery". Convenience address is 12 Trinity Street."

I've heard nothing else about it. A distillery in the Distillery District seems like a rather obvious thing for someone to try.
 
PinkLucy said:
Does Mill St. distill there? Or did they?
Click to expand...

Generally Mill St doesn't distill, they brew (and they do the vast majority of that offsite) but technically they did distill for a bit when they first opened the Beer Hall serving something called "beer schnapps." However, rather comically, the one time my wife and I tried it the bartender actually tried to talk us out of it saying bluntly that it wasn't very good. Eventually we shared one little half-ounce glass of the one we were told was the least offensive, and it was not particularly tasty. I don't know if they still have this stuff on the menu -- I haven't been back in a year or more and there's no mention of it on their website menus anymore.
 
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