Those were the days, my friends

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

There's a terrific barber shop in the Walper Hotel in Downtown Kitchener. The "updated" stations (powder blue formica!) date back to the 1950s, the original mosaic floors date back to the 1890s. The hotel is also home to the Walper Tobacco Shop, which claims to be the oldest such in Canada, also dating back to the 1890s.

There has been a resurgence in barber shops in Moncton over the last few years, partly because of a successful legal fight between the barbers and the hair stylists association in NB. For about two decades, anyone involved in barbering had to sit the hair stylist examinations, which was absurd, because that had nothing to do with giving a guy a decent hair cut. Since their suit was finally settled, barbers are making a comeback, but it isn't the same. Most barber shops in the city are non traditional, and offer other services like tattoos as well. The owners are all young and hip. There may still be one traditional barber shop left in the city on St George St.

[JHikka]

Moncton needs to get on the hipster train of barber shops offering beer and other nonsense. I feel like Uptown Saint John is on the cusp of too many of them opening soon.

[Marty_Mcfly]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Moncton needs to get on the hipster train of barber shops offering beer and other nonsense. I feel like Uptown Saint John is on the cusp of too many of them opening soon.

Tide and Boar has beer under control. It was so small batch size that they'd tap a keg, I'd get a pint, and by the time I was ready for another they'd be out of that beer. Essentially homebrew scale at a restaurant.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

There's nothing depressing about dumps, they're fun.

Every neighbourhood here has its own shitty little local. Mine is the Peter Easton.

It is sometimes this:



But it's often this:

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And that's fine. It's fun. It's community. You get to know Barb the milfy bartender, and Andy the ripped skeet bartender who still uses a flip-phone and says "pussy" in casual conversation. That's part of being alive.

Thanks for this. You understand the simple pleasures that are...the spice of life.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Barber Shops!!!



They virtually don't exist any more. They've been replaced of course by hair styling salons, but when I was growing up, they were dens for men. Men would go to barber shops just as much to talk about baseball and hockey as they would to get a trim. They were a manly getaway.

Not any more..........

Ranks with the Tavern as a long-lost bastion of working-class male camaraderie.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

here is one to get started. Remember Taverns (appropriate given the Mary Hopkins song), that staple of working-class Montreal? No women permitted? Pickled eggs and perhaps, pickled pork tongues?

I'm guessing this one's from the 60's or 70's. There's a nautical kitsch themed pub in Dartmouth called Ship Victory which is dedicated to the HMS Victory. It is still there:


http://theshipvictory.ca/

Inside it has a wheel, rigging, cannons, etc. Two-for-one haddock on Mondays for $10.98! They also have breaded clams and breaded scallops, something you don't really see in pub menus farther west. Shellfish used to be cheap stuff.

[MonctonRad]

The best tavern by far in Halifax was the previous iteration of the Midtown Tavern. I went there quite frequently when I was in med school, mostly on Fridays after the end of classes. Good beer, great steak and tabletop shuffleboard!!!



Good memories.

They tore it down for the new Nova Centre (Halifax convention centre & hotel). I haven't been to the new (relocated) Midtown though. Is it still good???

[someone123]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

They tore it down for the new Nova Centre (Halifax convention centre & hotel). I haven't been to the new (relocated) Midtown though. Is it still good???

I haven't been to either incarnation of the Midtown. The old one had been there since 1949. It's now one of many restaurants in that area that cater to the late night crowd.

There are a lot of restaurants I'm a bit nostalgic about from when I was a kid but I'm not sure they'd hold up today, or if the ones that are still around are as good as they were. Another example is the Bluenose II restaurant on Hollis Street. It has apparently undergone gentrification; no more backlit white plastic sign:


http://www.teenaintoronto.com/2016/0...alifax-ns.html

Other similar places were Athens and Sparta on Quinpool Road, King of Donair (various locations), and Chickenburger out in Bedford. A lot of the greasy spoon restaurants in Halifax are either Greek or Lebanese.

Willman's Fish and Chips in the Hydrostone area has been there since 1946, but it's another local institution I've never visited. John's Lunch is supposed to be good too. Maybe next trip.

[ScreamingViking]

Paddy Greene's, in west Hamilton (Westdale, not far east of McMaster U.)
It was taken down in 1984, and replaced by this: https://goo.gl/maps/2nE1jZ5BJS92

While it was demolished about 5 years before I hit 'legal age', I do recall it well. And especially the separate men's and women's entrances that were a legacy from yesteryear.


Source


Source


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[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Did people really eat pickled eggs?

Still do. Not sure about the bar-top jars in pubs, but Strub's makes them for sale in grocery stores. They're not bad, in moderation.


Blah-Blahs and their subsidiaries sell 'em, and I see them at Longo's where I shop in my town.


But I wonder how many Luke could have downed.

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[Architype]

And, you shouldn't have this thread without understanding this song's significance.

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This TV series is very much the way things were, but would never be able to exist today. Those from today's generation may never understand it. Have we really come a long way, baby?

[niwell]

Originally Posted by Brizzy82

Ahh memories.

I can still picture the Electric Circus dancers in the windows

I miss Rap City/ DaMix and The DownLo the most. I miss Namugenyi Kiwanuka

That was the most convenient pic I could find, and one of my good friends knows Srombo well, butttt..... Master T was the best!

Originally Posted by Architype

^ Would love a beer with each haircut. I'm not sure it's legal though.

I get beer at my barbershop in Parkdale. Gotta pay for the beer but it's a pretty reasonable price for a cut.

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

The best tavern by far in Halifax was the previous iteration of the Midtown Tavern. I went there quite frequently when I was in med school, mostly on Fridays after the end of classes. Good beer, great steak and tabletop shuffleboard!!!



Good memories.

They tore it down for the new Nova Centre (Halifax convention centre & hotel). I haven't been to the new (relocated) Midtown though. Is it still good???

I was there a few times in the late 1970's. I wouldn't say that the food (mostly steak and beer) was the best, but it was certainly the cheapest and that it why it was so popular.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Ranks with the Tavern as a long-lost bastion of working-class male camaraderie.

I would have said that barber shops transcended class.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

Paddy Greene's, in west Hamilton (Westdale, not far east of McMaster U.)
It was taken down in 1984, and replaced by this: https://goo.gl/maps/2nE1jZ5BJS92

While it was demolished about 5 years before I hit 'legal age', I do recall it well. And especially the separate men's and women's entrances that were a legacy from yesteryear.

....

In Ontario, those separate entrances (men and ladies/escorts) led to separate rooms.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by fenwick16

I was there a few times in the late 1970's. I wouldn't say that the food (mostly steak and beer) was the best, but it was certainly the cheapest and that it why it was so popular.

Probably true, but I was a starving medical student at the time (lots of mac & cheese), and steak of any kind was a treat - even better if it was cheap!!!

I hung around the Midtown intermittently from 1979-84. The other thing I liked about the place is how it was a meeting place for people from all walks of life - university students, downtown office workers and blue collar types from the waterfront.

[Brizzy82]

a trip down memory lane, Winnipeg style




Warehouse district, 1920s


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Winnipeg 1950s


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Portage Ave (1960s)


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Gold Coach Lounge on Kennedy St


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Beachcomber at the Sheraton Carlton


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Swizzle-sticks from old Winnipeg establishments



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Near Portage & Main (1960s)


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Portage Ave (1960)


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Portage Ave (1960s)


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Central Billiard Room, Main St (1960s)


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Hunky Bill's Winnipeg Soul Food


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Market Square (1961)


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Mcdermot Ave (1962)


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Memorial Blvd, 1966


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Mcintyre Block, 1959

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Steinbach > Okotoks


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Looking South from City Hall, 1965


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[ssiguy]

I miss Simpson'! There was a great one in downtown London right at Dundas & Richmond in the heart of the city.

Back in the 60s & 70s the middle class was so much larger. Any household with 2 breadwinners were automatically middle class had a nice home and 2 cars in the garage even with 3 or 4 kids. They didn't both have to go to school for 5 years to enjoy the benefit of a one bedroom condo. Many younger people equate more gadgets with a higher standard of living but don't realize how much worse off they are than the people were in the 60s & 70s.

[Black Star]

Originally Posted by Xelebes

The old prairie coffee-houses, often named simply "Koffee Korner". Part coffee-house, part diner, part bar. Bakeries still exist with their offerings of coffee, but it's not the same.

Often built like this but dotted in villages.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@53.55983...2!8i6656?hl=en

My dads old hangout.....good find.

[niwell]

I remember going to Rotate This in Toronto when it was located on Queen St on visits in the late 90s / early 2000s. Queen W got seriously sketchy once you got past Spadina. Lots of inexplicable "appliance stores" and way more down and out people than there are now. I first walked through Parkdale in 2005 and it was a different world than now, although still not really dangerous.