From what I’ve read, The Wheat Sheaf Tavern, located on the south west corner of Bathurst and King, is the oldest continually operating bar/restaurant in the city. It began operation in 1849, and rumor has it that at one time there was an underground tunnel connecting it to Fort York, [which was built in 1793, and according to the City of Toronto’s website was “the birthplace of urban Toronto. It is best known as the location where the Battle of York came to its violent climax in 1813 during the War of 1812.”] Seems those soldiers wanted access to their suds!
I also seem to recall going there as a teen and seeing an old sign that indicated that women were only welcome in the front room of the tavern … not in the back room where the bar was. Of course this rule would have been in place way back when it was not proper for women to be in a bar.
This spring, The Wheat Sheaf has had scaffolding up all around it for exterior freshening up. It has recently came down and while it looks very nice from the outside, it basically didn’t change much. We were wondering if the inside would have been renovated too. And found upon entering that it had not. Charmingly, there has been no attempt whatsoever to convert this place into something to appeal to the new fancy people who are moving into the neighbourhood in droves. There was an old guy perched on a bar stool and another using the payphone near the door. The waitress was a friendly middle aged women and the food we tried was good pub food. Remarkably good in fact. I had the fish sandwich and Nick had the fish and chips.
I didn’t get a photo of my outfit today … I was wearing a pink shirt over a black tank top. I did however get a picture of my vintage pink purse!
