Brunswick House (Toronto)

He used proceeds from selling land he owned on Chestnut Street to assemble a package of properties on which the construction of the Brunswick House began in 1874.

The hotel originally served early immigrants, wagoners, and labourers who were in need of lodging, food, drink, and a place to stable their horses.

The downstairs of the tavern, nicknamed 'Pickle Alley", held pickle eating contests, the Mrs. Brunswick pageant, and was known for its often eccentric regular entertainers, catering to an older working class crowd.

[2] By the 1970s and 1980s, the upstairs room, known as Albert's Hall after Albert Nightingale, became known as a venue for jazz and the blues in particular, and played host to musicians such as Blossom Dearie, Cab Calloway, Gordon Lightfoot, Oscar Peterson, Muddy Waters, Loretta Lynn, the Climax Jazz Band, Downchild, Blind John Davis, Dr. McJazz, Etta James, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, Jeff Healey, k.d.

Its mixture of bluegrass music, jazz and blues led the Brunswick House to be rated one of the top 10 bars in the world by Newsweek in 1986.

[2] The building was purchased by Joe Badali and Dennis Rawlinson in the 1980s, by which time it had become largely known as a student bar catering to the University of Toronto.

The much larger back area had consisted of concrete floors with benches next to long wooden tables, which the bouncers would walk on top of to quickly reach the many fights.

One of the best known fixtures was "Rockin' Irene", an elderly woman who would perform old bar songs and raunchy tunes much to the delight of the drunk patrons.

Seixeiro's influence has brought 16 types of poutine to the menu & a late-night sampler called the Rob Ford "Crack of Dawn Munchy Madness.