Hookers To Hipsters? A Walk Across Downtown Toronto From An Infamous Restaurant To A Bohemian Mecca

Added: 2026-06-10

[00:00:05]Hey people, it is Monday, June the 1st.

[00:00:09]Currently 5:20 in the afternoon and a very pleasant 18° C with barely any humidex to speak of. So just a almost ideal perfect spring day here in my opinion.

[00:00:23]I'm on the corner of Jarvis Street and Gerard Street East and I'm right in front of the infamous Hooker Harvey's as it was once known and it still gets referred to that way most of the time.

[00:00:38]So, I'm going to walk from Hooker Harvey's here to Kensington Market and maybe like through Kensington Market to around Bathur Street.

[00:00:57]I'm thinking I'll take Elm Street for part of that route and maybe Baldwin Street through Baldwin Village and then continuing across Spadina into Kensington.

[00:01:25]I have plans to do a live stream afterwards and I thought I'd start that live stream on Bathur Street. So, that's just about the right distance away to get in a walking video. So, I figured why not just bring along the camera.

[00:01:44]Let's see what's going on here on the first day of June.

[00:01:53]May flew by pretty fast.

[00:01:57]Of course, this June is going to be a busy month in the city.

[00:02:03]The World Cup is coming to town and it's also pride month and all sorts of pride festivities take place throughout the month mainly concentrated towards the end of the month where the pride parade is.

[00:02:27]But both of those events are expected to draw in Hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city.

[00:02:44]So you can say this is sort of like the calm before the storm here just at the very beginning of the month.

[00:02:59]It is different.

[00:03:02]All right, we're at church.

[00:03:24]Very nice breeze blowing today.

[00:04:01]Heat.

[00:04:03]Heat.

[00:04:21]Walking past Toronto Metropolitan University, which is mainly to the south of here across the street, but we do have the occasional university related building here on the north side of Gerard Center for Urban Innovation. That's kind of right up my alley.

[00:04:55]One more.

[00:05:01]No one.

[00:05:21]Let me look for rent at the Gerard Residences.

[00:05:26]I think there's a couple of buildings right in this area here.

[00:05:30]>> That are mainly full of university students during the school year, but then in the summer they empty out and you can get really good deals on renting apartments or rooms far below market rates.

[00:06:17]Concord sky is starting to get tall.

[00:06:24]That will eventually be over 300 m, making it a super tall, the city's third super tall.

[00:06:51]All right, Young Street. So, I'm going to head down just a couple of blocks to Elm and then we'll take Elm across downtown almost all the way over to Baldwin Village.

[00:07:16]playing hide and seek.

[00:07:29]Let's walk.

[00:07:39]Guess this is Monday rush hour.

[00:08:07]Elixandy.

[00:08:36]So she has something figured out figuring out what to do.

[00:08:57]All right, let's get away from this madness.

[00:09:07]>> Calm Elm Street here.

[00:09:22]It'll be fun to look back in the future at these videos where I see these skyscrapers under construction.

[00:09:33]I can already do that now with some of my older videos.

[00:09:37]Looking at buildings which have been completed for over 5 years, seeing them as they were under construction.

[00:09:49]Guess the oldest such videos are almost 8 years old now on the channel.

[00:10:00]There's been a lot of changes in 8 years in Toronto and downtown in particular with all the construction that has taken place.

[00:10:21]I'll have a relatively peaceful walk along Elm Street.

[00:10:27]As much as I enjoy the busy rush hour type walks amongst all the crowds, sometimes you feel the need to walk along someplace a bit more serene.

[00:10:45]Little restaurant row.

[00:10:56]>> I was so new.

[00:11:04]This might be the second most notable little restaurant row in the downtown area after the one on King Street, King West.

[00:11:17]And even Baldwin Village, where we're heading, has another little restaurant row area.

[00:11:25]Actually, that one might be second to King Street. This might be third. Of course, most of the main thoroughfairs around downtown are chalk full of restaurants of every type.

[00:11:49]I wouldn't necessarily call those restaurant rows, though.

[00:11:53]It's not quite the same thing.

[00:12:02]All right, we're at Bay Street.

[00:12:23]>> Some random guy yelling in a bus shelter.

[00:12:41]Unfortunately, I don't think I've recorded a single video or stream in the city in recent years where not at least one person wasn't screaming or yelling about something, acting erratically.

[00:13:05]Maybe some of my very early morning walks might be the exception to that when I do the 6 a.m. type walks.

[00:13:24]like shooting with myself yesterday. I didn't see anything today.

[00:13:35]>> All right, crossing Elizabeth Street coming into the hospital area.

[00:13:50]Heat.

[00:13:56]Heat.

[00:14:22]It's so nice in the shade.

[00:14:32]I'm just going to call it now. I think 18° is the perfect temperature.

[00:14:39]>> 18° sunny, but not overly sunny with a nice breeze.

[00:14:51]Maybe a few clouds to break up the sun here and there.

[00:15:18]Heat.

[00:15:19]Heat.

[00:15:37]All right, we're almost at University Avenue.

[00:16:11]I see Terry Fox on that mural over there. I don't think I've noticed that before.

[00:16:19]That's nice to see. Keep going.

[00:16:44]The Grand Avenue downtown here.

[00:16:55]Make sure you have enough time to get across there >> before the light starts changing red on you.

[00:17:06]It used to have eight lanes, four northbound and four southbound lanes.

[00:17:15]We got some old photographs and the right of way is still the same width, but over the years they've reduced the number of actual lanes, added parking and a bike lane. Yeah.

[00:17:46]Heat.

[00:18:06]Bread and bowl, salads and sandwiches.

[00:18:10]A little out of the way spot here.

[00:18:14]Probably gets a lot of business from hospital employees in the area.

[00:18:36]St. Patrick's Street.

[00:18:46]Lots of food delivery bikes here in front of this apartment building.

[00:18:53]Not sure why that is.

[00:19:01]Is this some sort of official headquarters for the food delivery dudes?

[00:19:12]Or is this Toronto's hungriest apartment building?

[00:19:26]Yeah, something is definitely up with this location here all the way around the corner.

[00:19:41]If anyone knows, leave a comment down below.

[00:19:48]I guess those guys have to report to some place.

[00:19:54]I just always thought they just worked via an app.

[00:20:03]Maybe they do.

[00:20:06]All right. This is McCall.

[00:20:19]Maybe they all live in this building.

[00:20:23]Maybe I found where all the food delivery dudes live all together in one apartment building.

[00:20:36]All right, here is Baldwin Village.

[00:20:43]Being a late afternoon on Monday, I wasn't expecting it to be too busy at this time.

[00:20:50]That's a very neat little area.

[00:21:18]I think it's a bit more extensive than the little restaurant row on Elm Street.

[00:21:24]It's not all restaurants either, as you can see.

[00:21:28]It is mainly restaurants.

[00:21:36]say the same about the strip on Elm.

[00:21:38]There's some non restaurants on that little row as well.

[00:21:52]All the patios Congratulations.

[00:22:21]Staying on the shadier side here.

[00:22:35]So, Baldwin Street continues on through Kensington Market up ahead, also cutting through Chinatown along the way.

[00:22:53]Beverly Street where that guy You'll have to know what this car is trying to do.

[00:23:57]Some old gritty housing here.

[00:24:09]These old 19th century era neighborhoods haven't changed much visually.

[00:24:17]since they were built.

[00:24:38]Looks like I'm going to lose my shade here in a few seconds.

[00:24:43]See what it is.

[00:25:00]>> Hello. Hey, how you doing?

[00:25:02]>> Good. Good.

[00:25:03]>> Good. Just recording a little video.

[00:25:06]Yeah, just >> I'm sniping you.

[00:25:08]>> Yeah, I'm recording a video, but I'm going live right after that. So, I got everything ready ready to go for my stream after the video.

[00:25:15]>> Oh, fair enough. That's cool. That's cool.

[00:25:17]>> Yeah. Yeah. So, you just you live around here, right?

[00:25:19]>> Uh, I don't, but my girlfriend does.

[00:25:21]>> Oh, okay. Well, nice meeting you. Hey, nice meeting you.

[00:25:23]>> Continue on.

[00:25:25]>> No, that's sick. I didn't expect to run in yet.

[00:25:27]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:25:28]>> Yeah. We're just out for a stroll.

[00:25:29]>> Cool. You want to live tonight?

[00:25:30]>> Do you want to say hi on my little video here?

[00:25:32]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:25:34]>> It's the green night, everyone.

[00:25:36]>> Yo, what's up, guys? Like, subscribe.

[00:25:37]Can you continue?

[00:25:38]>> Cheers.

[00:25:39]>> All right. Thanks, man.

[00:25:41]man.

[00:25:41]>> Oh, well, nice day. Enjoy.

[00:25:43]>> Yeah, I know.

[00:25:44]>> All right. Later, man. All right. Nice meeting you. See you. Bye.

[00:25:58]That was a Green Night Adventures on YouTube. Another streamer, walktuber, and his girlfriend Katie.

[00:26:09]First time meeting her.

[00:26:43]All right, Spedina.

[00:26:52]Actually, now that I think about it, I think Green Knight lives in the Parkdale area, sort of west end.

[00:27:03]That's where he does most of his streams. Also around the west end late at night walking through laneways.

[00:27:28]Just walk across the street car right away.

[00:27:35]Oh, traffic coming. That's convenient.

[00:27:52]And Baldwin Street continues here.

[00:28:02]>> And we get the shade back.

[00:28:05]Much better.

[00:28:20]The jerk spot.

[00:28:22]It's like the jerk store from Seinfeld.

[00:28:28]>> Got to make sure you don't get a copyright claim walking through here.

[00:28:31]It's pretty much something you have to contend with every time you walk through Kensington.

[00:28:42]Laboos.

[00:28:47]Guess that's the place to go if you're into the Laboo craze.

[00:28:56]I didn't even know that was a thing until >> about 6 months ago.

[00:29:01]>> Maybe this is good news for you.

[00:29:12]>> All right, let's get around the people.

[00:29:20]A little alleyway there for fruit.

[00:29:40]down Kensington Avenue.

[00:29:44]>> All right, now put whole feet on your butt.

[00:29:52]Was it lunch?

[00:30:13]>> Some cops walking the beat. You don't see that too often. Actually, they're walking their bikes. Well, at least one of them is on the bike beat.

[00:30:33]Hey, I hear some beetles coming from there.

[00:30:37]Little bit of Here comes the sun as I'm about to walk back into the sun here. Leaving the shade.

[00:30:54]All >> right. Now, this is Augusta. Tell everyone to come and everyone's there. I don't know. I didn't >> have like three main drags.

[00:31:03]>> Augusta here, Baldwin, which we just walked on, and Kensington, which we briefly looked down, and a bunch of other little lesser streets. Ma Nassau is up ahead. That's actually what I'm going to take as we continue west.

[00:31:28]>> Remember I saw the the the girl Remy >> on the video call?

[00:31:33]>> Yeah, >> last time.

[00:31:35]>> One thing that you >> definitely notice every time you walk through here is the aromomas coming from every nook and cranny.

[00:31:46]Some good aromomas, some bad aromas.

[00:31:51]>> Some aromomas you're not too sure whether they're good or bad.

[00:31:56]Maybe a little bit of both.

[00:32:09]>> Got Aussies over there.

[00:32:13]Paul's Boutique over here.

[00:32:19]Whatever your musical tastes are, there's a place named after it.

[00:32:30]Back into the shade.

[00:32:43]This is a big honking vehicle here.

[00:32:50]I find it hard to believe that the owner of this lives in Toronto, let alone downtown Toronto.

[00:32:58]Most often times if I see a big truck like that, I'll look at the license plate and see if there's a dealership listed. And most of the times when there are, it's a dealership that is not in Toronto.

[00:33:14]places like Berry, >> Orangeville.

[00:33:23]>> Hey, you got something up for grabs here.

[00:33:54]All right. So, we're kind of leaving Kensington behind. This is still technically part of the neighborhood of Kensington Market, but busy area is mostly behind us.

[00:34:09]>> Got this little yard sale here.

[00:34:18]>> What is this? Your GoPro?

[00:34:20]>> Yeah, just a little video.

[00:34:20]>> It up. Let's go. Yo, let's do the episode right now.

[00:34:23]>> Let's go. Yo, popping at the >> guy right now. Kensington Market.

[00:34:28]>> We're at Kensington Market.

[00:34:29]>> The end of the market. You know, there's there's these people that are having garage sales. It's going crazy. You know, I'm looking at the glasses. You know, they got >> Oh, wow.

[00:34:40]>> You know, I tried them on and like they were my prescription, right?

[00:34:45]>> Trade these.

[00:34:47]>> Oh, trying to do some some bartering.

[00:34:49]Yeah.

[00:34:50]>> Some ones.

[00:34:52]>> It's all good, you know.

[00:34:54]>> Well, keep looking. Keep looking. Maybe you'll uh get a good a good score.

[00:34:59]>> What is that? Wilson bag, right? That's like good for sports and thing.

[00:35:02]>> Yeah.

[00:35:03]>> See, >> got some shades here.

[00:35:05]>> Yeah, man. Some shades, some jewelry.

[00:35:07]Even these shades, bro. You might run into some gold. You never know, right?

[00:35:11]>> You never know.

[00:35:16]>> Well, all the best. Hope you find something, you know, go home with a good treasure. Yeah.

[00:35:21]>> Yeah. Yeah. For sure.

[00:35:23]>> All right. Cheers. Yo, it's dawn of the morning. You know, live in the city.

[00:35:27]Keep keep six. Keep watching.

[00:35:29]>> Keep on keeping on. All right. Later.

[00:35:30]>> Yeah.

[00:35:37]>> And Bathroom Street right up ahead. That was a fun way to kind of wrap up the walk.

[00:35:45]So, I'm going to start to wrap up the walk. As I just said a second ago, I hope you enjoyed my little journey from the east side to the west side of downtown. Starting at the infamous Hooker Harvey's at Gerard and Jarvis and just making my way over to Young, getting a taste of rush hour on Young and then taking Elm Street all the way to Baldwin Village.

[00:36:19]And continuing along Baldwin through Kensington Market, finishing off here on Nassau.

[00:36:29]The new hospital expansion underway, right by Alleycat Lane here, right before Bathurst Street. So, I hope you enjoyed.

[00:36:41]Leave a comment down below. Let me know your thoughts. Be sure to like, share, and subscribe if you haven't already done so. That is I wasn't lying. Alleycat Lane.

[00:36:56]Make sure you hit that notification bell also. That way, you won't miss any of my videos. If you'd like to support the channel, there are links in the description where you can do so via PayPal as well as via my merch store. Or you can also support the channel by becoming a channel member or by sending a super thanks if you prefer. And you can find me on Instagram also under K Continual.

[00:37:18]So, thanks for watching and thanks to all the channel members.

[00:37:25]Let's get back in the shade and be sure to keep checking back because as always, I will continue.

[00:37:40]Where am I? There I am.

[00:37:42]And we'll continue