Bar None

Wednesday night, I headed over to Houndstooth at College and Ossington. This bar existed briefly in Chinatown before taking over a former Portuguese bar (Carlos) that closed in 2013 (briefly replaced by Lifetime Sports Bar until 2015). I remembered the old clientele since I've often wondered how did the mostly male, mostly older locals choose which side-by-side Portuguese bar (Carlos or Rosa Branca) to patronize. Rosa Branca is still around for those men but it was obvious Houndstooth is catering to a young, white crowd looking for a cheap dive.

Before the pandemic, I thought the new joint wouldn't last long even if it had an espresso bar during the day. But either word finally got out or the street patio program was a blessing because Houndstooth has filled up since then. It was amusing to see two different groups hanging out next to other. Lately, the owners even got around the ban on live music by having bands played inside while they angled the speakers out the window. Now with indoor concerts allowed at reduced capacity, you could sit inside.

Tonight was a different vibe with Emilie Mover doing a solo set. Given the noisy, more punk shows played here, I wondered how she will be received. Rather wonderfully, as it turned out. There were a few chatty folks at the back near the pool table and arcade games, but the really talkative ones stayed outside on the wooden benches. The rest of us enjoyed her great fretwork and dulcet voice on some old tunes (Be So Blind, Out of Shape, Alex) and some new ones (New York City, Water, Paradise). The latter song was dedicated to her new love who, Mover informed the crowd, she won over after chasing after him in spite of advice columns and internet posts. Appropriate for this location's past, she played a fast Chuve Chova. Townes van Zandt's Only Him or Me made an excellent closer but at the crowd's urging, Mover played as an encore Walking Through. She quipped that this song, being used in an Amazon commercial ("Alexa, play some morning music"), paid for her pandemic period.

Unlike the recent show at Monarch Tavern, there was no attempt to check vaccination receipts or do crowd management. This is likely the situation going forward as we get back to "normal". So I hope we get those vaccination numbers up. In any case, Emilie Mover is my favourite singer/songwriter. Given how rare her appearances are, and usually only in Toronto or NYC, this could be the last time I see her live. So kudos to Houndstooth for an excellent sound mix tonight.