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Friday, August 17, 2007

Psychic Reading with your Morning Java??





The following article was published in The Toronto Star. Fun things to do in Toronto before 8am.


DAYBREAK DIARY

TheStar.com - entertainment - The city that's still asleep

The city that's still asleep

In which our intrepid reporter ventures out at sunrise to prove that, yes, there is life after dawn

Aug 16, 2007 04:30 AM


Staff Reporter

Words to live by at 6:20 in the morning: "Just don't go out wearing no underwear."

A man who calls himself Smiley, lithe with a natty braid stretching down his back, delivered this advice to no one in particular as he feigned a stumble through the front door of Vesta Lunch. It's a 24-hour truck stop at Bathurst and Dupont Sts., notorious for its surly wait staff, crusty clientele and vinyl bar stools.

"How are ya? I'm drunk," he says. "I'm kidding. Gimme a coffee." He plunks himself down at a stool near mine and snarls in my direction.

There it is: my initiation into the world of early-morning Toronto – a world shrouded in semi-darkness, with idling garbage trucks, the odd jogger darting between fluorescent street signs and people who lurk in laneways or pontificate like Smiley.

I blink in his direction, but glance past him through Vesta's floor-to-ceiling windows. The scene outside resembles a ghost town: Cars streak across the empty road. Traffic lights chirp for no one. It's quiet – even a bit eerie when the pulse of the city isn't thumping.

This is the first day of my hunt to find out what's on in this city between 6 and 9 a.m. as the subway squeals into motion and most locals hit the snooze button. The challenge is to pinpoint activities that don't include wandering aimlessly, praying or exercising.

Toronto's a bustling metropolis by day, but it was a chore to find quality leisure activities that fire up in the post-dawn hours. Cricket fanatics like to hit the pitch before 9 a.m., but most clubs are members only. Toronto spas open fashionably late, so manicures are out of the question. Forget about champagne and orange juice at 6 a.m. – the Four Seasons won't even serve fancy alcohol before noon. And gambling? Hustlers usually sleep in. But there are slots at Woodbine, which are open 24/7.

Many activities are unpredictable. After-hours clubs promise to be packed past dawn, but doors often shut early, with no warning. A handwritten note tacked to the entrance of a 24-hour bowling alley greeted me at 7 a.m. one morning, explaining the place was closed because of an "emergency."

On the upside, the sidewalks outside Toronto's many bakeries fill with the smell of fresh bread and coffee is plentiful.

My first stop, after wrenching myself from slumber at 5:45 a.m. this morning, was Caffé Brasiliano on Dundas St. W. It opens at 5:30. The espresso machine screeches to life, sending a jolt of noise through the café. Some patrons perk up and nod in mutual fatigue.

Plumber Jonathan Fernandez and other labourers, all calloused hands, work boots and lunch pails, sip from miniature espresso cups, outside. It's a daily ritual.

"It's always the same people in here," Fernandez, 21, says. "We're like robots."

So are early morning exercisers. An aerobics class at Extreme Fitness at Bay and Bloor Sts. is packed.

"Knees up," yells the instructor. "Keep moving."

Everyone's bouncing like a bunny on crack, but there's a camaraderie as they shed their fatigue. It's as if they share a secret, an ownership of this more efficient, quiet world.

The light strikes me when I leave the gym. And I'm shocked, almost angered, to join a sidewalk teeming with fast-walking pedestrians.

Late risers. Who do they think they are?

Where to live it up while everyone else is waking up

A handful of early-morning sites we visited on our week-long quest:


Comfort Zone, 480 Spadina Ave.

No klub kidz waving light sticks. No one barfing on the sidewalk. I'm disappointed. It's 6 a.m. and The Comfort Zone is closed. Manager Jose swore the after-hours club, open past 6 a.m. Friday to Monday, would be jumping, but I arrived to find the doors padlocked shut. Reliability before 9 a.m.? I think not.


Metro Golf Dome, 125 Milner Ave.

Feel like swinging a metal object before your morning coffee? It takes 15 minutes to get from downtown Toronto to Scarborough at 6 a.m., where I round into the only driving range that caters to golfers jonesing for an early-morning swing. The green's already carpeted with golf balls and the air's thick with Type-A tension. Golf's a serious, take-no-prisoners game, even at 7 a.m. "Sorry, can't talk, few more swings, then gotta go," one golfer says.


CAFfÉ BRASILIANO, 851 Dundas St. W.

A few patrons flop limply in booths at the back of the restaurant, and jolt upright when the espresso machine comes to life. The dimly lit space gets busier by the second. Owner Ken Connors is chipper, but not in an annoying way. "You're not gonna find anything around here that's open at 6 a.m.," he says of downtown Toronto. No one gets up that early – except him. "You become a morning person when you're in this business."


Bowlarama West, 5429 Dundas St. W.

Narrow windows surrounding the front door reveal a lights-off but lively bowling alley with all the charm the sport has to offer– moulded plastic benches, flashing lights, win-a-prize kiosks, shoe rental, snack bar. That's why it's extra disappointing to find the doors of this 24-hour joint, inside a strip mall, shut at 7 a.m. A handwritten note taped to the door explains the alley is closed due to "emergency."


Vesta Lunch, 474 Dupont St.

This 24-hour truck stop at Bathurst and Dupont Sts. never fails to amuse. One patron slumps over the counter. Another cracks wise about coffee with waiter Manuel Cornejo, 24, who says there's a steady stream of customers in the early morning even if it doesn't get too busy.


Jet Fuel, 519 Parliament St.

The stainless steel bar is swarmed with patrons, bleary-eyed and in desperate need of this high-octane coffee. The barista can hardly keep up with demand. I smack a handful of change down on the counter, plunge a few spoons of sugar into my tall to-go cup and exchange friendly words with a few random patrons. In and out in under seven minutes. A few sips of the appropriately named brew and I feel like I can fly.


Moksha Yoga, 1498 Yonge St., second floor

It's 6:30 a.m. and about 95C in this room. I'm not sure if it's possible to stay awake when it feels like I'm lying in a pool of heated molasses. There are about 10 people in this early morning hot, silent yoga class – and I'm in for 90 minutes of posing without any spoken instruction. The class is calming and surprisingly energizing. And at this time of day any worries about seeming uncoordinated melt away.


Commisso Brothers & Racco, 8 Kincort St.

I'd wager this is as close as Toronto comes to serving coffee Italian-style. If you're not in the mood for an early-morning veal sandwich – or ravioli, roast chicken, lasagne or a cannoli – sidle up next to the bar and shoot back an espresso. At this wee hour there's more Italian than English spoken in the convenience store/grocery. While the parking lot out front is deserted and dark, it smells of baking bread.


Psychic, 63 Superior Ave.

Spirits don't sleep in even if people do, says Catherine MacDonald, 37, who operates from a closet-sized room in her basement apartment. This psychic doesn't often do early-morning readings, but is available almost anytime by appointment. She's cheerful and ready by 8 a.m. when I arrive to have my fortune told, and says channelling the deceased comes naturally at any time of day. "To me, it's like second nature," she says.


Extreme Fitness, Bay and Bloor

Sweat is in the air at 7 a.m. The instructor's voice is booming and exercisers are too tired to resist her instruction. But as the music picks up so does our adrenaline. There's nothing like an early-morning fitness high to put life into perspective.


Ruby Chinese Restaurant, 1571 Sandhurst Circle

Managers open the doors at 7:45, even though food carts don't start rolling through the banquet-like restaurant until 8:45. Tables fill quickly with diners, newspapers in hand, waiting for freshly steamed dumplings, sticky rice, pork buns and congee. English is a language spoken sparely by staff, so dim sum serves me well. I just point.


Four Seasons Hotel, Avenue Rd. and Bloor St.

At 8 a.m. breakfast-seekers are dressed to the nines – full faces of makeup, not a coiffed hair out of place and Windsor-knotted ties. The well-to-do can dine on tofu-cheese, turkey sausage and egg-white omelettes, which is what I choose to eat, at tables spread with white linens. Morning paper's free and chatter is all business. Breakfast, with orange juice and tea, comes in at just under $30.


Michele Henry

Source: http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/246692

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