Eat & Drink
Can the Brunswick House and its neighbours get along?
I arrive at the Brunswick House shortly before last call. It's a Thursday night, and the place is packed. A mass of sweaty bodies dance to the latest top 40 song, beers and cocktails in hand. Outside, two girls are sharing a cigarette. One of them lets out a string of expletives so long, it would make your mother's ears bleed.
As last call finishes up, people start to stream out of the heavy wooden doors. Some run for cabs, others totter drunkenly down the street. One girl declares loudly that she "totally has to have poutine or she'll die." I watch as a group of young men make their way down Brunswick Ave, yelling randomly. Their voices echo off the darkened homes, one of which has a bike with an attached baby seat out front.
A favourite haunt of nearby University of Toronto students, the Brunswick House has had a long, rocky relationship with its Annex neighbours. Patrons of the 'Brunny' (as it is lovingly called) have been accused of a variety of offences (among them - urinating on lawns, fighting and the occasional breaking of nearby store windows) that have left its neighbours irked.
But now the bar, along with the Bloor- Annex BIA, is hoping to change that. The Brunswick House is hiring paid duty officers on its busiest nights to keep the peace (and quiet) in the hope of improving neighbourly relations, and lowering the number of police calls to the area.
Brian Burchell, treasurer of the Bloor-Annex BIA, said the idea started back in August at the BIA's annual town hall when community members voiced their issues with the bar. "They [The Brunswick House] were getting frequent flyer points for how many times police were called to that address," said Burchell. So he decided to do something about it.
Burchell got in touch with the bar's owner, Abbis Mahmoud, and spoke with him about hiring paid duty officers. "Abbis was very responsive to these concerns, he really stepped up to the plate," he said.
Burchell and Mahmoud contacted 14 division, and they recommended hiring one sergeant and four constables. However, the officers didn't come cheap. A sergeant runs about $74 an hour, while one constable costs $65, all paid for out of the bar's pocket.
The officers have been in place about a month now. According to Det. Sgt. Brian Kelly of 14 division, the ramped up police presence is working. "We haven't had any problems," said Kelly. According to Kelly, police calls to the area have dropped, because officers are already on site to deal with any problems that arise.
Burchell says the Brunswick House has a worse reputation than it deserves. "If you're going to be serving 19-year-olds a lot of beer, it's not a bad style of bar. The question is how we manage it."
Will hiring paid duty officers help keep the peace? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Writing by Katie O'Connor
Discussion
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Good for the owner to step up and be willing to incur such costs at his own expense to help placate the wishes of the neighbors.
Bars and university students are always going to be party of the fabric of a city. Just a matter of finding a balance between the two.
Lets be honest here. The Brunny was A LOT worse back in the 80's and 90's when it came to outright debauchery.
The residents have seen it at its worse. When cops didn't really care, or only ever did if full on brawls were occurring there.
Onwards and upwards!
No.....no I think the reputation is deserved.
If you assume the officers are there for about 3 hours (12-3 say), you're only looking at around a grand, which isn't actually that bad (and I'm sure easily recouped in drink sales). Very admirable of the bar's owner to do this when he could have just said "F@ck you".
Comes down to people respecting others. They are probably the same people that litter during the day and don't pick up after their own dogs.
How about this...nowhere in the city of Toronto are you allowed to urinate in public...so maybe, just maybe, the Brunswick does not get carte blanche to serve 19 years olds until they are to the point of passing out.
Don't buy a house beside the tracks and then whine about the trains.
You need to fix your attitude, mister. Women have long developed a capacity to think for themselves.
First off there are several other bars in the immediate area-The Pump, The Lab, Lee's Palace, Madison Avenue Pub all of which serve students on the regular. I have lived in the annex for 15 years and have seen trouble at all of these places. Broken windows or peeing on lawns. How is that the responsibility of any bar. You can't control people once they exit your establishment. If they exit of their own will at any time then over service to the point of severe intoxication can't be the issue either. Face it, some people are assholes drunk or sober. Place the onus where it is due! On the individual committing the offence. How does anyone even know for sure these individuals are always from the Brunny. They can be from any bar in the city but its easier to blame the big bad Brunny due to its reputation.
How many of us have been down town in the last 10 years????? I have seen absolute wars on Richmond Street. I have seen windows being smashed, people laying on the ground puking, people running right over the hoods of cars, fires being started. Let me guess, its the Brunny's fault as well. LoL. Apparently, every person responsible for anyththing negative in the Annex must be from the Brunny and must be over served and must not be responsible for themselves because they decided to party at the Brunny. If I ever cheat on my wife or decide to steal something I will make sure my alibi was that its not my fault because I was at the Brunny!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These guys run their security. No wonder the place is calming down. The mafia runs the place. Seriously though, I used to go there all the time. These guys don't play around. I've seen how they got rid of the trouble.
These guys run their security. No wonder the place is calming down. The mafia runs the place. lol. Seriously though, I used to go there all the time. These guys don't play around
And seriously guys on the internet about to jump all over this comment, I'm not going to read it, I'm tired of hearing "lighten up" to disgusting crap like that but if I were to call you something vanilla like a "creep" you'd jump all over me for being a "stuck up bitch" and yadda yadda, you don't have honest insight into what it feels like to be spoken about like the above (in my experience anyways).
fuck the brunny. as a u of t student i knew it attracted an ugly crowd, and any bar that requires cops to function is catering to a bad scene. it's filled with people that can't handle their alcohol- and the bar's making a (presumably lucrative) living off it.
a) overserving
b) serving underagers
c) recycling beer (oh wait - they already got busted for that pukeworthy offence a few years ago didn't they)
Irene is spinning in her grave at the thought of these a-holes dry humping each other to shitty oomsk oomsk music on her stage.
I say we fill downtown with 3 million people to sing carols..
I'm also tired of hearing the Annex is student populated. What student can afford a house that costs around a million dollars?
It's had a terrible reputation for years and with very good reason. I can't say the same about most of the other bars in the area.