This week in our documentation of original street style – the uniform – Sarah Blais gets up close with local favourite bartenders. If you like this, you’ll also like the XX Files, our Q&A series with barkeeps ’round town.
The Bellevue, a Kensington favourite, and is filled with old pictures, antiques, and Mr. Andrew Hercules. Andrew (above), a 32-year-old meat-and-beer kinda dude, mixed one of The Bellevue’s prize cocktails, The Rubicon (Chartreuse liquor, Hendrick’s gin, maraschino, fresh cranberries, crushed ice and really good), while chatting about his back-in-the-day band.
He shops at thrift stores (“the bigger and further out of the city, the better”) and dresses casually. Andrew’s PG version of the perfect Sunday would be waking up, going to brunch at the Bellevue and getting owner Ryan Thompson to clean his table and serve him a big meal. After this he would go back in time to 1988 to hit up a Depeche Mode concert, and end the night curled up beside a warm body.
Julia’s been at 416 Snack Bar since they opened last year and is in love with the steak tartare. Her uniform usually consists of darker clothes (to hide spills) and protective shoes (broken glass); she will only wear heels at work if she starts at 7 p.m. She mainly shops at Urban Outfitters, H&M, Zara, and Aritzia for her work stuff, and for party dresses, she likes Dennis’ House of Vintage and Penny Arcade.
At Ted’s Collision on College, the phone rings off the hook for car repairs. Greg, a 37-year-old Aries that can’t go a day without music, can’t fix the transmission, but he can fix a mean bourbon sour. He’s spent around 12 years at this bar, but has been bartending since he was “pretty young.” Greg shops “wherever, whatever…” in Toronto and know if he knows he likes something when he strolls into a shop, he’ll get it, just like that. He owns 40 hats, and 40 pairs of shoes, mostly Vans, Chucks, and other skate-type stuff. He drinks Labatt 50.
Previously in the Uniform Project: garbage workers, bike messengers, Branksome girls, fashion publicists.
