Black car service in the Distillery District and St. Lawrence

The Distillery and St. Lawrence from the driver's seat

The east side of downtown is Toronto's oldest quarter and its most photographed: the Distillery's brick lanes and galleries, the St. Lawrence Market's Saturday morning, the Flatiron at Front and Church, the Esplanade's restaurants, and the towers of the West Don Lands and the East Bayfront that have filled in around them. It is the wedding district — the Distillery's venues host hundreds a year — the Christmas Market's home, a restaurant neighbourhood, and increasingly a residential one. For a black car the whole area has one defining feature: the Distillery is closed to vehicles, and every pickup is at a gate. This page covers the gates and which to use, the market and Esplanade pickups, the weddings and the Christmas Market, the hotels, the routes to the airports and a wedding day and a market Saturday worked through.

The Distillery's gates

The district's lanes — Trinity, Tank House, Case Goods, Gristmill — are pedestrian-only, and its edges are the pickup points. Mill Street runs along the south side with the main pedestrian entrance at Trinity Street; Mill Street has a lay-by east of Trinity that is the standard drop and pickup for the restaurants, the theatres and most weddings. Parliament Street forms the west edge with an entrance at Gristmill Lane; the Parliament curb north of Mill works when Mill is full. Cherry Street on the east side serves the Cherry Street entrance and the venues at the district's east end, and is quieter. Trinity Street north of Mill is a short stub used by the venues' loading and, with the district's permission, for wedding cars delivering a couple to the Trinity Street gate for the photograph. Our chauffeurs name the gate at booking; "Mill Street lay-by east of Trinity" is the usual instruction, a ninety-second walk to the Tank House lanes.

Weddings in the Distillery

Archeo, the Fermenting Cellar, the Loft, the Boiler House, the Distillery's galleries and the Cluny — the district is one of Toronto's largest wedding venues by volume, and its transport logic is specific. The couple's car drops at the Trinity Street or Mill Street gate for the photograph with the brick lane behind; the wedding party's Sprinter uses the Mill Street lay-by; the guest shuttle bus loads on Parliament or Cherry where a 12-metre vehicle can stop; and the end-of-night pickups are staged so the bus is at Parliament while the couple's car is at Mill. Photographs in the lanes are a walk in heels on cobblestones — a detail the chauffeur mentions to the planner. The venue notes and the wedding page cover it; the Distillery guide has the gate map.

The Christmas Market and the winter season

From mid-November to just before Christmas the Distillery Winter Village fills the district with market stalls and, on weekends, a ticketed crowd that closes Mill Street to through traffic and fills every curb from Parliament to Cherry. Pickups on market weekends are on Parliament north of Mill or on Cherry, agreed in advance, with a walk of five minutes; the chauffeur watches the district's crowd management and the police closures. Weeknights are far easier. The Christmas Market guide covers the season, and the market is a fine stop on a December evening booked hourly with dinner on the Esplanade afterward.

St. Lawrence: the market, the Esplanade and Front Street

St. Lawrence Market's South Market at Front and Jarvis is the Saturday-morning institution; the pickup is on Jarvis south of Front or on the Esplanade behind the market, never on Front Street, which is two lanes of streetcars and delivery trucks on a Saturday. The Esplanade — the restaurant street running east from Yonge behind the Sony Centre and the market — has lay-bys and is the district's best pickup street for dinners; Church Street at the Flatiron works for the Front Street restaurants. The St. Lawrence Centre and Meridian Hall on Front Street use Scott Street and the Esplanade for pickups after performances. The St. Lawrence and Distillery guide covers the market day; a Saturday market run followed by lunch and the Distillery is a classic three-hour hourly booking for visitors.

Hotels and residences

The neighbourhood's hotels are small and mostly west of Jarvis: the Novotel on the Esplanade (Esplanade lay-by), the Hotel Victoria on Yonge (Yonge, difficult; use Colborne), the Cambridge Suites on Richmond, the Omni King Edward on King East (the King Street door east of Yonge is outside the transit corridor's tightest section but Victoria Street is easier). The residential towers of the West Don Lands, the Canary District and the East Bayfront — Front Street East, Mill Street, Cherry Street, Queens Quay East — house thousands of residents who book the Pearson run; pickups at the towers' lay-bys are straightforward and the notes field is where the tower's entrance goes.

To the airports

Pearson from the Distillery and St. Lawrence is the Gardiner from the Jarvis or Sherbourne ramps west to the 427: 30 to 40 minutes off-peak, 50 to 75 at the peaks. The alternative when the Gardiner is closed is Lake Shore Boulevard, slow, or the DVP north to the 401 west, longer but moving. Billy Bishop is Lake Shore or Queens Quay west to Bathurst, 12 to 20 minutes. The Pearson page has the timing tables and the Gardiner closures article the weekends that change the route.

The east downtown's other venues

Corktown and the West Don Lands hold the Canary District's restaurants, the Toronto Cooper Koo YMCA and the Pan Am Athletes' Village; further east, Cherry Beach and the Port Lands are the summer waterfront and the site of the city's largest construction project; Leslieville is a short run up Queen East (see the Beaches and Leslieville guide). The Port of Toronto's cruise terminal at the foot of Cherry Street is a fifteen-minute drop from the Distillery — see the cruise transfer guide — and the ferry docks at Jack Layton Terminal are ten minutes west along Queens Quay.

A Distillery wedding, in cars

A June Saturday, ceremony at 4 p.m. in a Distillery venue, reception in the same building, guests at a King East hotel. 1:30 — the Sprinter collects the wedding party from a Riverdale house; 2:45 — arrives at the Mill Street lay-by and the party walks in for photographs in the lanes before the guests arrive. 3:00 — the couple's premium sedan collects the bride from a Rosedale home; 3:40 — drops at the Trinity Street gate for the photograph at the brick arch. 3:15 — the limo bus loads guests at the hotel on King East and drops at Parliament and Mill at 3:35. 10:30 and 11:30 p.m. — the bus runs two waves back to the hotel from Parliament; 12:15 a.m. — the couple's car is at the Mill Street gate and the chauffeur has the umbrella out because June in Toronto. The coordinator had the planner's mobile all day and the planner had one number. The full wedding timeline is the worksheet.

Booking a car in the Distillery or St. Lawrence

The engine prices any address; put the venue and the gate in the notes ("Mill Street lay-by, Trinity gate") and the chauffeur confirms. Market Saturdays, the Christmas Market and wedding season want the gate agreed in advance; December weekends want early booking.

The Canary District, West Don Lands and Corktown

North and east of the Distillery, the neighbourhoods built on the Pan Am Games' athletes' village — the Canary District along Front Street East, the West Don Lands' parks and towers, Corktown's older streets around King and Parliament — are now one of the city's fastest-growing residential districts, with a large population of professionals and families who book the Pearson run, Billy Bishop for Ottawa and the school-and-activities standing orders. Pickups are at the buildings' Front Street and Cherry Street lay-bys and are easy; the Corktown Common park's Bayview Avenue entrance is a pleasant place to wait. The Ontario Line's construction along Eastern Avenue and the Port Lands flood-protection works to the south change the routes month by month, and dispatch reads the notices.

The waterfront east: East Bayfront and the cruise terminal

Queens Quay East from Jarvis to Parliament — Sugar Beach, the Corus and George Brown buildings, the new towers of the East Bayfront — is the Distillery's waterfront neighbour, and the Port of Toronto's cruise terminal at the foot of Cherry Street is a fifteen-minute drop. Cruise passengers arriving at Pearson for a Great Lakes sailing are collected at Door A and delivered to the terminal at the embarkation time; the reverse on disembarkation morning. The cruise transfer guide covers the terminal's procedure and the Harbourfront guide the waterfront's traffic.

Restaurants and evenings in the east downtown

The Distillery's restaurants, the Esplanade's rooms, the King East and Corktown dining strip and the rooftop bars in the Canary District make the east end a dinner destination with a different feel from King West: quieter streets, easier pickups, a fifteen-minute drive from anywhere downtown. Evening bookings here are hourly for dinner-and-a-walk-through-the-Distillery, or point-to-point for a fixed reservation on the Esplanade with a second car home. The lay-bys on the Esplanade and Mill Street are the easiest in the city after 8 p.m., which is part of why the district's restaurants are popular with our regulars. The fine dining evening article includes the east-end rooms.

Getting between the Distillery and the rest of downtown

The Distillery is a short drive from everything and an awkward walk from most of it: fifteen minutes by car to King West, ten to the Financial District, twelve to Yorkville up Parliament and Bloor, ten to the Beaches along Queen East or Lake Shore. The 504 King streetcar runs past on King Street a block north, which is the honest alternative for a single passenger on a fine evening; for a group, a dinner, luggage or weather, the car wins. The Toronto visitor guide uses the Distillery as one stop in a chauffeured first day, which is how most visitors see it.

The Distillery's calendar

Beyond the Christmas Market: the Toronto Light Festival in the district's lanes in winter, the Distillery's summer patio season and outdoor events, the Sunday Market, the wedding season from May to October, and the Toronto Caribbean Carnival's and Pride's spillover into the east end's bars. The Esplanade hosts the St. Lawrence Market's Sunday antique market and Meridian Hall's concert season; Front Street East hosts the Toronto Christmas Market's sibling events. The events calendar has the dates that change the pickups.

Photographers, film crews and the district's other business

The Distillery is a permanent film set — its lanes stand in for Victorian London and nineteenth-century New York in productions every month — and a location for wedding, engagement and commercial photography every day of the week. Film production transport uses the Cherry Street and Parliament edges for talent and crew drops, with the district's own location management directing the vehicles; see the film production guide. Engagement and family photo sessions are two-hour hourly bookings with a car that waits at the Mill Street lay-by while the photographer works the lanes, then moves the party to a second location — the Cherry Beach shoreline or the Esplanade's Berczy Park — in ten minutes.

Distillery and St. Lawrence to everywhere

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