Last Night @ Smokeless Joe's

[velovampire]

According to their twitter feed they have confirmed 488 College St as the new location with mid-August opening. Nice to see them coming back!

Yes the new premises is nicely located close to Caplansky's, The Paddock and Burger Bar & Kensington Market, so they're almost more relevant to this area I think. Best luck to them, they need an opening bash!

And don't forget the Cloak & Dagger. This new SJ's will be a much welcome addition to the area.

[aser]

pho pasteur 24 hr pho, only a short bike ride away to soak up all this beer.

[El Pinguino]

Anyone know if the new location has a patio out back?

[TwoPint]

Anyone know if the new location has a patio out back?

Was by there today. No patio area out front but there appears to be a second floor deck out back.

[Garthicus]

Will they actually start making an effort unlike their last 3 years on John St. while they were living off their name?

[El Pinguino]

Agree with you some there Garthicus. I stopped going as frequently as I used to because nothing seemed to change and the whats 'new' list always looked kind of the same. Always enjoyed the mussels and could usually enjoy a draft or two....wish they changed up their taps more though.

[Jon Walker]

I remember the heyday of SJ's when you could go in there and find a huge list of beers that were not available through the LCBO. As time went on the place seemed to slide into featuring only the seasonal release beers on top of the general list stuff and all of them were at a stiff premium price wise. My hope for the new location is that they can offer better value and greater selection involving more private order stuff that's exclusive to them.

[nickw]

Unsurprising to anyone who's been by in the past year+, but Smokeless Joe on College is closing: http://www.thegridto.com/blog-post/clos ... oke-again/

I remember being pretty psyched when it opened a couple of years ago, as it filled a bit of a College-west-of-Bathurst wasteland near where I was living at the time. I have no idea what happened and why the energy in keeping up with new taps, etc deflated so significantly.

[lister]

Back in the day we used to bounce back and forth between Smokeless and C'est What. We ventured out to the new location occasionally but not as often as it was much further for us to go. With Bar Hop opening across the street from us and Rob & Co's much greater effort in the beer lineup it was very hard to visit Smokeless anymore.

We thought about it last week before the Bourbon Week event at the Monarch but decided to go elsewhere. Ah well.

[Cass]

That's a shame. I'm sure anyone who knows Joe or has been there recently realizes that there have been some issues at play.

If anyone knows how to get a hold of him please let me know.

[cratez]

It's amazing how quickly this place flamed out. Things were looking very promising for them when I was there in winter 2011 and early 2012, as they had a larger, more attractive space, much better tap list, great food, and excellent servers in Colin and Steph. Shortly after that I remember hearing about them running out of various taps and not replacing them, and by summer 2012 Colin stopped posting his cask updates on here. A shame to see this bar closing as the original location will always have an important place in T.O.'s beer history, but given its recent decline into irrelevance I suppose the writing was on the wall.

[Belgian]

SJ's was a bit of a draw for me earlier in 2011 but I admit I stopped going - after a brief spark of inspiration & big plans to expand they appeared to be coasting on a predictable limited offering, still at 'downtown' prices.

And I had some nice chance meetings and talks walking by there! I would wish them only well. But it quickly became a forgettable place instead of riding the current trend of diversity & innovation. And I have to agree, the food was order-once, never-again fare (much like Castro's IMO). Sad because I love that thriving area!!

Best to the guys there, respect, I guess the city has moved on and indeed life goes on. I think Toronto will continue to do well in the beer scene and make us all more proud every year. I mean have you BEEN to Bar Hop lately??

[Tapsucker]

I don't consider this place as failed. As mentioned, I have heard Joe has other issues and it's sadly time for him not to put energy into this. I wish him well.

I have been there recently and while the tap list was smaller, but still interesting and the place was busy with locals and there was absolutely nothing to criticize.

[Colin @ Canada]

Having worked at smokeless for countless years and having put so much of my heart into the place, it's sad to see the downward path it has taken. Joes health has not been well the past few years and has taken a toll on the business. For myself and all the other great staff who made it special and treated it like our own, try and remember the good times as apposed to the bad.
Colin.

[Belgian]

^ I'm sorry I did not read more into the personal problems of Joe, and its effect on things (and him most importantly of course!)

I also won't forget the old John St. haunt back in the 1990's when I was working over on Peter Street, and I would drag the gang over there on a cold evening for some incredible fresh mussels, the aromatic beef stew and that amazing fresh (house made?) bread they would comp us just for drinking there. And imbibe we did... discovering & savoring beers there at the time, SJ's was perfection. A fun time and a great memory.