The Bar Towel

A friend of mine who runs The Ambient Ping, the Tuesday night ambient/electronic music night at C'est What's Club Nia music room, passed along the following info that he received from the bar management a few days ago...

"Our lease in the music room (nia) expires at the end of August. The landlord, Michael Tippin, is seeking to triple the rent. As a result, nia @ C'est What is being forced to close. The last show at this great little venue will be Saturday August 21. Our thanks go out to the thousands of talented musicians that have graced our Church St. stage over the last dozen years."

This is too bad, as it is a great venue for music, and it will also cut about 100 seats out of C'est What's capacity. At least the new room is there now for events like the Small Brewers Festival and such, but it's still a drag.

Thats a damn shame. I have been to a bunch of shows there.

Will they lose some taps, too? I haven't been on the "nia" side in quite some time, but it seems to me they had taps (that were not duplicates of the other C'est What taps) on that side as well.

That really is bad news...we used to frequent there on Saturdays. Just looking around on the C'est What site though, they have not mentioned anything about it on the Nia page, and are apparently still taking bookings. Do you think they'll make an announcement anytime soon?
I also wonder if any other places in the area will try to create a space that might take up where Nia leaves off.


Kim

midlife crisis wrote:Will they lose some taps, too? I haven't been on the "nia" side in quite some time, but it seems to me they had taps (that were not duplicates of the other C'est What taps) on that side as well.

That used to be the case back before the new room on the east side opened. I don't know if there has been any duplication between the three rooms or not since the new one opened.

freesia wrote: Just looking around on the C'est What site though, they have not mentioned anything about it on the Nia page, and are apparently still taking bookings. Do you think they'll make an announcement anytime soon?

C'est What is generally slow at updating their website, and their e-mailing list which used to get a newsletter at the first of every month has gotten pretty bad as well. Some months the newsletter is a couple of weeks late, and there have been a couple where there was no newsletter at all.

This info comes from a reliable source, though, and the info I posted above is an excerpt from an email my friend received directly from the bar management.

I suppose that there's a chance they might set up a smaller live music space somewhere in the bar. IIRC, the area towards the back of the original bar used to be their live music space before they expanded into what became Nia. So live music at C'est What could continue, but Nia will still be missed.

They (C'est What) just sent out an email thing to the world. Here's the text:

-=- Start

From: George Milbrandt <savelivemusic@cestwhat.com>
To: Contact List <savelivemusic@cestwhat.com>
Cc: info@tippin.net, mayor_miller@toronto.ca, councillor_mcconnell@toronto.ca, listings@communitybulletin.ca, artscanada@cbc.ca, cbcinput@toronto.cbc.ca, editor@tor.sunpub.com, globalnews.tor@globaltv.com., letters@exclaim.ca, letters@eye.net, letters@globeandmail.com, letters@nowtoronto.com, metromorning@toronto.cbc.ca, news@pulse24.com, entertain@thestar.ca, queries@nationalpost.com, rogerstv@rci.rogers.com, sellis@canwestinteractive.com, torontotoday@toronto1.tv, savelivemusic@cestwhat.com

nia @ C'est What is being forced to close.

The landlord, Michael Tippin, wants to triple the rent. We can not afford the $60,000 increase he is demanding (could you?).

HELP!

We want your help in making Mr. Tippin aware of the impact of his decision on our community.

Let your voice be heard. Please use "Reply To All" to send your comments to Mr. Tippin, the Mayor, our City Councillor, and other interested parties.

"Save Live Music!" Please forward this message on to anyone you think appropriate­- everyon'es voice helps.

Note: If this message has been forwarded to you, "Reply To All" may not work. You can paste the contact information listed below into the "To:" area of your e-mail message.

-=- End

George is trying for the public appeal now.