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Animal house: Lord Ossington, a 19th-century Speaker of the British House of Commons, was said to be a great adventurer. His alleged love of wildlife informs the bar’s unorthodox decor.
Spin sessions: Various DJs ply their trade at least three nights a week, playing a mishmash of tunes from the past 30 years. Expect to hear offerings from the very same indie acts that hang in the ‘hood.
Animal house: Lord Ossington, a 19th-century Speaker of the British House of Commons, was said to be a great adventurer. His alleged love of wildlife informs the bar’s unorthodox decor.
Jack attack: Leave your martini predilections at the door. Rahn calls
his establishment “a beer and whisky spot” and he’s not exaggerating. Patrons drank him out of Jack Daniel’s on opening night.
Elephant show:
The eye-catching brass bar rail was snagged from Mulligan’s, a Buffalo, N.Y., haunt and favourite of Cher and Greg Allman’s during their tempestuous four-year rock ‘n’ roll union.
Hot shots: Working here demands a hipster pedigree. Jubal Brown,
who earned his cred by puking on paintings, pulls pints on Mondays; the rest of the staff seems to have leapt from Vice’s Dos page.
Nearly two years in the making, the (fashionably late) Ossington has joined the party. While various roadblocks—snags with the building permits and liquor licence among them—kept the eagerly
anticipated local in a state of limbo throughout 2007, all that extra time had its advantages. “The
nice thing about taking so long is that you have a chance to find all kinds of cool shit,” says photographer and co-owner Ben Rahn, who bought the space with business partner Andrew Salem. Both
men are indigenous to Toronto’s notoriously cliquey arts scene, which should give them a lanky leg
up on the booming strip’s many (many, many) other bars.
The Ossington, 61 Ossington Ave., 416-850-0161. Monday to Sunday, 5 p.m.–2 a.m.
Photography: Jessica Eaton
