The Heart of Music City: Brown Derby & Friar’s Tavern
The Brown Derby
The Brown Derby located on what is now the northeast corner of Yonge-Dundas Square, 1952. Photography by Strathy Smith. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1128, Series 381, File 210, Item 9820-2.
The Friar’s Tavern, Yonge and Dundas, 1970s. City of Toronto Archives.
David Clayton-Thomas and the Shays at the Friar’s Tavern, Yonge and Dundas, 1965. Courtesy of David Clayton-Thomas.
Friar’s Music Museum, a project nominated for the 2019 Heritage Toronto Awards. The museum is located on the 2nd floor of 279 Yonge Street.
An early and beloved Yonge Street watering hole
Opened in 1949, the Brown Derby offered dining and live entertainment, complete with a revolving bandstand in the center of its main floor. Every audience member was guaranteed the best seat in the house. Initially featuring jazz and swing tunes during the 1940s, the Derby offered guests a range of music by the 1960s.
The Derby was a sprawling building on Yonge and Dundas with several stages, each with its own character. In one room, guests could listen to Joe King and the Zaniacs play “The End of the World,” while in another room ragtime and honk-tonk hits of yesteryear in a room made up to resemble the 1890s. By 1974, the Brown Derby was gone, replaced by a large shopping centre.
Friar’s Tavern
Opened in 1963, the Friar’s Tavern initially was another jazz club along the Yonge Street strip. Jazz luminaries could be found on stage from pianist Oscar Peterson to multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk. In 1965, the Tavern switched to rock and roll at the perfect moment. That year it played a role in what TIME Magazine called, “the most decisive moment in rock history.”
The birth of the band
Bob Dylan had just performed his infamous electric set at the Newport Folk Festival. A friend insisted that he fly to Toronto to hear one of her favourite bands, Levon and the Hawks. Made up of mostly Ontario musicians, the Hawks played several Yonge Street clubs including the Friar’s Tavern, performing songs like “He Don’t Love You.”
Dylan must have liked what he heard: he chose the Hawks to back him on his next world tour. After Dylan’s tour, the Hawks began to release their own records under a new name: the Band.
Friar’s music museum
The Friar’s Tavern was among the shorter-lived venues on the Yonge Street strip, closing its doors in 1976 after a little more than a decade in business. But the building’s association with music lived on. The Nickelodeon, an all-ages dance pub on the second storey, remained open for several more years.
A Hard Rock Café eventually moved into the former Friar’s Tavern space, covering the walls with rock and roll memorabilia. The restaurant was a staple of Yonge and Dundas for over thirty years, loved by Torontonians and visitors for its eclectic collection of rock and roll memorabilia it featured on the walls.
Toronto music yesterday and today
The restaurant closed in 2017, but music lives on here. Developed by the Downtown Yonge BIA, the Friar’s Music Museum documents the history of music on Yonge Street is now located on the second floor of the retail space. In the video below, COO and ED of Downtown Yonge BIA takes you through a virtual tour of the Friar’s Music Museum.
A live tour of the Friar’s Music Museum with Mark Garner of Downtown Yonge BIA.
Posted by Heritage Toronto on Wednesday, June 24, 2020