Evergreen Brick Works — Attraction in Toronto

Where do I even begin. We purchased Mother's Day tickets for a the string quartet night with their ABBA selection. We arrived, the tickets not only didn't say what building it was in, but there was little to no direction to get to the building. We were lucky my fiance and mother in law had pee or we would have been searching.

Let me get to the point of the one star rating though. The "security".

When we arrived we were standing in line with everyone else when we were told to get as close to the railing as possible, no problem at all. The one security guard started to ID people, and I noticed he was saying something when looking at the cards/person. When it came time to ID my fiancé he looked at the card and her and said "nice". That made us a little uncomfortable as he skipped myself and my mother in law. That looked really bad. Next he then told us to seperate into two lines. One for sections A/B and another for C/D. No problem, maybe start with this but we'll cooperate. Finally he said the bar was open and we could get drinks, but we'd have to line up at the doors to the next building in two lines. At this point people that arrived pushed passed to line up ahead of us. Why didn't your security team start us off in the small area slowly let us into the garden area to get drinks, then to line up at the doors!? That makes way more sense than the nonsense of lining up three times for nothing. On top of that you have one of your security team (the one with the long beard) taking notes in a note pad, and we found out later all he was doing was tracing lines with a business card!? You had another guy wearing either black leather or latex gloves and just standing there. No one even had there bags searched. We understand there was a delay in letting people in from what you originally planned, and that creates a sense of urgency, but their lack of communication and organization wasn't very professional, and that's how they were clearly trying to treat this... For the most part.

I understand the importance of security, but please have you staff relax a bit. It's Brickworks, not the Scotiabank Arena. We ended up leaving early because the concert was just okay and not worth the disorganization...

One of my favourite places in Toronto. it is hard to believe, but 20 years ago there was nothing there - what a wonderful initiative to reclaim the space after a quarry (apparently so many old houses and buildings in Toronto were built from bricks made there!). The place might be a big hard to get to: if you drive it is not a problem (paid parking - and plenty of it). There is a (free!) shuttle bus that goes from Broadview station (a half block north of it to be precise) that leaves roughly every 30 mins. it is not very big though (it would take 20 people tops I think). there is 28 bus from Davisville station. The park is also easily accessible by bicycle - there are many bicycle parking racks too (as according to their signage there is no cycling in the park itself - that obviously not that many people see…) The place is very busy on the weekends (especially during the warm months - with super popular Farmer's Market that runs till 1 pm on Saturdays). a good time to visit would be Sunday morning, or any week day. There is a super nice Cafe Belong - with great selections of baked goods, coffee (I think I also saw canned beer there) - with an outdoor patio. lots of picnic tables and places to sit and chill. Generally, everything closes around 4/5pm (washrooms too, sadly), but an evening might be a great time to enjoy some quieter time and actually spot some fauna. A couple of years ago beavers were very active there - I never spotted one but you can see many trees they cut. Today I saw a tiny snake, a chipmunk, turtles and fish and of course many birds (red-winged blackbird among them). a wonderful...

There's a cafe, bathrooms, and gift shop in the main building that's open regularly. Saturday markets are great! You can get produce, gifts, or just a coffee/snack for while you're there. If you check their website they constantly have different events and activities going on. Great for kids. Dogs are welcome (outside) too. I always see tons of dogs.

It's got some nice views over the city up one of the trails, around the old quarry, not far from the main building. I love bringing guests here to teach them a bit about the history of Toronto and show them around. Great for leaf peeping in the fall too.

In the winter there's a sheltered ice rink to enjoy in one of the gardens. They do tours if you'd like to learn about the history. It's a lot nicer since their renovation a few years ago (I've been coming here since EBW took it over).

It's kind of the greenest place you'll ever drive to. It's not easily walkable to get there but they offer a free shuttle bus from Broadview station.

You can cycle there, via Pottery Road or other access points if you know the Don Valley trails well. They have the city bike share stations there.

If you really want to walk/hike there and trail conditions are good, I'd take the Milkman's run from Castle Frank TTC but there isn't super clear signage. It's not terribly hard to get lost though if you know how to navigate maps well. Your safest bet as a pedestrian is to take...