Owner Jeff Stober | Genre(s) Indie | |
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Former names Small's Hotel (1890-1949)
The Drake Address 1150 Queen Street West
Toronto ON M6J 1J3 Location Toronto, Ontario, Canada Type Hotel, Restaurant, Café, Bar, Nightclub | ||
The Drake Hotel is a hospitality venue on Queen Street West in Toronto, Ontario, Canada near Parkdale. In addition to a nineteen-room boutique hotel, its offering includes a restaurant lounge, corner café with street-level patio, Sky Bar roof top patio, and the Drake Underground basement nightclub and live performance venue.
The Drake was purchased in 2001 by Jeff Stober, who initiated extensive renovations. The Drake features a hotel, nightclub, arts venues, and Drake General Store.
History
The venue was opened in 1890 as "Small's Hotel". At the time, the area was a major Canadian Pacific Railway hub near what was then one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in the city.
In 1949, the hotel was acquired by new owners, who expanded the building and renamed it the Drake. The hotel eventually fell on hard times, along with its neighbourhood. James Earl Ray described visiting a bar around the corner—likely the Drake—while living as a fugitive on nearby Ossington Avenue in 1968. In the 1970s, it fell into use as a flophouse like many hotels in North American cities. Other uses in the 1980s, and 1990s include a punk bar, and rave den.
In October 2001, the hotel was purchased for C$860,000 by Jeff Stober, who planned a Toronto equivalent of the Hotel Chelsea where creative individuals would work and live. After C$6 million in renovations were completed the Drake re-opened in February 2004. The hotel contains nineteen rooms including an upstairs lounge, a dining room, a cafe, a roof top patio named the Sky Yard, and a music bar called the Drake Underground. The Drake is similar to other small concert venues in Toronto such as The Silver Dollar Room, Clinton's Tavern, Lee's Palace, and the Horseshoe Tavern. The Drake Underground primarily features indie acts, though past noted performers include M.I.A..
Drake's head chef is Darren Glew, who replaced chef Anthony Rose in 2012.