The Silver Dollar Room

I’ve been coming to this place on and off for many years — a lot of Wednesday nights dancing to blue grass and drinking cheap tap bear. They usually have a 3 dollar cover, a dance floor, and a big back patio.
However
I came here for an NXNE show last June and was not at all pleased. The show was great, it was a bad experience at the bar… I walked in and immediately ordered a tall can of Canadian and a shot of Jamison. The bar tender brought me the bill which was like $ 12 something. I paid with a 50 dollar bill and she brought back 32 dollars instead of 37. So basically she tried to tip herself 5 dollars on a 12 dollar tab.
I asked her back and was very nice about it. she told me I was wrong and walked away. I called her back again and she pulled the same routine. Finally, the third time! She goes into the till, takes out 5 loonies and slams them on the bar and stalks off… like I was trying to rip her off!!!
Other then that experience, it is a great music venue and the Countney Barnett show I saw that night made up for the infuriating bartender.

Great place to see a show in Toronto! I definitely appreciated the fact that beer prices weren’t hiked up just because it’s a music venue ($ 5.50 molsons), as well as the seating area to the side of the stage.

Great spot for live music! just not loud music

After hitting the ‘Horseshoe Tavern’ last Saturday night I continued my journey of having at least one drink in some of the ‘seediest’ bars in Toronto. From the outside, the Silver Dollar Room completely falls into this category.
It’s sandwiched right beside one of the lowest rated hotels on Trip Advisor in Toronto (The Waverley) and one of Toronto’s largest homeless shelters (The Scott Mission) Below it sits the Comfort Zone, a ‘sketchy’ after hours club. I have avoided this place for the two years but finally found a willing partner to join me for a drink here, and to my surprise, I was surprised. Don’t be discouraged by the location.
They have a good selection of beers, and domestic draft is only $ 7.00 a pint. The average coverage charge varies between $ 5 to $ 10.00 and the band they book are generally good with a ‘rock’ genre.
It’s a mixed crowd of 20 to 30 somethings but if you are in your 40’s you won’t feel out of place here. Dress code is obviously casual, (so leave your suits and designer brands at home. Take in the ambiance of this place, people have been drinking here for over 50 years, who know’s maybe even your own parents might have had a drink or two here back in the day.
As the expression goes S*** is real, and this place is as real as it gets.

Love this place! It is good beers, just the right amount of seediness to keep things real, cheap covers and no attitude. I usually go for an event (to see a band) but it is the kind of place you can just drop in on any given night.
What makes it cool is that it isn’t cool. It isn’t trying to be cool. It is just the Silver Dollar Room.
Anyone complaining about a lack of coolers, falvoured vodka or cider needs to take their princess ass back to a trendy bar in Little Italy, Queen West, Ossington or some other fake BS place. As the condos go up, and everyone is priced out of this city, I hope Toronto always has dives like the Silver Dollar Room to get a beer, hear a bunch of kids playing their hearts out and not be overcharged for the experience.

Terrible service is sometimes the norm here. They book great rock shows so I’ve returned over the years, but I’ve dealt with rude bartenders, servers, managers and door people here several times. (not all — some are lovely!)
In fact, I’d say that ALL of my worst service experiences in Toronto have been here.
But when the right band is booked and the crowd is into it, it can be hard to care about mediocre service. And Bluegrass music Wednesday nights is a real treat.

The venue is cute, but the drink selection is totally a load of BS.
No coolers.
No flavored vodka.
No ciders.
Very, very basic spirits and beers. Apparently they’re limited in what they can carry because they’re a «Molson» bar.
Load of garbage.
If you’re particular about drinks, show up loaded, and don’t expect to drink at this bar. (Really, it’s their loss, not mine. It was a very inexpensive evening.)
On a positive note, the bands were good.

What a neat experience. It’s always nice to support homegrown talent, and we all know Toronto’s got a lot of it. There were 6 indie bands playing last night, and I was there for 5 of them. All of them were quite good, but unfortunately, failed to get the crowd hyped up. I guess it’s a music venue, and not a club so not everybody will be compelled to dance. Still, I wish the crowd would have loosened up and gotten on the dance floor. Aside from the 2 or 3 women who were really going wild with their dance moves, nobody moved an inch. I have mixed feelings about the night. Still, I would go again, just to hear indie music. The bar serves mixed drinks for about $ 5.25. This place can be a lot better, not sure how– but it just can.

Small intimate place for what it is its nice.

Last night I went to the Dollar for the first time in close to a decade or so to check out a friend of a friend’s band. The place itself is pretty much what you’d expect after sizing it up from the outside. It wasn’t too packed, but I could easily see the logistical problems others have mentioned regarding the stage’s lay out. We sat to the right of the stage and we had a decent view.
I’m not sure if it was the sound system or the fact that all the bands were really hurrying to set up, but there was a fair bit of feedback.
On the plus side, the drinks were cheap. But then again, the vodka and soda was mighty shy on vodka. Or maybe it’s just because I’m used to pouring doubles when I mix. The bartender had to repeat the grand total of my drink order like three times because the music was deafening. I felt like a pain in the ass, so I tipped her an additional couple bucks on what was already a decent tip. For one so young, her lack of any human response was a bit troubling, but not my problem I guess.
On my initial visit to the loo, there was no toilet paper or hand towels. Drip drying is always a mark of class for any establishment. Having said this, I am happy to report later in the evening when I returned, both were refilled. So they recovered a star on that small detail alone.
And that, in a nutshell is my two cents worth on the Dollar.

The Dollar’s has been a long-​standing Toronto musical landmark. It’s a decent place where the acoustics are good and you have a nice mixture of music lovers, from hipsters to old-​timers, who come here because they know a good band is playing.
Okay, it’s located in a so-​so area where you have the sketchy Hotel Waverly and the even sketchier Comfort Zone are your neighbours. But like Grossman’s, El Mocambo, and the Horseshoe, the Silver Dollar is a venue that has lasted the test of time. It’s a dive bar but aren’t we, Torontonians, into genuine places that don’t conform to trends? I think there’s something comforting about like the Silver Dollar.
The one complaint I do have is the layout. When it isn’t a busy night, you can have a great view of the stage from any seat in the room. But when it’s packed, seeing the stage is difficult. If you’re sitting at a table, you’re outta luck my friend because you’ll be twisting your body to see the band’s profile, or have to give up your seat in order to have a good view.
I hardly ever visit the pool room which for the longest time I thought was only accessible from the hotel next door. I rarely see anyone in there, except for one or two people playing pool or a couple trying to have an intimate tête-​à-​tête.
The bar is big and long, and they serve cheap drinks. I paid $ 5.75 for a domestic beer on tap, and the bar looked well stocked when I last visited.
I’m glad the Silver Dollar is still around. I’ve seen a lot of cool bands perform, and I hear their High Lonesome Wednesdays are fun times so I’ll be sure to check it out soon.

Step inside the doors of this gritty music scene landmark, and you’ll never feel the same way about the bars that try to simulate the concept of a dive bar again. This is the real deal, and if the crowd looks rough, it’s because they’ve all been watching shows here for the past 58 years. Saunter up to the bar, grab a pint of 50, lean back and prepare to have your world rocked.

Despite hosting numerous local and out-​of-​town musical talent, and a major hot spot for those who are avid music fans, the Silver Dollar has the absolute WORST layout for a music venue. The stage, being about 3 feet away from the bar, is not conducive to a comfortable and accessible standing area. People cannot pass through from one side of the bar to the other without being shoved or elbowed. Or maybe you’re the one doing the shoving and elbowing when people don’t get the fuck out of the way when you shout «excuse me.»
Plenty of seats around the stage and behind the bar in the back room but really, the only true vantage point to view the stage is standing right in front of it and how can you when there is NO ROOM.
I’d like to also comment that the elbowing and shoving also comes in handy when dealing with the seedy and questionable men that come to the Silver Dollar. I hope they all burst into flames.

A pretty decent place to check out a band before they «make it big» — you too can be that douche that declares «I totally saw Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head before they sold out!» Tickets are cheap (almost always under $ 10) and the acts are usually pretty cool. I once saw a dude simultaneously smash two beer bottles over Dan Burke’s head here, so you know the place is legit.
TIP: Take out money beforehand, and don’t wait till you’ve arrived to do it at the adjacent CIBC. You do not want to get mixed in with the crowds that hang around outside/​at The Waverly Hotel.

The Silver Dollar Room has been around forever and is known as one of the city’s best and original Blues houses. That being said, it it located at a very diverse intersection downtown and is located below a certified, rundown, whorehouse, oh I mean, low budget hotel.
Nowadays there are sometimes good live acts at this venue (about ⁵⁰⁄₅₀) but the stage is small, layout not ideal, sound levels terrible and most importantly, this has become the ultimate late night /​after hours /​all night drop in spot.
If it’s 3 am and you and you’re buddies are coming down hard but about to fix that with more, um.…whatever it may be, well you’ll fit right in with the other equally seedy characters lurking about the Silver Dollar Room.

Small place which isn’t bad, unfortunately it has a bad layout. The crowd is squished between the bar and the stage and when there’s people always try to get by to get to their table or to leave or use the washroom or get a drink, it’s really really annoying.
The sound quality is actually better in the washroom because they turn up the volume so much. Much easier to pick out the singer’s voice while in the washroom.
The bar service was slow, though that could have been because it was a very busy night and packed.
The other room has pool tables and is a good spot to get away from the crowd for sure. Cheap shows, cheap beer.
The bands that were playing were good though. Very good. Maybe on another night the atmosphere will be better.

The Silver Dollar has some great shows some of the time. It can be hit or miss for sure. The place holds about 300 people in total. They have a back patio for smoking, but you can also bring your drinks out there, pool tables in a semi secluded room off the main room and a great small venue stage. Dan Burke is the legendary booker and generally he gets the cool shows before they’re even cool enough to be featured in NOW Magazine or play the «cool» venues like The Horseshoe. Prices are always good on everything and generally, it’s a totally underrated spot worth checking out if you like live music.