Toronto's Garrison had a problem: it was too big for the bands it loved. The Baby G at 1608 Dundas Street West is owner Shaun Bowring's answer, opened in September 2016 as a satellite club to his 300-capacity Garrison a few blocks east, sized so a local band drawing a hundred people fills the room instead of rattling around a half-empty one. The space - a former sports bar called Bola Bar, and a butcher shop back in the 1980s - splits into a front bar and a back stage room, each with its own bar, the stage room holding roughly 145 to 170 with a 15-by-15-foot stage and the Garrison's well-travelled analog sound system moved in for the opening. The decor takes its cue from the blue-and-white protozoan-patterned tiles uncovered from the butcher-shop years, which still adorn the walls - about the only ornament in a room otherwise kept deliberately sparse. The booking made it a capital of Toronto's post-punk and neo-psychedelia circuit almost immediately - Petra Glynt, Peeling, Twist, Beliefs and Vallens were early fixtures, with touring acts like Sasami and Nap Eyes passing through, plus NXNE and Canadian Music Week showcases. Bowring runs the room with the Transmit Presents team - Denholm Whale and Kat Angus - whose promotion company also books shows at the Monarch Tavern, Lee's Palace, the Opera House and the Danforth Music Hall, keeping the Baby G plugged into the city's wider indie infrastructure. All shows run nineteen-plus, craft beer flows from the front taps, and the windows look onto Little Portugal's main drag at Brock Avenue - a neighborhood room built by a booker who spent seven years at Sneaky Dee's learning exactly what small bands need. Bowring modeled the concept on a more rock-and-roll version of the Drake Underground, and the math has proven out: the room gives first-time touring acts and ambitious locals a night that looks and sounds sold out, the crucial rung between a bar corner and the Garrison's 300 that Toronto's ladder was missing.

Type: Bar / Pub

Address: 1608 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Canada, M6K 1T8

Website: http://thebabyg.com

Minimum Age: 19+

Cover Charge: 1

Capacity: 170

Opening Date: 01/09/2016