It was July 26, 1998. Tim Brem was nervous. He was sitting at a bar — his bar — the night before it was to open.
“We had called in all the staff, we went through the whole menu, we gave them a pep talk about what we were going to be doing and what we were all about. Then everybody left, even (my wife) Robin, and I sat at the bar by myself with a beer, just praying to God that we were making the right decision,” he remembers.
More than two and a half successful decades later, it seems Tim and Robin made the right call.
While many of Toronto’s legendary stages have closed because of rent hikes and condo developments, their wood-paneled anomaly on Brown’s Line is celebrating 27 years and counting of survival. Timothy’s Pub isn’t just an Etobicoke relic; it’s a case study in how the “neighbourhood local’ is outlasting the city’s trendiest venues by doubling down on safe communal space and live music in an increasingly digital era.
“We wanted to open up an extension of our rec room, our basement, where you would come in and feel welcome and have a great time,” Tim says. A real-time experience that can’t be downloaded, as it were.
With experience in hospitality industry management, Tim had left the business to be home with Robin when their daughter, Chanel, was born. While considering next steps, they began thinking about “the little bar at the end of our street.”
“We talked about it, and we both agreed that (if we could acquire it) I was probably going to have to ‘marry it’ when it first opened, and we just had a newborn baby, so we wanted it to be close to home,” Tim recalls.
Once known as “Cooly Pops” and later, briefly, “Mangos,” Tim approached the business owner. A deal was made, and Tim and Robin signed a new lease and began the process of transforming a space “all yellow and green, with literally white plastic patio furniture and umbrellas inside and a big pool table” into a local pub with a neighbourhood feel, decorated in part with heirlooms and knickknacks picked up at local garage sales to reflect the community.
“Literally, from the day we opened, the neighbourhood embraced us,” Tim says, underscoring their appreciation of the connection with the Alderwood area. Robin has deep roots there.
“We supported the community, local sports teams, both children and adults. Initially, we used the local baker, fishmonger, butcher and produce people. And we gave back.”
Fundraisers timed with Canada Day and the Christmas season have now raised more than $300,000 for local social support organizations, principally for the Salvation Army, all helping people in need in south Etobicoke.
Beyond just a bar and restaurant, from the outset Timothy’s Pub has remained a thriving venue for live music, into an era where so many (from venerable nightclubs like The Brunswick House, The Cadillac Lounge and The Orbit Room, to neighbourhood joints like midtown’s Unicorn Pub) have disappeared.
What began with a couple of performers set up on the dance floor on Friday and Saturday nights has grown into live bands on a full stage six nights a week, plus a hugely popular Saturday matinee.
“Live music is number one at the pub,” Tim says, noting that Robin used to sing in a band and he spent some time as a DJ. “We pride ourselves on bringing in the best and it’s a place that people want to play because they know the crowd at Timothy’s Pub is appreciative of live music as well.”
Over the years, that audience has included Irish stars the Cranberries, whose late lead singer Dolores O’Riordan once joined some local players on stage; American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams; band members of Heart, although minus sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson; and Canadian luminaries Alannah Myles, Kim Mitchell and Glass Tiger’s Alan Frew.
Although seeing bands in a pub is an ingrained way of life for the older crowd, the Brems also work to encourage the next generation to catch the bug, hosting showcases for area youth music schools like “Rock This Way.”
“At the last one, there were 12 bands and it was unbelievable,” Tim says. “They were so good, and they ranged in age from nine or 10 up to 15 or 16 years old. They were so nervous about getting up on stage, but then I would tell them, ‘One day, you’ll be back here,’” he says with a smile.
It’s not always smooth sailing. As is the case across the sector, the cost of everything in Timothy’s kitchen — from fryer oil to fresh oysters — has skyrocketed in recent years. Tim and Robin say they’re always looking to keep prices affordable, but fortunately another common challenge, retaining good staff, hasn’t been a problem. Several have been there for more than a decade.
“If our staff were turning over every year or two, you wouldn’t see the success that we have right now. But someone can walk in who hasn’t been there in two years, and Dora (one of their longest-serving employees) will know their name. If not, she’ll know what they drink.”
How do they keep an old-style pub relevant in a new century? Robin says that original “rec room” comfort factor — and all that flows from it — remains key.
“They (our staff) make anybody coming in for the first time feel comfortable enough that they’re open to talking to other people around them, and getting to know them,” Robin says. “We find that a lot with single women who come in.”
That sentiment is echoed by stalwart patron Donna Baxter-Ayers, who eventually met her long-time partner at Timothy’s, but came on her first visit with a female friend.
“I felt safe here, and it didn’t take long to realize that we weren’t just customers or numbers, this was a family. Friendships have been formed, we travel together, and we’ve celebrated milestones and tragedies together,” Baxter-Ayers said.
“You walk into this place, your drinks are ready, the staff greets us by name, the regulars hug us. It’s a place you can go to and forget what’s going on in the world or your life for a couple of hours and feel the love … it’s Etobicoke’s version of Cheers.”
