A city can never have enough arcade and pinball spaces, something they understood back in the 1980s, and which I’m sure Jane Jacobs touched on at least once in her writings on what makes a great urban environment.
Fortunately, Toronto just got another such establishment with the opening of GRETA Bar on King Street, just west of Spadina. GRETA is already a name in western Canada, with locations in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. But as befits Canada’s premier city, this new location is the biggest GRETA yet, with two floors and seating for 350, including a whole lot of bar space.
The vibe is definitely King West. Unlike the more casual arcade bars like Tilt and Zed 80, which tend to attract Gen Xers and their offspring, GRETA is clearly looking for young millennials and of-age Generation Z, preferably with a chunk of disposable income to drop on a night out.
Rather than being set at free play, the various video and pinball games require between four and 12 credits apiece to play, with a reloadable card starting at $10 for 40 credits. (That’s the same as the dollars-to-quarters ratio of olden times.)
Beer is $9 a pint and up, and my food bill during the venue’s recent soft opening included $16.50 for a tasty but somewhat paltry “share plate” of “street nuggets,” and $8.50 for a much more robust serving of east coast chip truck fries. On reflection I should probably have ordered the GRETA burger, which is a staple across the chain, made with wagyu beef.
Unlike, say, The Rec Room, which tends to divide itself into play spaces and drinking zones, GRETA scatters its games throughout the venue. Near the entrance is a set of four Mario Kart racers and a Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR setup. Further back, a few Skee-Ball games catch your attention, drawing you on to basketball-toss offerings and a four-person Hot Wheels racing game.
Down in the basement is where the pinball lives, a rotating foursome currently featuring Jaws, Jurassic Park, Venom and Foo Fighters, separated by handy wooden railings that give you a place to put down your pint. More racing games down there, with a quartet of Fast and Furious machines.
This is also where you’ll find a few old-school arcade standards, including Bubble Bobble and a cabinet that plays Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaxian and more. Alas, no Space Invaders, though the bar does sell Space Invader IPA from nearby Amsterdam Brewery.
It’s a fun, lively space, and a whole lot more impressive that the recent retro arcade at Hotel X, which was to be fair a mere pop-up affair, only open for a few weeks. GRETA, which is quickly approaching the sixth anniversary of its original location, shows every intention of sticking around. Who knows; maybe it will one day be old enough to qualify as a retro establishment in its own right.
GRETA Toronto is located at 590 King Street West, and open from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday to Thursday, and 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday to Sunday.
PHOTO CREDIT: AMBEDO AGENCY
