The Brant House
522 King St. West 416.703.2800

Ah the Brant House, been the butt of so many jokes on my end over the years. Truthfully, from a service perspective, it’s actually not that bad.

You have to understand what kind of place you’re going to first before you take my advice, good or bad. The Brant House is part of the downtown gentrification that is King West.

It started with West (owned by the same people as The Brant House ironically) which was originally an invite-only spot that was low-key in terms of advertising and signage. Then it just kind of spiraled out of control.

Now, King West is basically the club district for yahoo’s who live downtown or people who can afford better than a regular club, but are still into the packed rooms and long lineups of the dress-code kind.

Now that you know what kind of people go to The Brant House, here’s the layout: the entrance isn’t actually on King St. West, it’s on Brant, as it’s name denotes, but it shares a patio with West down the street. That’s actually one of the neat features of the layout!

When you get in the door, there’s a coat check immediately to your right. A quick step or two past that and you’re at the first bar. It’s got a decent decor, exposed old wood column, brick and polished bars. It’s also very spacious, but shaped like a big square, focused almost entirely on the raised DJ booth.

At the back, there’s booths for bottle service and a makeshift VIP area that’s raised, and that’s also where the second bar is located. That’s how you get to the patio for smoking, and weather-permitting, you can grab a drink at the outdoor bar. This is the patio for West as well, so it’s kinda cool that after you get used to all the faces in the one spot, you are exposed to a whole slew more on the patio.

As far as service goes, there’s a lot of “doormen” at this spot, but to their credit, they are not as thugish as one would imagine. In fact, they are very polite. However, they’re still your average doormen: almost never helpful, little social skills and they never look you in the eye when they’re speaking to you. But as I outlined above, this is still a club environment for the masses.

The bartenders are fast, which is all you want in this kind of place. I’ve never had a conversation with one of them, but it makes no difference, it’s their speed I’m after.

Frances