Family memberships at the Rosedale Tennis Club are a steal; Right: the 5 Drive-In offers malt shakes and cotton candy alongside summer blockbusters (Images: Jay Shuster)

Family tennis club
Rosedale Tennis Club
Rosedale Park, 20 Scholfield Ave., 416-922-7906

City racquet enthusiasts usually have two options: public facilities that are asphalt, uneven and filled with people who hog the courts, or a club that’s so expensive, you’ll feel guilty every day you don’t go. Then there’s the Rosedale Tennis Club, where a mere $275 buys a full-season (mid-April to early October) family membership. That’s access for two adults and any number of their kids (ages five to 17) to eight courts shaded by a row of oaks and maples. Once a member, you can try out for competitive teams, put your kids in a Progressive Tennis camp (the European methodology in which Justine Henin was trained) and mingle in your whites at the club barbecue. Resident tennis director Richard Nicolson is a respected coach in junior tennis and also manages York Racquets, one of the top clubs in town.

This midtown yoga centre is stylish and eco-conscious without a whiff of crunchy granola. The well-appointed urban retreat was founded by sisters Christine and Emily Russell, who take a five-star-hotel approach to achieving your asanas. The two studios (which accommodate up to 12 and 35 yogis) are separated by a plush tea garden, where Ayurvedic blends are served between sessions. A signature class is Detox Flow, when the room is heated to 32 degrees Celsius to stimulate the release of toxins and improve circulation. Don’t be surprised to see Greta Constantine’s Stephen Wong or a visiting celeb (ahem, Rachel Weisz) on the next mat—it’s just that kind of place.

The best bridal parties serve wine—buckets of it. For $95 a person, a Niagara Wine Tours guide will equip your group with hybrid bikes and lead you at a leisurely pace to tastings at four VQA wineries, provide a picnic vineyard lunch, and transport any bottles you may pick up along the way. Bump up the package by staying two nights at a Niagara-on-the-Lake inn, like the boutique Shaw Club (from $375). Ladies, it has a spa.

A priest and a rabbi walked into a comedy bar, and it was actually funny. Opened in 2008, this tight basement space took in Toronto’s funniest, edgiest alt comics when there was hardly a stage left for them to work. Fans accumulated quickly, and now the joint is packed on weekends, especially Fridays, which are Catch 23 improv night. Bookings range from experimental (a recent improv festival devoted to the theme of combustion) to populist (the musical-improv Gleeks). Somewhere in between is Neil Hamburger, the satiric bad-comic alter ego of comedian-musician Gregg Turkington—you saw him on Jimmy Kimmel.

The classes at Harbourfront Canoe and Kayak Centre, taught by four Iron Man types, are like a spin class for your upper body. Sessions begin on shore with warm-ups and ab work. On Mondays and Wednesdays, they lead disciples through speed and circuit training; on Fridays, endurance is tested by paddling to the Islands or to Ontario Place. They provide the recreational-size kayaks. If this all sounds too intense, get your feet wet with a more leisurely paddle on the lake: the centre also runs breezy socials and nighttime kayaking and canoeing excursions. Kayak­ercize is $25 per class, $99 for five classes, $175 for 10.

The 5 Drive-In, family-run since 1962, feels like the movie theatre the megaplex forgot. It’s a three-screen operation, and thank goodness. Families, teenagers and nostalgic movie lovers (on a nice summer Saturday night, they might get more than 1,000 cars) pull into the scraggy, seven-hectare field for a double bill that begins at dusk. Kitschy trailers (remember the dancing hot dog?), little kids in PJs, lawn chairs set up in the back of Dad’s pickup, blankets and bug spray are a welcome change of scenery from elbow-to-elbow city cinemas. The diner-style concession stand serves the usual nachos, popcorn, licorice and pizza, but there’s also a county fair circa 1958 theme to the menu: Pogos, cotton candy, pickles-on-a-stick, funnel cakes, five-cent candy, malt shakes and floats. (Just about the only non-throwback is the movie selection: it mostly shows the big summer blockbusters.) Avoid long summer weekends (they’re packed) and go on a discount day: Tuesdays are only $5 a person admission (kids are $2). On Thursdays, a full carload is just $15.

Sunday nights, a loyal group of off-duty servers and west-end artists pay $5 cover and gather in this lower level saloon of barrel-shaped bar stools, steer skulls and barnboard. The draw? Resident blues rock band The Beauties. The five members (including Jud Ruhl, brother of the Dakota’s co-owner Maggie Ruhl) turn the place into a sweaty mess as everyone dances to covers (the Pixies’ “Gouge Away,” a mash-up of Ryan Adams’ “To Be Young” and Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”) and the band’s original songs. A new self-titled album released in June means they may be playing less regularly, but similarly talented fill-in bands guarantee entertainment long after last call.

Spend one after-midnight session in a private room here, closing your eyes and braying Coldplay to the ceiling, and you’ll be elated at the relative un-karaokeyness of the place. No fungus grows on the microphones, and no one will need to ask, “What’s that stain on the couch?” The seating is leatherette, there’s ’80s-neon lighting, and the flat-screen selection includes every modern-day song imaginable, plus multi­national selections from Asia. Korean soju figures prominently on the bar menu. All this upstairs from a Swiss Chalet at Yonge and Gerrard. From $25 per hour for a five-person room.

Nestled between Ashbridges Bay and the pumping station, this 6,500-square-metre skate plaza, completed last fall, mimics an urban streetscape—Commerce Court was a clear inspiration. Board babes (and babies—some appear to have come straight from kindergarten) share the concrete space, with the vets carefully winding around the newbies on their way to the floating manual dish, recliner, stair sets and handrails. Tricks aren’t off limits for the younger set: as one little daredevil put it, “I ate some candy, I drank some pop—I’m ready to go.” Free.

Turn off your bright lights: Camp 4 (Image: Jon Sufrin)

When the Ossington strip is too packed to go bar-hopping (or even to open new bars), it’s time to spread the party elsewhere. For the owners of Camp 4—named after a rock-climbing base camp at Yosemite—that means Dundas West: close enough to still be part of the Ossington scene, but far enough away to give hipsters some breathing room.

Camp 4 is a bar in transition as it tries to accomplish the not-so-small task of differentiating itself from such nearby hot spots as the Communist’s Daughter and the Dakota Tavern. An ardent dedication to simplicity permeates, right down to the cocktail menu. Patrons can sip three takes on the old-fashioned (bourbon, rum or tequila, $13), while the whiskey-heavy liquor selection is refreshingly free of anything fluorescent. “There’s not going to be any Hpnotiq,” says co-owner Joseph Tanner. “No blue drinks.”

True to Ossington style, old is gold at Camp 4. The bar top is made of wood planks reclaimed from Mennonite barns, with seating in the form of vintage bowling benches and school chairs. The lighting is kept ambient with 100-year-old, hand-spun lampshades of translucent milk glass.

Local favourites are on tap, including Beau’s, Stonewall Light Lager and Michael Duggan Number 9. DJs spin anything from doo-wop to glam rock to chillwave. The goal is to create a comfortable, attitude-free and ruggedly simple vibe. Just don’t expect any Smirnoff Ice.

Camp 4, 1173 Dundas St. W., 416-546-6780, camp4.ca.

The drag show at El Convento Rico is legendary (Photo by El Convento Rico)

Church Street may be Toronto’s traditional gay epicentre, but queer-positive clubs are no longer confined to its borders. Here, the top 10 homo hangouts outside the gay ghetto.

1. The Beaver
What: Opened in 2003, Will Munro’s Beaver Café is now the old kid on the West Queer West block, having solidified its status as home base for hipster gay men and women. The tiny chameleonic space effortlessly morphs from a quaint daytime cafe with killer coffee and local baked goods into a cozy first-date dining room, a gallery space, and the host of queer dance parties and dyke bands.
When: The Beaver is queer central seven days a week, with such monthly parties as Hot Nutz, Le Cock Sportif, Bush Party and more.
Who: Boys who like boys, girls who like girls, drag queens, t-girls and everything in-between.
Bonus feature: The newly expanded patio is a prime perch for people-watching.
Where: 1192 Queen St. W. (at Gladstone Ave.), 416-537-2768, thebeavertoronto.com.

2. Yes Yes Y’All
What: After a disastrous move to The Drake’s Underground, the six-month-old dance party has returned to its original home at the Backpacker’s Hostel at King and Spadina. The massive patio gives revellers a break from the hot and sweaty indoor dance floor. With DJs Sammy D and Hollyrock spinning old-school hip hop, dancehall and baile funk, there is no doubt: the ’90s are back.
When: Third Friday of the month.
Who: Hip-hop hipsters and (boasting a straight-friendly scene) some drunken hostel guests who don’t know what they’ve got themselves into.
Bonus feature: Drinks for under $5? In Toronto? Really?
Where: The Backpacker’s Hostel, 460 King St. W. (at Spadina), yesyesyall416.blogspot.com.

3. The Henhouse
What: Blink and you’ll miss this pho-restaurant-turned-bar in Little Portugal, where recession-priced pints of Cameron’s Cream and kitschy decor (stuffed fish, ceramic deer, pin-up puzzles, etc.) are the order of the day.
When: Open every day. One night will be rowdy while the next is quiet, with no consistent formula. Just go with it.
Who: Owners Katie Sketch and Jenny Smyth, from the now-defunct Vancouver-based band The Organ, have made this the go-to watering hole for local lesbians and gay men too languid to walk all the way to The Beaver.
Bonus Feature: It has one of the best jukeboxes in the city. Plus, they offer classic pancake breakfasts on Sundays.
Where: 1532 Dundas St. W. (at Sheridan Ave.), 416-534-5939.

4. Big Primpin’
What: The long-running homo hip-hop night has managed to survive the competition and its transition from the eclectic Stones Place to the seemingly unventilated Wrongbar. Purists be warned: while this is labelled a “hip-hop” event, DJs play fast and loose with the term—they are as likely to play Britney as they are Busta.
When: The first Friday of every month.
Who: See “Yes Yes Y’All.”
Bonus Feature: The lion-crested velvet wallpaper.
Where: Wrongbar, 1279 Queen St. W. (at Elm Grove Ave.), primpin.blogspot.com.

5. East End Boys Club
What: While most of the new crop of queer parties are in the west, the East End Boyz Club gives the gentlemen of Riverdale and Leslieville something a little closer to home. Get there by 11 p.m. as it fills up early and clears out by 1 a.m. (someone has to walk the labradoodle in the morning).
When: Varies from second or third Friday of the month, though less often during summer months.
Who: “Boyz” Club is a misnomer—the crowd certainly skews 30-plus.
Bonus Feature: If the goal is to acquire a single gent ready to settle down, seekers will find plenty of candidates.
Where: Prohibition, 696 Queen St. E. (at Broadview Ave.), 416-406-2669, eastendnoise.com.

6. Naco Gallery Café
What: The newly converted storefront on the Dundas West strip is the latest spot to open in this café-heavy neighbourhood. Naco, however, comes with a twist or two. Opened this past April by Mexican-born artist Julian Calleros, it features gallery space, hosts a queer lecture series called Wilde Chat, and the new monthly Latin dance party, Huevos.
Who: The west-end art crowd and Latin queers.
When: With a liquor license and extended hours, Naco is slowly growing a reputation as a nighttime hangout. Wilde Chat, Sundays. Huevos, every third Friday.
Bonus feature: Plaintain crumble with sweet cream.
Where: 1665 Dundas St. W. (at Margueretta St.), 647-347-6499.

7. West End Boys
What: No happening ’hood is complete without a gay event to call its own, and the Ossington strip is no exception. With a capacity of 40, Baby Huey fills up fast and feels like a university party, complete with holes in the walls and Goodwill-style wingbacks.
Who: Ossington stripsters and wannabe Ossington stripsters.
When: Every 2nd and 4th Saturday.
Bonus feature: Two words: Strong cocktails.
Where: Baby Huey, 70 Ossington Ave. (at Humbert St.), 647-618-7270.

8. El Convento Rico
What: Showing no signs of slowing down since the recent departure of resident celeb-beefcake Renzo, El Convento Rico is still the spiciest Latin club in town. The legendary drag shows put Church Street to shame. With salsa, top 40 and house tracks playing, the sweaty dance floor is as mixed as the drinks. Beware of bachelorette parties.
Who: Latin ladies, straight fellas, drag queens and gay boys all mix together in one of Toronto’s awesome club-scene anomalies.
When: Fridays and Saturdays, with drag shows starting at 1 a.m. and 12:30 a.m., respectively.
Bonus Feature: The annual Miss and Mr. El Convento Rico pageants.
Where: 750 College St. (at Shaw St.), 416-588-7800, elconventorico.com.

9. Steers and Queers
What: Cowboy boots, spurs, and plaid shirts—not all of them ironic—are de rigeur at this quarterly homo hoedown. With barrel tables, old tin signs and a banjo or two, it’s honky-tonk with a queer twist. The lineup usually features a drag show, country band, Djs and burlesque.
Who: West-end cowboys and cowgirls.
When: Every three months. The next roundup is July 2, 2009.
Bonus Feature: Swing on by for the famous all-you-can-eat Bluegrass Brunch every Sunday.
Where: The Dakota Tavern, 249 Ossington Ave. (at Dundas St. W.), 416-850-4579, thedakotatavern.com.

10. Hanlan’s Point
What: Not a club per se, but with no shirts (or much of anything else), ghetto blasters blaring pop tunes, and even a little dancing, one would be hard pressed to tell the difference. This is Toronto’s gay beach hot spot.
Who: Young and old, boys and girls. Who isn’t there?
When: Open every day, but gets crowded on hot summer weekends.
Bonus Feature: Toronto’s only nude beach lets you check out the goods before making your move.
Where: Toronto Island (take the Hanlan’s Point Ferry from the dock at Bay St. and Queen’s Quay).