Ever wondered where the best place to buy books in Kingston is? Have you ever mulled over the pros and cons of people-watching? Thought about what one word best encompasses Kingston?
With over 100 respondents in our 30 categories, the Journal’s Best of Kingston survey may hold the answers.
Whether you’re looking for a way to reminisce about your Queen’s experience or for ways to spice up your routine, read on and benefit from the choices below.
Best breakfast
1. Morrison’s
2. Windmills/Pan Chancho/The Sleepless Goat
3. Cora’s
This wasn’t the landslide we expected, so either students are going for healthier breakfast options or you were all out for milkshakes and pancakes instead of voting. Either way, these places serve a range of healthy and greasy, but always delicious, breakfasts and are well worth a weekend morning visit.
Best greasy spoon
1. Morrison’s
2. Stooley’s
3. Right Spot
Morrison’s is off to a strong lead, with two out of two categories under its greasy belt. Two years ago Morrison’s won this category handily, which goes to show you how little it has changed—and how much we relish the grease.
Best pizza
1. Woodenheads
2. Atomica
3. Pizza Pizza
Nothing seems to beat Woodenheads’ endless variety of thin-crust gourmet pizzas as it cleared its opponents four times over. As for Pizza Pizza, we can only urge you to head a little farther down Princess St. in the future.
Best place to find obscure cooking ingredients
1. Tara Natural Foods
2. Cooke’s Fine Foods/Asian Market
3. A&P
Tara blew its opponents out of the water and with its many boxes, barrels and deliciously healthy offerings, it’s hardly surprising. We do, however, think it’s interesting that you think A&P’s a great place to find obscure ingredients. It makes us wonder what you’re cooking.
Best place to drink
1. Tir Nan Og
2. QP/The Kingston Brewing Company
3. Toucan/The Brass
Known for its crowd-rousing karaoke, Tir Nan Og takes first place this year by just one vote. Showing up as strong seconds, QP offers a great, laidback atmosphere and the Brew Pub’s signature beers and ciders make it well worth the walk downtown.
Best place for a night out with friends
1. Alfie’s
2. The Kingston Brewing Company
3. Toucan
Queen’s own underground nightclub has become a hotspot to dance your mid-week blues away and raise a glass to the weekend. If you’re looking for a more sedate experience, a pub is always a favourite fallback destination.
Best place to go for coffee or tea
1. The Sleepless Goat
2. Starbucks
3. Coffee & Co.
Any place that serves its hot drinks in enormous bowl-like mugs and has an entire case of delicious and socially conscious desserts is a place deserving of a win. Followed up by what used to be the Johnson St. duo, you now have to go a little farther downtown for your Coffee & Co. treats. We recommend the apple-cinnamon muffins.
Best post-pub food
1. Bubba’s
2. Pita Grill/Pizza Pizza
3. Famous King/McDonald’s
No surprises here. Whether it’s pizza, poutine or fries you crave after a night on the sauce, Bubba’s is a one-stop miracle shop. At least, it is if the miracle you’re seeking involves hot, greasy food.
Best place to buy CDs
1. Sunrise
2. Indigo
3. Chumleighs/Brian’s Record Option
Although we got a lot of snarky “Who buys CDs anymore?” answers, we’re glad to see some of you still know your way around Kingston’s music stores.
Best place to find a hard-to-find book
1. Novel Idea
2. Indigo
3. Wayfarer Books
This is geeky, indie love at its best. Despite the corporate middle ground (although admittedly a Canadian corporation), this is a nice cross-section of Princess Street’s reader-friendly core.
Best live music venue
1. Grad Club
2. Ale House
3. Stages
The Grad Club took this one in a landslide of toe-tapping, head-bopping love. Even with Ale House and Stages riding on its coattails, it’s clear it’s at this intimate venue where you want to see your favourite band play. We’ll be there too, pint in hand.
Best art gallery
1. Agnes Etherington
2. Union
3. Chameleon Nation/Artel
The visual arts scene has had a booming year, thanks in no small part to these local delights.
Best place to window-shop
1. Minotaur
2. Heel Boy
3. Agent 99/Sterling
As a poor student, sometimes you have to get your decadent shop-till-you-drop feeling by drooling over window décor. These are all bright, creative choices and are definitely the cream of the Princess Street crop.
Best place to buy men’s clothing
1. Gap
2. Dover’s/American Apparel
3. Blueprint
Going with classic style and hipster fun, it seems the men on campus know where it’s at fashion-wise.
Best place to buy women’s clothing
1. Agent 99
2. American Apparel
3. Lululemon
With everything from fancy dresses to indie rockin’ colours and stretchy pants, Princess Street offers the ladies of Queen’s and Kingston a wide array of shops and styles. On the whole, voters seem to have chosen comfy clothes in bright colours as the real winners.
Best place to buy a gift for $30 or less
1. Minotaur
2. S&R
3. Modern Primitive
As a student, finding a reasonably priced gift is important if you also want to buy groceries that month. At $30 or less, these three establishments offer up unique and surprising gift options that won’t cut into your beer money, but still give you a little bang for your buck.
Best place to people-watch
1. Stauffer Library
2. JDUC
3. The waterfront/Sleepless Goat
Perhaps the best way to procrastinate, people watching is a deliciously indulgent past time. Whether you’re avoiding studying in the library, pretending to read in the JDUC or sitting on a downtown patio, keeping tabs on the people around you is always entertaining.
Best place to study
1. Stauffer Library
2. Douglas Library
3. At home
Apparently, when push comes to shove, the library is where you get into your study zone—after you’ve closed Facebook, said “Hi” to everyone you know and finally found space somewhere to sit down.
Best skating rink
1. Market Square
2. Victoria Park
3. City Park
If Kingston winters are rife with one thing, it’s ice, and we’ve chosen to celebrate that ice—at least when it’s contained. That said, we very much agree with the respondent who said his or her favourite rink was Kingston sidewalks.
Best place to go for a run
1. The waterfront
2. Lemoine point
3. PEC/Ghetto
Once again, it turns out Queen’s students hearts lie on the shores of Lake Ontario—the waterfront took this category by a landslide. At the same time, we’re suitably impressed a few of you make the trek out to Lemoine Point to get your endorphin fix. Getting out to run is commendable in and of itself, especially in this winter’s weather, so if the Ghetto is where you get your jog on, that’s pretty decent too.
Best place to take your parents
1. Chez Piggy
2. Pan Chancho/Chien Noir
3. Windmills
Congratulations—you all have classy, classy parents. Or maybe this is the only time you can afford to eat at one of Kingston’s higher-priced dining establishments. Either way, some very refined choices.
Best place for a cheap date
1. Copper Penny
2. Mekong/Wok In/Sleepless Goat
3. Coffee & Co./Screening Room/Common Ground
Apparently a cheap date in Kingston is synonymous with comfort food and/or a hot beverage. For the record, this suits us just fine. That said, a combination of the Screening Room and the Sleepless Goat would be pretty killer, especially if it involved sharing dessert.
Best place to splurge on a date
1. Chien Noir
2. Casa Domenico/Tango
3. Woodenheads
Hello, delicious night out. Taking a date anywhere that requires pretty shoes and a glass of wine is a splurge in the style department and well worth a little extra cash. Can you take us with you?
Best place for a hangover cure
1. Stooley’s
2. Bed 3. Toucan/Morrison’s
Nothing like a cup of raw eggs or a beer-and-tomato-juice combo at Stooley’s to dissipate the throbbing between your eyes. But if all else fails, go with the tried, tested and true method of pulling the covers over your head and going back to sleep.
Best public washroom
1. JDUC/Gusto
2. Stauffer
3. Fanatics/Indigo
First place shouldn’t really be a tie; voters are either entirely unaware that this Hub mainstay closed last semester, or else you’re just really, really nostalgic for that faux-Tuscan finish. Either way, you’re also fans of gender-neutral washrooms, which is fantastic.
Best place to drown your sorrows
1. Toucan
2. QP
3. Ale House
The Toucan’s cozy and brooding atmosphere won out here.Those Guinness posters really are good drinking—and commiserating—buddies. After these results, it may be wise that the Toucan doesn’t serve pitchers. As for the QP, if you’re drowning in academics-related sorrows you’ll likely be in good company.
Best place to celebrate
1. QP
2. Ale House
3. Toucan
Who doesn’t want to celebrate their good news in a place where you can run into everyone from all your classes, plus the AMS? As for the Toucan, being the number-one place in town to drown your sorrows would probably dampen your celebrations.
Best place to escape
1. The waterfront
2. Wolfe Island
3. The Sleepless Goat
When you want to get away, you head to the shore. Can’t say we blame you—the lake’s positively picturesque, especially when the light’s right. It gives you a stellar view of Wolfe Island and—if you plan your escape route well—you can swing by the Goat for or a drink a piece of pie on your way home.
Number-one place you haven’t been yet but want to visit
1. Wolfe Island
2. Fort Henry
3. K-rock Centre
It was a close one, but the small island with the big heart won you over in the end. Head to Wolfe Island on a bike, if you can. The summer and fall are the best seasons to visit, and the ferry ride will warm your heart. As for Fort Henry, if you’re a Canadian history buff (and who in this city isn’t?) you’ll probably enjoy the uniforms and the cannons. The Kingston Economic Development Corporation will be very pleased with the third-place winner, although it has us a bit confounded.
Best word to describe Kingston
1. Home
2. Eclectic
3. Quaint
It has to be a good sign for town-gown relations that the word the most respondents feel best describes Kingston is “home.” Now, if only we could act like it, we would be set. “Eclectic” and “quaint” are both repeats and equally descriptive of a vibrant and multifaceted city.
—Compiled by Angela Hickman, Anna Mehler Paperny and Madison Bettle
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.