Almost as much as part of the campus as Salad King and the man that walks backwards, Zanzibar is the place to head to once you’ve realized that your new-found university dress sense isn’t going to attract anybody.
While Ryerson continues to try to shed its old image of ‘Rye-High’ by refurbishing its existing buildings and pushing the boundaries of its campus wider into downtown, there’s one building that will always have an effect on the universities image, however many shining glass monuments of modernism are considered, approved and (slowly) constructed by the university.
That one building isn’t too subtle, easy to notice even in the brightest sunlight thanks to its exterior of clashing colours. Nestled up to Ryerson’s sometime-to-beconstructed Student Learning Centre in a way that only a building emblazoned with a neon-lit ‘The Girls Never Stop’ proclamation can nestle, Zanzibar is a reminder of the days when Yonge Street was kind of a seedier affair. The days when finding a strip club downtown wasn’t such a rarity, and when walking down Yonge after dark might not have been the best idea – basically before Yonge turned into a destination for pizza slices, cheap shoes and familyfriendly Batman impersonators.
While it’s hard to ever see anyone actually going into the place, it must be doing something right because of the fact that it is still in business.
Maybe it’s the location which, at just north of Gould Street at Yonge Street, could attract bored tourists unimpressed by the Eaton Centre, or maybe just tipsy and curious first-years who are away from home for the first time with a wallet full of OSAP money to spend.
Or maybe its the drinks and food. Yes that’s right, if you’d like you can go there for lunch.
They open their doors just after 11am, and go all the way until 2am, so you can even treat yourself with a midnight snack when you’re tired of studying, or whatever you do at midnight.
But, you must be wondering, is the promise on the front of the building true? Do the girls really never stop? If not, then how? Do they have mechanical legs? The answer is beyond us at The Eyeopener, as no round-the-clock reporting has done on the place to see if the girls stopped or not. However if you want the answer to this question answered then please contact us.
We will send a crack squad of reporters to scout the location. We will do this hard work for you, dear Ryerson students. We love you.
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