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| - I've noticed that several other Toronto Yelpers have already checked out the Sheaf, but far be it from me to not toss in my two pfennigs.
I have this weird contradictory complex about the Wheat Sheaf. Yes, I love it for its history and old tavern house look (something I miss from my days in Boston), and I'm almost always there for the wings, but the truth is that the Wheat Sheaf breaks my heart.
Apart from the wings, most of the fare seems pretty basic pubgrub: mostly fried foods that are slightly overpriced for what you're getting, and lacking in originality or much flavour. The wings are not the best I've had (I have to go to New Jersey for that), but they aren't the worst in Toronto either. They're a crapshoot really; some nights they're awesome (large, moist, flavourful) and then there are nights when I think the cook needs a whack on the head.
Driving the Bathurst streetcar one afternoon, I remarked on the PA system how the Sheaf was the oldest pub in TO. One passenger remarked, "And its where the beer is always flat!" and I couldn't disagree. A fellow Yelper's comment that he had witnessed the bartender water down the premium suds with the cheapo stuff confirmed my fears as to why my Rickard's Red there just wasn't the same as I'd find it elsewhere.
But for all its popularity, the Wheat Sheaf's greatest crime is how its jumped on the sportsbar bandwagon and hasn't really made more use of its unique history. Do we really need another pub with flatscreens everywhere beaming the games down to us (especially with a new, though inferior, St. Louis' down the street)? The opportunities that the Sheaf loses in its flattened beer, dull pubgrub, anachronistic sportsbarisms, and general lack of imagination with its history makes me give it three out of five... barely. Good thing the wings are (more often than not) decent.
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