EGN NEWS DESK
As you would possibly guess from the title of Eugene Levy’s newest sequence — “The Reluctant Traveler” — he’s a man who’s pleased to remain put.
The present, now in its second season on Apple TV, follows Mr. Levy, a 77-year-old comedy legend identified for his roles in “Waiting for Guffman,” “American Pie,” “Schitt’s Creek” and extra, as he defies his anxieties about airports, heights, temperatures, textures and huge swaths of the animal kingdom. With nice consternation, he leaves his consolation zone — Canada, as he usually reminds viewers — to shadow an skilled moose caller in Sweden, herd 600 sheep by a German resort city and politely keep away from an octopus aboard a Greek trawler.
Raised in Hamilton, Ontario, about 40 miles southwest of Toronto, Mr. Levy obtained his large break in 1972 alongside Martin Short, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin and Paul Shaffer in a celebrated manufacturing of “Godspell” at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theater. He has since known as the town — and one historic, leafy neighborhood — house.
“Rosedale is a residential space that’s proper within the coronary heart of Toronto,” he advised me over coffee at Tavern on the Green, in New York, the place he’d joined the forged of the fourth season of “Only Murders within the Building.” With new skyscrapers going up “a mile a minute” in Toronto, he stated, the scene from our desk in Central Park seemed a bit of like his view from Rosedale. He and his spouse, Deborah Divine, are neighborhood loyalists — Avant Goût, a neighborhood bistro, has been their go-to for many years — however spots in different areas rank excessive, too.
Here are 5 of Mr. Levy’s favourite locations in Toronto.
1. Terroni Bar Centrale
“Deb and I’d normally do our each day constitutional within the morning and find yourself at Bar Centrale for a latte and a few of their effective pastries,” he stated, including that the croissants are particularly good at this spot in Summerhill, a neighborhood that borders Rosedale. Occupying the bottom ground of the multistory Terroni Price restaurant in a Nineteenth-century brick constructing, Bar Centrale forgoes the Wi-Fi you would possibly count on along with your coffee in favor of a wall’s price of worldwide magazines and — in keeping with Mr. Levy — a workers full of excellent conversationalists.
2. Harry Rosen
The flagship of this family-run males’s put on emporium on Bloor Street is one-stop purchasing for Mr. Levy. “I hate touring round to totally different locations to get various things,” he stated, very a lot on model. This place “has each designer, if that’s what you’re into, and the whole lot from socks to tuxedos.” There’s additionally a luxurious grooming division, a tailoring service and an array of coffee desk books on subjects like racecars, rockers and tattoo artwork.
3. CN Tower
Touristy? Sure, Mr. Levy acknowledged. Still, this roughly 1,815-foot communications and remark tower gives unmatched views of the town and Lake Ontario, even when — like him — you keep away from the acrophobia-inducing glass-floored sections. “We used to take the youngsters there once they have been younger,” he stated. “I couldn’t even put my toe on the sting of the glass, however my youngsters would simply destroy me — they might lie down on it.” A much less aggravating view: Rogers Centre, the stadium subsequent door, the place you possibly can see the Toronto Blue Jays play baseball. “I’ve been a Jays fan for, I assume since they began in ’77,” Mr. Levy advised me. He clarified his model of fandom throughout a Season 2 episode of “The Reluctant Traveler”: “I don’t go and paint my face,” he advised the Spanish footballer Héctor Bellerín, however “in a championship sport, I’ll arise and provides them, you already know, a thumbs-up.”
4. The Royal Conservatory of Music
“The musicianship popping out of the Royal Conservatory is simply superior,” stated Mr. Levy, fast to notice that his spouse “would go there when she was a child taking piano classes.” (Students on the 138-year-old establishment have included the pianist Glenn Gould and the singer Sarah McLachlan.) Mr. Levy loves concert events on the hooked up Koerner Hall — “the acoustics are impeccable” — the place you possibly can see prime college students or worldwide stars.
5. Windsor Arms Hotel
The 1972 “Godspell” function turned Mr. Levy’s first regular appearing paycheck: “That was big,” he stated. And along with his windfall (“140 bucks each single week”) he began having fun with meals and late-night cocktails, or cake and coffee, on the Windsor Arms, a 10-minute drive from the theater. The lodge was fashionable, he stated, as a result of it was “quiet and extra residential” than others. (The suites really feel like genteel prewar residences, with musical devices and loads of plush seating.) One of Mr. Levy’s favourite outdated haunts there — the Courtyard Cafe — is now the Courtyard, an occasion area price a fast wander to see the place, amongst different issues, Elton John and David Furnish held an engagement party. Mr. Levy, now a connoisseur of 5:30 p.m. dinners, is now not the late-night cake-and-coffee man he as soon as was — however he nonetheless provides the place, you already know, a thumbs-up.
