the brunswick house

People find it hilarious that you can now get vaccinated at the Brunswick House in Toronto

If you're booking a COVID-19 vaccine in Toronto anytime soon, you may just end up getting your shot at one of the city's most beloved and storied bars.

The Brunny, officially The Brunswick House, presided over the corner of Bloor and Brunswick in the Annex for decades, and was home to everyone from U of T students and resident weirdos to jazz musicians and big-name singers.

It was best known rather affectionately as a grungy college bar with cheap drinks and a sweaty dance floor — that is, until it tragically shuttered in 2016, after which the historic 19th-century building was converted into a Rexall drug store.

The store serves as the brand's flagship Toronto location, and also, like thousands of other pharmacies provincewide, one of the spots at which residents can now go get the coveted vaccine.

As if getting an inoculation against the highly transmissible virus at what was once one of the most jam-packed, grimy watering holes in the city wasn't ironic and hilarious enough, those booking an immunization at 481 Bloor St. W appear to be receiving a formal confirmation that they are, in fact, getting one last shot at the Brunswick House.

"We'll notify you when you can book for COVID-19 Vaccine (Dose 1) at Brunswick House," a notification from Rexall reads for those who register for a jab at the Annex location.

One resident who shared their now-viral screenshot of the confirmation to Twitter on Sunday stated that they are "hoping to get the AZ vaccine at the Brunny," which thousands of people liked and hundreds more retweeted and replied to.

"The fact that you can get the vaccine at the old Brunny building is beyond ironic because if you partied at the Brunny in college you're basically immune to everything anyway," one user responded.

"Yeah it's now a drugstore and that's a bummer, but the Brunny is Toronto heritage," another chimed. "Righteous spirits of rockin Irene and the Brunswick four are baked in to that address so getting jabbed there = some bragging rights."

Many are calling it one of the coolest moves a Gen Xer who fondly remembers (foggily, in snippets) nights spent at the establishment in their younger days can make.

And countless alumni of the establishment are running with the joke, poking fun at how unsanitary it was, how bad its ID checking policies were, and more.

One can only hope that once registered, the wait for a vaccine appointment isn't as long as the lineup to get a drink at the Brunny's bar, or even, at one time, to get into the venue in the first place on a busy Saturday night.

Lead photo by

Hector Vasquez


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