# Peterborough, Ontario



## Eukaryotic (Jan 24, 2005)

I am moving to Peterborough in June or July for work. Am actually going to commute from Toronto to Peterborough for a couple of weeks in May. Don't know much about the place. Anyone here live in or around? 

Thanks. 

PMs are fine too.


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## Marvin (Jan 27, 2005)

*Ptbo*

What would like to know about our sleepy little backwater?


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## Eukaryotic (Jan 24, 2005)

Mostly just wondering what the housing situation is like there. Will be renting first...any places to avoid? And good places to eat? 

Thanks!


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## Loafer (Jan 7, 2004)

and more importantly any good places to drink ?


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## Eukaryotic (Jan 24, 2005)

Loafer said:


> and more importantly any good places to drink ?


Yeah gotta find out where that sweet pub is...

Til then drink at my place.


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## mactrombone (Nov 3, 2004)

Drinking in Peterborough? I really enjoyed St. Veronus when I was there. Go to http://www.stveronus.com/map.htm and then find your way there in person. Have a Chimay red label for me while you're and the charcuterie plate. Yummy!


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## Eukaryotic (Jan 24, 2005)

Looks like a great place. Will be sure to check that one out. Thanks!


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## TroutMaskReplica (Feb 28, 2003)

i lived there for 7 years. go to hot belly momma's on george st. for great cajun.

as far as places to avoid, don't live in 'east city' or near the no frills (farther down george st).

the area bounded by monaghan, rubidge, sherbrooke, and charlotte streets is nice. pleasant atmosphere, low ratio of welfare recipients relative to the rest of the city (you'll know what i mean once you've been there for a while), walking distance to downtown.


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## Eukaryotic (Jan 24, 2005)

Is it just me or are the east side of cities always the bad-ass ones??


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## thejst (Feb 1, 2005)

Last time we were out on tour, we played this awesome little theatre in PeterBorough called 'The Gordon Best'- good food in the patio-retaurant downstairs...
James


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## TroutMaskReplica (Feb 28, 2003)

> Last time we were out on tour, we played this awesome little theatre in PeterBorough called 'The Gordon Best'- good food in the patio-retaurant downstairs...
> James


ahh yes, you're talking about this place: http://home.cogeco.ca/~onlycafe/

i remember many drunken nights in that building. err, well actually i don't remember


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## Marvin (Jan 27, 2005)

Peterborough has a University (Trent) and a college (Fleming). Neither have sufficient on campus housing so lots of students live in the city. Therefore lots of bars and pubs. Also lots of eclectic restaurants. Parts of East City are very nice others not. Nice lake in the middle of town with several beaches. A couple of theatres and one multiplex movie theatre. Walmart and Home Depot but not too many other "big box" stores. Anything else?


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## mactrombone (Nov 3, 2004)

Oh yeah, Hot Belly Mama's! Right next door to it is a very fine brew pub that has a real nice selection of their own beers. I can't remember the name off the top of my head but if you find HBM's you can't miss the brew pub. I think they even share the same kitchen.


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## TroutMaskReplica (Feb 28, 2003)

you're thinking of the old stone. i think they share bathrooms too.


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## The Great Waka (Nov 26, 2002)

Eukaryotic said:


> Is it just me or are the east side of cities always the bad-ass ones??


I think this is common among all cities in the northern hemisphere. In fact, I think they are designed this way, as most of the time the wind blows from the west, blowing the smog from the city to the east side. Thus the 'rich' live on the clean west side, and the east side gets run down. Look at London, England for the classic example of this. And I believe all cities were moddled after this.

As for Peterborough, I've only been there once to do some filming up at Trent. We stayed in the residential area near the YMCA. There were a lot of students living in that area, and as I remember it, it was quite good. Went out for a walk at 3AM and there were quite a lot of people out as well, just walking or walking their dogs, etc. There are parts of Toronto that I wouldn't want to do that in.


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## autopilot (Dec 2, 2004)

dreams and beans cafe is great. i get a hot chocolate every time i'm there. so good!

they have a huge selection of coffees, some organic, and an giant array of teas. nice atmosphere too. some of the staff can be snotty however.

blue streak records is good, but they charge too much and they don't seem to have a lot of turnover. always the same stuff. again, staff can be snotty. what is up with that?

or maybe it's just cafes and record stores. same goes for toronto if i think about it...


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## hailing (Sep 7, 2004)

Heh, it's been a while since I've visted EhMac. 

I, too, live in Peterborough, and it's certainly a place, well, like no other. Peterborough is a hybrid of urban and rural, taking both the negative and positive aspects of both. 

As for East City, well, it's not all bad. If you can find a place to rent there, I wouldn't worry too much. 

Dreams and Beans (on Hunter St) - I agree, the coffee and tea is awesome (masala chai is phenominal), but sometime the staff aren't the greatest. I once got a huge lecture there for trying to use my Interac card, even though I've used it there before. (I try to use cash for small purchases, but sometimes I just don't have any change) I havn't been there since. I mostly go to Hasseltons (on George) now for coffee.

Restaurants - well, there's an AWESOME Japanese/Korean place on Park St, right beside the Delafosse Branch Library called Matsu Sushi. I find it much better than Hoshi's on Charlotte. Most of Peterborough's independant restaurants are in the downtown core, especially on Hunter and Charlotte Streets. There is plenty of variety - Cajun, Mexican, Belgian, Carribean, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Indian, to name a few. Parkhill on Hunter is a great fine dining establishment. And a relative newcomer to the restaurant scene - Karma's Cafe, offers Tibetan and other South Asian meals, and certainly gets my thumbs up. 

As for the cinema, unfortunately, Cinema 379, an amazing indepedant theatre closed down a few months ago - it was such an great place, a huge shame. So, for the moment, the only cinema is the Galaxy multiplex on Water St. 

By far, the greatest movie rental place is Have You Seen, also located under the Market Hall (George at Charlotte). They offer Canadian/Foreign/Independant/Documentary/Hollywood films - just about everything. The staff ROCK, and really know their films, plus it's cheaper than BlockBuster. (Only $4, tax incl.!)

If you're looking for ethnic groceries, Minh's (on George near Brock) and Asian Grocery (under the Market Hall) are great places to go to. 

If you're more into malls - (I'm not, so I'm going by friend's reccomendations here) Lansdowne Place (on Lansdowne Street) is the best mall in Peterborough, followed by Portage Place (on Chemong Street), with Peterborough Square (on George) trailing far behind. The Square is going through huge renovations, so things might just pick up there. All the major big box stores (Future Shop, Staples, etc) are on Lansdowne Street. 

If you have a Fido phone, please keep in mind that only Rogers, Telus and Bell service the area. You'll have to subscribe to the "enhanced" coverage that Fido offers to use it in Peterborough.

Peterborough has kickass bike trails, my favourite being the Rotary Greenway trail that follows the Otonabee River. The Trans Canada Trail goes through city as well. The best bike shop would have to be Spokes 'N' Pedals, located on Aylmer St, just north of Brock. 

Peterborough has a pretty good library system - the main branch located on Aylmer, and the Delafosse Branch on Park St. Be sure to check out their ever growing DVD collection.

Unfortunately, Public Transit in Peterborough isn't the greatest. The system operates on a 30 min cycle at it's peak times, which pales to the TTC for sure, hehe. The best way to navigate this city is by bike, car or on foot.

As for politics, the City is generally centrist, and has been voting Liberal for the last decade or so. Peterborough, however, is a swing riding, so, that could definately change.

Oh! Peterborough has one Mac shop, and it's really quite bad. You'd be better off going to TO for your Apple needs.

Hmm, well, I'm tired. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.


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## Marvin (Jan 27, 2005)

*hailing*

which Mac sre you referring to?


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## Eukaryotic (Jan 24, 2005)

Thanks to everyone for all the great info. Hailing, sounds like we're pretty much on the same page as far as food etc. Glad to hear there is a decent Japanese place there. Sounds like a great little town. 

We'll be coming back to Toronto a lot though, so anything that I can't get/do in Peterborough I'll get back in T.O. 

The thing that struck me most a couple of months ago when I drove into Peterborough was that there really didn't seem to be a lot of suburb/sprawl housing, which was a nice surprise.


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## hailing (Sep 7, 2004)

Marvin said:


> which Mac sre you referring to?


Mac Solutions on George. The sales person is nice enough, but really doesn't know his stuff. I wouldn't feel comfortable bringing equipment there - they regularly leave customer's computers out in the open, even used them for demos.


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## autopilot (Dec 2, 2004)

hailing said:


> If you have a Fido phone, please keep in mind that only Rogers, Telus and Bell service the area. You'll have to subscribe to the "enhanced" coverage that Fido offers to use it in Peterborough.



YES. i discovered this when i first visited with my fido phone. i switched to a bell plan so for now it's a non-issue for me, but still a very good point.


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## Marvin (Jan 27, 2005)

hailing said:


> Mac Solutions on George. The sales person is nice enough, but really doesn't know his stuff. I wouldn't feel comfortable bringing equipment there - they regularly leave customer's computers out in the open, even used them for demos.


Microage stills has a Mac tech on staff. Very knowledgable and helpful. Can order from Apple if you want.


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## hailing (Sep 7, 2004)

Marvin said:


> Microage stills has a Mac tech on staff. Very knowledgable and helpful. Can order from Apple if you want.


Right! Still, they don't have a showroom that you can try out the products. 

Anyways, I went out to conquer some bike trails near the University today, and on my way home, I decided to take a panarama shot of Little Lake, the lake that Peterborough is centred upon.

Click here to view (approx 500 KB) 

It looks so serene! Only in Peterborough can you get this right in the middle of a reasonably large urban centre.

Cheers.


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## Eukaryotic (Jan 24, 2005)

We were there today! Went driving all over the town. Sleepy little place - nothing was open! We were going to go to St. Veronus for lunch but it was closed. Oh well, will be there soon enough...moving in June. 

Looking forward to tackling that bike trail.


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## hailing (Sep 7, 2004)

Eukaryotic said:


> We were there today! Went driving all over the town. Sleepy little place - nothing was open! We were going to go to St. Veronus for lunch but it was closed. Oh well, will be there soon enough...moving in June.
> 
> Looking forward to tackling that bike trail.


Heh, on the Rotary Greenway Trail (paved, goes along the river) it was PACKED! Tonnes of rollerbladers, bikers, stollers, runners, walkers. Though downtown, it would have been pretty dead, yeah.


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## Willy Z (Oct 25, 2004)

I used to live there and reading all the comments brought back lots of memories 

I went to Trent U.

I actually found Peterborough a small city.
but from all the comments I saw, it looks like it's changed a lot.
you now have ethnic food....which didn't exist 7 years ago.

Traill college....I miss you


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## Fox (Oct 4, 2002)

Nice to see all these good things written about Peterborough in general and Trent in particular, since I live in Peterborough and teach at Trent. Yes, the city has undergone a moderate transition in the past 5 years or so. The big event was the move of much of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to downtown Peterborough (with a few of their fish and wildlife researchers having offices at Trent). The move of some 700 employees, many professional, has had a moderate impact on local facilities, including more ethnic restaurants and more stores in general. This has also resulted in higher housing prices, but prices are still lower than those of other small cities in or near Metro Toronto. Regarding Mac service, the local MacSolutions place is no MacDoc/Carbon Computing, but the owner is nice and he is able to order in quickly many types of peripherals for prices as cheap as you can get in Toronto. And MicroAge, while they do not have a Mac showroom, does have a very good Mac technician whom I think is a member of this site. He has serviced my Macs on many occasions, and I have no complaints whatsoever about his work.


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## macsolutions (Apr 8, 2005)

hailing said:


> Mac Solutions on George. The sales person is nice enough, but really doesn't know his stuff. I wouldn't feel comfortable bringing equipment there - they regularly leave customer's computers out in the open, even used them for demos.


 That's not Mac Solutions.

He got the store from his 'ex' when I bought the Barrie location, and he has been told by Apple many times that he is not Mac Solutions. I guess he's too lazy to change it, but I don't want people to think that he is affilieated with me.

David
Mac Solutions.


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## Patchfoo (Oct 3, 2007)

hailing said:


> Heh, it's been a while since I've visted EhMac.
> If you have a Fido phone, please keep in mind that only Rogers, Telus and Bell service the area. You'll have to subscribe to the "enhanced" coverage that Fido offers to use it in Peterborough.


This is an old thread I found about Peterborough and Fido. Does anyone know if Peterborough has service by Fido yet? Any good?

Thanks!


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