408 Queen Street West 416-703-0811 [see on map] Official site

THE CAMERON HOUSE is a cultural incubator at the heart of the Queen West arts scene.

The city's most celebrated music acts - think Blue Rodeo, The Barenaked Ladies, and Ron Sexsmith - played its whiskey-soaked stages before taking over the world. Its intimate weekly residencies helped musicians like Justin Rutledge, Kurt Swinghammer, and Handsome Ned build a regular crowd.

As a public house, it has stood at the corner of Queen and Cameron streets for more than 80 years, but it was in 1981 that it was reinvented as the hotel/bar/theatre and live music venue that continues to inspire artists and patrons alike to make it their home.

In 2008, Feist performed a secret concert the night before her sold-out show at the Air Canada Centre, and we hear even Prince has tickled the ivories on the house piano... You just never know who you might run into at The Cameron.