A legendary Toronto music venue is returning to downtown with a new look and name
Published August 8, 2025 at 11:51 am
After years of being out of commission, a legendary Toronto venue is returning to the city.
Earlier this week, a post appeared on Instagram stating that “Live music returns to 486 Spadina, September 2025.”
To those familiar, this address would strike a chord as the old Silver Dollar Room, a live music space that operated for over 50 years until its closure in 2017.
The space has since been redeveloped as a multi-storey mixed-use space, with the old Silver Dollar sign remaining as a relic of the past.
However, the team behind Track & Field, a celebrated west end bar, has taken over the space and plans to relaunch it as Dina’s Tavern — a live music and dance venue that pays tribute to what came before.
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YourcitywithIN.com was able to connect with Nickie Minshall, one of Track & Field’s owners and proprietor of Dina’s Tavern, to find out how this new location holds space for Toronto’s past while laying the groundwork for a new era of live music downtown.
“It’s been fun striking a balance between preserving the history and starting something new. There are aspects of the space people will recognize from back in the day – the layout, the bar, the iconic signage outside,” Minshall told yourcitywithIN.com via email.
“That said, the intention with Dina’s isn’t to replace the historic Silver Dollar! Dina’s will be a new space with a new identity.”
One of the key ways Minshall and her team are keeping the shine on the old Silver Dollar is by hosting a weekly Bluegrass show, an event that the space held for decades before its initial closure.
Nick McKinlay, the booker at Dina’s, ensured that not only would this tradition stay alive, but also, with its implementation, wants to provide Toronto’s music scene with an accessible space, a vacuum that McKinlay indicates the city has been maneuvering around for years.
“I’ve been playing music in Toronto for 17 years, a not-small-percentage of which has been in this very room! A consensus amongst many of us in the scene is that Toronto is sorely lacking smaller capacity venues – places where musicians, both new and seasoned, can develop and work,” McKinlay told yourcitywithIN.com.
Once doors open in September, both Minshall and McKinlay plan to launch Dina’s Tavern as a low-barrier space for anyone to experience — or play — live music in the heart of Toronto.
As for programming, Dina’s is playing double duty as a venue and dance hall.
However, Minshall noted that Dina’s will not strictly operate as one or the other on a given night, as live music and DJs will be working in tandem.
“We’ll have live music every night we’re open, which will be six nights a week to start. We want to keep it high energy on weekends, so the plan is to book some fun cover bands with DJs afterward to keep the party going on Friday and Saturday nights. That said, there’ll be something interesting and fun happening at Dina’s every night of the week!”
While no official opening night has been announced at this time, Dina’s Tavern is set to open sometime in September.