The Binary Café was an internet cafe which was located upstairs at 502 Yonge Street[2] in Toronto, Ontario from June 1994[3] to December 1994.[citation needed][dubious – discuss] It is significant in that it was Canada's first internet cafe.[3][4][5] Three years after the first café installed internet access, it opened the same year as the first internet cafés in London and America.[5]Ivan Pope had been the first to fully lay out the concept of a "cybercafé" in a London art event two months earlier the same year.[5][6] It was run by Steve Bernhardson[7] and staffed by a handful of employees/volunteers.[citation needed] According to a columnist, Bernhardson tried to "meld art, Internet, intellect, and 'cafe culture'" and strip computers of their associations with asocial geeks and "office culture".[7]
The full name of the establishment was "The Binary Café and Hexadecimal Emporium",[7] selling food (prepared sandwiches, holographic chocolates), drinks (coffee, soda, no alcohol) and cigarettes as well as a variety of magazines.[7] It was located in a converted residential flat up a staircase from a door on Yonge Street, under a sign covered in binary digits.[7] A small display case contained art related to technology or cyberspace, solicited from local artists.[7]
Internet access was available through two x86 computers, which shared a single telephone line for their PPP connection.[citation needed] The café had three computers as of September 1994.[7]
