The Binary Café was an

internet cafe The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

which was located upstairs at 502

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from June 1994 to December 1994. It is significant in that it was

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's first internet cafe. Three years after the first café installed internet access, it opened the same year as the first internet cafés in London and America.

Ivan Pope Ivan Pope (born 1961) is a British technologist, involved in a number of early internet developments in the UK and across the world, including coining the term '' cybercafe'' at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts. He was a founder of two o ...

had been the first to fully lay out the concept of a "cybercafé" in a London art event two months earlier the same year.The Weird, Sketchy History of Internet Cafes

Gizmodo ''Gizmodo'' () is a design, technology, science, and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the sub-blogs ''io9'' and ''Earther'', which focus on pop ...

. (20 November 2015). Bryan Lufkin It was run by Steve Bernhardson and staffed by a handful of employees/volunteers. 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". The full name of the establishment was "The Binary Café and Hexadecimal Emporium", selling food (prepared sandwiches, holographic chocolates), drinks (coffee, soda, no alcohol) and cigarettes as well as a variety of magazines. It was located in a converted residential flat up a staircase from a door on Yonge Street, under a sign covered in binary digits. A small display case contained art related to technology or cyberspace, solicited from local artists.

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

access was available through two

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computers, which shared a single telephone line for their PPP connection. The café had three computers as of September 1994.

References

External links

Ode to The Binary Cafe...
-- a web memorial Culture of Toronto Internet cafés {{Toronto-stub