The big box nightclub is dead. Long live the big beer bar.

Toronto’s downtown core is thirsty and is about get a lot more options to quaff a pint of craft beer. There tends to be a generic quality to the additions as they are all basically giant beer barns, but if you’ve ever been stuck looking for a seat on game night, these pubs might be for you.

The former Baton Rouge at the base of the CN Tower is now the just-opened Pint Public House, adding 800 seats for the pre-gaming crowd. A bit farther north, King Taps also opens this weekend with 50 draught beers at First Canadian Place. A couple blocks away, at Yonge and Adelaide Sts., the oncoming Craft Beer Market promises Canada’s largest selection of beers on tap.

They join Cineplex, which last month opened the somewhat less-boozy Rec Room, an arcade, bar and restaurant complex in the former Leon’s at the Roundhouse, with room for 1,200 people.

Lastly, the OG big beer bar of them all, the Bier Markt on the Esplanade, is planning a post-renovation reopening for July 17, with an updated look, plus Canada’s first Goose Island Brewhouse opening in the former Fionn MacCool’s space next door.

“Seventeen years ago, when we started the Bier Markt, 46 beers on tap and 100 (bottles and cans) was new to the marketplace. Today in many respects that’s table stakes,” said Grant Cobb, senior vice-president of Cara Operations, which counts Bier Markt as one of its brands.

“Toronto still has some nightclubs, but the Entertainment District and what that became, that’s really sort of disappeared. You’re seeing these big beer bars come in that are more casual and more approachable. It’s a lot more social than a nightclub; it’s not as intense and I think a lot is wrapped into the whole socialization of beer that’s happening.”

Beyond downtown, Liberty Village has several huge beer bars, including a Big Rock Brewery outpost, a 3 Brewers and the 120-tap Craft Brasserie — not to be confused with the similarly named beer hall landing soon at Yonge and Adelaide.

And around town, notably in Toronto’s east end, microbreweries — including Saulter Street Brewery and the brand new Godspeed — are opening almost as fast as pot dispensaries.

Cobb says Cara wanted to update the Bier Markt but also offer the best of both worlds, which is why the company signed a deal with Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Co. to add a brew pub to the venue, plus additional patio space in the alley off Church Street.

It also doesn’t hurt, it seems, to have some kind of Western Canadian pedigree. Several of the new spots are chain expansions from Alberta and B.C., perhaps following the lead of Earl’s and Cactus Club in hoping to get a piece of Toronto’s office drinking culture, which includes a traditional Thursday night patio throwdown before the Friday cottage run.

The Rec Room, the Pint Public House, the Craft Beer Market and Big Rock Brewery all started in Alberta and the new guys are salivating at the chance to crack the Toronto market.

“Toronto’s been in the works for us for a really long time; it was all about finding the right location. We typically really like to be close to a sports venue. We’re sports-motivated and oriented,” said Chad Hubbs, general manager of the Pint, which is the seventh outpost of a bar that started in Edmonton.

“We also like to have a little bit more of a party atmosphere late night, so our hope is to drive a little bit of that down to that area. Typically you’d see it up King West and over at the Loose Moose, but we really want to capture that as well.”

Both Cobb and Hubbs scoff at the idea that there might be oversaturation.

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“There’s more than enough room for everyone,” said Hubbs.

It was not all that long ago that it was difficult to get a drink in the financial district. While that has since changed, the new South Core district, between the downtown train tracks and the waterfront, is now a much improved eating and drinking destination. With its tourist-friendly spots, like the CN Tower, Ripley’s Aquarium, the Air Canada Centre, the Rogers Centre and the convention centre — and now an adult-geared arcade where a furniture store once stood — the area could easily be dubbed Toronto’s new Entertainment District. Just don’t tell the old one.