Toronto has an official foosball club and it's hiding in an unlikely place

Foosball has a fanatical fanbase in Toronto, and they're quietly operating out of an office space in Etobicoke — but they want you to hop on the bandwagon.

Retro pastimes seem to be having a real renaissance in Toronto. From arcade bars becoming staples on the party scene to businesses like Antisocial Pinball Lounge reviving formats nearing the brink of extinction, there's something 

For the members of the Toronto Foosball Club, foosball could quite possibly be the city's next frontier.

Recently moving into a new-and-improved space tucked inside an industrial unit on The Queensway, the Toronto Foosball Club is the only place in the city devoted entirely to foosball, 24/7.

And when I say 24/7, I mean it literally. Members, whose fees begin at $80 a month, can access the club on any day at any time using a key fob, which is a pretty sweet deal for those really looking to hone their skills in the... sport? Game?

Up to 28 people can play at a time at Toronto Foosball Club.

"We call it a sport, some might argue," Robert Pavich, one of the quasi-co-chairs of the club, tells me with a laugh.

For Robert, who played his fair share of foosball at bars and arcades during its heyday in the '70s and '80s, his passion for the sport wasn't truly born until he retired a few years ago and he found himself, in his own words, "very bored."

"I played in college," he tells me, "Then I graduated, and then that was it. I quit. Then I retired, and after two weeks of retirement, I said, 'This ain't gonna work,' because I am bored stiff. I'm drinking way too many beers compared to what this doesn't work. And somehow I found the Toronto Foosball Club."

At the time, he thought he was pretty good, but upon playing with some of the other members ("we've got guys here who are among the top 100 players in the world," he tells me), he realized he had a long way to go.

Robert Pavich is one of the friendly faces behind TFC.

Thus began a near-obsessive passion for the sport, with him playing into the wee hours with fellow club members regularly, and travelling around the world to participate in tournaments, a phenomenon that could quite possibly signal an upturn for foosball.

"The game was very popular in the 70s. There used to be tournaments. I think the biggest tournament had a million-dollar prize pool," Robert explains.

"Then the video game came along and just really took over, and ever since then, it's been kind of growing back slowly. It's almost like a cult sport, but it's growing because there are some advantages to playing the sport."

Now, he and his fellow club members are on a mission to ramp up the foosball revival, believing that it's a relatively accessible, low-barrier activity that players of all ages and abilities can get in on.

Extra balls, snacks and beverages are available to keep the game going.

The club operates on a communal level, with its members acting as stewards for the space, which boasts six tables from various international brands, ensuring their upkeep for not only members, but the scores of drop-in visitors who swing by for a quick game.

If you don't want to play but still want to get into the action, you can watch games livestreamed on their YouTube channel.

For my part, foosball has always fallen under the same 'dusty, rusty contraption in the corner of a bowling alley' category that pinball did. After visiting Antisocial Pinball Lounge, owner Steve Lefort changed my mind entirely, and Robert did the same upon my time at Toronto Foodball Club.

You'd be shocked at just how easily the hours melt away when you're hunched over a foosball table, particularly when you're trying to fend off assassin-level shots from a semi-pro like Robert. 

As intense as the games we had with Robert were, though, it's just as easy to see how foosball is the ultimate party game. You can play against a single opponent (not recommended for rookies like me) or with a teammate in doubles. It's active, but doesn't have you running after balls like ping pong does.

"I will say this, once you get into foosball, you realize that, holy cow, there's a whole different level to it," Robert tells me, "and if you see the best guys in the world, you won't notice it. But if you play against him, god, nothing works."

I, the reluctant recipient of less-than-stellar hand-eye coordination, figured I'd be absolutely useless at the game, but the more I played, aided with guidance from Robert, I sank into a sort of meditative space and found that it's easy to improve, too.

If you're anything like me, you, too, can get pointers from a pro when you visit Toronto Foosball Club. They have tables devoted to one-on-one lessons or "play the pro" games that'll help you improve your game — but if you prefer to go for ball-flinging chaos, that's cool too.

At the end of the day, Robert's hope is just that more people can get tuned into foosball and begin to raise its street cred again.

Playing against Robert is humbling to say the least.

"[Our dream] is for Toronto Foosball Club to get bigger and more people. More old people, and definitely more young people. It seems like the young people who play are the children of people who used to play and there's a table in their house," he says.

Now, it's more or less just the really serious players who have tables in their own homes, but the game, in Robert's opinion, is best played among friends anyway.

"You don't need to be serious to have fun in this," he says. "It's a social event."

To celebrate the social element of the game, they host a ton of events throughout the year to welcome new and returning players, like their grand opening on May 17 that saw a flood of new joiners, and a tournament coming up this August.

But you don't have to be a monthly member to play at Toronto Foosball Club. They offer $20 drop-ins for adults and $10 drop-ins for students and children, and also rent the space out for private and corporate events.

Toronto Foosball Club is located in Unit 202 at 1377 The Queensway.