A Toronto Hotel Bar Crawl

From a YP lady’s perspective. Check back next week for the YP gentleman’s hotel bar crawl.

We have always loved hotel bars. Having cocktails and appetizers at both new and landmark hotel bars is a pastime when visiting New York, LA, Miami and many European cities (most recently, we fell in love with both the Wet Bar and Eclipse at the W Hotel in Barcelona). We always wished that there were more in Toronto, with the hotel bar offering the perfect compromise between busy club and a restaurant. Well, things have changed in Toronto in the past few years and these days we have no shortage of hotel bars (most of them on the high-end side) to choose from.

This past Saturday, we grabbed a few girlfriends and threw on our finest cocktail dresses for our own version of the pub-crawl we did in our university days: a hotel bar crawl. We wanted to check out the Saturday night scene at some of Toronto’s best hotels, sample a few cocktails, and perhaps an appetizer or two. Although it made for a costly night to say the least (admittedly, it could have been more had it not been for the persistence and generosity of surrounding gentlemen) it made for a memorable one, and we returned home with new insight on the hotel bar scene in Toronto and, in particular, on a Saturday night.

First Stop: One in The Hazelton Hotel
We started midtown at One. Usually we save One for Saturday afternoons in the warmer months when we can sit on the patio and people watch after a day of shopping (or window shopping) in Yorkville. The bar at One was busy, but we have seen it busier. We were definitely the youngest ones in there (an increasingly rare but sometimes welcomed occurrence) and sort of stood out. We each had a glass of the Bertiolo pinot grigio. One thing we never fail to notice about One is the abundance of older, slick men partying and we must say, though we remain unclear of some of their intentions, we applaud them for their stamina. The thing about One that we can never resist – whether we are on a budget or not – are the Lobster Spoons (butter braised with vermouth). This long-time favourite provides that little taste of lobster that you crave, drenched in ample butter without the guilt or the mess of eating the entire thing. After the snack and glass of wine, we scrapped plans to hit the Hyatt in response to a friend’s BBM and walked over to the Windsor Arms.

Second Stop: Windsor Arms
The only other time we had had cocktails at the Windsor Arms was during TIFF and in the Courtyard Restaurant; we had never checked out 22 where our friends were celebrating their friend’s birthday.  We were impressed with the more intimate bar, which looked to be near capacity, but it seemed so intimate that we didn’t want to feel as though we were crashing the birthday party that was taking place inside. Needless to say, we didn’t make it past the front entrance. At least we had discovered a cozy bar to host an intimate party or work gathering, even if we didn’t have a cocktail. Our friends were waiting for us at Trump, anyway.

Third Stop: $tock at Trump Toronto
We hopped in an over-priced cab and headed to $tock, the 31st floor restaurant and lounge at the new Trump International Hotel and Tower. We had been there a few days earlier for Notable’s networking event and were impressed with the sleek design and overall vibe. We immediately saw friends we hadn’t seen in awhile and joined their table. We mulled over the cocktail list before deciding it was a night for champagne and within moments a bottle of Cristal arrived at our table. We then indulged in the ultimate dessert: the dream-worthy dessert and cheese tower. It included hand-crafted chocolates developed in the in-house chocolate lab, macaroons, cheeses, bark, yoghurt and fruit among other things, complete with a chocolate and cheese cutter. Combined with the bubbly, it was pure heaven. The crowd was tame and included a lot of couples and future couples out on first dates. Needless to say, it was not where our single girlfriends or we wanted to stay too long.

Fourth Stop: The Ritz
We then walked to the Ritz, where the vibe was not much different than the Trump (shocking). We managed to grab a seat at the TOCA bar and decided it was time to shift to specialty cocktails. At $16 a pop, we must say these were worth it. Among the group of now four girlfriends, we had two Absinthe Frappes 
(absinthe, citrus, elderflower liquor, egg white, Angostura Bitters, thyme-infused wray and Nephew Spritz), one Mexican Pear Casadores (pear puree, cinnamon & clove syrup) and one Brunch at Tiffany’s (bitter peach-infused Cointreau & sparkling wine). As delicious as the cocktails were, we needed to take it up a notch and venture away from the groups of couples and otherwise too-rigid-for-midnight-on-a Saturday set. A slight detour out the door, we showed one of our girlfriends Ritz’s DEQ restaurant, and immediately found ourselves excited for the outdoor dinner dates and perhaps after work gatherings on its expansive patio, complete with a fire pit. After a quick bathroom break, we knew just where we’d find the bustling scene we were looking for: The Thompson.

Fifth Stop: The Thompson Hotel
Crowded as ever, the Lobby Bar was filled with a good looking and well-behaved crowd. We ran into some friends and business associates and decided to play it safe with vodka sodas. We then went upstairs to the Hotel Roof Lounge, where we stayed among the mixed crowd of “well-hydrated” 20 and 30-somethings for about twenty minutes before deciding it was time to call it a night. Well, not quite. With one text, we met friends downstairs at the Thompson Diner (aka among YPs as The Counter), a place that takes us back to our nights at 25 Degrees, the glamified burger joint in the Thompson’s Hollywood Roosevelt. We three remaining women standing pledged to do yoga the following day as we shared the crispy calamari Caesar salad, classic poutine and grilled veggie sandwich. And yes, we all made it to yoga the next day.

What did we learn from our hotel bar crawl?

– Be prepared to spend a lot of cash. The average drink costs between $12-$20, especially if you are getting wine. The good news is that you avoid the cover and most of the time the lineup associated with clubs.

– Hotel bars on Saturdays are good for couples, and good for dates, but only if you don’t mind being seen with your date as you are guaranteed to bump into at least one other fellow young professional you know (and perhaps your date does as well) along the way. 

– For the young professional wishing to mix and mingle and network, based on our personal experience, Thursdays are the best chance you have of meeting that agenda in a hotel bar.

– If you want to feel young, hotel bars on a Saturday night are a good option.

– You will at least save on the dry cleaning bill as it is a safe bet to say that you won’t return home with drinks spilled all over you the same way you would a crowded club.

Curious to know what Toronto’s hotel bar scene is like through the eyes of a YP male? Next edition coming soon.