Where To Go For Cocktails (And Celebrity Sightings) At The Toronto Film Festival

Every September, tinseltown descends on the Canadian city of Toronto. Glitzy celebrities, big-name directors, and the rest of the industry spill into the city for ten days, to attend red carpets, network, and make their case for award seasons.

If you’re looking to spot a famous face, you could hang out at the red carpet or by a glitzy hotel bars. Or, you could come to one of the city’s buzziest bars. While we can’t promise a celebrity spotting, we can promise great drinks, excellent food and a celebratory atmosphere.

The Four Seasons Hotel

As the official hospitality sponsor, the Toronto outpost of the well-heeled hotel is the beating heart of the festival. Vanity Fair hosted their big anniversary party here, but the lobby d|bar (as well as Daniel Boulud’s second-floor restaurant) is also a beautiful boite for people watching throughout the week. Come for the drinks, stay for the retrospective photo exhibit, in collaboration with the TIFF Film Reference Library.

Alo

To celebrate the film festival, Alo—one of the city’s most lauded restaurants, perched in a nondescript building alove a lively city corner—has rolled out a collaborative menu with RedBreast Whisky, the iconic Irish whisky (who, appropriately, is a proud pour at this year’s TIFF). Dishes, which are paired with thoughtful RedBreast cocktails, include delicate canapes of stripe shrimp and foie gras, mushrooms in a pool of dashi, and medallions of grilled lamb. Cocktails are creative, like Irish takes on a bamboo.

Writer’s Room

As the name might suggest, the Writer’s Room has long been an iconic watering hole for the city’s literary elite—Margaret Atwood has used the bar as a backdrop in her words, and the Writers’ Union of Canada was formed around drinks here. And thanks to a recent multi-year overhaul, the mid-century room continues to offer the shimmering opulence of a great hotel bar. Think oxblood banquettes, velvet walls, and a massive fireplace in the centre of the action. Cocktails are precise and elegant. Come at sunset for gilded views of the city’s skyline.

Bar Cart

This brand-new hidden bar on the Esplanade, traditionally an unglamorous strip of downtown. While it’s barely a month old, the charming velvet boothes and curious cocktails (like a clarified espresso martini) are solidifying its role in the city’s scene.

Prime Seafood Palace

On Queen West stands a cathedral to gastronomy, complete with maple wood arched ceiling and steaks worth worshipping. All meats are dry-aged on site, but pay attention to the less flashy dishes like the palace potatoes (shockingly crispy potatoe pavé) and the Sicilian Crudo, a trio of tuna, king fish, and king salmon in a pool of herbs. The man behind it all Matty Matheson, chef-slash-louder-than-life internet personality, so his friends and colleagues (he starred in The Bear) often pop by.

Linny’s

This Ossington steakhouse is loved by the see-and-be-seens who know the scene. They come for the beautifully-designed room, mid-century in energy but modern in finishings. And the menu: a steakhouse that nods to owner David Schwartz’ Jewish roots (and his mother’s cooking). Start off with ‘nsohes” (like cicken liver toast and kasha and corn butter) then move through the menu of wet- and dry-aged strips, tripe schnitzel and Linny’s now-famous pastrami. All (and, the well-made martinis) make a compelling argument to come back again and again.

Pai

The loud, colorful Northern Thai restaurant has always been a celeb magnet—Guillermo del Toro, Shawn Mendes, Jacob Elordi, James Harden and Simu Liu have all popped by in recent years. Its proximity to the festival and its buzzing, bumping energy means its a perfect place to unwind post-film over plates of chicken satay and bowls of crispy noodle-topped khao soi.

Bar XXX

Just a few blocks from the festival is this subterranean boite, situated underneath Little Sister, an always-excellent Dutch-Indonesian restaurant. The ‘70s-mod interior and the menu of the impossibly cool drinks will end with you staying far longer than you expected to.