Where to Drink + Dance in Toronto

bar

Tequila Bookworm

Toronto, Canada

Queen Street West is your one-stop shop for late-night drinking and dancing in Toronto. On this stretch you’ll find Tequila Bookworm, one of the joints for a brew. They serve the eponymous Mexican spirit of course, but also a natty range of craft beers. Lively and loud, they have basketball on the TV upstairs while downstairs the air is all cultural conversations.

Address

512 Queen Street West M5V 2B3

bar

Cluny

Toronto, Canada

Classy Cluny is the place to bring a date for a cocktail. Handsome fin-de-siècle interiors draped in gold and iron bring the Frenchness of the place to the fore; you could believe you were in Francophone Quebec rather than Anglophone Ontario. Order their “le bulldog francais” which mixes raspberry pomegranate juice, lemonade, tonic and bulldog gin.

Address

35 Tank House Lane M5A 3C4

bar

Mill Street Brewery

Toronto, Canada

The site of the old Gooderham and Worts distillery, where half of Canada’s whiskey was distilled, is now home to a different kind of alcoholic enterprise. Microbrewer Mill Street hand makes its own beer, a refreshing pilsner and even a wheat beer with chamomile and blood orange. You can tour the brew floor or just marvel at the tanks as you sup on suds in this historic district of town.

Address

21 Tank House Lane M5A 3C4

bar

Bar Chef

Toronto, Canada

Get your goggles out because chemistry has never been more fun – you weren’t allowed to get squiffy on the results of an experiment at school the way you are at Bar Chef. Say “amen” to science and marvel at modern mixology in the form of black-truffle snow, smoked salt, coconut foam, lime zest, gin, coconut liqueur, dill and elderflower liqueur.

Address

472 Queen Street West M5V 2B2