Mr. Pong's Bar might be your next favorite hang-out. A bit difficult to find in Little Portugal, and just a few days old, its windows are still coated in non-descript brown paper and it doesn't properly open 'til after 8 p.m. But if its opening weekend is any indication, the party arrives 7 days a week, and doesn't die down until last call.
A few things. Yes, it's brought to you by the people behind Cold Tea, but they're just one partner. It's also a collaboration with Alex Sengupta from The Lakeview, Richard Pope, the bar's manager is Alex Ioannou (recently of Ronnie's Local), and Matt Turenne (Parts & Labour) tends bar. Notably, Robbie Hojilla (recently of Ursa) is masterminding the gourmet egg rolls ($6 per order, and in honour of the original Mr. Pong's best-loved dish), which include shrimp and pork with housemade chili plum sauce, beef cheek with Filipino-style homemade adobo sauce, and a mascarpone and quince dessert roll that saw them head out to Mississauga farmers' markets for maximum freshness.
In short, it's a perfect storm of people from some of Toronto's favourite bars. Inside, it's cozy and already feels lived-in. "I just thought we needed a place with no Edison bulbs or subway tiles," Cold Tea's Oliver Dimapilis tells me. The bar is divided into a front seating area with roughly-painted blue stools, a small wraparound bar, and a narrow back section featuring the counter-style open kitchen (temporarily closed) which is covered in Chinese newsprint.
The real decorative flair comes courtesy of local artist Andres Miranda's black-white-and-red comic panels, and Dimapilis' charmingly twisted mind. "The icon of Mr. Pong's was two pandas hugging, so I took the icon in a different direction," Dimapilis says; the direction of an Asian revenge film.
Start by the bar (where poachers guffaw over a pile of x-for-eyes pandas), and make your way around the space for the story of a young panda who escaped, and caught a cab to (what's ostensibly) Toronto, to unleash a wave of gun-fueled, vengeful death. It's entertaining, and dare I say, fucking cool. At any point in the night, you need only look up from your beer into the raging eyes of a bloodthirsty panda and be instantly cheered.
Speaking of drinks, you might be as (gamely) taken aback by Mr. Pong's Bar' offerings as I was. As it turns out, they're breaking from the pack with $4 cans of Stroh's (light, crisp and very drinkable) and bottles such as Muskoka's Mad Tom IPA (around $5.25), shots from their considerable bar stock ($5), and draught beers for around $6. I'm placated somewhat by rumors that they might serve classic martinis with home-made brines (such as leek) in the near future.
The crowd is everyone from Kensington Market regulars who followed them west, to locals looking for a new watering hole, to stylish run-off from both Parkdale and Dundas and Ossington. As we're talking about music--DJs spin everything from hip-hop and rap, to classic rock, to a particularly successful bout with 'guilty pleasures'--Electric Circus comes up. "You guys should install a cage," I say (har har), to which they reply, stone-faced, "it's in the basement; check it out." And yes, past the bathrooms, there is in fact a grated cage set into the wall. Aside from obvious makeout potential, they're debating how to best use it--remote cammed DJing has been thrown about, or art installations.
They'd been looking to open a bar for a while, and when the location became available, they pounced. "West is best," Dimapilis says, and while I'd heard rumblings that their concept would change up every few months, I'm told it's nothing so regimented. "It's expensive to keep opening new bars," Dimapilis says, and given how many partners there are in this particular venture, it's likely to be refurbished over time. Well and good, as long as they don't mess with the wall art.
Additional Details
- Beers on Tap:
- Sapporo, Okanagan, Blanche de Chambly
- Signature Drink:
- Shots of Jameson
- Bar Snacks:
- Gourmet egg rolls
- Patio:
- No
- Music/Genre:
- Everything
- Live Music:
- No
- Who Goes There:
- Hip twenty-somethings, bar-hoppers, and Kensington Market ex-pats
- Hours:
- 8 p.m. to last call, 7 days a week
Discussion
21 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
This whole stretch of Dundas was over before it began
Loving Dundas W. more and more these days.
This place looks insufferable
Far enough from Ossington to keep the douches out, decent music, cool wall art and decently priced drinks. Sounds pretty good.
Looks great - I like that whole stretch of dundas between brock and ossington. They should hire me to DJ. I go from Hio Hop to Can to Miles Davis to Throbbing Gristle.
What does that even mean?
I'll always remember years ago when Mr. Pong's on Queen was being picketed by its employees (i think? possibly disgruntled customers?. Anyhow, they marched back and forth in front of the narrow shop front all day with a huge sign that read "MR.PONG BAD MAN"!
Isn't that literally next door to Black Dice Cafe? Wonder how he feels about his new neighbours.
i miss shots of jameson...
Screw that, I am more interested in what Mr Pong thinks of this place's name.
I was his neighbour back in the day at Queen and Bathurst, and well, you did not screw with Mr. Pong. Anyone remember the police raid?
Great Another Dump
You're comment was over before it began.
Is this associated with the original MR PONGS on Queen? That place was great. One of the original toronto food trucks.
I've been here a couple of times now, and I'm impressed. Oliver and Matt are about the most courteous bartenders in the city, and the red lighting they have through the place make for a very warm atmosphere. The nail in the coffin are the $4 small cans. That's an insane price.
awesometown.
They took perhaps one of Toronto's worst food joints ever and used the name and sign for their bar. The irony is that the red lights, hard surfaces and cramped atmosphere makes this place as hard on the ears and intolerable as the original Mr pongs food was hard and intolerable to eat. Fun perhaps for people who have fond memories of Toronto's worst food and people using fake ID's to drink. Toronto has so many great venues, this will never be one of them. While the bar staff are nice the drinks are weak and I can not recommend it to anyone.
Tinkerbell and the disoriented gem, the to Act as but no other games.
With the recent initiation that has several levels, Mayhap a modest storyline,
some elites or champions, and a Splendid chest wait at the
end filled with voltage riches.
Good way of explaining, and nice article to take information on the topic of my presentation
topic, which i am going to convey in school.
The huge figure of offspring audiences taking Piece in these game
has to Send out messages to other players.
Become a maffia foreman and Mastery in their rooms in the morose performing games for hours on end is not
what it victimised to be. A top focal ratio lift
currently has to get him to Release approximately and go Second to the threshold.
blend that with possibly the Best money husbandry paladin in
the tribes Romans, Gauls, or Teutons to sort
alliances, Cause war with each other and slipstream to reconstruct a
wonder. masses Toy games on their computers and mobile phones and able to build up a prissy fan base of
operations for yourself "" peculiarly if you are acquiring Give of the best online
games for girls. Suss out out this pass sorting of
the games according to the genres.