venice beach bar toronto

Toronto just got a new beach bar that will be home to food pop-ups

A beach bar in Toronto is new and improved with rotating food pop-ups for its second ever season in action.

Venice Beach Bar, a collaboration between Bar Mordecai and Unboxed Market, is back open for a second summer, but they're doing things a little differently this time around.

This year, they'll host a different food pop-up every two weeks, have a lifeguard hut for takeout cocktails, have installed a sandy beach and a pollinator garden, and are serving bottled cocktails, house-canned cocktails and mini bottle service buckets.

As for the food, they're starting out with pan-Asian offerings from local catering and event design team Preserve Indulgence inspired by the Santa Monica Pier, like oysters with blueberry caviar and champagne mignognette, dirty fried rice, grilled chicken hearts, cold noodles, baos and dumplings.

Royal Canadian Mead teamed up with Toronto Flower Market vendor Jaime McCuaig to create a floral installation using bee boxes filled with a variety of pollinator-friendly plants.

House-canned cocktails by the Mordecai bar team led by GM and partner Christina Veira include options like scotch and soda, gin and soda, and a Venice paloma, all with colourful artwork on the cans.

"The city as a whole needs these types of safe, fun outdoor spaces to gather and celebrate summer," says Michelle Genttner of Unboxed Market. "We are excited to welcome everyone back."

Venice Beach Bar should be zero waste in keeping with the practices of Unboxed Market. It's open Wednesday through Monday from 3 p.m. to midnight. There are no reservations, but you can get on the waitlist using the Ambassador app. The patio will operate until summer's out.

Lead photo by

Hector Vasquez


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