Man says he was refused entry at Toronto bar because of fanny packs

A Toronto man says he and his husband were told they couldn't enter a popular Toronto bar with fanny packs.

The two men and their friends were out on Aug. 5 and decided to go for drinks at Regulars, at King and Bathurst, a place with a great patio that they had enjoyed in the past.

At the door, a man and woman stopped the men and told them they couldn't enter, the patron, who didn't want to use his name for this article, claims to blogTO.

"They said 'you can't come in with any type of fanny pack,'" he alleges.

When he asked why he says he was told that fanny packs were associated with drugs and weapons, and police advised them to ban fanny packs.

Regulars did not respond to requests for comment from blogTO.

"I said, 'do you want to look inside and see that I don't have any drugs?'"

He claims they were told no.

The fanny packs in question were designer brands — a Balenciaga bag worth about $2,000, and a $1,000 Gucci — and about the same size as a woman's clutch purse.

"Literally every girl on the patio was sitting there with a little tiny clutch or a little tiny purse and I was like, what is the difference?"

He had never heard of anyone being turned away because of a fanny pack.

"Honestly, it put a damper on the rest of the night," the man, in his early 30s says. "This is the first time I have experienced this in the City of Toronto."

He says he was told he could go home and come back without the fanny pack.

"It seems incredibly discriminatory in my mind," he says. "This is the most bizarre rule I have ever heard."

The group decided to go to a different place.

"We could have spent a lot of money there last night, we ended up going to Ruby Soho and spent $200 on drinks."

He says he has been to several bars and restaurants with a fanny pack in Toronto without any trouble.

"It seemed very strange to me that that was the reason we got stopped."