Under-the-radar cocktail bar replaces popular Toronto doughnut shop

When Dipped Donuts, one of the best donut shops in Toronto, closed its Parkdale location in late 2025, just a year after opening, one question loomed: what would the space become next? Well, we finally have our answer, and you're going to want to visit.

The spacious Queen West address, with its identifiable arched window and prime position between Brock and Lansdowne, is now The Virginia, a stripped-back, sultry cocktail bar.

Now, you may be thinking that Toronto already has plenty of cocktail bars, and I'll be the last person to disagree with you on that front. But the reality is that no two cocktail bars are entirely alike, and for that reason (to say nothing of the fact that cocktails rock), I say the more the merrier.

Toronto's been in a bit of a cocktail bar boom for the past few years, upping our street cred on the world stage, with heavy-hitters like Bar Pompette and Civil Liberties paving the way for unique concepts to pop up like mushrooms. 

In this city, there are buzzy cocktail bars with dim lighting and loud music for the downtown crowd, neighbourhood spots with antique glassware, and, hell, we've even got a cocktail bar that has a dozen different waters on the menu.

Toronto is undeniably a cocktail city, and now, The Virginia has joined the club, albeit quietly.

 

 

 

 

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The bar is pleasantly stripped back, with exposed brick walls, a long hardwood bar and intimate candlelit tables for two, with a menu that perfectly matches the refined simplicity of the space itself.

At the time of publication, the menu features just ten options, ranging from a riff on the Dark and Stormy with Havana Club rum, ginger, lime and bitters to the uniquely nutty-yet-fruity Jack Rose, made with apple brandy, pomegranate, strawberry and lemon.

It's the sort of place designed to let the cocktails talk, metaphorically speaking, while fostering lengthy conversations that ramble into the late hours of the evening, quite literally.

The Virginia is located at 1374 Queen St. W.