Business travel is usually airport/hotel/boardroom/hotel/airport.
If that’s your itinerary in Toronto, it’d be an awful waste. If you’re staying with us, consider moving your meeting to one of these places.
Breakfast meeting in St. Lawrence Market
It opens at 8:00 am on weekdays and it’s home to over 100 vendors, bakers, butchers and artisans. You’ll find places to sit and people to watch while you wait for your colleagues to arrive. And when they do, recommend the peameal bacon on a bun sandwich from Carousel Bakery. If Bobby Flay calls it one of his favourite breakfasts, you will too.
Lunch meeting at Assembly Chef Hall
We send all of our guests here, and not just because it’s up the street. It’s a gourmet-chef-driven market featuring 17 of the city’s very best culinary creators. It’s pizza, pit-smoked barbeque, sushi, and artisanal coffees and cocktails. And it’s an easy place for everyone on your team to find something scrumptious to munch on.
Recommending Assembly Chef Hall to your hosts here in Toronto will demonstrate to them that you’ve done your homework as it relates to where you are. And that bodes well for your reputation as someone who shows up prepared.
Dinner meeting at Don Alfonso 1890
This Michelin Star restaurant is the first from Chefs Alfonso and Ernesto Laccarino in North America — and the perfect place to celebrate a big win. It’s located on Toronto Street, a bit of a hike from our hotel, but well worth the walk. And it interestingly occupies the building where the original Confederation Papers were signed that made Canada a country back in 1867.
The menu features Amalfi coast flavours, the dining room is adorned with priceless art and the service is typically European: this isn’t the kind of place that hires aspiring actors. The waiters and waitresses are professionals and it shows.
While the food is delicious and beautifully presented, Don Alfonso’s saved its very best of the cocktail menu. We recommend the Chrysanthemum (Vermouth, Benedictine, Absinthe, Lemon Twist), but you can’t go wrong with anything in a glass including the wine.
Late night meeting at 7 West
You’ve got momentum, the synapses are firing and good ideas are flowing. Instead of shutting it down for the night, keep it going at Toronto’s famous 24-hour café. It’ll probably require a cab or Uber ride, but the carrot cake is worth it, as is the ambiance of the dining rooms.
As for the next morning…
Squeeze in a workout next door to the Strathcona at Good Life Fitness. For $20, you can use their whole space, which includes machines and free weights, and you can even attend a group class like yoga or cycling. Perfect for shaking out the cobwebs and getting ready to do it all over again.