This year saw the opening of many significant event and meeting venues in Toronto. Here's a look at the best restaurants, party rooms, hotels, corporate event venues, conference centers, and private rooms to open in 2015. These new and renovated Toronto venues suit groups large or small for private and corporate events, business dinners, cocktail parties, conferences, weddings, and more.
BMO Field debuted a $120 million renovation in July that included major upgrades to the open-air stadium located at Exhibition Place. The project added 8,400 seats to the east grandstand, a new video board, and new premium field-side seating. It also created new V.I.P. spaces that can be booked on non-game days for events. For receptions, the Rogers Club holds about 740 people, the Tunnel Club holds nearly 480, and the East Field Club holds 400. Each space has a private entrance, in-house audio and video, and food stations, with on-site catering available. A second phase of the project will add a canopy that will cover the grandstands.
Suspended above street level on the second floor of Four Seasons Toronto in the Yorkville neighborhood, Café Boulud finished renovations and reopened earlier this month. The Martin Brudnizki Design Studio gave the 3,000-square-foot French brasserie a classic but contemporary look with seating upholstered in jaguar green and ruched leather 1950s-style chairs. The space seats 136 guests, with 110 in the dining room, 10 in the front lounge, eight at the bar, and eight in the semiprivate dining area.
In September the Omni King Edward Hotel finished a $40 million renovation that began in the fall of 2013. The renovation included the hotel’s 22,000 square feet of meeting spaces including three ballrooms: the Vanity Fair Ballroom, the Sovereign Ballroom, and the historic Windsor Ballroom. Moncur Design Associates Inc. handled the interior design, which includes crystal chandeliers, wood paneled walls, and contemporary furniture.
Located in the Thornton-Smith Building, a heritage property, the Aperture Room event space opened in April from Oliver and Bonacini. Originally built in 1922, the venue has undergone many renovations but still boasts its original light gray Indiana limestone. Other architectural features include five two-story showroom windows topped with stone arches, exposed brick, hardwood flooring, and three skylights. The 3,500-square-foot space seats 120 or holds 180 for receptions.
Kasa Moto opened in June from the Chase Hospitality Group. The two-story, 12,000-square-foot space in the Yorkville neighborhood boasts upscale Japanese cuisine and design by II by IV Design. The venue balances the Japanese aesthetic of simple and complex with hand-painted murals, lotus flowers, and splashes of gray, blue, and gold accents in its dishware, flooring, artwork, and other mediums. The venue comprises the main-floor dining room, which seats 150, a sizeable rooftop patio that seats 180, and the upper-level Bar Moto, which seats 60.
Formerly known as the Panorama Lounge, the 51st floor of the Manulife Centre in Toronto was renovated and rebranded as the One Eighty in March. The venue features a 3,000-square-foot interior with a showcase bar, a built-in DJ booth, and high ceilings, as well as 1,500 square feet of outdoor space with sweeping downtown views. The entire venue holds 250 for cocktails or seats 80 for dinner. A private dining area seats 30.
Touted as Canada’s only obstacle course for adults, Pursuit OCR from Wil Mclean and Eddie Chan opened in October. Spread over 10,000 square feet, the warehouse venue has been transformed into an alternative fitness space filled with obstacle course racing, cove walls, and group exercise classes mainly focusing on gymnastics and dynamic flexibility. The space is available for private rental for teambuilding events, receptions, or social gatherings of 300 people.
Taverna Mercatto, the newest in the Mercatto family chain of restaurants, opened in February south of the financial district. The 6,000-square-foot space designed by Munge Leung has a gothic industrial interior including barbed-wire chandeliers, exposed beams, stained-glass windows, and reclaimed church pews. The space seats about 190 guests or holds 250 for receptions. A private dining area seats 24 or can be split into two rooms. The restaurant has audiovisual equipment for presentations and has an innovative, energy-efficient design.
The new-wave pan-Asian restaurant R&D, which opened in March, boasts 3,400 square feet of space in the Chinatown neighborhood. From Alvin Leung (Bo Innovation, Hong Kong) and Eric Chong (a winner of MasterChef Canada), the restaurant was overseen by Commute Design and features an open-concept space that is divided into three separate areas: a bar/lounge, the chef’s rail, and the dining room. Faux crumbling walls and oversize U-shaped LED lights were installed to reflect the concept of dualism throughout the restaurant. It seats 85 or holds 119 for receptions.
