It's that time again—time for the company holiday party. Here are new restaurants, bars, and other event spaces that can work for corporate holiday events, employee gatherings, and other end-of-year festivities.
1. Set to open in December, Malaparte is a private event space on the sixth floor of TIFF Bell Lightbox. The venue, which seats 150 and holds 250 for receptions, has a 16-foot ceiling with moulding covered in silver leaf. The space has direct access to a rooftop terrace, which has a 200-person capacity. The room is also equipped with two in-ceiling projectors with motorized lifts, built-in rigging points, spotlights, and floor-to-ceiling windows.
2. The 167-room Hôtel Le Germain Maple Leaf Square, Groupe Germain's second Toronto property, offers 4,600 square feet of event space. Function rooms with names like the Neutral Zone, the Penalty Box, and the Hall of Fame—a nod to the venue's proximity to the Air Canada Centre—can accommodate groups of 15 to 125. The hotel, which began accepting reservations on November 5, can also host events for groups of as many as 20 in its suites and apartments.
3. Above LeVack Block, LVB is a new private event space on Ossington Avenue. The venue, licensed for 150 people, opened in late September. The 1,600-square-foot space offers a front room and ballroom with decor reminiscent of a Victorian apartment in Paris. Decorative paneling and cream and gold detailing appear throughout. Catering is available on site.
4. LoftRaum @ UrbanAmish, open since September, is home to two levels of authentic hard-conversion loft-style event facilities with hardwood flooring, exposed brick walls, original distressed wooden beams, a steel-and-glass staircase connecting the upper and lower levels, and 12-foot ceilings. Each level offers 4,000 square feet and can accommodate as many as 400 people for receptions or 200 for seated functions.
5. Following a $30 million renovation and restoration project, the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts reopened on October 1—50 years to the date after the building’s first opening night. The venue has a refurbished 3,000-seat proscenium theatre and several multifunction spaces for events, including a reconfigured lobby and a new balcony bar.
6. 99 Sudbury (which rebranded with a launch party in early September) offers two event spaces—the lounge and the Glass Factory. The lounge has four sections, including a dining room, bar, scotch and cigar lounge, and a 1,000-square-foot patio. The adjoining Glass Factory is an industrial loft-style event space with east-facing glass block windows from floor to ceiling, a raised DJ booth, and a 1,000-square-foot patio. The combined spaces total 8,000 square feet and can accommodate as many as 1,000.
7. Owned by the De Miguels—a family of winemakers from Mendoza, Argentina—Vintage One Wines is a 10,000-square-foot nontraditional winery in the city's west end that opened in August. The venue’s main event space features a harvest table in the centre of the room, and French, Hungarian, and American oak aging barrels line the walls. The space seats 45 and holds as many as 150 for receptions. The entire venue can accommodate 200.
8. Open since June, Parts & Labour is a 5,000 square-foot restaurant and entertainment venue in Parkdale. The restaurant, helmed by chef Matty Matheson, features decor by the design firm Castor. The space seats 140 and holds 250 for receptions. The lower-level event space, called the Shop, holds as many as 170. Parts & Labour is available for buyout and can hold as many as 420.
9. The Stirling Room, open since July, is a combination of cocktail bar, lounge, and music venue with a Victorian theme. Designed by Prototype Design Lab, the Distillery District venue has distressed plank flooring and exposed brick walls. The Stirling Room is available for buyout and holds 165.
10. Thompson Hotels opened its first international property, Thompson Toronto, in June. The 16-storey luxury hotel offers 30,000 square feet of dining and event space, including a 3,170-square-foot ballroom, called the Wellington Room, which holds 300. A lower-level lounge holds 150, and the 16th-floor rooftop can accommodate 200. Scarpetta, the hotel's signature restaurant, seats 100. When combined with the adjacent lobby bar, the space can hold 527.
