In Partnership with Destination Toronto

Enter for your chance to win a trip for 2 to Toronto inclusive of:

– 2-night stay at the St. Regis Toronto
– Flights to/from Toronto on Air Canada
– Gift certificate from Carl Friedrik valued at $1,000
– $500 cash to spend during your trip

Giveaway ends on July 26, 2024. Terms & conditions apply.

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A little extra time in a city like Toronto can be intimidating. It’s one of the great metropolises, an exciting web of diverse neighborhoods and endless attractions, with cuisine from all over the world and art and culture that’s uniquely inspired by its diversity. Boiling down an itinerary to just a handful of things? It’s a tall order. Our cup, as the saying goes, runneth over.

Banish the pressure to do it all. The whole point of a place like this — one where all different kinds of cultures mix and blend to make for new experiences and ideas — is that there’s all types of ways to spend your time, meaning there isn’t just one formula for fun. If you’re extending your business stay in Toronto or traveling in for a standalone weekend, let your mind, and your legs, wander. The Cool Material team packed our Carl Friedrik luggage and popped in for a week of bleisure — that’s business mixed with leisure, in case you didn’t know — and found a city of countless surprises and friendly, welcoming possibilities.

We asked two of the city’s coolest young creatives — Alan Ganev, managing partner at Taglialatella Galleries, and Bar Banane’s Jacob Martin, who won World Class Global Bartender of the Year 2023 — for their Toronto tips. Let it be a guidepost, but not a strict syllabus, for your own free time in Toronto.

How did you get into the art world?
Since I was a kid, I’ve always been a creative person. I was writing poetry, I was playing music, I was doing collages, I was doing paintings. It’s just something that I’ve been doing from a young age. You’re expressing yourself. And then I studied fine arts. That’s when I really started to just get more into what I do today.

During my early 20’s, I always was very interested in bringing people together and creating little gallery shows. Then at one point I’m like, “Okay, but this is not sustainable in the long-term. How do I make some money out of this?” And that’s when I really started being more invested in galleries and understanding how they work and understanding the business aspect of it. And I feel like now, after 15 years, I’m finally at a spot where I’m doing a lot of the work that I was really passionate about in my early twenties, but at a level where I’m more comfortable and I have the resources to elevate all these art district projects.

What are your three favorite galleries, museums, or attractions in Toronto?
One of the places that I enjoy the most is Cry Baby Gallery. And the reason why I like that is because it’s not a gallery, per se, but a cultural space that has a cocktail bar in the back. As a business model, they create business from the cocktail side of the space. The front space they use for cultural activations. It’s truly an environment for local artists, who are emerging, to express themselves and to believe in themselves.
I think that the AGO — the Art Gallery of Ontario — has been doing a great job at creating blockbuster shows…the type of thing that you’d come in and say, “Oh, okay, I’m familiar with this!” They have shows from KAWS and Keith Haring and Yayoi Kusama. They’re bringing the rockstar artists into the city.
And another very cool place is the MOCA — the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto. It’s a very unique place. It’s in the part of the city called the Junction — very industrial. And their building is nine stories high. When you go in, they have giant columns that are just so industrial and imposing.

How would you spend the perfect off-duty day in Toronto?
I would say that I would go to have a slice of pizza at a place like Badiali’s and just walk around, do a little bit of vintage shopping.

You’re a guy on the go. What’s some of the things that you always have with you in your kit?
I always have a blank notepad and a pencil. I hate pens. I like a pencil, an eraser, and a pencil sharpener. Sometimes you just want to be away from technology and brainstorm and have your own ideas in your head. But besides that, I use my iPhone for everything. I try to make notes, or capture photos, and be just very organized about how I categorize folders and how I put all this creative energy together.

Learn more at destinationtoronto.com and see it for yourself by entering for your chance to win a 2-night stay at The St. Regis Toronto, a flight to/from Toronto on Air Canada, a gift certificate valued at $1,000 from Carl Friedrik, and $500 cash to spend during your time in the city. Terms and conditions apply.

How did you first get into bartending?
I actually started out as a cheesemonger. I fell in love with a girl at a cheese counter. She didn’t notice me at all. I ended up working 10,000 hours in cheese. I became the national buyer for Whole Foods market, so I was buying all their cheese. I was buying millions of dollars of cheese a week. Then I started running cheese programs in fine dining restaurants. I started at this place called Hexagon. I was pushing my little cheese trolley around, and there was this bartender that was working behind the wood, and he was just legendary. There was always a giant crowd of people around him. And I literally put down my cheese knives, I went over to him, and I said, “I don’t know exactly what you’re doing but I think it’s actually what I want to do.” After doing cheese for 11 years, I never looked back.
Step one was being really bad at bartending in front of a lot of people. And then allow that shame to percolate in such a way that you get progressively better at bartending in front of lots of people.

What’s the trick to putting together the perfect cocktail?
You do need to marry technique, speed, and quality ingredients every single time — reliably. It’s not about making one good cocktail — that’s actually quite simple. Making sequences, hundreds of cocktails, perfectly, over many, many, many years — that’s challenging.

What are your favorite bars in Toronto?
Two different bars for two different reasons. First one is called Bar Pompette, which is a project I opened up with a bunch of Parisians. It is this little French bistro. And then down this little set of wooden stairs, there is probably the most modern laboratory in the city. It looks like you’ve walked into a hospital setting and there’s people processing super bespoke ingredients in really creative ways. Delicious.
The last one is a place called Civil Liberties. Civil Liberties is a cocktail bar. There’s no menu. You go in and you say what’s on your mind. You say, “Hey, I want something with pineapple.” Or, “I want something that’s in the style of Mai Tai.” And they’re going to make something for you.

How would you spend the perfect off-duty day in Toronto?
I’m going to go to St. Lawrence Market. When there, I’m going to go to Alex Farm Products for cheese. I’m going to get the ripest, stinkiest thing I can find. A few bottles of wine. I’ll get a flat of oysters. I’m going to get some charcuterie, some olives. I’m going to hop on a 10-minute ferry. I’m going to go to Toronto Island with my friends with a Frisbee, and we’re just going to have fun. We’re going to lay in the sun and we’re going to eat the best food that we possibly can. Then we’re going to ferry home when we’re all done and the sun starts to set.

What’s your favorite neighborhood in Toronto and why do you love it?
Queen West is probably the best…it was kind of a no-fly zone, and then sort of overnight, all of the artists and the restaurateurs and the designers, they all went to that neighborhood and it’s really held onto that identity over the past 30 years. You can find all of the best bars in Canada, in Ontario, within 900 meters of one another. So you can stumble into awesome venues left, right, and center.

What do people not know about Toronto?
I think people underestimate it. I think people don’t know that you can have a MICHELIN dining experience on par with a New York or a London or Tokyo. I think people aren’t aware that the avant garde is actually here. Similarly with our galleries and our artistic spaces. Yesterday I was at a Keith Haring exhibit. And then I went for an omakase, and then I just sat and watched the ships come in on the harbor right by my place. You can have that all in one space.

What are the essential things that you always have with you when you’re on the go?
In my backpack at all times, there is a 35 piece set of bar tools because I just bartend absolutely everywhere. I’ve been making little cocktails on the plane with the stuff that they give you.
Passport holder — so critical because you have the boarding passes and everything there. A thin wallet — something that’s very, very slim in the pocket. If you’re sitting on something lumpy all the time, that’s absolutely the worst.

What’s your desert island cocktail?
Five-to-one Tanqueray martini with olives and a twist. Three drops of saline.

With a packed itinerary in town that included a trip to Aera Restaurant, Louix Louis at The St. Regis Toronto, The Distillery District, and shopping in Yorkville, it felt like we had just scratched the surface of this incredible city. But that’s the thing about a place with this much possibility — there’s always a reason to come back and see more.

Ready to discover Toronto? 

Learn more at destinationtoronto.com and see it for yourself by entering for your chance to win a 2-night stay at The St. Regis Toronto, a flight to/from Toronto on Air Canada, a gift certificate valued at $1,000 from Carl Friedrik, and $500 cash to spend during your time in the city. Terms and conditions apply.