A Big Honour for Our Little Bar
Food & Wine Magazine included our Toronto cocktail bar in its global list of where the world’s best bartenders go to unwind. We’re happy to be pouring alongside some great company.
Regardless of the field, advice from the pros is always the gold standard — it cuts through the noise and points you straight to what really matters.
So when Food & Wine Magazine included Gift Shop in their list of places “Where the World’s Best Bartenders Drink on Their Nights Off,” it felt like a real compliment to the space we’ve built — where great cocktail technique meets a warm welcome.
When we first opened in late 2016, tucked behind an unmarked door at the back of a barbershop, Gift Shop was more of a secret handshake — a spot you found through a friend who knew a friend. Since then, being named one of Canada’s 50 Best Bars multiple times has brought plenty of new faces through the beads, but we’ve always tried to keep that same neighbourhood feel — just with world-class cocktails.
We were nominated for this international list by our friend Mateo Cruz Tapias, co-lead bartender of the award-winning Bar Pompette, who described Gift Shop as “a good place for a date, to hang out with friends, or just to enjoy alone,” and called out our “good music, a great bartender with personality… and good beer,” for when a pint is the right call.
The next time you’re looking for a great cocktail spot in Toronto, walk through the barbershop, peek through the beads, and make yourself at home at Gift Shop.
