Toronto has a new spot for readers who also enjoy a glass of wine. Book Bar Toronto opened at 600 Markham Street. It sits in the Mirvish Village development, inside a restored heritage home at the western edge of the site. The concept blends a bookstore, a cocktail lounge, and a library into one space. It bills itself as a spot for thinkers and drinkers.
What Book Bar Offers
The Opening
Book Bar officially opened on June 3, 2026. Grand opening events followed on June 27 and 28. Founders Robin Storfer and Tom Freeman say the idea grew out of years of gathering with friends around a kitchen table. They talked about books over drinks. That informal ritual eventually became a business plan.
Books, Wine, and Cocktails
The two-floor space mixes books, coffee, wine, and cocktails with cozy reading nooks. Guests can browse the shelves. They can order a drink, or settle into a lounge area to read alone or talk with friends. The founders describe the venue as a third place. This is a term for a spot outside home and work where people can unplug and connect.
The wine list leans toward what tastes good rather than where a bottle comes from. It includes seven reds by the glass, six whites, two rosés, a sparkling wine, and an orange wine. Hospitality veteran and bookseller Daniel Roberts built the cocktail menu. It draws on classic techniques with playful twists.
A Building with History
Book Bar sits on the site once occupied by Honest Ed's. That discount store anchored the neighborhood for decades before it closed. Mirvish Village has since redeveloped much of the block. It preserved some of the area's Victorian homes. Book Bar's location inside one of those heritage buildings ties the new venue to the older layer of the neighborhood's history.
Toronto readers have wanted a space like this for a while. The book-themed cocktail bar Famous Last Words closed in early 2025. That left a gap that Book Bar aims to fill. The founders point to similar concepts elsewhere as inspiration, including Book Bar in London and Liz's Book Bar and Anaïs in New York City. They describe Book Bar as its own concept rather than a copy of those spots.
How it Compares to The Lit. Bar in the Bronx
New York has its own bookstore. And wine bar, and it opened years before Book Bar. The two spots share a concept but grew out of very different circumstances.
The Lit. Bar's Origin Story
The Lit. Bar sits in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, at 131 Alexander Avenue. Bronx native Noëlle Santos founded the store. She had learned that a Barnes & Noble near Co-op City was set to close. Manhattan had roughly 90 bookstores. The Bronx, home to about 1.4 million people, had that one Barnes & Noble and nothing else.
Santos raised money for the project through a crowdfunding campaign. She called it Let's Bring a Goddamn Bookstore to the Bronx. She also won prize money from a business plan competition. The Lit. Bar opened its permanent doors on April 27, 2019. The date lined up with National Independent Bookstore Day. And the 1,700-square-foot store combines book sales with a wine bar. It also has a designated kids' area.
Common Ground
Book Bar and The Lit. Bar share some common ground. Both pair books with wine in a space built for lingering and conversation. Each occupies a single physical location rather than a chain format. Neither treats itself as just a retail store. Both aim to be community hubs.
Where They Differ
The differences come down to origin and purpose. The Lit. Bar opened to fill a genuine book desert. Before Santos opened her doors, the Bronx had no independent bookstore at all. Book Bar entered a different market. Toronto already has an established used and independent bookstore scene. So Book Bar's role is less about filling a gap in access. It is more about creating a new social space for people who already have plenty of places to buy books.
The Lit. Bar's design draws on graffiti art and chandeliers. Santos has called that combination a reflection of her own personality. The store also stocks titles that reflect the Bronx's Latina and Black communities. Book Bar takes a different approach. It leans toward a quieter, cottagecore-adjacent aesthetic inside a converted Victorian house. Its wine list is built around personal taste rather than a themed curation of local voices.
Pricing and scale differ too. The Lit. Bar runs as a single small storefront focused on general interest titles with local relevance. Book Bar operates across two floors. It folds in a fuller food and drink menu alongside the books.
My Visit in 2019
I can speak to The Lit. Bar firsthand. I visited in June 2019, while in New York to see my niece, who lives in the Bronx, and to attend a conference in Manhattan. My niece told me about the store. I looked it up on Google Maps, which put the walk at twenty minutes from her place. Some streets that run north-south in most of the Bronx switch to east-west in that area, and I got turned around. It took me ninety minutes to find the door.
The Lit. Bar is listed at 1,700 square feet, but that is not how it felt to me. I could be wrong. Maybe I just do not have a good read on square footage. Still, the space felt smaller and very intimate, more like a snug reading nook than a full storefront. That feeling is worth mentioning alongside the official size of the space.
Worth a Visit
Anyone who wants to combine a night out with a trip to the bookstore now has a reason to head to Markham Street. Book Bar gives Toronto its own version of a concept that has already found an audience in the Bronx, London, and New York. The comparison to The Lit. Bar holds up in spirit. The two spaces serve different neighborhoods and different needs. Book Bar Toronto is worth checking out for anyone curious about where the city's book and bar scenes are heading next. I plan to visit the next time I’m in the area.
Sources
- Toronto's new ‘Book Bar' reading lounge opens this weekend – NOW Toronto
- New bar concept opening soon in Toronto is a bookworm's dream – blogTO
- Book Bar – blogTO
- Book Bar to Open in Toronto's Mirvish Village – WhatNow
- Inside Mirvish Village's gorgeous new bookstore that's also a bar – Toronto Life
- Book Bar Toronto – Very Toronto
- Visit the Lit. Bar – NYC Tourism
- The Lit. Bar official site
- The Lit. Bar, the First and Only Independent Bookstore in the Bronx is Open – Untapped New York
- The Lit. Bar – Wikipedia
- How We Roll – The Lit. Bar
- In Place of a ‘Book Desert,' There is The Lit. Bar – The Science Survey
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