Paradise Grapevine is one of Toronto's favourite wine bars; with their own brand of wine offerings, a hand-selected outsourced wine list, an oasis of a patio, and gorgeous snack pairings, some would say it's almost a wine lover's paradise.
It's been great news for everyone to hear that they've recently expanded operations onto Geary Avenue and opened up their own urban winery where they'll be making as much of their own brand of wine there as they possibly can. If you're unfamiliar with their original location, Paradise Grapevine on Bloor Street, hosts a variety of international wines, but also also showcases their own offering.
Paradise Grapevine has been making their own wine virtually for 3 years now by renting out spaces in other people's wineries in Creemore and Niagara and using their equipment. Bringing this process in-house to their own dedicated winery, and being able to host the residents of Toronto here, has been a dream come true. The owners of Paradise Grapevine, Dave and Christian, live in Toronto so to have the winery in their backyard gives them a lot more flexibility to play around. Eventually they even hope to serve single-barrel releases, which isn't possible to do in loaned spaces.
The most significant differences between the Paradise Grapevine bar and winery are that the bar offers an ever-changing list of wines selected from producers all over the world. The Geary Avenue location is completely focused on showcasing Paradise Grapevine's bottles, they will have wines here that will never show up at the Paradise Grapevine bar.
The winery space also has a much larger outdoor area that's set up as a big garden and friendly for large groups. At harvest time, they'll be making their wine right on this crash pad. The inside is a smaller, more intimate bar with a "trash luxury aesthetic" (think vintage, gilded mirrors with brass features, animal prints) -- the space is designed to be fun and eclectic.
The winery is open 7 days a week, and at the Geary location on the weekdays you can still get snacks like charcuterie, cheese, breads, olives, and preserves that are also available at the Bloor Street bar. However, from Thursday to Sunday (5 p.m. - 11 p.m., weather permitting) they also operate a separate menu using their outdoor wood-fire grill! We're talking ribeye, chicken hearts, pork ribs, the works. Come the inevitable colder months of a Toronto calendar year, the restaurant concept will change after the patio is closed, but their ultimate goal is to offer a dining menu year-round.
You might recognize Paradise Grapevine as being the regular hosts of Toronto-famous famous Queer Wine Night (run by @marias.taverna), and now the winery will be a fully queer managed space with Kaitlin Lasagna as the head chef and Vidal Wuu as manager of all things bar and service.
