Toronto is located near Ontario’s greenbelt, making it the perfect spot for food and beverage events. Here’s some venues and tours to get your planning started.
Toronto is the meeting place for the food and beverage industry. Not only does the Greater Toronto Area have close to 100 restaurants featured in the Michelin Guide, the city is home to one of the largest food production clusters in North America. It’s also in close proximity to farmland and Niagara’s renowned wine country, ensuring a consistently fresh and vibrant dining scene.
For event planners, Toronto offers access to world-class professionals in food services, hospitality and culinary arts through institutions like the Food Innovation and Research Studio (FIRSt) at George Brown College and the University of Toronto’s Culinaria Research Centre. Both provide a strong foundation for discussions on key topics like plant-based products, food security and sustainable food practices. The city has hosted major annual events in the industry such as the Restaurants Canada Show, Canadian Health Food Association Show and Food and Beverage Ontario’s annual conference.
Whether you’re organizing a conference, product launch or industry meeting, Toronto’s unique blend of culinary diversity, rich agricultural heritage and cutting-edge food innovation makes it the ideal place to shape the future of food. To get you started, here’s a selection of venues and tours that will make your event truly unforgettable.
Food and Beverage Industry Tours in Toronto
Here are a few unique tours meeting planners can organize for their conference attendees, giving them delicious insight into the F&B sector in the city.
Culinary Adventure Co.
Operating since 2011, this company’s tours have been recognized by Forbes as some of best in the world. Tours explore some of Toronto’s most vibrant food neighbourhoods, offering a diverse and delicious journey through the city's best flavours.
The St. Lawrence Market Tour features Canadian classics like Atlantic smoked salmon, seasonal berries, the coveted peameal bacon sandwich (if you know, you know) and more, creating an immersive experience that’s perfect for team bonding. With the capacity to accommodate groups of 250+, larger teams are split into smaller groups for personalized attention.
HOW TO TOUR: Choose your favourite tour from Culinary Adventure Co.’s offerings, clarify the details outlined here—including the size of your party and preferred date and time.
Canadian Craft Tours’ Toronto Mashup Tour
For those looking for exclusive insights into Toronto’s wine and beer sphere, the Toronto Mashup Tour is for you. This curated experience takes visitors to notable wineries, distilleries and breweries, with a knowledgeable guide to share anecdotes, insider tips and the history of each establishment along the way.
Starting at Nickel 9 Distillery, visitors can take note of the intricacies behind creating premium spirits. Henderson Brewery is where sampling flights of craft beers await, giving visitors a taste of Toronto’s brewing scene. A final stop at Downtown Winery delivers over 30 exquisite wines to choose from.
HOW TO TOUR: You can book your team-bonding experience on their site.
Chopsticks and Forks
Toronto is oft-considered the most multicultural city in the world; and Chopsticks and Forks’ Jusep Sim, a world traveller who has explored over 50 countries, is here to showcase that diversity.
The Taste of the Continents tour explores Kensington Market with sumptuous tastings from eight countries and five continents in less than three hours. Meanwhile, the Fusion Fare tour takes your team on a culinary journey through Toronto’s top fusion eateries, showcasing the city’s finest cultural combinations (think: Jamaican-Italian or Japanese-Mexican). Designed for groups of six to 160, these tours provide a unique opportunity to explore diverse cuisines while fostering team bonding.
HOW TO TOUR: Grab a group of foodies and book your tour through Chopsticks and Forks’ site here.
Soma Chocolatemaker
Soma is an award-winning and beloved chocolate maker in Toronto with three shops across the city: Distillery District, King Street West and Parkdale. Soma offers tours (treats included!) of its chocolate factory in Parkdale, an ideal experience for corporate groups in the food and beverage industry.
Groups will have the opportunity to learn how a single cacao bean is grown and made into a bar of chocolate and how flavours are unlocked at each step of the production process. The journey includes taste testing the chocolate in all of its forms. A tasty and informative team-building activity.
HOW TO TOUR: Email hello@somachocolate.com with your group size and preferred date and time.
Unique Toronto Venues for Food and Beverage Events
These standout spots offer the right blend of ambiance, functionality and flair to suit events in the food and beverage sector. Here are a few venues to consider for your next Toronto event.
Chef’s Hall
Located in the Financial District at York and Richmond, this delicious downtown venue has 14 on-site renowned food vendors like Grandma Loves You, Aphrodite’s Taverna and Ramen Takao. It’s also perfect for corporate groups in the food and beverage industry, as the 18,000-square-foot venue has five customizable spaces, including the West Hall, East Hall, Courtyard Patio, South Patio and Chef’s Lounge.
Moneris, a leading point-of-sale company that services restaurants and cafes of all sizes, recently hosted a corporate event at Chef’s Hall, and it’s easy to see why. With customizable menus, A/V capabilities and even a photo booth, the space can accommodate anywhere from 20 to 1,000 guests.
The Distillery District
Once home to a bustling whisky distillery, the historic pedestrian-only Distillery District is now Toronto’s playground for foodies and event-goers. Venue choices include Cluny Bistro, a French spot accommodating up to 64 guests, the fairytale-like Italian restaurant Archeo, with an attached patio, which can host up to 140 people and the Thompson Landry Gallery, which offers 4,300 square feet of space for up to 150 guests.
Other popular venues here include Michelin-starred Madrina and the vibrant Mexican eatery El Catrin. And for open-air events, it's also possible to reserve portions of the Distillery District through the events team. Several notable food and beverage events have been hosted here, including OpenTable’s puppy social at El Catrin, where they celebrated the top 100 restaurants for outdoor dining in Canada.
Steam Whistle Brewing
Located in the historic John Street Roundhouse and offering breathtaking views of the Toronto skyline, Steam Whistle offers a variety of versatile event spaces to suit any foodie occasion, like the annual Food and Beverage Ontario conference. Pilsner Hall, a 4,000-square-foot loft-style venue, is perfect for cocktail receptions of up to 350 guests or seated dinners for 180. For larger gatherings, Locomotive Hall provides 6,700 square feet accommodating up to 800 guests for cocktail receptions or 300 for seated events.
For those seeking even more space, the brewery also offers a full venue buyout, ideal for large-scale, all-season outdoor events with a capacity of up to 6,000 attendees. And the venue is located right next to the CN Tower, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Union Station and downtown hotels, so it’s very easily accessible and centrally located.
