heated patio toronto

Toronto bar opening heated patio and live music venue this week

One brave Toronto bar has opted not only to open a heated outdoor patio during this frigid week, they're going to host live music on it every single night.

Drom Taberna is known for its menu of Eastern European cuisine and events calendar packed with world music bands.

They were actually planning on having a blowout New Year's Eve celebration with music until the wee hours of the morning and lots of decadent food, but of course that didn't turn out as planned.

On Dec. 20, they posted that it would be their last day of indoor and patio service until further notice. About a week later, they had pivoted back to their lockdown deli concept.

Now, exactly a full month later, they're opening a heated patio with nightly live music on Jan. 20.

There are pretty strict guidelines to follow if you want to get in on the fun, though, so you should check them out to find out more about how make a reservation on their website.

For the first week, they'll be doing two dinner seatings, 6 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., with bands playing each seating and a cover charge at the door. The cover should be about $10 to $15 and will go directly to the bands.

They can only seat groups of two, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine or 10.

They'll also be allowing people to come for drinks and quick bites from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., and will be posting updates on their Instagram about any openings or cancellations.

They've installed one massive heater and multiple propane heaters to keep things warm, hopefully even if it dips to -20 C, which were significant costs for the small business.

"In order for us to simply be able to cover rent, pay for the heaters, pay our family we will need some serious drinkers and eaters to show up. To be more precise, according to my calculations (hey, it's Misha, the guy in a hat and who forgets to wear pants during a summer), we need to be making $73.50 per person," read the Drom guidelines.

"If you are doing a dry January, or you are on some kind of a diet as a New Year Resolution, we still love you, we a hundred percent support you (taking care of oneself is a really nice thing to do) and we miss you, but come to us when we can operate at full capacity or order some take out or come see our deli."

They're so serious about their survival strategy, their reservation process comes with some major caveats.

There's a secret code hidden in the guidelines you have to know which proves you read them all the way through, and you have to leave a phone number when making reservations so they can call you to get a credit card number.

You'll also be charged $50 per person for no-shows or for letting them know you're not coming less than an hour in advance.

Live band lineups should be announced a bit later.

Lead photo by

Drom Taberna


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