The Monarch Tavern

The Monarch Tavern is a 120-capacity room in Toronto’s Little Italy, operating beneath an upstairs public house. Its distinguishing feature comes from the walls: behind the stage hangs a large photograph of patrons marking the end of the Second World War, placing a small-scale show beside a piece of the building’s social record. The venue uses its main floor for concerts, DJs, cabaret and other events.

A hotel becomes a stage

Before its concert-room life, this corner property housed the Venezia Hotel, erected by Italian labour broker Francesco Tomaiuolo near College Street’s early Italian settlement. The Monarch’s own history dates its liquor service to 1927; a contemporary account describes the yellow-brick building as a hotel, created in an era when rooms enabled liquor sales. That hotel purpose gives the two-level layout its logic: lodging gave way to a tavern upstairs and an event floor below. Michael Dorbyk and Evan Georgiades bought the Monarch around 2011. Their change was direct: a stage and programming built around live music, film events, book and magazine launches, private parties and readings. In 2015, author Lindsay Gibb used its stage, lights, soundboard and projector for the launch of National Treasure: Nicolas Cage. That mix remains a useful guide to a room where a gig shares space with other local cultural nights.

The show-floor equation

For a concertgoer, expect an all-purpose 120-person main-floor space, supplied with a full bar, DJ booth, performance stage and PA. Booking has room for small indie groups, DJs and cabaret, plus parties, theatre, performance art and launches; house, hip-hop and rare-groove DJ sets form regular weekly fixtures. Upstairs works as the pre-show pub, with 20 local craft beers on tap, spirits, pool and pinball. Main-floor access begins two half-steps above street level; staff provide a StopGap ramp on request.