Weldon Park

If had a to pick a top 3 bar/​clubs in Toronto, there is no doubt that Welfon Park is up there. There Wednesday trap music night will leave you screaming «FREE GUCCI». Word in the streets, Weldon has been voted one of the best hip-​hop bars in North America by The Source magazine.

What a difference a year makes! Went here once when it first opened and again recently. I almost didn’t recognize it. Clearly no maintenance or upkeep of any kind. This place used to be a nice cocktail bar, now it’s a place for cheap drinks and no service aspect what-​so-​ever. To top it all off, the busser/​barback came to remove the candle from our table in the night, and spilled candlewax on me and ruined my shirt. This was an accident and not a big deal to me, but it really was the «cherry on top» of this disastrous visit.

Thoroughly unprofessional ownership who will not pay their bills. They leech off suppliers to compensate for their inability to operate their business. If you want to support that, go right ahead. I’ll take my money elsewhere.

I’ve had a few fun nights at Weldon Park, so I don’t want to throw them under the bus completely. However, other times the experience has not been great, mostly due to overcrowding and understaffing. Last night was the last straw for me, I think.
They had drinks on special for $ 3 from 10-​midnight. This seems great until you find out there is only one bartender, and she is incredibly overwhelmed. We got one round and then stood at the bar patiently to get another. As things got busier, she was yelling at customers, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation, spilling drinks on the bar, and acting unprofessionally. Sure, it was very crowded, but most people understood and were acting politely, and tipping very generously given the cheap drinks. No reason to berate paying customers. Even though we ordered the drinks at around 1130, it was 1203 when we got them and we were stuck paying full price.
Bottom line is it was obviously understaffed and the situation was handled very poorly. It put a damper on a fun night and I won’t be back.

Cool staff. Eclectic and rustic bar with lots of different liquors for selections. This means they can make myriad cocktails for your pleasure.

This place is awful. I will never go back. It is PACKED, under renovations, and the washrooms should not even be legal. I have never been more revolted. Save your money and go somewhere else.

I have never seen washrooms this disgusting. How about more than one bartender?
The sound system mixed with their total lack of understanding of acoustics makes this place loud and obnoxious. I swear they set this place up for like 5 grand.
Cocktails are great though… as long as you can wait.

What a Shitty place. Overpriced drinks. Shitty service, and a bartender that doesn’t know her recipes.

Weldon Park is the perfect example of the difference the staff can make to the patron’s experience.
We met one of the bartenders Nicole on a recent visit, and I have to say she was the reason our short stop for a single drink turned into partying at Weldon for the night. Right off the bat Nicole served up a well balanced negroni which was soon followed by a nearly perfect paper-​plane! What impressed me more was that she was engaging, personable, and attentive even as the bar got crazy busy.
In addition to this particular example, my experience with other barkeeps, and bouncer has been great at Weldon, which will likely keep me coming back for more.
This, added to potent drinks, decent music, crowd, and atmosphere make for a pretty solid night out on the resurfacing College St. scene.

I can’t say that this is the best bar in Little Italy. They are understaffed, and it took approximately 30 minutes before I even got my 2 drinks, after ordering 3 times. The ice wasn’t right for the Old Fashioned (rookie mistake) and the Rosemary drink was super sweet (unless it was meant to be like that).
Nice bar, but because it used to be a shisha bar, I feel like they could add more bathrooms for the drinkers now. The bar was also at maximum capacity, and they still let more people in.
2 stars because I like the interior design.

It’s always nice to stumble upon a hidden gem in the city. I was having dinner at Hapa Izakaya across the street a few weeks ago and our server suggested we try Weldon Park for drinks. Really glad that he did, because we loved it there!
Their heat was out, so my friends and I huddled together at the bar and quickly ordered some libations to warm ourselves up. We ordered off of their festive cocktail menu and everything we tried was absolutely delicious! I can’t recall the exact names of the drinks, but I tried a variation of a Tom Collins with pear and herbs that was phenomenal. Also had a gingerbread inspired cocktail that was just fantastic and definitely put us all in the Christmas spirit!
I am sure I’ll enjoy this place even more when it’s heated! Looking forward to returning soon!
Side note for the ladies: The bartenders were pretty easy on the eyes as well! ;)

Cool atmosphere, I guess. Loud music played, DJ’d by the owner. Picnic tables line the right wall, which were great for sitting and talking (well, yelling). I was drinking double gin and tonics, 10 bucks each which is competitive.
I’ve read about good cocktails here. Wrong. It was amateur hour behind the bar. I ordered a negroni that had way way too much Campari. A friend ordered a bourbon sour that had a full ounce of simple syrup in it. It was far too sweet. In addition, the angostura was added last, and so it just sat in the foam in too created by the egg white.
Rookie moves like that make it a mere 3 star venue. I won’t go back anytime soon.