The owners of Track and Field, Little Italy’s popular lawn games bar, have opened another adult play place. Located just a kilometre east of its progenitor, Bangarang has two cornhole lanes and a bunch of obscure tabletop games like billard Japonais (a traditional French game) and Sjoelen (a Dutch shuffleboard variant). When the crowd gets rowdy, the games are packed away and the room transforms into a dance floor. Cocktails are of the classic variety (with a tweak here and there) and, with the exception of Guinness, beer is hyper-local. Food is limited to pepperettes and chips—hungry guests are encouraged to order in pizza.
One of the cornhole lanes can be booked for parties ($40 an hour), while the other’s available on a first-come-first-served basis:
The terrarium at the back of the room doesn’t contain any animals, but it does double as a DJ booth. Here, co-owner Nickie Minshall plays an oversized version of Rebound (it’s part shuffleboard and part crokinole, with elastics):
The Old Kanye, a tiki-inspired drink, mixes rum, lime, pineapple, Campari, apricot and chai ($10). It’s one of four cocktails on tap:
Chic Choc Ya Don’t Stop, a special of the week, is a twist on a daiquiri, made with spiced rum, lime, passion fruit and sherry:
Bangarang’s margarita swaps out tequila for mezcal ($14):
552 College St., no phone, bangarangbar.com, @bangarangbar
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Caroline Aksich, a National Magazine Award recipient, is an ex-Montrealer who writes about Toronto’s ever-evolving food scene, real estate and culture for Toronto Life, Fodor’s, Designlines, Canadian Business, Glory Media and Post City. Her work ranges from features on octopus-hunting in the Adriatic to celebrity profiles.