What’s on the menu at Buvette Pacey, a Montreal-style morning-to-midnight café and bar in Corktown

Name: Buvette Pacey Contact: 141 Berkeley St., buvettepacey.com, @buvettepacey_to
Neighbourhood: Corktown Previously: Runner Market Owner: Shabri Kapoor Accessibility: Not fully accessible (step at entrance, narrow bathroom)

Buvette Pacey, a laid-back coffee-to-cocktails bar that opened last October at Queen and Parliament, was named after owner Shabri Kapoor’s Chihuahua mix. It’s unofficially dog friendly: the house rule is that only “well-behaved dogs accompanied by well-behaved humans” are allowed. The space is intimate, with 25 seats inside and another 15 on the patio, and its creative beverage program and comfort-food menu provides a welcome respite in an underserved part of Corktown.

Kapoor grew up in a restaurant family in Montreal, with parents who worked long hours. “My dad likes to say that our family owns the oldest Indian restaurant on the eastern seaboard,” she says. Her brother also co-owns two successful Montreal restaurants, and having seen her family experience the industry’s toxicity, Kapoor vowed to stay away from hospitality and instead pursued a career in academia, completing her masters in Amsterdam and then moving to Toronto for her PhD. But, after realizing that academia can also be pretty toxic, Kapoor decided to fast-track her retirement dream of opening a cute little wine bar. “I’m such a perfectionist and usually don’t do things I’m not 100 per cent going to succeed at,” says Kapoor. “But my therapist said, ‘Why don’t you try something where you might fail?’”

Related: What’s on the menu at Paradise Grapevine’s new patio on Geary

The risk turned out to be worth it. “I wanted a place where everyone could feel welcome,” says Kapoor. “I haven’t found anywhere in Toronto that’s casual enough that you can roll into, where the space may be weird looking but the quality of the food and service is top notch. So that’s our bottom line: fine-dining food, drink and service in a super whimsical space.” Drawing inspiration from her upbringing in Montreal and her time in the Netherlands, Kapoor wanted to create an approachable spot with the laissez-faire attitude of Montreal’s Little Burgundy mixed with the lively social ambiance of Amsterdam.

The food

Buvette Pacey’s snacky menu focuses on supporting local business owners and showcasing queer and BIPOC producers whenever possible; the house empanadas are made by bar manager Katherine Garcia’s mom, Donna; the dips and salsa are made by the Poet Kitchen in Toronto; and the selection of French and Québécois cheeses are sourced by Good Cheese on Gerrard St. Buvette Pacey also offers naan bread, which Kapoor jokes is “distinctly non-bread.” Plus, they’ve got a selection of breakfast and lunch sandwiches with excellent vegetarian options and a host of sweet pastries by Circles and Squares available daily.

The drinks

During the day, Buvette Pacey functions as a café with the standard suite of espresso-based drinks: cortados, americanos, cappuccinos and lattes made with beans from Fahrenheit Coffee and a rotating feature roastery, as well as chai, matcha and turmeric lattes for tea people. The summer menu offers more heat-dome-friendly options like the tangerine espresso tonic, plum iced green tea and horchata.

For the shift to nighttime (or day-drinking), Kapoor has put together an accessible list of natural wines offered by the glass, including bubbly, white, orange, rosé and red varieties that range in style from prim and polished to weird and cloudy. The bottle list comprises roughly 40 options, with no bottle exceeding $130, which allows Kapoor to open almost anything and offer it by the glass. “The joy of it for me is when someone comes in and I know what they like, and I can say, ‘Hey, we just got this new wine in. It’s not on the board yet, but I can make it a secret menu item for you.’”

When Katherine Garcia came on board, she and Kapoor decided to push cocktails into the spotlight as well, with about 10 house cocktails featuring infused spirits—like Hubba Bubba vodka and jasmine rum—seasonal fruit cheongs and flashy garnishes that are all made in an area of the bar Kapoor playfully calls “the lab.”

The space

Kapoor developed an eye for thoughtful restaurant interiors over years of visiting them with her dad and brother. “We’re the kind of people who, if we go out for dinner, the first thing we notice is how they’re using the space,” says Kapoor. “When I saw the Runner Market space for rent, I clocked it immediately.” By June of 2023, Kapoor had signed a lease and started working on renovations with the Make Nice Project, the same agency that worked on Chantecler, Porzia’s and Boxcar Social. “When we started, I wanted it to be a straight-up wine bar, so I wanted a wooden interior and the whole half-industrial thing. But then I thought, ‘Actually, it’s named after my dog; I’m not going to go classy. Let’s just make it fun!’” Hence the bright-pink bar tiles, airy space and salon-style wall of dog portraits.