By Amy Sanderson
Torontonicity was invited to visit the new Power Up Bar, a gamer’s delight, in the St. Lawrence neighbourhood in Toronto on September 29, 2016. I came in out of the rain from Wellington Street East down the blue-lit stairs to Power Up Bar, located next to Pravda Vodka Bar.
I was greeted warmly by Jessica, the bartender. The ultra modern room is small, with a 107 person capacity. The ceiling ducts are low so it wouldn’t work too well for a modelling convention.
Power Up Bar’s menu is amazing, put together by Chef Tim Cuff from Vancouver and Stu Betteridge from George Brown College’s Culinary Arts program. He is also consulting for the company, Fifteen Group Consultants.
I ordered the Caramelized Onion and Feta Dip for $9, served with warm bread and crispy wonton, which was delicious! I spread some dip onto the wontons and it was heavenly!
I also sampled the Lemon Herb Chicken Skewer. This was good, but next time I’ll take Jessica’s advice and order it spicy.
Although the Power Up Bar officially opened on September 1, 2016, they already have their share of regular customers!
Jessica created a refreshing mocktail full of pineapple and berry juices. She said I could call it “The Amy” lol.
The owner, Christopher Venutolo, spent a few minutes talking about the inception of this bar. His background is seemingly unrelated to the bar industry: Venutolo was a software engineer in his previous life, working on different contracts around Canada and the United States. His business card reads “Owner / Operator / Gamer.” He has a penchant for gaming it would appear, considering there are game screens on every wall and what are called “Wii-motes” conveniently scattered throughout the bar. Oh, did I mention? This is the gamers bar! This place is great for everything gamer. Regrettably, I’m not as versed in the gaming vernacular as some, so I’m not able to wax on about the types of systems and games they feature here, but suffice it to say that if you play it, they’ve got it. A game called “We Dance” is a popular pastime here. They have patrons, both male and female, who like to come for this particular fun activity.
If you like to play games, and you have a function where you want to do some team building or have a good time, consider Power Up Bar.
Power Up Bar, 38 Wellington Street East, 647-346-8796
This sounds like a great environment!
This is so cool. My oldest son loves to play with his Wii. I love the look of the drink and food pictured here.
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