Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 00:33:00

Toronto built itself a slice of Miami on a working pier. Cabana Pool Bar opened on 15 June 2013 at 11 Polson Street on Polson Pier, the industrial spit across the ship channel from downtown, launched by nightlife impresario Charles Khabouth of INK Entertainment on grounds with a long entertainment pedigree - the same address housed the sprawling Docks nightclub complex of the 1990s and later the Sound Academy concert hall, which Khabouth rebuilt into the venue Rebel at the end of 2015 as part of a reported 10-million-dollar overhaul of the whole waterfront property. The formula is a full-scale beach club without the ocean: 50,000 square feet of enclosed patio billed as Canada's largest, wrapped around an octagonal swimming pool, with twelve full-size private cabanas, 42 oversized chaise lounges, lakeside booths and daybeds, and one of the country's most photographed skyline views across the harbour to the CN Tower. Capacity runs to about 2,500 with seating for 850, and the operation divides into five bookable zones - lakefront, poolside, solarium and two patios - that host everything from a table for lunch to a corporate takeover of the entire pier. Summer weekends are the main event: international DJs playing house, EDM, hip-hop and Latin sets to a 19-plus crowd in swimwear and designer sunglasses, with bottle service at the cabanas and a day-to-night arc that made the venue synonymous with the Toronto summer within a couple of seasons of opening. Culinary operations passed to the Oliver and Bonacini hospitality group, who repositioned the kitchen for lunch, dinner and weekend brunch service alongside the party trade. The address's noise battles with Toronto Island residents are almost as storied as its parties - licence conditions dating back to the Docks era cap outdoor sound and events - but the pier has kept its improbable niche: an urban resort ten minutes from the financial district, where the city goes to pretend, for an afternoon, that Lake Ontario is the Caribbean.