Inside the heritage Beardmore Building (1841), CC Lounge combines a serious whisky collection with a late-night dance floor that runs hard Thursday through Saturday. A custom wood whisky tunnel leads to leather booths and a VIP back room with its own bar and DJ booth — old bones, very new energy.
Neighbourhood: St. Lawrence Market · Address: 35 Front St E (Beardmore Building), Toronto, ON · Hours: Thu–Sat 8pm–3am
Why Visit
CC Lounge is where Toronto whisky geeks and dance floor regulars both find their happy place — sip rare bourbons under exposed brick, then slide into late-night DJ sets with a crowd that isn't trying too hard.
What Makes It Unique
They offer over 100 whiskies, including bottles you rarely see in Ontario, and even run guided tastings in their wood-panelled tunnel. The mix of 1840s architecture and not-too-precious party energy isn’t something you find in most Toronto bars — especially with a full-on dance floor in the back.
CC Lounge & Whisky Bar inside the Beardmore Building in the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood combines two things that Toronto does surprisingly well: heritage building preservation and serious whisky programming. The Beardmore Building dates to 1841, making it one of the oldest commercial structures still actively used in the city, and the CC Lounge occupies a ground-floor space that retains much of the building's original character — exposed brick, timber elements, and the kind of architectural depth that no new construction can replicate.
The whisky collection here runs to hundreds of expressions across all major producing regions. Scotch is the primary focus, with meaningful depth in Highland, Speyside, and Islay single malts alongside blends of genuine quality. The Irish, American, Japanese, and Canadian selections are all well-curated rather than token — whoever manages the programme clearly cares about representing the full diversity of whisky traditions rather than defaulting to the headline names. The flight options — comparative pours of related expressions — are a genuinely educational way to explore unfamiliar territory.
The late-night programming at CC Lounge has made it a go-to destination for post-dinner drinking in the St. Lawrence Market area, which lacks the nightlife density of King West but has a particularly atmospheric character after dark when the Market district's cobblestone streets and heritage facades are quieter and the historic buildings feel more present. The bar's program of live jazz and quiet acoustic music on certain evenings creates an atmosphere that reflects the building's age without becoming museological.
The St. Lawrence neighbourhood provides the ideal extended context. The Market itself, the Distillery District a few blocks east, the hockey memorabilia bars around Scotiabank Arena, and the restaurant-lined blocks of King Street East all provide options before or after CC Lounge that make the area a complete evening destination.