TIFF 2026 is here, and Toronto is about to become one giant open casting call for celebrities, industry insiders and anyone who knows how to work a room with a cocktail in hand. For the next couple of weeks, we’ll be trading sensible bedtimes for late nights, red carpets, Hollywood parties and some very spicy celebrity sightings. From buzzy hotel bars and hidden patios to over-the-top cocktails and places practically designed for people-watching, we’ve rounded up the spots where you can eat, drink, and soak up the best of the city’s festival heartbeat.
Roll Out the Red Carpet: Our TIFF 2026 Guide
Powder Room: Liberty Entertainment Group is kicking off TIFF with exclusive cocktails and bites, including the delightfully unhinged Red Carpet Tater Tots topped with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos dust, crème fraîche, chives and caviar.
Rogers Red Carpet: Yorkville gets its Hollywood moment September 10–13 with live music, open-air movies and plenty of red-carpet energy—including performances from Our Lady Peace and the Casa Loma Orchestra with E Street Band members.
Blue Bovine: This sexy steakhouse hosts the Rogers TIFF 2026 Gala VIP reception Saturday night, because obviously watching movies is best done with a little champagne and velvet-rope energy.
W Toronto: TIFF takes over the W with film-inspired cocktails, a lobby photo booth, celebrity-worthy programming and a four-course Nikkei tasting menu at TONO by Akira Back. Feeling flush? The $500 “Opening Scene” cocktail arrives in a treasure chest with black caviar.
BISHA Hotel: One of TIFF’s best bets for celebrity spotting, BISHA hosts the Deadline Portrait Studio September 10–13, with stars coming and going and a complimentary popcorn station for everyone else. French Made Café is also transforming into a French speakeasy for the festival.
TIFF 2026: The Films We’re Talking About
Campari Cinema Centre at Cassius: By day, it’s press junkets; by night, it’s Negronis, premiere parties and celebrity sightings. In other words, exactly where you want to be when the TIFF after-hours action starts. Cassius is smack in the heart of the festival’s main drag, and with a pretty new patio facing King West, it’s the perfect spot to soak up all the people-watching. New for this Italian hotspot is the launch of a delectable Happy Hour menu, available seven days a week.
The Drake Hotel: West Queen West’s longtime creative darling is still the place for artists, musicians and tastemakers, with 51 individually designed rooms and enough cool-kid history to fill its own indie film. The rooftop Sky Yard is destined to be a late-night destination.
Chotto Matte: Whatever you’re seeing at TIFF, there’s an order for it—sashimi and ceviche for the art-house crowd, wagyu for the blockbuster crowd and a prix-fixe lunch for anyone squeezing in a matinee.
Maxime’s: Tucked just off King West, its hidden patio is tailor-made for TIFF 2026: speciality cocktails, moody interiors and the occasional celebrity attempting to go unnoticed.
Riley’s Fish & Steak: The new 1,500-square-foot covered patio is prime pre-theatre territory, with a $65 prix-fixe menu from 4–6:30 p.m. and signature dishes including prime rib, just steps from the theatre district.
TIFF Blowout: The Yorkville Salon With Signature Treatments
The Ritz-Carlton: TIFF gets the full luxury treatment, from live music and bubbly to late-night DJs and festival-inspired cocktails at EPOCH, plus elevated dining at TOCA and grab-and-go bites at LANO.
The St. Regis Toronto: Go full red carpet with Champagne sabrage, Ossetra caviar and a seafood “plateau”, or opt for the iconic 13-layer red velvet King’s Cake. There’s also TIFF-inspired afternoon tea, for a quieter, more focused sit-down, not that we’re skipping this sabrage.
DaNico: Elegant and dripping in art, this sophisticated dining space from Liberty Entertainment Group has been a clubhouse for clandestine collaborations, and the backdrop to countless industry meetings and pre-gala tasting menus.
Hello Nori: The $55 TIFF 2026 menus at both King West and York Street bring the good stuff—wagyu, uni, bluefin tuna, truffle lobster and Hokkaido scallop—without requiring a Hollywood-sized expense account.
hotel à toi: (lead photo) This sexy new French-inspired hotspot is practically built for TIFF. Revamping from Coffee Oysters Champagne, this newly refreshed space couldn’t be closer to Roy Thomson Hall. Come for the easy festival access, a see-and-be-seen atmosphere and the kind of buzzy setting where red-carpet moments and Hollywood after-parties feel very much at home.
Lead photo @_camstergram, courtesy hotel à toi. All other images by Libby Roach.