The Word On The Street Blog

Toronto has a rich literary community with many options for places to read, buy books, or talk about them. Books Around Town is a series that describes some of the city’s most popular places for book nerds to gather and share their love of reading.

For our all-grown-up readers, Famous Last Words is a book-inspired cocktail bar located in The Junction. Named after the Timothy Findley novel of the same name, this new(ish) bar is a haven for readers. With walls lined with bookshelves, and a bartop tiled with Scrabble letters, Famous Last Words puts books front and centre!

Photo from Famous Last Words

The bar was first opened in late 2016 by Marlene Thorne, and was started out of her passion for both cocktails and books. At FLW, you can pull a book off the shelves and read while enjoying any one of their book-inspired cocktails. Choose from over fifteen different cocktails named after popular titles from their chapbook style menu.

Looking to make some friends? Don’t miss their monthly Book Trivia night. You can compete for prizes the second Tuesday of the month—the next one is coming up soon on July 10! They also set up author talks and readings, along with a monthly book exchange every month.

Photo from Famous Last Words

And if you already belong to a community of readers, Famous Last Words offers some awesome perks if you want to host your book club with them! If you contact them in advance, they’ll even create a signature drink based off your book, put $20 towards your tab, and donate another $20 to literacy programs from Frontier College.

A cozy place to read and a fantastic patio during the summer heat, these WOTS book-lovers will be heading there soon. See you there?