A cafe and bar is hosting pop-ups nearly every Sunday this summer in Toronto

There’s a cafe and bar in Toronto that isn’t a full restaurant, but loves to serve tasty food. What are they to do?

Throw food pop-ups all summer long on their patio, of course.

Doc’s Green Door Lounge has been making waves for their drinks, both hot and caffeinated as well as cold and boozy. However, when it comes to a food menu, they’re usually limited to a few snacks.

Enter their summer pop-up series, where the bar invites a parade of inspiring food projects to come into their space and whip up stunning dishes for drinkers at Doc’s.

Doc’s Green Door Lounge opened just a couple of years ago, and started hosting pop-ups last summer to launch their patio.

“Right from the jump we knew we didn’t want to be a restaurant but we wanted to feature tasty food and work with local purveyors,” owner Jayson Green tells YourCityWithIN.com.

“We had this amazing extra space in front of our garages and thought it would be a really fun way to work with chefs we loved and simultaneously bring some attention to the bar and patio space. Do wine and cocktail pairings. Just seemed fun and the right vibe for Doc’s. I personally love a good pop-up.”

Vendors popping up at Doc’s this summer include a couple that are used to working inside bars: Beisl, a Viennese food project that operates out of brewery True History, and Bindi’s, which provides Indian-influenced smash burgers out of Monarch Tavern. Doc’s typically aims to pair the food with wines from local importers and producers.

However, when it comes to the type of pop-ups they’re hosting, Green isn’t looking for anything in particular, just “something that fits our vibe and stuff for all diets, veg, vegan, gluten-free, etc. Nothing specific. We love to have a large variety of styles but just kinda go by feel.”

For example, past vendors also include a wide range of offerings from different popular restaurants around town, including Stop, Mac’s Pizza and Vit Beo.

“The neighbourhood has responded super well. It’s a fun thing to do on a Sunday. Get an early drink. Sit outside with friends and fam and eat some delicious food,” says Green.

The pop-ups typically begin in the early afternoon and continue until food is sold out, which only took a couple of hours last year for Golden Horseshoe BBQ.

“Last summer was definitely a big learning curve. We had to figure out the best ways to do service-and that would vary from pop-up to pop-up depending on what was being prepared,” says Green.

“Having enough power for all the gear, weather, stuff like that. Some of that is impossible to control, but people seemed to have fun either way and never realized that we were completely confused half the time.”

This summer, Doc’s is debuting a new frozen drink machine and cocktail menu on May 18, with the first pop-up scheduled for May 25. Pop-ups will continue at the bar nearly every Sunday after that for the rest of the summer. Check out the Doc’s social media for more information on vendors and scheduling.