When The Indy Was More Than A Race And Downtown Toronto Was Part Of The Party
For years, the Molson Indy was more than an IndyCar race in Toronto. It was a happening, with events around the city and a nightlife scene that kept the party going long after the cars left the track. I was fortunate enough to experience those days from the inside – and the bars, people and parties provided some classic PubClub moments.
By Kevin Wilkerson, Editor & Publisher, PubClub.com
I was under the influence of Toronto.
From its formidable nightlife to its European feel to its wonderfully friendly people to its seemingly endless seaside running trail, Toronto filled my fantasies with such hospitable flair it was hard not to be captivated.
I loved this place right from the start. In the city on business some years back, I found myself in what at the time was the happening after-work spot. Within half an hour, virtually the entire bar had introduced themselves to me, then carted me off around the corner to the follow-up establishment, then eventually into the late-night bar. In just one night, I was completely in Toronto’s grasp.
Then I had reason to go there every July for the Molson Indy car race. I was the advance PR representative of the series, which put me in town two weeks prior to the event. That meant I had a week and a half to go out in Toronto before the “circus” as I called it, arrived, and the associated events for the race took place. The heyday of “the Indy” was in the mid 90s-mid 2000s and General Manager Charlie Johnstone put on Molson Indy events around the city. He understood their importance in making the race more than a race but an event. A happening.
So I would roll into T.O., contact some friends I had met through the years and we would hit the town. I worked very hard during the days but the nights were mine. I had already learned “the routine” of Toronto’s bars – which ones were the most popular on certain nights a week, which is what PubClub.com was built on from the start – and had a couple of my own “go to” spots.
One place was called My Apartment. This, I just loved because if I met a girl at another bar, asked if she wanted to go to My Apartment and she said “sure,” I wasn’t sure if she meant the bar or my apartment! Being a visitor in town, I didn’t have an apartment but I did have a room the Holiday Inn on King, which was right in front of My Apartment. Its big night was Thursday – which led to some decision-making between going there or to “the Maddy” (Madison Ave, Pub) – because it had large cans of Molson Canadian beer for $2 CDN. With the favorable exchange rate of the US Dollar at the time, those beers were only costing me around a buck 50.
Wednesdays were reserved for Crocodile Rock (sadly, now closed) and other nights were spent following around “Team Red,” the bar promotion team of the Indy. These girls, a dozen strong, would go bar hopping and because of my association with the race, that gave us a comfortable “in” with them and we kept each other entertained nearly every night. The Molson Indy brought out beautiful girls they way the way the tight race course did caution flags.
My “go to” spot was Al Frisco’s. The food was terrific and after dinner, we would go to the bar, called “Upstairs Al’s.” It was totally my kind of place. Classy but casual enough to where I could wear shorts with good music, a very good-looking crowd and enough single girls to get me into trouble. (After all, I did have to wake up the next morning and work!)
On Thursday of race week, Molson put on a block party in front of Al Frisco’s and on Friday I would go to the invitation-only and lavish event at Wayne Gretzy’s bar/restaurant, known simply at “the Gretzky party.”
I have been back to Toronto a few times since but it wasn’t quite the same. For one thing, Al Frisco’s is now a Jack Astor’s and does not have the same vibe. Most of the bar action has moved from downtown to other parts of the city and there’s not the same energy was there was downtown. Even the Molson Indy is no more; it eventually became the Honda Indy and in 2026 moved from Exhibition Place to a new street circuit in Markham, some 25 miles to the north.
But hey, I was there when it counted and that provided me with a PubClub Classics tale to tell.
Kevin Wilkerson is the founder of PubClub.com, an award-winning journalist and nightlife expert who has covered destinations, events and nightlife for more than two decades. While working as a newspaper reporter, he received an Associated Press award for investigative journalism.
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