You can add the Dakota Tavern to the growing list of lost Toronto music venues.
Multiple sources in the city’s music scene tell CityNews reporter Lindsay Dunn that the last notes have been played at the legendary venue.
“Hate this news,” Dunn wrote on X. “Able to confirm through multiple sources that the beloved The Dakota Tavern will not be returning. They closed for renovations back in October after a change in ownership. I watched so many amazing concerts there.”
Hate this news. Able to confirm through multiple sources that the beloved The Dakota Tavern will not be returning. They closed for renovations back in October after a change in ownership. I watched so many amazing concerts there. pic.twitter.com/J4VcvfqPFm
— Lindsay Dunn (@LindsayDunnTV) March 21, 2025
The intimate tavern at 249 Ossington Ave. was sold in October 2024, and the site has been closed for renovations ever since.
The previous owner told CityNews on Friday that after the COVID lockdowns, the Dakota “just couldn’t generate enough revenue to stay open in its current form.”
There’s no official word on what will happen to the site, but author David McPherson, who’s written books on the Horseshoe Tavern and Massey Hall, posted on his blog that it will become a sports bar.
CityNews has not been able to verify that with the new owners yet.
The Dakota, which hosted names like Broken Social Scene, Blue Rodeo and The Sadies, joins a long list of beloved music venues that have fallen silent in recent years, among them Little Italy’s gem The Orbit Room and Parkdale’s inimitable Cadillac Lounge.
The loss is already being mourned by those who spent sweaty nights listening to the great music, and those who played it.
Derek Downham, who is a ubiquitous part of Toronto’s live music culture, played the Dakota every Sunday for more than a decade with The Beauties, not to mention the countless bands he sat it in with over the years.
“There will never be another scene like The Dakota on a Sunday when The Beauties played,” he said in an online post.
“The death of The Dakota Tavern represents so much more than just the loss of a great live music venue,” Downham wrote.
“This is where some of Toronto’s greatest bands were born and nurtured.”
“This is where strangers met to dance and fall in love.”
