about us

The Boat opened in 1976 as a top-notch Portuguese seafood restaurant. It was rather successful for about 20 years until the mid to late 90's when many of the clientele began to move out of the neighbourhood.

Joe D'Andrade took over the ailing business and hoped to bring it back to glory, but a new patronage was not to be found. The restaurant began scaling back it's staff and hours of operation until finally having to let go of it's initial concept. From the turn of the millenium, the Boat operated mainly as a Cantonese karaoke bar offering a finger-food menu with occasional event promotions taking place. More one-off events started surfacing in 2005 and Trevor Coleman stepped in to assist Joe in handling the event management at the Boat.

Trevor had the resources available to inject new life and possibilities into the space, quickly turning The Boat into one of Toronto's best spaces to party.

Late in the summer of 2006, Trevor approached Keith Hamilton to helm the Boat as it was his plan to return to his studies. Keith phased out the karaoke and proceeded to fill out the monthly schedule to host approximately 25 events per month and ensure that it is only open during events.

The layout of the venue was converted from width-wise to length-wise to improve sound quality. The old 8X4 stage was removed in January 2007, replaced by as 16X12 performance space and the sound system is continually improved upon every 6 months.

The Boat acts as the home for the Pitter Patter Nights music series.