Bar Allegro : The Pompette Group’s Spirited Aperitivo Bar in Little Italy

Just a few doors down from Canada’s best cocktail bar, Bar Pompette, on the same stretch of College Street that has quietly become one of Toronto’s most exciting food-and-drink corridors, there’s a new spot that feels like it’s been there forever. Bar Allegro opened its doors at 597 College Street in late January 2026.

The name says it all. In Italian, “allegro” means cheerful, lively, tipsy — a word that captures the spirit of aperitivo culture and, not coincidentally, echoes the joyful energy of its sister establishments down the street. This is the latest chapter from the Pompette Group, the trio behind Bar Pompette, Bakery Pompette, and the now-retired Restaurant Pompette. And in many ways, it’s the chapter they always meant to write first.

Coming Full Circle

When Martine Bauer, Jonathan Bauer-Monneret, and Maxime Hoerth arrived in Toronto from France, their original dream was to open a cocktail and wine bar. That was 2018. By the time they were ready to launch, the pandemic had other plans. They pivoted to takeout, then to a full restaurant, and for five years, that’s what Pompette was — a celebrated dining room in Little Italy.

But the original idea never went away. “We wanted to come back to what we came here to do,” says Martine. “We didn’t want to have regrets ten years from now, thinking we came to build something and never got to build it.”

Bar Allegro occupies the space that was most recently Vinoteca Pompette, reimagined from the ground up. And for the first time, the three partners designed the space entirely themselves — no architect, no interior designer. After five years of building restaurants, opening a bakery, and launching an award-winning bar, they finally trusted their own instincts.

The result speaks for itself. Guests walk in and say it feels like Spain, like the south of France, like a place they visited on vacation and never wanted to leave. “I felt like we opened our home to people,” says Martine. “You come to my place, you sit down, you have your drink. It’s not intimidating. It’s ours.”

Aperitivo, the Way It Should Be

The concept is simple and deeply European: come before dinner for a cocktail and a bite, or come after and stay for the evening. Unlike Bar Pompette, which focuses almost exclusively on cocktails, Allegro has a full kitchen and a proper food menu designed for sharing.

The cocktail list is generous : 18 options in all, including six on draft, three variations of the martini, and three riffs on the negroni. Everything is made in-house, with the same exacting standards that earned Bar Pompette its accolades, but the mood here is more relaxed, more casual. This is aperitivo, not a tasting experience.

A few early favourites have already emerged. The Gorgonzola Martini, a classic in Italian bars that virtually no one makes in Toronto, has become a sensation. The Pistachio Negroni, made with gin infused in-house with pistachio paste, is rich and unexpected. The Bergamot Fizz is cloudy, creamy, and comforting. Martine compares it to a London Fog, but for the evening. And the house Spritz, built with passion fruit and Calabrian chili, walks a perfect line between fruity and spicy.

For the industry crowd, there’s Guinness on draft !

Eating at the Bar

The food at Allegro is designed to complement the drinks, not compete with them. The menu is built around shareable plates with a European accent, and it leans into the Pompette Group’s commitment to working with local suppliers and minimizing waste.

The bone marrow has become an early standout: a bourguignon-style braised beef mixed with marrow, served inside the bone alongside potato buns baked fresh at Bakery Pompette, three doors down. You tear the bun, you dip, and for a moment, nothing else matters. There’s a tuna carpaccio with passion fruit and jalapeño that pairs beautifully with the Spritz. Devilled eggs with crispy chili oil and ginger mayo. And mussels with ‘nduja sauce, our favourite !

For dessert, the soft serve (vanilla with olive oil, honey, and fleur de sel) was supposed to leave the menu. Regulars demanded it back. It stayed.

The menu will remain mostly consistent throughout the year, with seasonal specials in the summer when produce arrives from the group’s partner farms.

Wine, Without the Fuss

Jonathan Bauer-Monneret, Meilleur Sommelier de France, oversees the wine programme with the same philosophy he brings to everything at Pompette: approachable but never dumbed down. There are four or five wines by the glass at any given time, chosen to cover a range of profiles. If none of those appeal, there’s a bottle list of around 100 references to explore — many sourced through Pelican Wine, the group’s own import agency, which specializes in natural and biodynamic selections from France, Italy, and Spain.

The sommelier on the floor will ask what you like, what you don’t, and steer you toward something that fits.

For the Pompette Group, it represents a return to the idea that brought them across the Atlantic in the first place. For Toronto, it fills a gap that’s been hiding in plain sight: a proper European aperitivo bar where the cocktails are serious and the food is soulful.

With three addresses now lined up on the same side of College Street, the Pompette Group has built something quietly remarkable in Little Italy. Bar Allegro is the most personal expression yet of who they are: three friends from France who fell in love with Toronto and decided to share a piece of home.

Written by Fabie Lubin
Photography by Scott Usheroff (Craving Curator)

Updated on May 22, 2026

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