The MoPR Blog

So you’ve got an informal breakfast meeting in Toronto with one of Canada’s premier VCs. This superb opportunity to establish a long-term relationship depends as much on the restaurant as it does the industry savvy you demonstrate.

While Toronto has dozens of breakfast dining options, three stand head-and-shoulders above the rest – for various reasons – and the one chosen says a lot about you and the VC.

Tim Horton’s, the Great White North’s cousin to Krispy Kreme (sans the industrial donut extruder and roller assembly line), offers a ‘shock and awe’ inducing array of donuts, bagels and uniquely Canadian breakfast pastries, most notably the ‘duchy.’ The eats are great – and you’ll never tire of endless ‘pass the duchy par the left hand side’ quips – but Tim Horton’s is perhaps a little too informal for that crucial first meeting.

The King Edwards Hotel (”King Eddie” in local parlance) offers the classy, upscale dining experience you’d expect of a 4-star hotel named after British royalty (not the heir apparents mind you). You can’t go wrong with the King Eddie, but it’s an inherently safe bet that may be a bit too formal for an informal meeting.

Le Petit Dejeuner is a favorite with Toronto locals in-the-know and for several good reasons. First and foremost the food is 4-star. The ‘eggy bread’ (French toast that’s nicely carmelized) and the fluffy scrambled eggs are particular favorites. The décor is eclectic enough to induce grins and serve as an ice breaker, but is not overtly kitsch. There’s a quiet hum from other patrons, but this serves as white noise to keep your conversation contained to your table. The booths are too small for more than four (two if you’re both of defensive lineman proportions), but this is about the only issue. Le Petit Dejeuner is an excellent place for an informal business meeting, and an even better place for Sunday breakfast. Score!

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Long time, no post. The entire MoPR team has been swamped. The good news, we’re working for clients!

Last week the MoPR team made its second excursion into Canada. This time, we headed east to Toronto. It was a jam-packed few days, but in between client meetings, breakfasts with venture capitalists and brunches with editors, we did manage to have a good time. By the way, if you’re in town, try Le Petit Dejeuner on King East for breakfast or brunch. No doubt Melissa will write about her crunchy eggie bread. John G is working on his power breakfast post too.

First and foremost, it was essential to right an egregious wrong. Stacy was the only person in the MoPR team never to have dined at Harvey’s. Not only did she get to eat at Harvey’s, but she got to sit in an actual restaurant and not inside a Home Depot as the rest of us did in Vancouver. But just like the rest of us, Stacy chose poutine.

Toronto is a beautiful and amazing city. We were lucky that we had an opportunity to fit in some sightseeing and spend a night out with our new clients (shhh… their name is a secret for now).

Our secret client took us out to a great Mexican dinner and then to the world famous Second City - Toronto sketch comedy theatre (I’m using Canadian spelling for a little added flavour), the improv troup that gave rise to the careers of Dan Akroyd, Gilda Radner, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Mike Myers and so many others. We laughed our asses off! It was a ribald good time, and none of us will ever look at a three-toed sloth the same way again. No doubt members of this cast will be among the notable alumni of SST.

Stay tuned for more posts about our trip to Toronto.

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