Catriona Smart grew up in Newmarket, Ontario, with a pair of cheerful parents who constantly entertained, and she, too, caught the virus. Smart, a former bartender and current creative agency founder, and her fiancé, Jimmy Cook, throw all kinds of parties at their 1920s stone mansion in Toronto’s Forest Hill neighborhood, where she moved in late 2010. 2016.
Smart gutted almost every part of the mansion before moving in, except for the 3,000-square-foot basement. A previous owner had transformed it into an ’80s-style grotto with a giant rectangular pool, built-in concrete loungers, and lots of circular glass peepholes. “It was an engineering nightmare,” she says. “Our first expert told me that the concrete slab of the grotto and the water inside the pool were so heavy that without them the house would collapse.” The space was mostly decorated with dirty blue and white tiles and was in unusable condition, but since Smart couldn’t get rid of it right away, he still had to pay for biweekly cleaning to keep the rest of the house clean. will be cleaned. It doesn’t smell like mold or chlorine. At the time, his daughter Harlowe was only three years old, so the basement door remained locked for years.
Finally, in early 2020, Smart found an engineer with a different opinion, who deemed a renovation possible as long as they shored up the entire house beforehand, a process that took almost five months. After the engineer removed the concrete slab beneath the grotto, they filled it with earth from the shoring to provide the weight needed to support the house. They worked with custom residential builder Carmelin Design Build on the rest of the home, who added a few more structural beams to the space.
Smart and Cook knew they wanted to create an entertaining retreat, but were hesitant about what exactly it should look like — until everything shut down during the pandemic. They couldn’t go out to dinner anymore, so they came up with a plan to create their own speakeasy where friends could gather and feel like they were in a luxury restaurant or lounge. “We wanted to create a fun space where people could forget about their worries during COVID,” Smart says. “And now we have a club in our basement.”
His vision was based on influences from old Hollywood and old Florida. Stairs lead to an all-pink entryway, with a trough-style onyx sink facing a series of three ensuite bathrooms and a shower. This area can be completely closed off from the rest of the bar with a disguised sliding door, evoking the feeling of a secret underground club. “If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t think there was anything else down there,” she says. There’s also an entrance to the basement from the backyard, which comes in handy when her daughter, now 11, has friends over for pool parties.
Beyond the entrance is a spacious room centered around a striking 21-foot bar, made of jade with hints of amber and inlaid with LED lights. Some light pink curved sofas, built-in daybeds, a DJ booth, shelving, and plenty of mood lighting complete the club feel. When Smart and Cook host dinner parties instead of dance parties, they simply push aside the couches and cover a series of folding tables with tablecloths.
Smart worked as a bartender for a few years while attending the University of Toronto, so he needed the bar to be optimally functional and aesthetically impressive. It’s equipped with a sink, two refrigerators, and an ice maker, and is always stocked with his favorite tequila, Don Julio 1942. Backed by an antique-looking mirror clad with a giant Art Deco-style sun that lights up, the bar easily appears part of a glamorous 1960s jazz club. Smart was inspired by many of the bars and restaurants he has been to around the world, such as Annabel’s private club in London and Delilah restaurant and lounge in Las Vegas. “I don’t go clubbing very often anymore, but I’ll hear Whitney Houston singing here any day,” he says.
I knew the space was intended for loud, shoe-on dance parties, so durability was crucial. The floors are gray tiles that have been shaped and laid to look like herringbone wood. The sofas in pink tones are upholstered with synthetic suede covered with a 3M product. “Someone poured a whole glass of red wine on one and it just dripped,” she says.
One of his favorite nights in the basement was an impromptu party at Caribana where 150 people danced and sang 80s and 90s music all night. “It was one of those magical nights where you don’t plan anything and suddenly everyone is here,” she says. Unfortunately, that night someone stepped on one of her colorful coffee tables (the coveted “Candy Cubes” designed by Dutch artist Sabine Marcelis) and it fell. Drake even spent some fun nights in the basement and eventually named the song “Jimmy Cooks,” a song from his 2022 album. Honestly, it doesn’t matter with over 900 million streams on Spotify, after Smart’s hilarious fiancé.
Since it will be completed in the fall of 2022, Smart estimates they use the basement for a special event at least once a month. As well as big holiday potlucks and more intimate family affairs, they’ve also brought in well-known chefs such as Bar Prima’s Craig Harding for charity dinners and evenings hosted for clients such as celebrity make-up artist Sir John. He also runs a dinner series called “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” where she, Cook and the team at their company That Good Co. invite acquaintances from various industries to network. Her favorite part of her space is how everyone puts away their phones and disconnects from reality for a while.
Smart and Cook also use the basement as a private hair salon: Since they couldn’t get their hair done anywhere during COVID, they added a mini salon in an old storage room, which they still use today to get haircuts.