Toronto is buzzing. There’s an undercurrent of excited energy vibrating under every rock and around every corner. It’s the colour of blue, and the sound of the wings of a Jay.
Even I can feel it; World Series fever is contagious. It’s no coincidence (or is it?) that Netflix just dropped its documentary, Who Killed the Montreal Expos, making us all — even a former Montrealer and die-hard Expos fan like me now living in Toronto the Good — chant ‘Go Jays Go’.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Game I is happening tonight (Friday, Oct. 24, 8:08 p.m.) when the Jays take on the Los Angeles Dodgers at the Rogers Centre. All eyes will be anywhere and everywhere there’s a working television. Because getting tickets to the game (or Game 2 tomorrow) are next to impossible and the prices — well, they’re out of the ballpark! Current Ticketmaster quotes on seat prices range from a “low” of $1,200 to more than $8,000. Out of reach for the average Torontonian.
But what if money is no object and you can curate the baseball experience of a lifetime in downtown Toronto, the luxury hub of Canada? Then you’d put in a call, or send an email to personal concierge Andrea Melendez, director of VIP experiences at INK Entertainment Group, a North American lifestyle and entertainment company headquartered in Toronto, since 1982.
Regarding Luxury spoke with Melendez and asked her to share how the electricity of the World Series games has sparked Torontonians, and what her company is doing to make the impossible, possible.
Regarding Luxury: Are you getting a lot of requests for Blue Jays tickets?
Andrea Melendez: It was crazy, madness here. Everybody’s going crazy. I’m even having people asking me for Game Six and Seven. People are going nuts. I committed the mistake of saying, ‘Hey, just in case, if you need tickets, I can source them.’ And my phone is still ringing and it’s 6:30 and I’m here in the office and I’m still trying to get to all the emails and tell them, ‘Hey, yeah, I can try. I can try. I can try’. And it just, it’s crazy.
Regarding Luxury: If you have a client coming in for a night, or maybe they’re staying overnight somewhere because they want to go to both games, what would be the ideal experience?
Andrea Melendez: There are different ways to experience the World Series, right? For example, there are people who are, in fact, going to the game, and they are either going for dinner before and then going to the game, or just staying the whole day at the stadium. There’s a lot of people as well that haven’t had the access to the tickets, but they still want to kind of participate of the fun vibe of the city.
It has to be personalized. Depending on each person, on their taste, their needs, what they want — you have a conversation. Maybe they are impressing a girlfriend. Maybe they want to treat the wife. Maybe they want to go with the kids. Maybe it’s business. Normally with me, it’s for corporate, it’s for business, so it’s very difficult for me to say, ‘Well, I would do 123’, because 123, could be 567, or XYZ. Everybody’s special, everybody’s different, and they all want something different. I basically ask them, ‘What do you want to experience? Do you want to experience a high-end restaurant? I’ll send you to Animl (Steakhouse & Cocktail Den). You want to experience just a cool bar? I’ll send you up to Vinnie, to have a fantastic like experience.’
Regarding Luxury: Are there any other experiences that you recommend to people while they’re downtown, such as a Scotch bar or anything on top of the restaurants that you’d recommend.
Andrea Melendez: Typically, when we offer something to a VIP, we tell them, go for dinner here, and then go for drinks there, and we have everything prepared for them. We have the table set up: if they want a table by the DJ, a table for 10, a table for two, whatever it is that they want, they have that guarantee when they go. We know their taste, we know what they want, so we just make it happen for them. I have one client who was calling me, and he doesn’t want to come to the downtown core, but he wants to come close enough, but to one of our venues.
And no problem, I got him a table at one of our restaurants more in the Yorkville area or uptown. In this case, he’s going there and he’s going to watch the game with his clients that he’s entertaining. This World Series not only about watching the game, it’s also about business. So, many people making huge deals during the game. I’m looking making sure that all that happens.
Regarding Luxury: What’s an example of a good hotel you use often?
Andrea Melendez: We deal with a lot of hotels, mainly with Bisha, Hazleton, in downtown, the St Regis, the Ritz Carlton, the W Hotel in Yorkville. We deal with all the five-star hotels. We do sometimes need smaller hotels, and actually, they’re pretty good, but mainly with the five-star hotels, because that’s the demographic that we’re hitting.
Regarding Luxury: What is a typical experience that you’re putting together for one of your clients?
Andrea Melendez: If somebody came to me and said, ‘Andrea, I’m coming for a night, or two nights, I have tickets for both games, I would get them a hotel and the tickets. I would get them a restaurant for the first night before the game. Because the game is at eight, they can’t eat at 10, they have to eat at six. I would make sure the table is ready, that the service is fast, but good, so they are aware that they have to leave at a certain time. I would absolutely not recommend to them going taking Uber.
I would make sure that everything’s close by, so they can walk easily to each place, especially because the weather is still good. Then they can go celebrate, and I would probably hook them up at Mr. C and have them go and party.
Then the next day, I would definitely send them to either Daphne, which is our beautiful restaurant on Richmond and Bay Street, or if they wanted, to KŌST, which is also a gorgeous restaurant on the 44th floor of Bisha. But it depends on their lifestyle as well. They don’t want to go to the typical places.
I’m not going to send somebody to the Eaton Centre. I’m going to tell them, ‘Why don’t you relax at a spa?’ And I would send them to a spa depending on the hotel, depending on where they are. And then the next game, I would make sure that they go to another one of our venues, not the same that they went the night before. You’re always curating for the person. It’s not a template. What people are seeking now, are two things. They want access and they want experience. That’s all they want. Everything else they can get on their own.
Top image by Shari Cain
Marlene Eisner is a freelance writer and editor. She is currently the editor of RENO+DÉCOR magazine (National) and New Home + Condo Guide magazine (Vancouver). She also writes, edits and publishes content for websites and edits master’s and PhD theses and memories.
