The May long weekend is the one where Toronto collectively decides summer has started, regardless of what the forecast says. It’s also the weekend the city empties northward, patios fill for the first time, and someone in every group discovers their barbecue didn’t survive the winter.
Here’s what’s worth pouring, depending on which version of the weekend you’re having.
Why anyone calls it the May two-four
Two coincidences stacked on top of each other. Victoria Day marks Queen Victoria’s birthday, 24 May, and the holiday lands on the Monday before it. A case of beer in Canada is also, conveniently, twenty-four. The nickname has been doing double duty for decades and nobody has felt the need to resolve which meaning came first.
It’s also, practically speaking, the start of the season. Cottages open, patios put their furniture out, and the first barbecue of the year happens whether or not it’s warm enough to justify it.
First, the timing
Victoria Day is a statutory holiday in Ontario, and it’s the last thing you want to be discovering at four o’clock on the Monday. A few practicalities:
- Store hours change over the long weekend, and suburban locations reduce them more than downtown ones. The LCBO store locator shows live hours per branch.
- Everything selling alcohol in Ontario stops at 11 p.m., holiday or not — that ceiling is set province-wide by the AGCO.
- The Friday afternoon rush is genuinely bad. Anyone driving north is buying at the same time you are.
Buy on the Thursday if you can. It’s the single easiest thing to get right about the whole weekend.
If you’re going north
Cottage drinking has its own logic: it has to survive a car journey, work in a cooler, and not require equipment nobody packed.
- Cans over bottles, always. No corkscrew, no broken glass on a dock, and they chill faster.
- Ready-to-drink cans earn their place here more than anywhere else. No mixing, no measuring, no bar kit.
- One bottle of spirits, not four. A bottle of vodka plus whatever mixers fit in the cooler covers more ground than a selection you’ll carry back untouched.
- Twice the water you planned. Sun, heat and a long drive do more than the drinking does.
If you’re hosting the first barbecue
The May barbecue has a particular problem: it’s warm at four o’clock and cold by nine. Stock for both halves.
Early: cold, light, low effort. Lager, cider, a crisp white, or a large jug of something you built in advance. A pitcher means you’re not making individual drinks while trying to cook.
Later: once the sun goes and everyone’s found a jumper, people move to whisky, darker rum, or red wine. Having one good bottle for that shift is worth more than another case of beer nobody’s opening.
A jug worth making
Scaled for six, adjust freely:
- 1 bottle dry white wine or rosé
- 250 mL gin
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 2 tbsp sugar, dissolved in a splash of hot water first
- Sliced cucumber, strawberries, whatever’s in the fridge
- Top with soda just before serving, not before
Make it in the morning, leave it in the fridge, add the soda when people arrive. The fruit does most of the work if you give it a few hours.
Two more that scale
The cooler that isn’t a cooler. A bottle of vodka, a litre of soda water, a tin of frozen lemonade concentrate and a bag of ice, mixed in whatever large vessel you own. It costs a fraction of buying the same volume in cans and it disappears faster than anything else you’ll put out.
Cold-brew and rum. For the people who want to still be awake at eleven. Two parts cold brew coffee, one part dark rum, over plenty of ice, splash of milk if you like. Genuinely good, and it costs nothing to offer alongside everything else.
A packing list, if you’re travelling
- Bottle opener and corkscrew. The two items every cottage claims to have and doesn’t.
- A cooler bag that actually seals. Four hours on the 400 in May sun is longer than it sounds.
- Cans, not glass. Worth repeating — most cottage docks have a rule about it, and they have that rule for a reason.
- Limes, lemons, a bag of ice. The nearest store to a cottage is usually further and pricier than you remember.
- Rubbish bags. Unglamorous, always forgotten.
If you’re staying in the city
Arguably the best version of the weekend. The city is quiet, the patios have space by Saturday afternoon, and nobody spends five hours on the 400.
For a small gathering, one good bottle beats a wide selection. A decent rosé, a chilled light red, or a bottle of blanco tequila for palomas will carry an afternoon without anyone needing to think about it.
Don’t forget
- Ice. Far more than you think, especially the first warm weekend when nobody’s freezer is prepared.
- Something non-alcoholic that isn’t tap water. Someone’s driving home, and on a long weekend that matters more than usual.
- Limes and lemons. The cheapest upgrade to any drink you’ll make all weekend.
- A plan for getting home. If you’re out, leave the car. The TTC runs late, and rideshare covers the GTA.
If you run short
It’s a long weekend, the shops shut at eleven, and the nearest LCBO may be keeping holiday hours. If you’re caught out, a licensed convenience or grocery store can sell you beer, wine, cider or ready-to-drink cans — but not spirits — and a licensed delivery service can bring the full range to the door.
Either way, notice before eleven rather than after.
Have a good one
Buy on the Thursday, favour cans if you’re travelling, stock for the temperature drop if you’re hosting, and get more ice than feels reasonable. The rest sorts itself out.
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