Meet the Blue Jays bar in remote Canada

There are no roads in and out.

Only planes can get you there, and of course, boats. But that’s only if Frobisher Bay isnâ€t frozen over (which it is for about nine months of the year).

Canadaâ€s northernmost city is closer to Greenland, nearer to the North Pole, than it is to Toronto.

“It feels like weâ€re on the moon,†Valerie Hill, general manager of The Storehouse Bar and Grill, told me in a call.

Although the residents of Iqaluit have spotty cell service, a climate thatâ€s more fit for polar bears and almost total darkness for much of the winter — they do, during these late, exceedingly exciting October nights, have their pennant-winning Blue Jays.

And during the teamâ€s greatest playoff run in 32 years, they mostly gather to watch in the warmth of The Storehouse Bar and Grill — one of the few watering holes in the zero-stoplight town.

In fact, more than two percent of the cityâ€s population can be found there.

“Our bar holds 215 people, and for the playoffs our crowds varied from 120-180 people for the games,†Hill said. “Itâ€s a huge number when you consider our communityâ€s population is only around 8,000 people.â€

For the majority of the year, Iqaluit – the capital and only city in Canadaâ€s Nunavut Territory – is a place where indigenous communities in the north come to visit. They travel down south for vacation, to eat at a restaurant or to, well, see people. And thereâ€s a good chance theyâ€ll pass through and get a drink at The Storehouse Bar, a 22-year-old pub attached to the local Frobisher Inn.

Hill is Mohawk, but about 75 percent of Iqaluit residents, and pretty much all the communities up north, are Inuit. Most signage, including city stop signs, is in English, French and the native Inuktitut.

“We meet people in our bar every day that hunt polar bears, hunt caribou, eat seals for breakfast, lunch and dinner,†Hill, whoâ€s lived in Iqaluit for two years, told me.

“They are real hunters that survive off the land. Berry-picking in the summer. Everyone has a boat. They go seal-hunting, whale-hunting; narwhals are a big thing up here.â€

Yes, the sea creatures from childrenâ€s books you probably thought didnâ€t actually exist, exist up here.

And these days, the bar thatâ€s usually adorned with musk ox hides is decorated in Blue Jays blue and red.

Customers take their snowmobiles and ATVs over to root on the team that’s playing more than 1,400 miles away. Or they just walk — Iqaluit is just about an hour across on foot. And, don’t worry, pedestrians don’t have to worry too much about running into a polar bear — the apex predators usually don’t wander into the city and roam a bit more up in the wilderness with the rest of the larger land mammals.

“The only thing that really survives on the land here are the people,” Hill laughed.

The 2025 postseason has been fun times for Hill, who grew up a huge baseball fan outside of Toronto.

“I was born in Buffalo, but as a child moved to Fort Erie, Ontario,†she said. “The Blue Jays have been the only team that my family has rooted for. My dad trained me as a baseball player — sometimes I couldnâ€t even eat dinner without throwing 50 strikes.

“I won some competitions when I was younger and one of the grand prizes was to go to the Skydome. And this was right after they won their first World Series. I remember going with my dad, holding his hand, and being in shock and awe of everything. Being on the field, meeting Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar. These are core memories that I still share to this day.”

Hill says people would show up during the regular season this year to watch games when the Jays were on a good run, but since the postseason, things have really picked up.

“We have them up on the big screen,†Hill told me. “All eyes on them, all the time.â€

Bartender Cory Allen, another big Jays fan originally from Toronto, has been in Nunavut for 10 years. He lived and taught among the indigenous communities up closer to the Arctic Circle for five years and moved down to the “big†city of Iqaluit in 2020.

“Being from Toronto, Iâ€ve never been in such a small yet diverse population like this city,†Allen said. “The experiences, the people you meet. In our bar, you can have people from every single province — cheering on or just hanging out. If you donâ€t really know anyone, and you just go to Storehouse and sit at the bar, someoneâ€s gonna just start chatting to you and youâ€ll make a friend.â€

Allen was a little too young to really remember the Jays†championships in 1992 and ‘93, so heâ€s excited to watch them try to win this one against the Dodgers. Heâ€s been on edge at times during their run, balancing paying attention to the screen while doing his job.

“I can tell you, during that last game, the waves are getting larger and larger of people coming to watch,†he said. “And when weâ€re all watching that ALCS game, I felt time freeze bartending. I was like, ‘I have a lineup of people wanting this Blue Jays Game 7 drink,†and Iâ€m like, ‘Hold on, this is the top of the ninth, we gotta hold on here.â€â€

The two mention a superfan customer named Jeff who always shows up, and was “willing to miss Thanksgiving with his family to go to the game.” But they also say there are numerous others who root hard for Toronto each night.

Patrons drink Molson Dry, a beer from a local brewery called NuBrew (yes, even a town of 8,000 has to have a brewery) and Jays-themed cocktails like the “Game 7.”

“It is super cool that we can provide a safe space for all these people to come together for one goal, and that’s to cheer on the Jays,” Hill told me. “It’s actually really beautiful.”

As the ALCS has moved to the World Series, and the Jays have moved along with it, the crowds have become larger at the Storehouse.

During the short “summer” months, people might go clam-digging, spend more time hunting and fishing or live in cabins up north. But in the fall, especially this fall, it’s all baseball.

“Everyone has great positive vibes,” Allen said. “Hugging each other, shaking hands, cheers-ing.”

Game 1 of the World Series was “standing-room only” at the Storehouse. What started as a close game became a surprising 11-4 blowout win for the Blue Jays over the favored Dodgers. A tremendous start to the Fall Classic if you’re a Toronto fan.

“First ever World Series grand slam,” Hill messaged me during the game. “It was incredible. Everybody in sync with cheers. It was everything we could have hoped for.”

“The dynamic is, I don’t know want to say magical, but it is so endearing,” Allen said. “It’s heartwarming. When you come here, you feel like you’re in someone’s living room.”

No matter what happens the rest of the series, the Blue Jays’ Iqaluit stronghold will remain. And probably only grow.

“Still hopeful,” Hill told me. “The more games the better. … The intensity is building every day.”

Up where trees can’t survive, where arctic foxes run through the streets, where the skies are pitch black and maps run out of space — the glow of the TV will be burning bright at the Storehouse Bar and Grill. Tuned in to the country’s home team.

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