Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Rob Sanchez
Rob Sanchez is the kind of person who notices things. The blends and highlights of a well-painted miniature. The moment a skill toy stops being a trick and becomes a conversation with physics. He's spent a lifetime moving through music, sci-fi, comics, cannabis, BBQ and tabletop gaming with the same quiet conviction: that craft deserves witnesses, and that knowing what you love makes every choice a little sharper. That instinct became Connoisseurship Roadshow — a place to slow down and look closely at the people who make things worth looking at. A Certified Ganjier, BBQ Judge, Agile Coach, Dad, Miniature Gamer and Relentless Reader, Rob also hosts the Apt 113 podcast and writes for Fat Nugs Magazine and Beard Bros Media.
■ 12 Articles by Rob Sanchez
Library Bar: A Book and Toast
A hidden book-lined room off the Fairmont Royal York lobby, once the hotel's reading room and now one of North America's 50 Best Bars. The menu is organized by literary chapter rather than base spirit.
A Closer Look at Koko's Cookies
Earthy gas, Chem lineage and a session tied directly to place made Koko's Cookies one of those cultivars inseparable from the memory of where we smoked it.
The Porch at Casa del Humidor
A barely-spotted sign and a last-minute U-turn led us to Casa del Humidor, one of the finest cigar sessions of the trip, smoked under a covered porch while the rain pounded everything around us.
Wine, Rain, and Muskoka
By the time we pulled into Muskoka Lakes Farm & Winery the sky had opened up. Inside, warm wood, fogged windows and wines that tasted like the land outside, tart and wild and unmistakably northern.
A Farm-to-Glass Surprise: Quayle's Brewery
One name came up twice from locals in Muskoka, and that kind of repetition always catches our attention. Quayle's Brewery is a farm-to-glass experience inside a four-story musical barn in Oro-Medonte.
Down the Alley: A Night at The Griffin
Near Bracebridge, a basic search for nearby pubs led us down an alley and through a red door into one of the best unplanned evenings of the entire trip.
Hallways of Contrast: A Day Inside the AGO
A quick stop at the Art Gallery of Ontario turned into almost two hours of wandering, and we still could have spent another four. Every time we thought we were done, another hallway opened up.
Copperhead Distillery: The North in Every Sip
Less than a day into Canada we were already heading into the forests of northern Ontario looking for whiskey. Copperhead Distillery in the Almaguin Highlands delivered everything the drive promised.
Hidden Histories and Towering Views: Inside Toronto's Iconic Fairmont Royal York
Coming from Las Vegas, I thought I had seen luxury. The Fairmont Royal York showed me something different, less spectacle and more substance, behind a century of hidden rooms and royal suites.
Where There's Smoke, There's Flavor: A Stop at The Smokin' Birds BBQ
Two classically trained fine-dining chefs drove north to Muskoka and built a BBQ operation that passes every test, including the Kansas City Barbeque Society's.
Subtext Coffee Roasters: Pursuit of Clarity
At Subtext Coffee Roasters in the Junction Triangle, founder Alex Castellani is treating coffee the way serious winemakers treat grapes, as agriculture first and everything else second.
Behind the Unmarked Door: The Story of Correnti Cigars
Hidden above Spadina Avenue, Frank Correnti Cigars is Canada's last handmade cigar factory, still rolling the same way it always has.