After establishing itself as a unique wellness destination on King Street West, Touch Massage Bar has officially opened its second location in Midtown Toronto. The expansion represents not just a new outpost for the brand but a strategic evolution following its clientele and responding to changing neighborhood dynamics in the city.
For founder Saira Lakhani, the journey to creating Touch Massage Bar was deeply personal. “Growing up, both my aunts had salons and spas,” Lakhani shares. “My favourite thing on weekends was sleeping over and going to work with them at the front desk. I just loved how people would come in feeling good, but they would really always leave feeling amazing.”
While this early exposure planted the seed, it was Lakhani’s travels throughout Southeast Asia, particularly Bali, that crystallized the concept. During frequent visits to her brother who had moved to Hong Kong, Lakhani fell in love with the accessibility of foot massages in Bali.
“We would shop all day and then go for a foot massage at night,” she recalls. “I could go with my brother, we could get a foot massage together, catch up on the day, and chat. It was this experience we could have together that wasn’t super intimate like a couples massage.”
Returning to Toronto, Lakhani identified a significant gap in the market. “There are places you could go for a foot massage, but they’re not necessarily places you want to chill and hang out after. On the other spectrum, there are high-end massages where you can’t go all the time due to financial or time constraints.”
Finding the right location proved challenging, taking nearly two and a half years before securing their King Street West space. “King West was my dream location,” Lakhani explains, noting how the area was evolving beyond just nightlife into a wellness destination, particularly after SoulCycle opened in 2017.
After signing a lease and finally opening in late February 2020, Touch Massage Bar faced an immediate existential challenge: “Two weeks later, we had to close due to COVID. We were a massage business treating people called Touch, so that was definitely a really tough, challenging time,” Lakhani says.
Fortunately, they were able to reopen three months later since their therapists are registered massage therapists (RMTs) considered regulated health professionals. Despite the setbacks, the brand managed to build a loyal following, achieving an impressive 60% return rate – well above industry standards for spas.
The decision to expand to Midtown came from observing their evolving client base. “Our clientele is growing up and moving to these areas, growing their families and moving north,” says Lakhani. “We had a lot of clientele who were very loyal to our therapists and loved coming to our location because we’re so different, and they were demanding that we open in a different area.”
While Touch explored several neighborhoods including Beaches, Leslieville, Summerhill, and Rosedale, Midtown emerged as the ideal location. Learning that Impact Kitchen was opening in the area solidified the decision.
“As soon as we heard Impact Kitchen was going there, we knew that’s our customer,” Lakhani explains. “We also realized there’s a lack of massage therapy offerings in terms of what we offer, which is between a clinic and a high-end spa.”
The Midtown location maintains Touch’s brand identity while introducing new design elements inspired by Lakhani’s more recent travels. “As my travel changed from going to Southeast Asia to having my honeymoon in Italy, that sparked the idea of the design elements feeling like you’re in the Mediterranean,” she explains.
Lakhani worked with designer Elisa, founder of Maman Café (with locations in New York, Miami, and Toronto), to bring her vision to life. “She is such a visionary and is just so creative, able to really take the ideas of how I feel and what I want the feeling to be and implement it.”
The new location incorporates more natural elements, with Lakhani describing it as having “a Mediterranean vibe, but we’ve incorporated a lot more natural woods and beautiful stone. We have a sink that we shipped from Turkey and lights from overseas.”
While maintaining the same menu and pricing as the King West location, Touch has adjusted its space to reflect different neighborhood preferences. “In King West, we have our social room which can seat up to seven or eight people. We do parties with charcuterie boards, birthday parties, and bridal parties,” Lakhani notes.
For Midtown, they’ve included “a smaller version of that experience, but have more full-body rooms for couples massages, which we see as being a more popular treatment in that area.”
The space itself offers a different atmosphere as well. “Over at our first location, we’re in the basement, so we really had to incorporate a lot more design elements to make it feel warm and inviting. Here, we’re working with a lot of light and windows, which is very different for a massage place. It’s very light and airy.”
Touch Massage Bar sees itself as part of a growing wellness hub in Midtown. “We’re very big on growing through word of mouth,” says Lakhani. “Being in that little wellness hub that’s now coming is perfect.”
The brand anticipates collaborating with neighboring businesses like Impact Kitchen, Nutbar, and new fitness studios opening in the area. “We’re very excited for our community in this area to really give them an offering where everything is just so easy and seamless for our clientele to hop through all their businesses and have an amazing wellness-focused day to take care of themselves.”
As for future expansion, Lakhani initially envisioned taking Touch to other major Canadian cities before exploring further Toronto locations. “When I opened Touch, it was such a wellness destination and such a unique place that I couldn’t really see us opening another location in Toronto. For me, it was like we’re going to open in Vancouver and Montreal because we are such a destination,” she explains.
However, the strong community response and neighborhood-specific opportunities in Toronto have shifted her perspective. “We soon realized that we were able to create such a beautiful community, and for what we offer, it’s so different. There are still so many gaps in different neighborhoods, specifically in Toronto.”
For now, Lakhani is focused on establishing the Midtown location and testing some new concepts before considering a third location. “We’re going to dream and see where our clientele takes us,” she says.
As Touch Massage Bar celebrates its fifth anniversary at King West this week while simultaneously launching in Midtown, it represents a growing trend of wellness businesses finding success by balancing accessible luxury with community-focused experiences tailored to specific neighborhood demographics.
Dustin Fuhs is the Editor-in-Chief of 6ix Retail. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of Retail Insider, Canada’s most-read retail trade publication. He has over 20 years of experience in the retail, marketing, entertainment and hospitality industries, including with The Walt Disney Company, The Hockey Hall of Fame, Starbucks and Blockbuster.
Dustin was named as a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert in 2024 and 2025.