GUELPH: A PLACE TO GATHER
WORDS & PHOTOS BY CHRIS TIESSEN
It’s the last Friday evening in May and, as per usual, Guelph is alive with activity. On top of College Hill, at the University of Guelph’s 8,500-seat Alumni Stadium, the Toronto Argonauts are preparing to battle the Hamilton Ticats in CFL pre-season action. Closer to downtown, outside Double Rainbow Café, the Ward Night Market – featuring local vendors, live music, and treats – is getting underway. Next door to the Market, Standing Room Only – Canada’s smallest bar – is (not surprisingly) already at capacity. A few blocks away, in a shaded green space by the confluence of the Speed and Eramosa Rivers, organizers of the Guelph Potters Market are busy setting up for their fifty-plus potters’ two-day event. All across the downtown core, sidewalk patios – facilitated through the ‘Seasonal Patio Program’ – are full with patrons eager for cold drinks, tasty food, and memorable times.
There’s always lots to see and do in Guelph. And yet there has never been a straightforward way to easily plot out a multi-day itinerary of things to do, spots to eat, and places to stay in the Royal City. Until now. For at the same time that the Argos are in the midst of routing the Ticats 25-14, the TOQUE team of Cai and me are attending a launch event at Spring Mill Distillery (John Sleeman’s stunning foray into the craft spirits world) for a new online portal designed to make doing, eating, and staying in Guelph a breeze.
We are here to celebrate the Royal City’s new rallying brand, ‘Gather In Guelph’, which, as the motto decrees, proclaims that ‘connection is at the centre of community’.
This evening’s Spring Mill launch is a single component of a larger three-day whirlwind press junket that Destination Marketing Guelph (powered by the Chamber of Commerce), in collaboration with local business partners, has organized for out-of-town food writers and lifestyle bloggers. Further components of this promotional junket include a downtown tour led by Lynn Broughton of Taste Detours, visits to Cox Creek Cellars (for wine and cider tastings under a blue sky), the Guelph Farmers’ Market (for local produce, artisanal cheeses, and flash-fried Mennonite donuts), Royal City Brewing Co (for pints of the good stuff), The Boathouse (for ice cream and canoe rentals), and more. Cai and I, veterans of the Guelph scene who have regularly reported on these Royal City attractions, are focused on the Spring Mill event.
Beginning with a warm welcome by Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie (who manages to sneak away just in time to watch his beloved Ticats fall at the hands of the Argos), the evening includes a tour of the distillery by John Sleeman himself, who regales us all with tales of bootlegging escapades related to an early-twentieth century clandestine distillery that was very likely run by his family out of this very building. The night’s lavish four-course dinner – provided by The Seed (a non-profit project of the Guelph Community Health Centre), Chef Pi Reyes (of Pi-vate chef), The Neighbourhood Group (whose restaurants include The Wooly, Miijidaa, Park Eatery, and Borealis Grille), and Megan Ferraro of Cellar Bakery – includes, of course, glorious cocktails concocted by the Spring Mill team.
The real star of the evening, though, is the ‘Gather In Guelph’ online portal – a one-stop shop designed for locals and visitors alike to organize and ignite their next stay in the Royal City. Visit gatheringuelph.com to start planning your adventure.