Preamble & Photos by Chris Tiessen
You don’t need to board a train to Toronto, or take a flight abroad, if you’re in search of metropolitan flair. Uptown Waterloo has quietly become a neighbourhood with energy, design, and culture that has demonstrated that it can punch above its weight. Two universities and a world-class tech scene have shaped its centre into something unexpectedly urbane.
On a bright Wednesday afternoon in September, my TOQUE partner Cai and I drove up from Guelph to explore. We began with coffees-to-go from Pilot Coffee Roasters, a Toronto institution whose precision elevates every cup. A short walk took us to the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery – internationally acclaimed, free to visit, and housed in a perfect mix of brutalism and airy elegance. (Don’t skip out on the fantastic gift shop.)
Next stop: Lala Social House for lunch – once a private club for tech moguls and hockey pros, now a restaurant and bar radiating Big Apple–meets–White Lotus energy. We closed our daytrip with a stop to pick up new specs at Insight Eye Care, a favourite boutique that features independent eyewear brands curated from around the globe. Their handcrafted frames are like gallery objects – each one a design exercise to wear.
Compact but never provincial, Uptown Waterloo is a metropolis without the gridlock: stylish, worldly, and full of surprises.
2:34PM – Once we arrive Uptown from our home base in Guelph, we make a quick stop at Pilot Coffee Roasters for take-out fuel: an iced americano for Cai and iced latte for me. Drinks in hand, we cut through Waterloo Public Square (home to all sorts of free entertainment) and cross the bridge by the Abraham Erb Grist Mill en route to the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery on the edge of Waterloo Park.
3:08PM – We arrive at the Gallery – all concrete and glass and free to the public – and take in ‘Excellence in Clay: 25 Years of the Winifred Shantz Award’, an exhibit celebrating Canada’s only national prize for emerging ceramic artists. We are especially enthralled by Sami Tsang’s ‘Those Butterflies in my Room’ (2024). We then spend some time bemused by Lauren Nicole Rice’s cheeky ‘JOY+CONNECTION+LOVE’ exhibit, which combines vibrant blown glass forms with handmade recycled leather harnesses in celebration of queer joy. Pro tip: Be sure to hit up the Gallery’s gift shop – a regional emporium of Canadian art.
4:18PM – From the Gallery we wander down Caroline Street to LaLa Social House – a sort of White Lotus-meets-Bay Street establishment: swanky, whimsical, with a hint of theatre. We enjoy drinks at the cozy main floor Mini Bar before heading upstairs for dinner. To start we share the charred heirloom tomato salad (tomato, chorizo, smoked garlic vinaigrette) and Thai red curry (crispy rice, foraged and farmed vegetables, coriander), before giving in to a couple of LaLa’s signature burgers – with smoked bacon, 5 Brothers cheese, shallot jam, arugula, aioli. Cai goes for a Collective Arts IPA; I choose a crisp cider.
5:52PM – We close out our Uptown adventure at Insight Eye Care, our longtime go-to for statement eyewear. Due for a new pair of glasses, I zero in on a pair of Kirk & Kirks. Cai tries on a few pairs of Blake Kuwahara’s sculptural frames. Insight carries over a dozen independent eyewear brands from around the globe, so there’s always much to choose from (or fantasize about). Pro tip: when you’re visiting (for eyewear or exams), be sure to check out the Trish Abe mural that sprawls across the boutique’s back wall.
