Cai Sepulis is co-owner of TOQUE Magazine, where she has spent over a decade creating illustrations, design, and stories celebrating food, culture, and community across Ontario.
Travel tends to sharpen taste. It introduces new ideas, uncovers unforeseen obsessions, and offers the occasional epiphany – nudging your sense of beauty and your grasp of craftsmanship in new directions. For Ryan LeClair, founder of Makoto Watch Company out of London, Ontario, it was travel – and specifically a trip to Japan – that transformed his infatuation with watch collecting into his initiation of a brand built on craft, restraint, and everyday practicality.
Almost nothing we carry defines us more clearly than the books in our bags: tactile objects filled with ideas and stories – testimonies to time well spent. They tag along with us, mark our days, and shape the rhythm of how we move through the world. In Uptown Waterloo, three long-standing independent bookstores – Carry-On Comics & Books (46 years young), Words Worth Books (42 years), and Old Goat Books (25 years) – offer distinct ways to build this bracket of everyday carry: a nostalgia-driven comic haven built for the thrill of discovery, a curated literary hub grounded in conversation, and a densely-packed used bookstore where the search is part of the reward. Together, these enduring fixtures map a reading life – charting not just what we read, but how we come to find it.
In my line of work – as writer, photographer, editor, regional explorer – EDC isn't a trend. It's infrastructure. Most days I'm in motion: tracing backroads toward a brewhouse, mapping my way to an artist's studio, or sliding into the corner of a coffee shop where I turn field notes into final copy and RAW files into photographs that will pop on paper. My office is wherever I set my bag down. My tools make it possible.
'OUR SLOGAN IS SIT-SIP-SHOP,' DEJANA POGRMILIOVIC TELLS ME WHEN WE SIT DOWN TO CHAT ABOUT MARKET CO, HER UNIQUE CAFÉ/BOUTIQUE IN IN GUELPH’S MARKET SQUARE THAT FEATURES A BIT OF EVERYTHING FROM DRINKS, FOODAND COFFEE TO JEWELLERY, CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR.
CHESTNUT PARK WEST WAS LAUNCHED IN SPRING 2018 WITH A CORE OF SIX HIGHLY EXPERIENCED REALTORS. SINCE THEN THE BROKERAGE HAS GROWN TO A TEAM OF OVER THIRTY BROKERS, REALTORS AND STAFF, WITH LOCATIONS IN UPTOWN WATERLOO AND DOWNTOWN GUELPH. RECENTLY, I SAT DOWNWITH THEIR BROKER OF RECORD, LEE QUAILE, TO CHAT ABOUT THE CURRENT REAL ESTATE MARKET AND WHAT WE MIGHT EXPECT GOING FORWARD. WITH OVER THIRTEEN YEARS EXPERIENCEIN KITCHENER-WATERLOO, LEE IS AN UNDENIABLY RELIABLE SOURCE.
ONE COULD SAY THAT DARRYL WATTY EMBODIES THE PRIME CHARACTERISTICS OF A SUCCESSFUL REAL ESTATE AGENT. ATTITUDE. DILIGENCE. AND THE RIGHT TYPE OF HUSTLE. HE BELIEVES THAT HIS MISSION IS TO EMPOWER HIS CLIENTS WITH THE INFORMATION THEY NEED TO MAKE SMART JUDGEMENTS AND SHREWD CHOICES ABOUT HOMES, REAL ESTATE, AND HOME IMPROVEMENT – BECAUSE ANY PURCHASE IN THIS REALM IS A LIFESTYLE DECISION.
‘This popcorn chicken is awesome,’ my TOQUE Partner Chris exclaims before popping another one into his mouth. ‘And the fish and chips are fantastic, too.’ I look over at Chris and note that he’s managed to squirrel most of the dishes close to his side of the table. I let it slide. At least I’ve still got the Thai noodle bowl in front of me. Along with a tall can of Wellington’s ‘Kickin’ Back’ IPA.
IF YOU’VE NEVER TAKEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO VISIT DANA SHORTT GOURMET AND GIFTS ON BRIDGEPORT IN WATERLOO, IT’S HIGH TIME YOU MAKE THE TRIP. FROM READY-MADE AND PACKAGED MEALS (INCLUDING ‘NEW PARENTS RESCUE’ AND ‘THINKING OF YOU’ MEAL PACKAGES) TO CONFECTIONARIES AND GROCERIES (‘AGED CHEDDAR + CAYENNE SHORTBREAD’ AND ‘BLACK MISSION FIG BALSAMIC VINEGAR’, ANYONE?) TO GIFTS (‘THE PAIN RELIEVER’ AND ‘LITTLE SPROUT’ GIFT BASKETS ARE ALWAYS A HIT), DANA SHORTT HAS MUCH TO OFFER – NOT TO MENTION A WEBSITE THAT’S FILLED WITH FANTASTIC RECIPES, INCLUDING DIRECTIONS FOR ‘WILD MUSHROOM RISOTTO’, ‘TOFU WITH LEEKS AND PEANUT SAUCE’, ‘BANANA CREAM PIE’, AND MORE.
‘Don’t forget the Nutella,’ Sonia remarks when she sees me jotting our grocery list into my trusty Field Notes. She doesn’t mean just any Nutella though, but the good stuff — the one made in Italy, much thicker and nuttier compared to the American-made version. There aren’t many places around these parts that carry it. Vincenzo’s in Waterloo is one of them, and I’m happy for any excuse to pick up another jar – and to visit this most amazing Uptown grocer.
Travel tends to sharpen taste. It introduces new ideas, uncovers unforeseen obsessions, and offers the occasional epiphany – nudging your sense of beauty and your grasp of craftsmanship in new directions. For Ryan LeClair, founder of Makoto Watch Company out of London, Ontario, it was travel – and specifically a trip to Japan – that transformed his infatuation with watch collecting into his initiation of a brand built on craft, restraint, and everyday practicality.
Almost nothing we carry defines us more clearly than the books in our bags: tactile objects filled with ideas and stories – testimonies to time well spent. They tag along with us, mark our days, and shape the rhythm of how we move through the world. In Uptown Waterloo, three long-standing independent bookstores – Carry-On Comics & Books (46 years young), Words Worth Books (42 years), and Old Goat Books (25 years) – offer distinct ways to build this bracket of everyday carry: a nostalgia-driven comic haven built for the thrill of discovery, a curated literary hub grounded in conversation, and a densely-packed used bookstore where the search is part of the reward. Together, these enduring fixtures map a reading life – charting not just what we read, but how we come to find it.
In my line of work – as writer, photographer, editor, regional explorer – EDC isn't a trend. It's infrastructure. Most days I'm in motion: tracing backroads toward a brewhouse, mapping my way to an artist's studio, or sliding into the corner of a coffee shop where I turn field notes into final copy and RAW files into photographs that will pop on paper. My office is wherever I set my bag down. My tools make it possible.
Stratford – and, by extension, Perth County – lends itself to takeaway. A coffee to carry, a sandwich in hand, something sweet tucked alongside – then out into the streets for window shopping, into the theatres for a performance, or down to the riverbank for a nosh.
