Ontario's artisanal cheese scene is flourishing. From Oxford County to Prince Edward County, the cheesemakers of our province are transforming local milk into wheels, wedges, and logs that are as inventive as they are delicious. Nutty Goudas. Caramelly Leicesters. Creamy Bries. Squeaky curds. And oh, so many more.
Some summers are measured in months. Ours are measured in festivals. Meadows (Fergus) in June. Hillside (Guelph) in July. Riverfest (Elora) in August. And, nestled perfectly between Hillside and Riverfest, the Fergus Scottish Festival & Highland Games – a weekend that feels a lot like Scotland, without the cost of cross-Atlantic travel.
We've been tight with the crew at Elora Brewing Co since the doors of this regional gem first swung open just over a decade ago. In fact, more than a few early issues of TOQUE were dreamt up over pints of 'Elora Borealis' at the far end of the brewery's long wooden bar. A lot has changed since then – at the brewery and at TOQUE – so we figured it was time to reconnect with old friends.
‘I feel as though the weight of the world has just been lifted from my shoulders,’ I say to Liz with a chuckle, dropping my well-traveled Filson luggage onto the cool, poured concrete floor. I exhale, take a slow look around, and then step fully into the spacious, design-forward oasis. It’s the peacefulness of the space that hits me first: it’s utterly serene, as though the entire suite has been acoustically tuned to quiet my thoughts.
I tend to think of hotel lobby bars as exotic sanctuaries: places where shrewd deals are made, great novels are written, stolen glances are met, and fashionable strangers – international jet-setters fresh off flights from distant ports of call – might be seen quietly sipping stiff drinks in dimly-lit corners.
‘I had no idea all this was back here,’ my TOQUE Partner (and partner-in-crime) Chris Tiessen remarks in amazement as we make our way down the quaint garden path, round the side of the sweet century-old building, and catch our first glimpse of the restaurant’s impressive two-tiered backyard patio and expansive rear lawns.
‘This sure beats our regular morning ‘zoom’ meetings, eh?,’ I grunt to my TOQUE Partner, Cai Sepulis, as we cycle up the rail trail just past Ariss. She nods in agreement and then, with a determined smile on her face, drops the hammer to catch up with her wife, Sonia, and my fiancée, Liz, who are biking together about fifty yards ahead.
REALLY – WHEN IS IT NOT THE PERFECT TIME FOR A GREAT COFFEE? A COUPLE MONTHS BACK, TOQUE CORRESPONDENT CURTIS GRIMBA TOOK TO OUR REGION’S MAIN STREETS AND BACK ROADS TO VISIT THREE OF HIS FAVOURITE LOCAL COFFEE HAUNTS.
While this pandemic continues to rage and the days keep getting hotter, more folks are looking to take a load off with a backyard brew or two. If you want to skip the long lines at the LCBO and support local business at the same time, grab your cold ones from any of our incredible regional craft breweries. Most bottle shops are open (some even have designated curb-side pick-up and / or designated take-out windows) and many offer online ordering with free local delivery.
‘On a good day before the pandemic,’ Chef Nick Benninger remarks, as he and I meander somberly through a labyrinth of empty dining rooms and event spaces that compriseSt Jacobs’ legendary Stone Crock culinary complex, ‘we’d easily see upwards of five hundred people coming through here – chatting and laughing and breaking bread together.’
‘I can’t believe you’re sitting with your back to the dining room,’ Liz remarks with incredulity once the hostess has left us to our devices at a four-seater in a manifestly desirable corner of this lavish space. Liz knows me well; that is, as someone who usually delights in the pastime of people-watching whenever we go out to eat – my back always to the wall.
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.
