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.
Regular readers know we've been unapologetic Willibald groupies since day one – following the arc of this inspired operation from its humble beginnings when, nearly a decade ago, brothers Jordan and Nolan van der Heyden, alongside childhood friend Cam Formica, launched a small-batch distillery on a bucolic farm on the outskirts of Ayr.
Downtown Kitchener doesn't trade on postcard charm. It asks a little more of you: an extra glance, a second pass, the willingness to step through a door you might otherwise overlook.
The best diners aren't just restaurants. They're home to conversation over bottomless mugs. Purveyers of shared plates of breakfast sausage or toast. Places where spontaneous fits of laughter spill from sun-drenched booths. Ceremonial spaces where lingering mornings stretch into lazy afternoons.
One of the first things I did after moving to Guelph more than two decades ago was buy a Wellington Brewery tee – brown, long-sleeved, with the iconic Welly Boot logo printed on the front. It felt like a badge of belonging, a way to wear the Royal City on my chest.
Over the years the TOQUE team has indulged in more than a few of London's irresistible self-guided culinary trails – from a dumpling adventure (TOQUE 20) to a scratch bakery and patisserie odyssey (TOQUE 23) to a beer-and-spirits pilgrimage (TOQUE 21).
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.
While Stratford may be famed for its Shakespearean productions, the city's appeal goes well beyond the stage. Candlelit dinners, artisan shops, festive trails, and riverside picnics make the perfect companions to a theatrical performance.
These days a great coffee shop doesn't depend on beans alone. Atmosphere, aesthetics, and a certain ineffable charm matter just as much as a flawless flat white. Across Morriston, Guelph, and Kitchener-Waterloo, a trio of newcomers is proving the point with spaces that feel as thoughtfully devised as the coffee itself: moody, atmospheric, and confidently unique.
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.
