We do not tend to equate tattoos with comfort. Irritation, yes. And a little pain too. Yet for so many folks, getting tattooed is a deliberate – and tangible – act of transformation. Memorialization. Healing. And, ultimately, comfort.
And tattoo artists? These individuals are highly exalted – esteemed as much for their counsel as for their creativity. We managed to catch up with three of our region’s prolific tattoo artists at work – to memorialize those who work in memorialization.
MANY OF US SPEND NEARLY AS MUCH TIME AT WORK AS WE DO IN OUR OWN HOMES. DEPRESSING? MAYBE. BUT CERTAINLY NOT FOR THOSE FOLKS WHOSE WORKPLACES ARE BASTIONS OF COZINESS AND SERENITY. WE MANAGED TO STEAL A FEW IMAGES OF EMPLOYEES IN THEIR NATURAL HABITATS. ENJOY THE VIEW. JUST TRY NOT TO GET TOO JEALOUS.
There are few things more heartening than sliding into a fantastic breakfast. Whether breaking fast on your own with a good read or with friends or family, that slice of heaven before lunch is the equivalent of comfort on a plate. These past few months we’ve scoured the region for a few splendid breakfast destinations – filling our tummies along the way. Here’s some evidence of our culinary journeys. Eat your heart out.
‘You want to know the mark of a great city?,’ I ask TOQUE Partner Cai Sepulis as we’re led to our table. ‘A fantastic taco place.’ And while we haven’t been seated yet – let alone perused a menu – I am already anticipating that this could very well be that place. The Mule. On King William. And Hamilton, by extension, must be that great city.
for basketball season. He showed them to me at practice. White with grey and baby blue highlights. To celebrate Jordan’s collegiate career at North Carolina. I saw my second pair of Jordans that same day.
This story begins three decades ago, when Melanie McLennan and her husband Andy decided to buy a modest home in Guelph – one with rental income potential. What they ended up purchasing was far from modest, and instead sent them on a three-decade adventure that positively impacted the lives of thousands of folks from around the world.
Kennedy Park is a small boutique in the heart of downtown Guelph specializing in women’s clothing, jewellery, accessories, handbags, organic skincare and homeware. TOQUE sat down with Kennedy Park Partners Devon and Sara to discuss their work, fashion and more. Here’s what they had to say:
‘Sorry I’m late, guys,’ Chef Nick Benninger declares as he hustles towards our table. ‘Stuck in meetings.’ It’s no wonder. After all, Nick does run four restaurants. All along the strip in Uptown Waterloo. There’s Harmony Lunch. Marbles. Taco Farm. And the place that started it all – Nick & Nat’s. Nick takes a seat and unloads a stack of books he’s carrying. Onto the table, in front of Taylor and me. Taylor Jackson. Wedding photographer. Cinematographer. Entrepreneur extraordinaire who knows his hustle inside and out. Just like Nick.
Soup. It’s a most charitable food. Think about it. Soup can complete any main dish if you’re stumped for ideas, or time. Soup can even step in as the main dish – so long as you’ve got a good hunk of bread to play side fiddle. It takes care of leftovers – just throw those remains in a pot and make some. (Soup makes for great leftovers too.) Soup serves as a source of consolation and support – which is why we take some to neighbours or friends in times of need. And one batch feeds many – after all, who ever heard of someone making enough to fill just one bowl?
For me, at least, this story begins two decades ago when, as a precocious nineteen-year-old, I began my second era as a regular patron of Uptown Waterloo’s storied Jane Bond Café. (My first era came to an abrupt end when the Jane Bond first acquired its liquor license and, as a result, under-agers like my friends and me had to find another hangout for steeped tea, fruit shakes, and maudlin soundtracks of our lives.) The Jane Bond was like home to us.
‘This whole process has felt like a barnraising of sorts,’ notes Kristine Mathers as I reach eagerly for a second smoked eel open-face sandwich. ‘Except instead of erecting a barn, we’ve been busy resurrecting a Danish restaurant.’ I take a bite and nod. To acknowledge Kristine. And to affirm the food too: a lovingly – and lavishly – prepared spread that her older brother Jacob has put together for us.
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.
