FOR MANY OF US, HEADING OUT ON A WEEKEND EXCURSION SO OFTEN MEANS ONE OF TWO THINGS: EITHER ESCAPING TO THE WILDS OF COTTAGE COUNTRY OR DIVING HEADLONG INTO THE HUSTLE AND BUSTLE OF CITIES MUCH LARGER THAN OUR OWN. EITHER OF THESE OPTIONS MIGHT PROMISE GREAT TIMES, TO BE SURE. BUT THERE ARE OTHER POSSIBILITIES.
Over back-to-back evenings in late June, the TOQUE team wandered into downtown Kitchener – to check out the sights, sounds and excitement of the city core. What we discovered is a city teeming with a unique energy and creative vibe.
‘Ok. I definitely need to come back with Chris and the camera,’ I tell my wife Sonia thirty seconds into our first visit. What is this place? Butcher-meets-pantry-meets-bakery-meets- burger joint – all within the size of a small corner store.
The pinecone’s small. Not much more than a bud, really. I would never have noticed it, had it not been for Chef reaching up into the overhanging conifer branch and picking it from its sprig. ‘This is the flavour of the forest,’ he tells me before pinching the miniature cone between finger and thumb and squeezing its fleshy contents onto the palm of his hand. He pops the pulpy morsel into his mouth, chews, savours the flavour, and declares, reverently: ‘This is Canada.’
‘A sledgehammer. A bag of corn. Two men. And six weeks.’ I turn to Cooper, raise my eyebrows, and fix my gaze upon the two massive copper objects in front of us. And ask (again): ‘So that’s really how they were made?’
‘Why’s everyone watching me?,’ I ask TOQUE Partner Cai – nervously. My fork, loaded with rice and chicken, hovers at my mouth. ‘It’s the hot sauce,’ Cai replies matter-of-factly. ‘They’re waiting to see whether you can take it.’ I look at the folks around us, outside the Big Jerk Caribbean Catering and Bakery food truck, and notice that at least one appears to be in distress. A hot sauce victim, for sure.
Friends. Almost nothing compares. Folks that you can get playful with, feel comfortable around, and do all sorts of adventurous things alongside. Over the past couple of years, TOQUE has managed to form a whole bunch of great friendships. With collaborators. Clients. Competitors. And readers.
It’s a Tuesday in early June. Just before noon. As our small yet mighty crew rolls into the charming hamlet of Milverton, I am ready to take a load off. ‘Not too much longer,’ remarks Taylor, our ride lead, before adding: ‘Our lunch spot’s just ahead.’ Phew.
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.
