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.
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.
Stratford has a way of seducing the senses. This small city on the Avon, best known, of course, for the internationally acclaimed celebration of Shakespearean theatre, is no stranger to performance. But the drama here extends well beyond the stage. It’s found in the details that animate Festival City: in the way spaces are curated, food is plated, cocktails composed, and shop windows styled.
Step inside Wills & Prior — a haven for all things home and design in the heart of Stratford — and it’s as if the world exhales. A calm breeziness infuses everything here: the lofty ceilings and pendant lights draped in oversized fabric shades; the reclaimed wood floors and towering windows that flood the two-storey space with natural light; the fresh floral arrangements and subtle signature scent; the staff — stylish, approachable, and genuinely helpful — gliding quietly through the space.
The Stratford food scene has always stood out for us. To be sure, the restaurants of Festival City are among the finest in the region – and beyond. For lunches. Dinners. And probably breakfasts too (although early in the day the TOQUE team is more of a ‘coffee and run’ crew and so, as a result, has little first-hand experience of distinctive morning feeds).
‘The recipe for that dollop of peri-peri alone was years in the making,’ Chef de Cuisine Julian Palmer tells me as I scoop a bit onto my fork and touch it to my tongue. The flavour is electrifying – smoky, spicy, complex. A triumph. Julian continues: ‘Chef [Arron Carley] and I began experimenting with ingredients three years ago – trialing with smoked chilies, white onion, lemons.’ I portion a few dropsof the sauce onto a piece of the succulent duck with which it’s been paired and take a bite.
I’VE HEARD THAT IT WOULD TAKE ABOUT TWO HUNDRED DAYS FOR A VISITOR TO APPRECIATE EACH WORK OF ART ON DISPLAY AT THE LOUVRE IN PARIS. AMAZING. I’M BETTING THAT IT WOULD TAKE AT LEAST AS MANY DAYS TO ENJOY MEALS AT EVERY ONE OF OUR REGION’S FANTASTIC CULINARY DESTINATIONS. HOW WOULD ONE EVEN BEGIN SUCH A MONUMENTAL (AND FLAVOURFUL) EXPLORATION?
‘You’ve gotta see this,’ I exclaim as I poke my head into Cai's room. ‘There’s a vintage punching bag hanging in my room.’ Cai – unloading her Filson overnight bag – looks up. ‘And a fuzzball coffee table,’ I add. I can tell I’ve piqued her interest.
I open my eyes just wide enough to peer through the pitch blackness. There's barely a hint of light emanating through my hotel room window – covered by the curtain I’d swept across it before hopping into bed. I strain to scan the room. Slowly. With focused intention. Then I spot it, on what I take to be the bedside table. The vague outline of a tin foil package subtly illumined by a glint of light.
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.’
‘The story of my business is the story of coffee,’ notes Founder and President of Balzac’s Coffee Roasters, Diana Olsen. We are sitting at a two-seater inside her Guelph location. It’s a favourite destination of mine: located at the foot of downtown Guelph just across from the farmers’ market to the east and Guelph’s landmark basilica, the Church of Our Lady, to the north.
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.
