The plight of queer bars in Toronto during COVID-19
The plight of queer bars in Toronto during COVID-19
With so few queer spaces left in the city, these bars have been forced to close after facing astronomical rent and growing debt By Julia Mastroianni
Michael Nedelko
Former The Beaver employee, satanic sex clown Pickles Lavey, photographed within the bar after it officially closed.
When the pandemic hit in March, Adam Cowan, co-manager of Toronto queer bar The Beaver, says the decision to shut down was pretty inevitable and immediate.
“It was already a labour of love more than something profitable and we knew it would turn into a money pit at that point,” he says.
NOW Magazine
99 Toronto restaurants and bars we lost in 2020
From neighbourhood favourites to trendy upstarts and big franchises, a variety of eateries closed this year By Kelsey Adams and Natalia Manzocco
Dec 22, 2020
It was difficult to keep up with the closures in our weekly roundups, but there were also a healthy number of openings. Of course, the restaurants that did open weren’t greeted by the most favourable dining landscape.
Despite stopgap measures like government relief and new takeout and delivery offerings, many Toronto restaurants and bars closed their doors for good during the pandemic.
The trend was Canada-wide. On December 16, Restaurants Canada said that since March 2020, 10,000 restaurants have closed across Canada. In Ontario alone, the sector has lost 19 per cent of jobs and 25 per cent in revenue since February, the industry group said.