Canada

Toronto

Books

Casey MQ

Canada’s largest city, the fourth largest in North America, is consistently ranked one of the best places to live in the world. Spending even a few days here makes it easy to see why. The city’s cultural scene is invested in the arts—including theater, concerts, galleries, and red-carpet film festivals. Toronto takes pride in being the dynamic, creative and safe sum of all its parts.

Toronto-based artist and Club Quarantine founder, Casey MQ, shares his personal guide to Toronto. With a background in classical music together with a love of pop and electronic music, Casey is pushing forward with his own unique sound. Co-founding the virtual queer party ‘Club Quarantine’ during the peak of the pandemic, he has created a vital safe space for the queer community as he hosted the likes of Charli XCX, Lady Gaga, Pabllo Vitta and Caroline Polacheck to name a few. His debut album ‘babycasey’ is his childhood boyband fantasy come to life.

Fresh pressed juices and cold cut bánh mì sandwiches from this local restaurant. A gem in Toronto and the owners are incredibly kind. Plus their instagram is amazing.

A great beach spot to suddenly feel a little removed from Toronto while maintaining a view from the city. There is a clothing optional area as well.

I do not drink coffee but if I did, from what I’ve heard, I would purchase from The Common. I regularly get a tea and croissant from there though. Currently takeout but in the past I have spent a lot of time hanging out in there.

This family run restaurant in Parkdale makes excellent Momos. Lovely place!

TECHNICALLY you could ride your bike from Leslie Spit through to Don Valley Trail but it would be a mission. It’s a beautiful bike ride though and Leslie Spit takes you to an outer point of Toronto where you end up looking right back at the city by the end of the epic trail.

The Lightbox is not open at the moment but I’ve always loved the programming and have gone on solo dates there many times!

This is a lovely fashion store in Toronto. Tightly curated selection of clothing and publications. The store really has it’s own demeanor.

A great place to find preloved books. There are three locations at this point in Toronto but most of my purchases have been at the Bloor location. I basically stand around the recommended reads for a little too long.

Which brings me to the Toronto Reference Library lol. Last year I spent a lot of time at this library on the fourth or fifth floor. The inside is gorgeous. I actually spent a lot of time working on ‘babycasey’ at this library.

I have only been here a few times at night but if you hope the fence which is not a particularly easy task - you can maybe get a few laps of swimming in!

Toronto Reference Library

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