Start with weekend brunch at Canadian farm-to-table fare at The Farmhouse Tavern. You can push that frontier even further, as you explore the up-and-coming Junction Triangle area to the east. With its cool cafés and vinyl stores, brewpubs, breweries and cocktail lounges, health food markets and vintage and salvage emporiums, and the constantly evolving slew of chic eateries, it’s no wonder that The Junction attracts lifestyle-conscious LGBTQ locals and that it’s beginning to hover on the radar of similarly minded visitors looking to explore Toronto’s gay scene. Nearby Trinity Bellwoods Park is the place for summer picnics, fall walks and if you’re lucky, white squirrel sightings!īest LGBTQ area in Toronto for lifestyle-conscious locals Top spots include art hotel, restaurant, café, events space The Gladstone, lesbian-owned bar The Beaver, and Miss Thing’s, a funky Hawaiian-themed cocktail place. There’s always a constellation of intriguing art openings, book launches and dance nights on the calendar on this hip side of town. The bars, cafés, restaurants, galleries and parks of West Queen West, one of Toronto’s coolest neighbourhoods, Dundas West and parts of Bloor West are crammed with artists, asymmetrical haircuts and people who have just hopped off a fixed gear bike. If you like things queer and quirky, all things plaid, with a side of piercings and hipster havens, go west. Home to some of the top lesbian bars in Toronto For a more laidback take on the scene, consider the funky bar/café/bookstore Glad Day Bookshop, healthy café Fuel+, friendly, restaurant and tavern Hair of the Dog or a play at the legendary Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. The big bars in this neighbourhood are the popular Woody’s, and across Church Street, check out Crews and Tangos for a drag show. This is where you’ll encounter the entire spectrum of the LGBTQ population and rainbows galore.
During Toronto Pride, hundreds of thousands of people flock to this area.
The blocks around the Church and Wellesley intersection pulse with life, particularly on weekend nights. Long the venerable epicentre of gay life in Toronto, despite encroaching gentrification, The Gay Village remains ground zero for the top gay bars and clubs in Toronto filled with LGBTQ-adored eateries, gay-owned cafés, delis and even pet stores. Toronto’s Best Gay Bars and Neighbourhoods The Villageīest neighbourhood for the centre of the LGBTQ scene in Toronto If you’re not sure which side of Toronto will be your best side, read on and meet your match. While Toronto’s Church-Wellesley Gay Village remains the mainstream LGBTQ centre of the city, Toronto is a place that looks good from all angles and you’ll find very different, entirely intriguing scenes in the west and east. Toronto was the first North American city to legalize same-sex marriage back in 2003, and the diversity that our largest city represents stretches across the aisle. It’s one of the best cities for gay bars and clubs, lesbian hang-outs, queer haunts, quirky neighbourhoods and for local LGBTQ life. Canada’s largest city is an enticing LGBTQ destination.