After years of rumours it would be forced out by a condo development, an iconic Toronto drag bar is setting the record straight.
Crews & Tangos, a staple of the city’s Gay Village for more than 30 years, says it isn’t closing any time soon.
Troy Allan, a co-owner of the bar since last fall, told CBC Toronto he’s committed to keeping a meaningful and safe queer space alive for the community.
“We are not closing until I receive notice that we’re closing,” he said. “These doors will stay open as long as we can keep them open.”
Despite its status as one of the oldest drag bars in the city, Crew & Tangos hasn’t been able to shake rumours that it’s closing for a condo development any day now.
New renovations include new lights, a fresh coat of paint and a new point-of-sale system, meaning Crews & Tangos now accepts card payments for the first time in its history. (Tyler Cheese/CBC)
That’s in part because that was the plan at one point.
Graywood Developments owns the building that houses the bar and originally planned a 14-storey redevelopment for the site, promising to restore Crews & Tangos as part of the project.
The city approved that plan in 2022, but Graywood later came back with a proposal for a 48-storey mixed use building instead. That updated plan was met with pushback from the local community and ultimately scrapped.
More recently, Graywood has struck a deal with the bar’s new owners to keep them open at least until the current lease agreement is up in 2029.
The developer is happy to continue working with the new owners, said spokesperson Stefano Toniutti in a statement to CBC Toronto.
“Development plans for this site are still under consideration, and we don’t see any impact to the operation of this space for the foreseeable future,” Toniutti said.
That’s fortunate for Allan and the other owners, who have spent the last few months updating and refreshing the space.
“It took a lot of money to get it to where it is now,” he said. “We had to completely revamp the stage. … We revitalized all the spaces with new countertops.”
New owners spent months on renovations
The renovations also include new lights, a fresh coat of paint and a new point-of-sale system, meaning Crews & Tangos now accepts card payments for the first time in its history.
The bar staying open is especially meaningful for local drag performers like Josh Hughes, who performs under the stage name, Star Doll.
“I started performing at Crews in 2023,” he said. “It’s somewhere that I have been going even before I started working in drag, just as a baby queer person when I freshly turned 19.”
After starting his career at Crews & Tangos, Hughes went on to compete in the sixth season of Canada’s Drag Race.
Josh Hughes, the drag entertainer known as Star Doll, started his career at Crews & Tangos before eventually appearing on Canada’s Drag Race. (Jampol Photography)
In fact, many of Canada’s top drag performers got their start on the Crews stage, Allan said, including Canada’s Drag Race host Brooke Lynn Hytes and the most recent winner, Van Goth.
Even with the bar remaining open for now, political activist and local resident Andrew Perez is warning against complacency when it comes to losing spaces in the Village.
“We need gentrification in this community. We need mixed-use developments, but they have to align with the fabric of this community, which is a queer community and is a mid-rise community,” he told CBC Toronto.
Calls to save 2SLGBTQ+ spaces in the village
Other prominent nightlife spaces in the neighbourhood, including Zippers, the Barn and Fly, have all shuttered their doors over the past decade, Perez noted. And he worries that if Crews & Tangos does close, it will leave an even smaller number of queer spaces to fend for themselves.
“I would urge everyone in our community, especially elected officials to … really mobilize now, because I truly worry five years or a decade from now the Gay Village could become obsolete,” Perez said.
In a statement provided to CBC Toronto, Kristyn Wong-Tam, Ontario NDP’s critic on 2SLGBTQI+ issues, wrote, “Crews & Tangos might be safe from bulldozers for several more years to come, but the Village is not safe from economic upheaval, high rents, and reckless developments.”
They called for official recognition and protection for 2SLGBTQI+ business districts.