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<\/p>\nAfter years of rumours it would be forced out by a condo development, an iconic Toronto drag bar is setting the record straight.<\/p>\n
Crews & Tangos, a staple of the city\u2019s Gay Village for more than 30 years, says it isn\u2019t closing any time soon.<\/p>\n
Troy Allan, a co-owner of the bar since last fall, told CBC Toronto he\u2019s committed to keeping a meaningful and safe queer space alive for the community.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
Despite its status as one of the oldest drag bars in the city, Crew & Tangos hasn\u2019t been able to shake rumours that it\u2019s closing for a condo development any day now.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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)<\/p>\n
That\u2019s in part because that was the plan at one point.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
More recently, Graywood has struck a deal with the bar\u2019s new owners to keep them open at least until the current lease agreement is up in 2029.<\/p>\n
The developer is happy to continue working with the new owners, said spokesperson Stefano Toniutti in a statement to CBC Toronto.<\/p>\n
“Development plans for this site are still under consideration, and we don\u2019t see any impact to the operation of this space for the foreseeable future,” Toniutti said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s fortunate for Allan and the other owners, who have spent the last few months updating and refreshing the space.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
New owners spent months on renovations<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The bar staying open is especially meaningful for local drag performers like Josh Hughes, who performs under the stage name, Star Doll.<\/p>\n
“I started performing at Crews in 2023,” he said. “It\u2019s somewhere that I have been going even before I started working in drag, just as a baby queer person when I freshly turned 19.”<\/p>\n
After starting his career at Crews & Tangos, Hughes went on to compete in the sixth season of Canada\u2019s Drag Race.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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)<\/p>\n
In fact, many of Canada’s top drag performers got their start on the Crews stage, Allan said, including Canada\u2019s Drag Race host Brooke Lynn Hytes and the most recent winner, Van Goth.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
Calls to save 2SLGBTQ+ spaces in the village<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“I would urge everyone in our community, especially elected officials to \u2026 really mobilize now, because I truly worry five years or a decade from now the Gay Village could become obsolete,” Perez said.<\/p>\n
In a statement provided to CBC Toronto, Kristyn Wong-Tam, Ontario NDP\u2019s 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.”<\/p>\n
They called for official recognition and protection for 2SLGBTQI+ business districts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After years of rumours it would be forced out by a condo development, an iconic Toronto drag bar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,155206,204268,204265,204269,204267,204264,3302,204266],"class_list":["post-515797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cbc-toronto","tag-condo-development","tag-drag-performers","tag-gay-village","tag-graywood-developments","tag-josh-hughes","tag-toronto","tag-troy-allan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}