Crews and Tangos will stay open until at least 2029
Patrons and performers had feared the iconic drag bar would close due to condo development
Some good news, at last.
It’s long been rumoured that the beloved Crews and Tangos, a drag bar in Toronto’s Church and Wellesley Village, would be forced to close for good after over 30 years in business, to make way for a condo development.
Back in 2022, the city did approve a 14-storey redevelopment plan for the site. Promises were made to keep Crews and Tangos in the mix, but fears have continued to linger. (A 48-storey mixed-use building was later proposed, but that plan received significant pushback and was scrapped.)
CBC has reported today that Graywood Developments, which owns the building, has worked out a deal with the bar’s owners to remain open until at least 2029.
“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,” Graywood spokesperson Stefano Toniutti told CBC.
Troy Allan, a co-owner of the bar, was also optimistic. “We are not closing until I receive notice that we’re closing. These doors will stay open as long as we can keep them open.”
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
