Sneaky Dee’s is safe for now
Long live Emo Night and the best nachos in town
If you were distracted by the heat wave or the World Cup or the consumption of many soft-serve margaritas this past weekend, you may have missed some very good news: Sneaky Dee’s, the cherished College and Bathurst dive bar and music venue that’s been open for nearly 40 years, has survived the threat of closure due to the possibility of condo development.
While many in the community had mobilized to support Sneaky Dee’s, the rationale behind this joyous update seems to be that the developer didn’t actually own the real estate, which included an adjacent RBC bank branch. Plans were withdrawn around end-of-day last Friday, after a representative from RBC disputed the developer’s plans, having not been aware of them. “RBC operates a retail bank branch at this site and intends to carry on with this use,” a bank representative confirmed in a letter to the Toronto and East York Community Council.
“I’m glad the developer hadn’t done his homework,” Councillor Dianne Saxe told CBC. “For now, it’s safe.”
Councillor Josh Matlow echoed the importance of Sneaky Dee’s as a mainstay of Toronto’s alternative nightlife. “It’s a cultural icon. It’s not just a bar,” he said, also to CBC. “For generations, Torontonians have been going to Sneaky Dee’s, not only for a fun night out, but there are communities that see the bar as a cultural centre.”
A Toronto resident named Monika Baird spoke to the outlet about the venue’s significance and the fierce opposition to its closure. “We knew the community would come together to do everything possible to keep this place from closing,” she said. “That type of community doesn’t happen out of nowhere. That is years and years and years of love and appreciation for what this bar does.”
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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.
