What to know
- Understory has quickly become a welcoming hub in Toronto’s Church and Wellesley Village.
- Customers have launched community funds and support initiatives for those in need, while the café donates food locally.
- Owners Dani Gaede and Rowan Jetté Knox are creating a safe, affirming space — something especially meaningful for trans and younger community members.
- From Trans Poetry Night to upcoming evening hours and a wine menu, the café is expanding its role in the neighbourhood.
- The duo hopes Understory inspires more Queer-owned businesses to invest in revitalizing The Village.
A new café in Toronto is aiming to restore The Village to its golden age.
Understory first opened its doors one snowy day in January, welcoming people in Toronto’s Church and Wellesley neighbourhood into a cozy space filled with comfortable seating, a large harvest table, and a decorative tree stretching from the floor to the ceiling.
Now nearly three months into the venture, owners Dani Gaede and Rowan Jetté Knox told Queer & Now that it’s exciting to see their dream of creating a spot for locals to relax, unwind and connect come to life.
Read More
“People in the area just really want to be a part of this, and I think it speaks to [how] we set a tone early on. We set an energy in the space, we wanted it to be authentic, we wanted it to feel welcoming and safe. And when people come in, these are the things that they say about it,” Knox shared in an interview.
Gaede added that she loves that the café’s patronage includes people from all walks of life who stop by the spot regularly to meet friends and loved ones, old and new.
“A lot of them gather around tables and meet new friends. We’ve had people come on first dates. We’ve had people meet their new partners here,” she explained.
Gaede shared that she has personally connected with more members of the community in the past three months than in the entire 30 years she’s lived in the area.
“It has been the most fulfilling thing, personally, that I’ve ever done.”
This is an experience shared by people who frequent the café as well, especially those who choose to sit at the large harvest table in the centre of the space.
“It brings people together in proximity to one another, but also people just feel comfortable chatting with each other,” she shared. “Very often, you’re seeing strangers spending an hour, two hours, talking to each other in a way that they never would have before. We’ve had lots of people say they’ve met more people here than anywhere else in my time here.”
Community at Understory
The duo, who are partners in business and life, are proud that the café is busy every day, with Knox using his popular Threads account to share some of the feel-good moments witnessed in the shop. Many of the posts have garnered thousands of likes and shares, with people commenting that they feel like a ray of light — which we could all use a little more of right now.
View on Threads
One of those recent feel-good moments occurred during a recent rush, when the line at the cash register snaked around the shop, with lots of people waiting patiently for drinks. But when the owners apologized, those in the line didn’t moan or jeer; they clapped.
“They started clapping and cheering; they were totally happy for us. You know, that’s the type of place it is. We did not single-handedly create that. That was created by the people who show up,” Knox shared.
View on Threads
In addition to hosting events and sharing feel-good moments online, they’ve also begun hosting events to create more opportunities for community making within the space, including a recent Trans Poetry Night curated by Sapphics Raise the Bar.
“We had dreamed about this place being somewhere we could have things like poetry nights, where it would be filled with Queer and trans people. It would be this space where people felt comfortable and creative,” Knox explained. “That night was a real reminder of that vision coming true.”
The duo is expanding their roster of events, and evening hours will soon come into effect, with the space’s wine menu set to launch on April 17.
View on Threads
Cost-of-living crisis in The Village
In recent years, The Village has been severely affected by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, something that Knox and Gaede considered when opening a business in the area.
The café owners have integrated several approaches to addressing this reality into their business model, including partnering with an organization that distributes their end-of-day and day-old pastries to unhoused people in the area.
Locals are also making a difference. Patrons of the shop have started two separate funds to support people in need. One is for those who need support buying something to eat or drink in the shop, while the other goes toward purchasing gift cards for things like groceries and toiletries.
“It really allows us to be able to help so many people and also help make the space more inclusive to some more struggling people in the community that might not be able to afford a cup of coffee or a muffin on a cold day,” he shared, adding that it’s touching to see people offering support to strangers in this way, a sharp contrast to the seemingly never ending stream of bad news that frequents our headlines and timelines.
Read More
“We’re so inundated with so much horrible news and so much hatred through social media that to see people come day after day after day, and bring their humanity and their empathy and just want to share has easily been the thing that has touched me the most.
But these acts of kindness are personal for Knox, who lived with addiction and utilized the shelter system as an unhoused teenager.
“I know what it’s like to be on the other side, to have people treating you as less than human,” he explained.
“So being on the other end of that now, where we now have a space that allows people to come in, is really healing in its own way.”
Knox adds that caring for community members the way he wished he had been cared for in his youth has been a process that has involved reparenting himself.
“So it has been so beautiful. I can’t wait to get to work every day.”
The couple is also able to provide something crucial for younger community members, particularly those who are trans: Representation.
“We have younger people who have come up and said they just wanted to come in because they don’t know any older trans people. They’re trans, and being able to see you us doing this and being successful and being happy and in love, it gives them some hope,” Knox explained
Trans Day of Visibility
Running the shop has been filled with feel-good moments for Knox and Gaede. During the recent Trans Day of Visibility, celebrated annually on March 31, the couple laid out some scratch hearts for patrons to create messages of encouragement and hope for other visitors.
He stepped out for the day, and when he returned to close up shop for the night, the hearts were filled with beautiful notes.
“The fact that all these people took time to write messages of support for trans people… It was really sweet, and you just have to create the opportunity for people to show up,” he shared
The same day, a local florist gave Gaede a bouquet and a centrepiece, with instructions to give them to someone who looked like they needed them. She chose to give them to a young trans woman out on a date at the café.
“They came back a few days later to say how beautiful the flowers were and how good it made them feel, and that they were now blooming, and it just made their entire day,” she explained. “It just felt so good to be able to give some happiness to someone, which is very much at the heart of what we try to do for every customer that comes through.”
The Understory owners shared that the venture, and the warm feedback from patrons, have them hopeful that The Village will soon be restored to its former glory.
“There are still some wonderful spaces where you can go dancing, you can go see a drag show. There are some fun trivia nights. You know, there are these really joyful places,” Gaede shared.
“I think what was missing was a quieter coffee shop. A nice, little coffee shop that is Queer-owned and Queer-run, that people can go to and feel like it’s theirs.”
They also hope it will spark a greater movement that encourages other Queer business owners to invest in the neighbourhood.
“What we’re hoping is by investing in The Village, we may encourage other people to do similar things, to open up new businesses in the neighbourhood and make it more like its heyday.”
