A Toronto man’s TikTok series reviewing “sketchy bars” across the city is going viral for his winning ability to challenge preconceived notions and highlight charming finds.
Beau Pinto has shared over 10 videos of himself visiting bars with dodgy reputations.
However, many of Pinto’s vlog style reviews spotlight the beauty of average joints, that more often than not, despite some unusual traits, are integral to the communities they serve.
Pinto has almost 100,000 followers on TikTok, and his bar series has raked in millions of views.
@beaupinto Replying to @rs6ixth Follow me and comment which Sketchy Bars you want me to try next! #torontolife #torontotiktok #thingstodointoronto #torontonightlife #fyp #fypシ ♬ Carmen Habanera, classical opera(1283412) – perfectpanda
Despite the many videos Pinto has released, a lot of the bars he’s been to haven’t made it into the series.
“The sketchiest ones I’ve visited are the ones I couldn’t make videos of. I’ve been to a few that have never been released. For my own safety and for my strict policy of not incriminating anyone in my videos, there are just some that can’t be spoken about,” Pinto told Now Toronto in an email statement on Friday.
“Most of the ones I’ve made videos of are not half bad once you get to know the people and their communities,” he continued.
Pinto asks his followers to recommend spots for him to check out, and he admits to being pleasantly surprised by many of the recommendations.
One such bar was Rebecca’s Lounge on King Street West, where he’s since become a regular.
“When I [first] went, I felt so loved and accepted. The food was incredible. The drinks were cheap. The owners are like family now. It is one of the safest places to drink in Parkdale and you’ll feel the heart of their community beating so strong within those walls,” Pinto wrote.
Through his videos, Pinto hopes to challenge people’s perception of “sketchy” by asking them to look past how a place might seem from the outside.
‘There’s what makes a bar actually sketchy and what makes people’s perception of them sketchy,” Pinto explained.
“Most people consider a sketchy bar to be one engaged in criminal activity, violence or other unsavoury behaviours. But since I exclusively visit the bars that get requested the most in the comments, I’ve realized that most people consider something sketchy for a few reasons.”
Pinto has observed that often people’s notion of sketchiness is based on factors like classism, racism, and a bar’s refusal to gentrify in order to serve low income communities.
“If a shooting happens uptown, it’s because the bars are ‘sketchy’ and everyone remembers it for years. If a mob hit happens in broad daylight in Yorkville or College Street, no one bats an eyelash and forgets it happened the next week,” Pinto wrote.
To Pinto, and others, bars with a divey or run down appearance boast a distinct character that many aesthetically pleasing or popular places simply do not.
For him, it’s the “lack of pretension, the cheap drinks and the sense of community,” that make these unfairly stereotyped spots worth coming back to.
“People at these bars are real people and don’t care what car you drive or what shoes you’re wearing, unless your shoes are too nice, then they might think you’re a cop… In a city so focused on those aspects, it’s such a breath of fresh air to spend time with people who exclusively care about how you treat them, the respect you give and the stories you have to tell.”
Pinto described the bars he covers as people’s “third place…a hub that breaks the monotony of work and home life.”
“You can end up meeting a ton of new local friends and having some of the most fun of your life at these places,” Pinto concluded.
