Regulars of beloved queer-friendly sports bar Peaches are reacting to reports of its immediate closure.
On Sunday, the Parkdale bar’s owners reportedly announced on an Instagram story that it had officially shut down after failing to pay rent and its staff.
“Peaches has been in dire straits for a long time, we tried everything to keep it afloat but the debts kept piling up and we were struggling to keep it alive,” the post said.
Peaches first opened in 2022, priding itself as the city’s prime, queer-friendly spot to watch sports. The west-end pub swiftly earned its stripes as a local hotspot but ran into a slew of financial troubles that ultimately led to its closure.
According to its statement, the bar was too expensive to run and not making enough money to stay afloat.
“We couldn’t afford to stock the fridges and were constantly out of items,” the statement said.
But the owners also told people not to donate to a GoFundMe started by the bar in an attempt to save it, calling the initiative “a bad judgment call,” after they claimed the landlord denied staff and owners access to the premises.
“Our staff, and ownership team have been denied access to the building by the landlord, despite many requests to retrieve our belongings, paycheques, tips, electronics, equipment, and so many beautiful memories,” the GoFundMe says.
“We currently have started this GoFundMe to help with legal costs, support to negotiate with our landlord, settle with our wonderful local suppliers, but most importantly, to help to support our incredible hardworking staff that were all suddenly at loss for work,” the description continues.
The page remains active despite Sunday’s statement.
Now Toronto reached out to the bar for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication. However, on Google the bar is listed as permanently closed.
Unlike Peaches, another business central to the city’s queer community narrowly avoided liquidation earlier this year thanks to crowdfunding efforts.
Glad Day Bookshop, on Church Street, called on the public to help it raise $100,000 to avoid eviction. In a matter of days Glad Day was saved.
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On the contrary, Peaches was unable to raise enough money to stay open, barely raising $3,000 of the $50,000 goal set on its GoFundMe.
People online have been reacting to the news of its closure.
“Really upset about this as it was such a cool place and a queer-friendly sports bar and one that often focuses on women’s sports is such an incredibly rare and valuable thing,” one Reddit user wrote.
“I never had the chance to visit but many people I know in the neighbourhood did. My understanding was that it was a super welcoming and inclusive space that was also a fantastic sports bar. I’m very shocked to see it’s closing,” someone else wrote.
However, not everyone was sympathetic to the situation.
“I think that the owner saw the community’s response to The Revue and Glad Day Bookshop’s brink of eviction and thought they could do the same thing and raise money to keep them afloat. But they can’t just not pay rent, withhold funds from staff and suppliers for months, and expect us all to fund them,” another person wrote.
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“Yes, they assumed all those businesses were the same as them and misunderstood that they can’t dupe the public when reasonable demands are made,” another user responded.
