Hamilton City Magazine - Page 44 Skip to main content
Celebrating all things Hamilton / Welcome Message
Arts + Culture

Readers and writers: Your guide to gritLIT 2026

The literary festival offers five days of readings, panels, workshops, and social events that celebrate writers of all kinds and the readers who read them. For 22 years, the Hamilton-born gritLIT has celebrated established writers, helped new ones develop, and given readers a front-row seat to well over…
Arts + Culture

World premiere shines a light on Canada, The Hip, and what home really means

It’s A Good Life If You Don’t Weaken, opening April 22 at Theatre Aquarius, is about connection, love, and saying something that needs to be said. That spirit, and the spirit of Gord Downie, are in the rehearsal room as this show comes to life, say its stars.
Arts + Culture

REVIEW: Calendar Girls is balm for weary souls

Story of group of English women posing nude to raise money for their church is a nuanced exploration of aging, expectation, disappointment, and refusing to accept limitations. Binbrook Little Theatre’s production features brave performances and a solid focus on the story. Uplifting stories seem hard to find these…
Arts + Culture

New music venues: This booker is back

Brodie Schwendiman, operator of the late and beloved Casbah, is back booking music in a new downtown venue called Ridiculous, and other live-music locations in the region. 2025 was a rollercoaster ride of a year for Brodie Schwendiman. The music club operator and booker has played a crucial…
Food + Drink

Chef Matty Matheson: By the books

The celebrity chef has now made his mark in Hamilton, with elevated pub Iron Cow Public House at TD Coliseum. So what can we glean about him from the recipes and stories in his three cookbooks?  For months, his name was on the lips of Hamilton food…
Arts + Culture

THE PLAYLIST

Dylan Hudecki is a Canadian indie-rock vet having played in many different bands, including By Divine Right, Cowlick, Slow Beach and The Dill. He’s a proud Hamiltonian who covers local album releases for HAMILTON CITY Magazine. TV FREAKS  – Blue Genie (garage, punk rock) Devotion, distortion, and the…
Food + Drink

Getting out: Music & menus

If live tunes help your food taste better, here’s a list of places where the grub is as good as the setlist! With this issue being HAMILTON CITY Magazine’s music issue, it seemed fitting to round-up a bundle of local restaurants where you can see and enjoy some…
City Life

Hounds of Hamilton

We need a big dose of dogs these days so HAMILTON CITY Magazine's new feature celebrates the city's canines. Send in your dogs (and cats)! Escape the relentless news cycle, doom scrolling and polarizing politics, and find joy and laughter in pets. Hounds of Hamilton…

you are HAMILTON

HAMILTON CITY Magazine’s mission is to tell the stories that celebrate the city’s past, present and future by featuring stunning photography, illustrations and world-class writing. It’s your city. It’s your magazine.


Food + Drink

Savour a Taste of Burlington

Thirty-eight restaurants are offering special prix-fixe menus for the next two weeks. Taste of Burlington, the city’s premier culinary event, is officially underway. From now until Feb. 9, 38 restaurants will offer specially curated prix-fixe menus for the program, showcasing the flavours and dishes that are contributing to…
Arts + Culture

REVIEW: The Catering Queen provides a reprieve from what ails us

The Players’ Guild of Hamilton delivers with a play that provides laughs, a villain to hate and a dive into the stories beyond the aprons serving at a fancy law firm Christmas party. If January has felt like an interminable month of Mondays, and psychic weariness has set…
City Life

Art, sex, and artificial intelligence

AI is a powerful tool shaping intimacy and creativity in Hamilton but we must ensure we are careful about the intentions behind its use. Editor's note: This is the first of regular contributions from Maria Orrego, a Hamilton-based registered psychotherapist & sex therapist. Hamilton is a city…
Arts + Culture

David Robertson says sharing mental health struggles was first step to healing

Hamilton gritLIT event is among first stops for the author after release of All the Little Monsters: How I Learned to Live with Anxiety. Prolific author David Robertson says he was skilled at hiding his bouts of depression and his battles with anxiety. He had a breakdown…
City Life

Gardeners rejoice! Seedy Saturday is around the corner

14th annual event on Feb. 1 will bring together vendors, speakers, seminar leaders, and plant, insect and wildlife-lovers of all ages and skill levels for Hamilton’s go-to gardening event. Years ago, my family bundled up in the February cold to head to a community centre near the old…
Arts + Culture

Colin Mochrie joins master hypnotist for improv show

Whose Line Is it Anyway? star joins hypnotized audience members in Hyprov, coming to Hamilton’s McIntyre Performing Arts Centre on Feb. 5. The show that combines hypnosis with improvisation is like performing a highwire act each night, says renowned comedian Colin Mochrie. He and master hypnotist Asad Mecci…
Arts + Culture

Hamilton Literary Awards reward standout books and storytelling

The 31st annual ceremony, now co-hosted by the Hamilton Arts Council and the gritLIT Readers and Writers Festival, will happen Dec. 12 at the Central Library. Editor's note: This story has been updated to include the winners in each category. Over 30 years of stories is something Hamilton…
Food + Drink

ON THE MENU: WHAT’S OPENED AND CLOSED ON THE LOCAL RESTAURANT SCENE

Here's a list of what has come, gone and changed in Hamilton and Burlington in December. Launched & opening soon Abu Laban Sweets (1095 Fennell Ave. E., Hamilton) Very recently opened inside Salti’s Medina, Abu Laban Sweets bakes a variety of Middle Eastern pastries and desserts and is…