If you’ve worked in the service industry, you know the night doesn’t end when the kitchen closes. That’s when the real shift begins — and sometimes, you’re clocking in for chaos.
Just off the bustle of Queen Street West, Sweaty Betty’s has become a goto for Toronto’s service industry crowd, often packed with off-duty bartenders, servers, and line cooks still in uniform.
I met Caela Richardson there a few years back after we both finished working a Saturday night rush. “Triple-sat multiple times, one guy tipped me in change, and I work brunch in six hours,” she cringed. “You either cry or you drink.” We knocked back Jameson Gingers as she casually recounted how last Sunday night’s bender bled into Tuesday morning with the same nonchalance she used to describe the time a customer hurled a martini in her face.
Our nights out followed a rhythm echoed across the city’s kitchens and dining rooms, where post-shift drinks aren’t just tradition, they’re ritual.
“After hours on your feet smiling through exhaustion, that first beer at the Done Right Inn feels like oxygen,” she said. The sound of clinking pint glasses is just loud enough to drown out the hum of responsibility. Connection, commiseration, and coping collide under the dim glow of neon bar signs throughout the downtown core.
Like many in the industry, Caela and I have ridden the wave of post-shift highs and the inevitable lows that follow for years. A recent survey by the nonprofit Not 9 to 5 found that 87 per cent of hospitality workers in Canada experienced burnout, and 77 per cent experienced depression. “Drinking five nights a week is cheaper than therapy,” she explained, “but eventually, it stops working.”
Still, there’s a strange beauty in the mess. It may not be healthy, but it’s honest. And sometimes, honest is enough — at least until last call.
This article appeared in the 2025 Summer issue.
