Someone in Toronto is offering free grilled cheese if you sing him a song this weekend
People in Toronto are getting really creative when it comes to saving a few bucks on food these days, and a planned event at an upcoming festival might just be the strangest: no coupons needed.
Look, there's not much I wouldn't do for a free meal, but I might just have to draw the line at public karaoke.
If you share my affinity for cheap eats but not my tendency towards stage fright, Mike Gabel, founder of the city's preeminent karaoke night, Hot Breath, has just the offer for you: sing a song, and he'll make you a grilled cheese.
Yes, it's real, and it's happening this weekend at the Geary Art Crawl. After the annual event — which takes place in a neighbourhood recently dubbed one of the coolest in the world, mind you — was postponed in 2025, it was the hope of the festival's many fans that it would be back and better than ever for 2026.
Well, it's back and, if free grilled cheese and karaoke are involved, I'd say that's creeping pretty close to better than ever.
"3.5 minutes in [sic] the perfect length for a song. It also happens to be the perfect amount of time to make a grilled cheese sandwich," Gabel writes in an Instagram post announcing the event. "So I'm trading songs for sandwiches this Saturday 2pm at @gearyartcrawl. Meant to be 14 degree so let's spread some butter baby."
Can't fault that logic.
The festival at large is comprised of an impressive lineup of workshops teaching you everything from ukulele to shadow puppetry, alongside art installations and a central hub for food, music and drinks, running Saturday, March 7 and Sunday, March 8.
And, of course, Hot Breath will be slinging grilled cheese while you're singing your high Cs, starting at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 7. Time to start warming up those vocal cords!
What'll you choose? Perhaps something from Cheese-us Christ Superstar? "Summer Cheese" by Seals and Crofts? "Video Grilled the Radio Star"? I'll stop now.
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