A fixture of Toronto’s nightlife and LGBTQ2S+ community, El Convento Rico, has permanently closed its doors at 750 College St. in Little Italy, bringing an end to 35 years in business.
The club announced the closure in a statement posted online, telling patrons: “Tonight, we say goodbye to 750 College St.—a place that became so much more than four walls.” The message described the venue as having become “a home, a stage, a refuge, a family, and a place where so many of us were able to laugh, dance, love, celebrate, and simply be ourselves.”
El Convento Rico first opened in 1992 and built a reputation as a gathering place for Toronto’s LGBTQ2S+ and Latin communities. Over the decades it became known for its drag show performances, its platform for local DJs, and a sound that blended energetic Latin rhythms with mainstream club hits, drawing a loyal and diverse crowd to the Little Italy strip.
A sudden announcement
The circumstances behind the closure have not been detailed publicly. According to CTV News and CP24, officials connected to the nightclub did not respond to requests for comment, leaving the exact reasons for the shutdown unclear as of the announcement.
What is clear is that the closure appears to have come abruptly, with the club’s own statement referring to the night of the announcement as a farewell rather than part of a planned wind-down. The post thanked the community for sustaining the venue across more than three decades, crediting patrons, performers and staff alike.
A gathering place remembered
“Thank you to our community. You gave El Convento Rico its soul,” the statement read, according to the reports. “For 35 years, you kept the music playing, the lights shining, and the memories alive.”
The message singled out “every queen who stepped onto our stage, every artist who shared their talent, every staff member who gave their heart, and every person who ever walked through our doors,” framing the closure as the end of an era for a space that had become deeply woven into the social life of Toronto’s queer and Latin communities.
No further details have emerged about what might come next for the College Street address. For now, the closure marks the end of a Little Italy institution that, since 1992, had carved out a singular identity on Toronto’s club scene.
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