5 Types of Mississauga Singles & Where to Meet Them

So, you’re forever alone (~*foreveralone*~) and want to find love organically. All of your paired off friends (some of whom are married to their high school sweethearts, the cretins) are more than happy to dispense advice about where to meet the right man or woman. Go online, they’ll tell you — 26 of their married co-workers met their spouses on eHarmony, two cousins got lucky on Plenty of Fish and four college buddies found love on Tinder. There’s certainly nothing wrong with going online (I’ve been lucky and so have a lot of my friends), but sometimes you just want to catch someone’s eye when you reach for the same hand-crushed peanut butter container at Whole Foods.

So, if you’re not quite ready to start swiping right, here are some potential lover types and where you might find them.

The Hipster

Considering the fact that we can’t seem to find hipsters, this might seem like a strange category. No matter — suburban hipsters are simply rarer than urban ones, making them precious and worth extra points on the Sauga dating spectrum. The truth is that most hipsters head east to the Promised Land, so you have to snag them while they’re young and saving their pennies for a Kensington Market house share. If you want a bearded, vinyl-loving faux-lumberjack (who doesn’t?) or a glasses-rocking, indie-loving lady (again, who doesn’t?), you might have to scope out the following locations:

Any non-Tim Horton’s café: When it comes to coffee culture, hipsters know what’s up. Tim’s is for the peasants (no-but-for-real, it is). Real coffee connoisseurs like their lattes with community initiative chalkboards, endless customization options and retro or indie soundtracks. Hipsters can find those, albeit with a more corporate flair, at Starbucks, Second Cup and Coffee Culture. They’re drinking green tea lemonade and London Fogs and they’re reading very cool books.

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Whole Foods: Enough said.

Yoga: Not all hipsters like yoga, but every yoga studio loves a good hipster. Check out any of these for a bendy bed and life buddy.

The Nerd

Sometimes you just want to find someone who shares your life-long love of any number of traditionally “nerdy” things. You might want to find a soul mate who loves one or more of the following: video games, comic books, superheroes (and their action figures/collectibles), cosplay events, roleplaying games (non-sexual), Magic: The Gathering (I think that’s still around?), board games and board game-themed parties, movies and TV shows with the words “Star” or “Battle” or “Firefly” in the title and Games Workshop (who has outlived all the other stores in its vintage Square One wing). Nerds and nerd-lovers, you might find your Penny or Leonard here:

Kariya Park Cosplaying: Join the cosplayers at Kariya Park on the weekends!

Any of these top 5 comic book stores

Studio 89 on board game night.

Playdium: I can’t guarantee you’ll find potential partners over 18 here, but I suspect there are still a few 20+ people enjoying the retro arcade experience. This place also offers a few outdoor activities, so you can meet an athletic (or simply daring) intellectual who likes gaming and go-karting.

The Outdoorsy Type

Sometimes you want to find a partner who can keep up with you. You like biking, rollerblading (I assume people still rollerblade?), Frisbee-ing, volleyball-ing (the worst – ugh!) and jogging through a park in tight shorts and a body-hugging Lululemon shirt that flatters all your gorgeous muscles and curves. You’re awesome, we get it, and you deserve a fine specimen to hike with. Here’s where you might find your match:

Any of the city’s scenic bike trails

Port Credit Parks: Including Jack Darling, Richard’s Memorial Park and the Lakefront Promenade. These lakefront parks offer ample space for picnicking, Frisbee and romantic sightseeing. You can impress potential mates with your exceptional hand-eye coordination during some type of game with a ball and then stare out at the lake as you plan your Tough Mudder honeymoon or something.

Sports Fields: Shared interests are a great start in any relationship and if you love sports, you might just love someone who loves them just as much as you. Look for games and events at any of the following parks and strike up a conversation with another non-pro baseball enthusiast.

The Renaissance Man or Woman

You’re an artist seeking another artist to share Americanos with, possibly until one or both you is dead. Although Sauga’s art scene is understated and too often ignored, the city can and does offer a vibrant cultural experience to those who know where to look. You could find your spouse at an art gallery, a live music pub night, a cultural event, a film festival or a visual arts class. Here are some places to look:

Live Music Open Mics: These places are great if you want to enjoy some truly independent music, share some of your own or simply hob nob with creative crooners.

AGM: Art Gallery of Mississauga: This cozy space has a permanent collection as well as temporary exhibits, workshops and events (including yoga nights). Workshops are great places to network and mingle with other local artists, so you can foster both personal and professional connections. You can also try some artist workshops and events though Visual Arts Mississauga, an organization that offers art and photography classes for kids, teens and adults and hosts shows and exhibitions. 

Cultural Festivals: The festival scene is huge in the city and a few events — namely the Mississauga Waterfront Festival (MWF), Carassauga and Mosaic — offer culture junkies foodie components, visual arts presentations, musical performances, film festivals and unique culture-specific experiences that celebrate the city’s innate diversity. Check out a list of events here. You might just lock eyes with your future husband or wife while you wait for deep-fried octopus balls at the upcoming Asian Night Market at the MWF. Any romance worth having involves some kind of deep-fried food.

The Every(wo)man

Maybe your interests are varied and vast and you don’t consider yourself a hipster, a nerd, an athlete or an artist/art admirer (or maybe you consider yourself all of the above). You like to play Frisbee on a nice day, check out live music from time to time, drink on a patio and dance on your birthday. Fortunately, there are a ton of places for you to mingle with other well-rounded singles.

Bars and Clubs: While the nightlife scene isn’t always conducive to relationship building, a lot of people have met their partners at bars and on dancefloors. If you want to meet a partner who likes fine food and mid-week dancing, check out &Company Resto Bar and try Latin Wednesdays (ladies get in free), 911 Thursdays, Brand’d Fridays and Dinner and a Party Saturdays. You can also eat, drink and dance at Ten Restaurant and Wine Bar and West 50. If you want a more casual experience, you can hang with the pub crowd at Bier Markt (more for the fancier beer aficionado), Failte or any of these joints.

Celebration Square: In the summer, there are a slew of events happening in the city’s main hub. You can offer to split a pulled pork poutine with a sexy Ribfest attendee, crack open the rusted lawn chair of a cute movie buff on open-air movie nights or compliment a limber Zumba fan on his or her incredible moves.

Unusual Activities: People who are into everything are game to try anything, so it might be a good idea to check out Archery Terminal or Bad Axe Throwing if you want to meet someone a little adventurous who isn’t afraid to try something new.