If it weren’t for a copyright warning, Émeraude Domingos-Mbuku would still be making her Queen and Spadina McDonald’s candles.
Made from a soy-wax blend and packaged in minimalist black casing, Domingos-Mbuku’s candle was a labour of love. She spent six years working at McDonald’s and came to know the smells well — freshly brewed coffee, cigarettes, exhaustion. In 2021, she spun it all into her olfactory ode to Toronto’s most infamous fast food joint, the busy, grimy, chaotic outpost that has become a late-night rite of passage for many downtowners.