Jake Marquez had dreamt of opening a cyber cafe in Toronto since high school. And more than a decade later, his dream came true: after 12 years as an electrician and six years of saving, he started the Peasants Lair Cyber Cafe, tucked away in a plaza at 880 Ellesmere Rd. in Scarborough.

Growing up, Marquez tells me he wasn't able to afford the latest and greatest in PC gaming — so his goal for the cafe was to make high-quality gaming affordable for all.

Before opening the business in October last year, he built all the computers at Peasants Lair from the ground up. He even started a different cafe in the Phillippines with his family as a sort of "test run" for the Scarborough location.

Jake Marquez, owner of Peasants Lair Cyber Cafe.

Part of his PC education comes from from building computers with reBOOT Canada, a charity that provides computer equipment for underserved communities across the country. That gave him the know-how and the inspiration to boot up his own cafe.

"I figured I would open up a cafe at really cheap prices so that I can share what I didn't have when I was a kid," he tells blogTO.

The first six months were tough for him, thanks to the pandemic . He had a lot of people asking him why he was opening a gaming cafe in 2023.

But not everyone has a 240Hz monitor — and there's a social aspect to it as well.

When I visited, the cafe was crowded and almost full, and my interview with Marquez was interspersed with online and offline chatter from fellow gamers.

While he has the help of a few part-timers and his wife at the cafe, Marquez still works as an electrician from Monday to Thursday, 6am to 10am. But his Friday to Sunday is spent full-time at the cafe, when it's most popular.

Gaming at the Peasants Lair

Interested gamers can either play for an hour at $5 or get a day pass for $25. A weekday pass is $30. Peasants Lair also has snacks like popcorn, instant noodles, chips, energy drinks, and coffee available.

Peasants Lair attracts all sorts of gamers — from the casuals to the esports pros. Marquez says one of his regulars is ranked third in Aim Labs, a game intended to help players improve their FPS (first-person shooter) skills.

Even casual gamers will recognize the names of what Marquez says are the most popular games at the cafe: Valorant, Fortnite, Counter-Strike, League of Legends, PUBG, and Call of Duty.

He makes sure to mention the unique hardware in some of his computers. In one PC he's got a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 — the fastest consumer graphics card available, and it's not cheap at about $1,600. Exports of the card from the U.S. to China are currently banned, thanks to its overpowered AI.

After nine hours logged at the cafe, the most dedicated players can unlock the "lordship" member tier. With this, they get an hour of free gaming between Monday and Thursday for the rest of their lives — as long as it comes with a purchase of a snack or drink.

Marquez uses the membership as a way to help fill the cafe during its slower hours Monday through Thursday. The regulars spend about three hours a week gaming at the Peasants Lair.

Interested customers can also call ahead to pre-download games that aren't already installed — something he says many other cafes in the city don't do. Then, the player will only be charged once they clock in for game time.

Marquez also told me there may be more than one Peasants Lair in 2024: he's actively looking for new locations downtown and in Toronto's west side.

The idea is not just to get more space, but also have a place that allows him to make his own food for the gamers — including an in-house bubble tea station.

Whether in Scarborough or a new location, he's committed to the cafe. He told me he invests up to 40 per cent of his profits into new hardware because he's seen how much the space means to people.

"I kind of find this place as my temple," he says, "and everyone else [does] too."