Loved it!
TIFF Tips
Wed, 09/08/2010 - 14:56
It’s early September. The kids are back in class, the nip is back in the air and the magic folk are back in our midst.
The ever-loving party that is the Toronto International Film Festival—starting up September 9 and running 10 glorious, celebrity-studded days—affords countless stargazing opportunities for those informed few who know where to gaze. Here’s some help.
South of Temperance, 20 Adelaide St. W.
The buzz: This emerging hotspot—the only freestanding licensed establishment in the financial district—is an official TIFF partner, which means it’s going to get tight come movie time. Get there early and often.
Spice Route, 499 King St. W.
The buzz: Check out the can at this vast eclectically Asian tribute to al fresco hedonism, where stars and regulars alike come to dine on Indo-Asian cuisine. Tilda Swinton, the Coen brothers and Brad Pitt have....more
Left to their own devices
Sat, 09/04/2010 - 09:17
Sometimes, people don’t appreciate a problem until someone devises a solution.
Such forward-thinking innovation is on the menu at a Toronto-area Chili’s Grill & Bar right now. In fact, it is the menu.
Heath Everett, president and franchise owner of the Chili’s on Colossus Dr. in Vaughan, is the proud architect behind what is quite possibly the world’s first left-handed restaurant menu. With his innovation, launched to much acclaim last week, southpaws get to ponder the nachos versus wings debate in an orderly fashion that favours their physical preferences.
In the left-handed version of this critical document, the binding is on the side facing its conventional real estate, and the page order is reversed. “They open it up as a right-handed person would, but it’s opposite,” says Everett, who fastened upon the idea as a first-anniversary attention-grabber to compensate for a lean marketing budget....more
Of sun, summer and sorbet
Thu, 08/26/2010 - 12:58
Something there is about ice cream on a summer day that can charm one’s spirit utterly. And if you happen to own and operate a business or a Toronto restaurant that sells cold refreshment to said charmed spirits, and the lot of you are sweltering under a blazing sun anyway, well, might as well make the most of it.
Such was the thinking behind the recent transformation of Ed’s Real Scoop, a two-location ice cream parlour that set itself up earlier this season as Canada’s first solar-powered ice cream shop.
Building on energy-conservative initiatives that began with a retrofit of in-store lightbulbs (owner Ed Francis replaced his incandescents with longer-lasting compact fluorescents) and the store’s principal ice cream fridge (he switched from an old-style air-cooled to a much more efficient water-cooled system), Francis elected to install solar water heating panels as his latest move to slash energy usage at his 10-year-old business....more
Ex Eats
Mon, 08/23/2010 - 06:44
Ah, the Ex. The sights, the sounds, the scattered pools of vomit. It is the annual punctuation to all things summer and it promises stimulation for every last of Torontonians’ senses. Prominent among the experiences on offer at this colourful urban fair are those that have to do with food. The promise of excess and innovation is powerful here, and the tastes a coaster lover might enjoy between swells are as unexpected as they are varied.
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New’s bright blue, but old is gold
Wed, 08/11/2010 - 07:16
The world crackles all the time with innovation. Every day some newfangled something comes screaming into view, promising to overturn all that preceded it. Yada yada and enough already. Let us not forget the value of that which has stood the test of time.
In that spirit, then, we celebrate some Toronto eating and drinking establishments of longest standing.
Oldest restaurant/diner
The Senator opened in 1948 in a Victoria St. location that had housed a restaurant since 1890. Indeed, the origins of the property can be traced to the earliest records that were kept by the town of York, when it set up humble shop in a residential, working-class neighbourhood east of Yonge St. Actually two restaurants in one,...more
Where there’s smoke
Fri, 08/06/2010 - 07:23
So you’re a smoker who imagines the assault is finally over. You’ve been deprived of your addiction in public spaces, denied your weed in offices and airplanes and, the final insult, told you can’t light up in restaurants. The scant few corners of the world left in which your poisoned air is still welcome are few and far between. And now, here comes another blow to your shrinking and miserable existence: the very real speculation that Toronto restaurant patios might be next on the striking block of free squares for smokers....more
Toronto: a good place to veg
Tue, 08/03/2010 - 13:09
Along with such crunchy continental metropolises as Seattle and Portland, Toronto has emerged as a friend to the barnyard.
According to a recently unveiled list of North America’s most vegetarian-friendly cities, our fair town is a vegetarian’s mecca, as it turns out, catching the tail end of the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals’ top 10. The list reels off eight American cities and one other Canadian (Vancouver) where a foodie with a decided distaste for blood can find joy. For Toronto, it swoons over our bounty in this camp, reserving special mention for Rawlicious, and its raw vegan pasta Bolognese, Commensal’s eggplant in ginger sauce and Fressen’s beer-battered deep-fried tofu with cornmeal.
Happy Food Day
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 13:25
Any excuse to eat.
Food Day Canada, on July 31, is a coast-to-coast celebration of all things edible that seeks to stir food enthusiasts from every corner of the land to express sincere appreciation for the bounty of the groceries to which we have such abundant access.
For the eighth year running, this national event looks to make some noise about the regional diversity of this country’s culinary offerings by inviting Canadians to cook and eat in a way that acknowledges their wealth. Held the first Saturday of August when most of Canada is already in the throes of a civic holiday weekend, Food Day Canada is meant to keep the party sizzling....more
The Problem with proximity
Wed, 07/28/2010 - 12:25
It ain’t rocket science, really. The closer you are to your food source, the more likely it’s gonna get you.
A clutch of bona fide researchers confirmed same, recently, with a study that explored the relationship between where a person lives and her physical condition. According to scientists at the University of Buffalo, the greater the number of restaurants near a woman’s home, the higher her body mass index is gonna be.
The study, which was published in a recent issue of the Journal of Planning Education and Research, looked at 172 women in Erie County, N.Y., who lived in urban, suburban and exurban areas. ...more
Something to talk about
Thu, 07/22/2010 - 10:36
Let’s say you’re thinking of throwing a party anyway. It’s a mid-summer kind of urge, undertaken in response to the nagging sense that you have yet to properly exploit the social potential of this short and glorious season.
So why not enlist the aid of a nifty new outfit in this pursuit, and enjoy the largesse with which its unique concept seeks to furnish you? LetsPartyTalk is a novelty of an idea that takes word-of-mouth marketing to its limits with the somewhat cryptic offer of access to new products, prizes and promotions for individuals who volunteer to host a party....more
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