Halted hip-ocracy: Restaurants like Pizzeria Libretto were lucky to open before the city stopped issuing licences (Photo by Ingorrr)
• Due to an increase in noise complaints from residents, the city has put a year-long moratorium on restaurant and bar licences being issued to spots on the Ossington strip. Restaurants that applied before Tuesday at 2 p.m., like Paul Boehmer’s upcoming resto-market, are safe. [National Post]
• The backlash over Governor General Michaëlle Jean’s ingesting a raw seal heart during a traditional feasting ceremony in Nunavut has reached international levels. PETA used the words “blood lust” and “Neanderthal,” and a spokesperson for the EU Environment Commissioner called the event “too bizarre to acknowledge.” Elsewhere, New York gossip site Gawker called her “Canada’s Sarah Palin.” [CBC]
• A British ice cream maker flew Italian tenor Marcello Bedoni to the U.K. to sing to his herd of cows, believing the music will calm the beasts and result in increased milk production. The gelato company, Antonio Federici, was named after its creator, who believed in music therapy for animals. [Telegraph]
• Most Toronto chefs get their meats from Cumbrae’s or farms outside the city, but New Yorkers head to Queens, where live chickens, cows and goats are living their final hours in one of many slaughterhouses. Unbeknownst to many, New York has the highest concentration of live animal markets in the United States. Still, regulators and store owners continue to clash over how the businesses should be run, especially after a cow got loose. [New York Times]
• Gordon Ramsay probably invented some new expletives when his New York restaurant, The Gordon Ramsay at The London, received 24 violation points from the city’s board of health. Among the violations are surfaces “not properly washed” and “unacceptable surface material.” Serenity now. [UK Mirror]
City of Toronto officals = Lost.
Lets stop good business and growth in that area even during a recessionary period in favour of crack heads and prositiutes!
I would rather opt for more police presence to monitor the bar crowd than have drug dealers, drunks and dirt bags conducting their business behind the scenes. I think some of the local residents (who have been their forever) need to give their heads a shake too.
May 29, 2009 at 10:37 am | by chimmymaybe we don’t care about the noise as much as we don’t want anymore faceless yuppie bars polluting the “good” businesses you speak of that are going on the strip.
yes i understand gentrification is going to happen, and so be it. but i’m glad the city has slowed the gold rush of prospective owners looking just to cash in, as opposed to actually bringing something unique to the area (as the amazing Lakeview, Baby Huey’s or the Dakota do).
August 16, 2009 at 1:29 pm | by nick