Read the rest of this entry »
Remember West Queen West before it was a zoo? The folks at Churchill, Little Portugal’s newest bar, sure do. The owners of the new place are looking to resurrect that 2006 feeling, one street north. Churchill, staffed by Parkdale expats, joins Camp 4, Red Light and Brockton General in the glut of lo-fi-vibe bars that seem to be spilling off Ossington onto Dundas West.
The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com
All stories relating to bars
Introducing: Bar Salumi, an aperitif bar by the owners of Local Kitchen
The interior of Bar Salumi. Volano meat slicer located near bottom left (Images: Jon Sufrin)
Inside Queen West’s new Bar Salumi—under hanging Berkshire prosciutto, garlands of hot peppers and a wild boar’s head—sits the Ferrari of all meat slicers: a Volano. In the hands of the right operator, the apparatus is supposed to make a perfect slice every time. Michael Sangregorio and Fabio Bondi, Bar Salumi’s owners, are hoping to become such operators. “It’s the most expensive thing in the entire bar,” says Sangregorio, who likens it to a Swiss watch. Bondi admits they’re trying to figure out how to use it to its full potential.
Read the rest of this entry »
Nine highlights of Toronto’s first ever Beer Week
Perhaps the only thing Torontonians seem to love more than patio season is the beer they drink on patios. Well, the thermometer may have dipped, but the organizers of Toronto Beer Week see no reason why they should stop slinging suds. In an homage to all things frothy and foamy, 45 bars and restaurants have banded together to celebrate the first ever Beer Week—a showcase of craft beers and foods.
Below, our Beer Week preview, with our best bets for the best ways to get tipsy from now until Sunday (the full schedule is here).
Read the rest of this entry »
The swag series: celeb guests get Bulgari bling, Bay blankets at the Hazelton Hotel
(Image courtesy of the Hazelton Hotel)
Yorkville’s Hazelton Hotel is one of the swankiest places to stay in Toronto, which is why 30-something celebs are booked in for this year’s film festival. To keep the VIPs happy and presumably away from hotels closer to the Lightbox (Hyatt Regency, The Thompson), each guest receives a goodie bag complete with a Hudson’s Bay Company cashmere throw, Bulgari cufflinks, a monogrammed Longchamp tote, a Moleskin film journal, Kiehl’s skin care products, Burt’s Bees spot treatment, VIP passes to bars Goodnight and Amber, tickets to George Stroumboulopoulos‘s party tonight at the Hazelton, vitamins, drinks and room fragrances. Take that, King West.
The 75 must-know TIFF hot spots
From Yorkville to West Queen West, here are the 75 restaurants, bars, clubs, cinemas and party venues that every festival-goer should know. Be sure to check back throughout the Toronto International Film Festival as we plot new celebrity sightings, event locations and more.
See the full-sized map »
Introducing: Stirling Room, the Distillery District’s first and only nightclub
Glow job: Stirling Room's new bar in a classic building (Image: Jon Sufrin)
There are no ghosts in one of the buildings at the old Gooderham and Worts Distillery, at least not according to entrepreneur Albert Rishes. He would know, too, since he and his partner Simo Korac—both veterans from Embassy nightclub—spent months there setting up Stirling Room, the first and only nightclub in the Distillery District. Open for just over a month, the new venture fills the space that once housed A Taste of Quebec and brings parties and live music to a neighbourhood known more for sleepy evenings than pumping nightclubs.
Read the rest of this entry »
Where to get a TIFF drink: the film festival’s 44 spots with 4 a.m. licences
The arrival of TIFF always demands answers to three crucial questions: which celebs are coming to town, what are the best flicks to see, and where can we get inebriated at ungodly hours of the night? The first two we’ve taken care of here and here, and now we have the nearly complete list of venues with extended hours for TIFF. The news is good: last year, around 25 bars and restaurants were approved for extended hours; this year, about 44 will be serving late. The selection is more varied, and with spots like Gabby’s and Hey Lucy on the list, it’s decidedly more casual. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario tells us that the list could expand as more venues get last-minute approval. Here, the 44 bars officially licensed to stay open until 4 a.m. »
War on fun: New zoning bylaw prohibits restaurants and bars located south of Bloor from having back patios
Patio season ended early this year (Image: Matt MacGillvray)
Think the one-year ban on bars and restaurants on Ossington was strict? This week, a new zoning bylaw quietly went into effect; it forbids any restaurant or bar located south of Bloor from Victoria Park and west to the Humber from opening a backyard patio.
Read the rest of this entry »
Best of the City: our guide to everything exemplary in Toronto in 2010
We’ve become a city obsessed with provenance. We know the politics of the farmer who collects our eggs, whether our T-shirt designer plays in an indie band, and which Japanese artisan hand-carved our kid’s non-toxic forks. We gossip about the people behind our stuff like they’re celebrities because notable origins almost always mean a superior product—and loonies well spent. This year, our crew of expert consumers dug deep, bravely comparing the gleam of cufflinks, road-testing fixed-gear bikes, sniffing perfumes, measuring poolboys’ biceps, and sampling an entire summer’s worth of steak, ice cream, fresh-squeezed lemonade and more. Here is our guide to everything exemplary in Toronto in 2010
Introducing: Boutique Bar, Church Street’s new cocktail bar
Sit and sip: Boutique Bar's happy-hour crowd takes over the patio (Image: Boutique Bar)
For a year and a half, French competitive mixologist Julien Salomone and his wife, Haligonian Devon Salomone, combed the city for a quaint space to open their own cocktail bar. The search ended when they found Veda‘s old space on Church Street: right in the heart of the gay village and minutes away from their house. Boutique Bar‘s first reveal took place last month during Pride, but is now officially open for business, bringing the strip a new patio space and a gamut of deluxe cocktails.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Dundas West Guide: our 21 favourite places between Ossington and Lansdowne
The strip of Dundas West between Ossington and Lansdowne has not been immune to the wild gentrification going on directly south of it. New restaurants, stores and bars have been cropping up for the past couple of years (Red Canoe, a swank Canadiana shop, opened two weeks ago), but there is a hesitation in the ’hood to turn Little Portugal and Brockton Village into the next Ossington. Incoming business owners make a point of blending in with the long-standing family-owned bakeries, soccer bars and pho stops. Even in new establishments, the decor has a thrift shop feel, and the prices cater to locals rather than destination diners. From east to west, here are our 21 favourite Dundas West spots for cheap eats, good music and authentic Portuguese cuisine.
The Toronto Temperance Society: College Street’s “secret” speakeasy
Members only: the interior of the Toronto Temperance Society (Image: Jon Sufrin)
There may be no decoy phone booth in the vein of New York’s secret bar, Please Don’t Tell, but a door on College Street betrays no hint of the Toronto Temperance Society (TTS), a newly renovated space above Sidecar where some of the city’s best cocktails are painstakingly crafted for members only. TTS just opened on Thursday, and it’s the kind of place where martinis are always stirred (sorry, Bond) and where bartenders—quite dapper in their suspenders and bow ties—get a kick out of procuring hard-to-find bitters.
Read the rest of this entry »
Follow Toronto Life on Twitter, Facebook and via RSS