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All stories relating to gentrification

The Weekender: Jane’s Walk, Toronto Comic Arts Festival and six other can’t-miss events

CCTV, DJ Woody and Abel Boulineau

1. JANE’S WALK (FREE!)

Inspired by urban writer/activist Jane Jacobs, this festival of walking tours, led by Toronto-loving volunteers, is all about seeing the city with new eyes. With over 170 walks to choose from, we’ve narrowed our selection down to three: (Video) Eyes on the Street, U of T prof Andrew Clement’s exploration of the downtown core’s CCTV cameras; a gentrification-focused tour of Cherry Beach; and the cultural studies pick, A Hipster’s Guide to Ossington. May 7 and 8. Various locations, janeswalk.net.

2. KARDINAL OFFISHALL (FREE!)
Kardi’s made some headway south of the border, signing with Akon’s Konvict label and recording with chart toppers like Estelle and David Guetta, but he’s still a hometown boy. Proof? This free concert in Yonge-Dundas Square, part of Coke’s 125th anniversary celebrations. And last year’s “The Anthem” of course. May 7. Yonge-Dundas Square, icoke.ca.

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The Dish

Opening

January 24, 2011 | 2:57 pm

2 Comments

Introducing: Fifth Elementt, Bay Street’s Indian fusion restaurant reborn on Queen West

Inside the new Fifth Elementt (Image: Jon Sufrin)

When Bay Street’s Fifth Elementt closed down last May, chef Johnee Savarimuthu knew he wanted to continue the Indian fusion restaurant’s legacy. His culinary career had taken him down many roads—from sommelier to Disney cruise cook to head chef at New York City’s Revival—but he’d never owned his own restaurant before. So he and his sous-chef partnered up and bought the Fifth Elementt brand, taking it to Queen West earlier this month in the space where Bangkok Paradise used to churn out its signature pad see ew.

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The Informer

From the Print Edition Neighbourhoods

January 12, 2011 | 8:47 am

23 Comments

Gerrard Street East Guide: our nine favourite places along Little India’s main drag

The shop lights on Gerrard Street East stay on till nine—a late-night tradition that started out with the old Bollywood movie house that originally brought Indian merchants to the strip. Now sari shops, glowing neon signs for Kashmiri tea and sidewalk stands selling spiced corn on the cob keep the area filled with Pakistani Canadians from nearby Victoria Park, South Asian families in from the burbs, and residents from the slowly-but-surely gentrifying side streets. The retail bustle is creeping west of Jones, where several new businesses are revitalizing a dreary stretch of empty storefronts, noodle houses, laundromats and hair salons. By Crystal Luxmore | Photography by Emma McIntyre

Start the Gerrard Street East tour »

The Dish

Neighbourhoods

July 29, 2010 | 5:00 am

41 Comments

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. By Karon Liu. Photos by Jenna Marie Wakani.

The Dish

Opening

July 19, 2010 | 5:00 pm

17 Comments

Introducing: Around the Corner, the west end’s new gluten-free café and breakfast spot

Breakfast is served at Around the Corner (Image: Signe Langford)

New Toronto—that little pocket of post-war bungalows at Islington and Lakeshore—is teetering on the brink of gentrification. Just off the tired, time-worn main strip, new residents are tearing down the dinky houses to build dream homes by the water. Stepping in to feed these folks is Mark Ali, the enterprising foodie-locavore who has owned and operated The Village Butcher for the past three years. At his new café, Around the Corner, Ali shifts his devotion to all things fresh and local to the world of gluten-free eating.

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The Informer

Cityscape

March 22, 2010 | 11:55 am

2 Comments

Downtown Yonge BIA’s domination plans continue apace

(Image: Carsten Keßler)

The Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area, the group that helped boost the not-quite-NYC-no-matter-how-hard-it-tries Yonge-Dundas Square, is looking to expand its territory as far south as Adelaide and as far north as Charles. The proposal is opposed by some local business owners who would prefer not to face the annual fee of 14.5 cents per square foot and who are worried that expansion would spell corporate gentrification for the area. “If we get too big and too slick, we turn into a Gap,” John Anderson, the long-time owner of Morningstar at Yonge and Isabella, told the National Post. “We turn into Queen Street between Beverley and Spadina, where there isn’t a Canadian operation on the street.”

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The Hype

Creative Types

March 15, 2010 | 2:45 pm

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Galleries reap rewards of Ossington restaurant restrictions

The Saint remains closed on Ossington (Image: Jessica Darmanin)

When the contentious moratorium on new bars and restaurants on Ossington Avenue was passed last year, the strip lost its gentrification momentum. The outright ban has been replaced by strict rules that limit the size of new restaurants, cafés and bars and restrict them to only the ground floors of buildings. Some business owners are troubled by what these regulations mean to the boom, but the Star notes that galleries have been able to capitalize by moving into large homes. Case in point, the opening of three new art projects.

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

January 15, 2010 | 8:43 am

4 Comments

Joe Pantalone swoops in to limit west-end nightlife—again

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Toronto’s would-be mayor Joe Pantalone is coming down hard on one of the city’s most popular nightlife destinations. After similar moves against Ossington and Harbord, the councilman is now supporting a motion put forth by residents living near the busy stretch of Queen West between Dovercourt and Gladstone. The proposal, which seeks to clarify the term “restaurant” and to limit patio sizes, was approved by Toronto and East York Community Council but still has to pass city council. Pantalone claims that this section of Queen experienced “too much change, too fast” and that “a sense of equilibrium was lost.” Perhaps we have a different definition of “fast,” but The Drake, The Social and The Gladstone have been up and running for years (even the Starbucks at Dovercourt, famously graffitied “Drake you ho this is all your fault,” opened in 2005). We wonder what the construction of the Bohemian Embassy and West Side Lofts condo projects will do to that equilibrium.

• In search of more balance on West Queen West [National Post]

The Goods

Shop Talk

December 7, 2009 | 2:15 pm

4 Comments

Shoppers Drug Mart will open at Queen and John

(Photo via Google Street View)

Last week, Urban Planet closed the doors on its massive store at 262 Queen Street West (the same building that once housed Caban), and the latest news is that Shoppers Drug Mart will be taking over the 20,000-square-foot space. The story was reported today in the National Post as the official sign of “long-coming death of Queen Street West bohemia,” though we’d never associate chain clothing store Urban Planet with bohemia.

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The Dish

Deathwatch

November 19, 2009 | 11:51 am

57 Comments

Carman’s Dining Club steak house finally put out of its misery

Carman's Dining Club, 1959-2009 (Photo courtesy of Google)

Arthur Carman’s storied and troubled steak house on Alexander Street went into hibernation this summer, never to wake up. This makes the restaurant—credited with introducing Toronto to garlic bread—the latest Village establishment to disappear in recent months (the list also includes Crews and Tango, Bigliardi’s, Il Fornello and Zelda’s).

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

July 29, 2009 | 8:00 am

11 Comments

Jolt of caffeine: 13 new independent cafés open in Toronto

Brew colours: Espresso's popularity endures (Photo by Iain Farrell)

Brew colours: coffee houses are sprouting up everywhere this recession (Photo by Iain Farrell)

While McDonald’s, Tim Hortons and Starbucks duke it out across North America in their giveaway coffee war, a new batch of independent brewers has emerged in Toronto. Since our last roundup six months ago, at least 13 new cafés have opened up. Here, organized by neighbourhood, is our survey of the city’s hot new fuel-up joints.

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

June 11, 2009 | 8:41 am

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The Ossington Guide

Lovers likely awaiting a table at Foxley, a popular Ossington Avenue restaurant (Photo by Jessica Darmanin)

Over the past few years, we’ve watched the Ossington strip evolve from a no-go set of dodgy storefronts to an edgy Queen West offshoot to the city’s hippest drag—a gentrification so rapid that city council recently imposed a year-long moratorium on licensing new bars and restaurants. While residents and entrepreneurs face off over growing pains, we traipsed the avenue, day and night, to compile a user’s guide to Toronto’s latest eating and drinking destination.

View the guide>>

The Dish

Aprons & Icons

May 5, 2009 | 2:52 pm

12 Comments

Rosewater’s former chef, Paul Boehmer, jumps on the Ossington bandwagon with his new restaurant

Ossified: The avenue is changed forever (Photo by Dawn Paley)

How much more can Ossington take? A lot, it seems. The avenue’s seemingly endless gentrification will take another step this summer when chef Paul Boehmer opens his first restaurant, Böhmer. After considering Queen West and Yorkville, the former Rosewater Supper Club chef set his sights on a 5,000-square-foot single-storey building at 93 Ossington Avenue. “I see a real surge of restaurants on Ossington. It’s bringing the whole street alive, and it’s full every day,” says the chef, whose credits also include Scaramouche, Atlas and, more recently, Six Steps. “If you capture a reasonable market—like, don’t charge $45 for an entrée—and keep it to a price range where people can afford it and hang out, they’ll keep coming back.”

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The Dish

Pantry Raid

February 26, 2009 | 2:14 pm

16 Comments

Mark McEwan predicts that Torontonians will “get” his North York version of Dean & Deluca

Mark McEwan, shopkeep (Photo by Nikki Leigh McKean)

We’ve been hearing about McEwan—Mark McEwan’s proposed gourmet grocery store—for what seems like eons now. News about it broke in late 2007, with an opening date set for January 2009. But then we were told we’d have to wait another five months. Now, even though controversy is brewing over the store’s gentrifying effects, we are told that the suspense is almost over. Come June, the Bymark chef will open the doors to his supermarket at Lawrence and Don Mills. He envisions the size of his store as somewhere between Pusateri’s and Whole Foods, with aisles of gourmet ingredients and prepared foods tended by employees offering restaurant-style service.

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