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Mr. Cream’s Kensington Avenue storefront, complete with neon signs (Image: Gizelle Lau)
For a neighbourhood with so much pedestrian traffic, especially during Pedestrian Sundays, it was just a matter of time until someone filled the void that was left when Kensington Market Organic Ice Cream departed for Queen West. Mr. Cream, part of a wave of new parlours this summer, opened a few weeks ago, and we stopped by to see what it was all about.
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Owner Luc Essiambre mans the counter at his eponymous ice cream shop (Image: Gizelle Lau)
King Street West has seen a lot of action this month, with the revamp of Brassaii’s menu, the closing of M:brgr, the opening of WVRST and now the launch of its first ice cream shop, Cool Hand Luc, which opened on June 3 with free samples for all. Behind the counter at the new shop, cleverly named after the Paul Newman flick Cool Hand Luke, is the affable Luc Essiambre (whose nickname growing up was, of course, “Cool Hand Luc”). After spending 15 stressful years in logistics for the aviation industry, Essiambre decided that he’d had enough and began working in an ice cream shop, serving scoops and mastering the art of making it from scratch.
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We don’t know much about Cool Hand Luc, the brand new ice cream shop opening on King West today, but it is Friday, and who doesn’t like free ice cream? From 4 p.m. till close, Cool Hand Luc is providing samples for all. Those who don’t enjoy lineups should probably stay away, but everyone else should go ahead and get their dairy on.
Cool Hand Luc, 545 King St. W.
American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman (played by Christian Bale) once scolded his secretary, Jean, for nearly placing her spoon on his coffee table, instead of inside an empty Haägen Dazs carton. We’ve used coasters and remained cautious about drips at dinner parties ever since. But now we no longer have to worry about angering potentially homicidal clean freaks—or even the meticulously tidy people in our lives—because we found these Japanese art deco–inspired ice cream sets at the Drake General Store, with cups that perfectly fit their matching spoons, preventing unexpected spills. The cups are sold as a set of five, each with its own unique pattern, which kind of reminds us of wine-glass charms that help us ensure we’re drinking our own malbec and not someone’s inferior merlot. Only now, five people can enjoy their favourite ice cream without the extra carbs from a cone or the shame from eating out of the tub over the sink. $85 for a set of five.
Drake General Store, 1011 Yonge St., 416.966.0553, drakegeneralstore.myshopify.com.
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Torontonians have, by and large, gotten used to being behind the times when it comes to street food. But we didn’t expect Hamilton to quietly creep into the forefront of the curbside food revolution. This summer, two new food trucks, Cupcake Diner and Gorilla Cheese, are slated to start prowling Steeltown’s mean streets in search of hungry diners—and we have to say, we’re a little jealous.
Macarons and a small, custom-sculpted cake (Image: Catherine Gerson)
For weeks, we’ve been eyeing a little storefront at the corner of Bloor and Delaware, as Rosanne Pezzelli and her fiancé Christopher Stopa prepare the space for its grand opening. Bakerbots started off as Pezzelli’s catering business, but she’s expanding to include a storefront retail operation as well. Currently open only on weekends, the shop is warming up for a full opening in June.
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Manager Kaili Kinnon and owners Alex Sinclair and Andrew Helfrich
“Blansdowne,” to use the oft-deprecating moniker for the strip of Bloor around Lansdowne, may be losing traction with the recent addition of new places to eat. One such business is The Lansdowne Cone, which opened its doors a few weeks ago to an enthusiastic reception from the area’s residents.
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Health-conscious indulgences at the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association show (Image: Renée Suen)
Yesterday we reported the results of the second annual Canadian Chef Survey of menu trends. The relatively predictable list might reflect the chefs’ outlook on food trends, but attending the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association show showed us exactly what food-service providers are pushing onto the dining room table. After the jump, 12 trends we observed from the CRFA show.
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They left six-figure corporate jobs for the queasy uncertainty of self-employment. Tales of emptied bank accounts and the elusive but oh-so-sweet gratification of running your own shop
Tim English, 46
Then: Bay Street lawyer
Now: owner of Chocolateria
I started my Bay Street career as a labour and employment lawyer at Filion Wakele Thorup Angeletti in 1991. Then I moved to Ontario Power Generation for eight years, and after that to Direct Energy for about a year and a half. I had a high salary, about $250,000, and was on the cusp of moving up into the executive ranks, but in the back of my head, I’d always wanted to run my own business and work for myself. In the summer of 2009, when I turned 45, I decided it was time.
My first step was to study every shopping district in the city, to figure out what kind of business appealed to me and which neighbourhood was booming. I realized chocolate is really hot right now. I had taken baking classes at George Brown College for fun and enjoyed it. So I set up a production kitchen in my house and rented a candy kiosk at the Downsview farmers’ market for three months last summer. I wouldn’t call it a hugely successful apprenticeship: the chocolate melted in the summer heat, and I ended up giving most of it away. Also, Downsview doesn’t attract a demographic that buys quality chocolate and pastries. Read the rest of this entry »
Lady Gaga’s legal team is accusing the Icecreamists of being “deliberately provocative and, to many people, nausea-inducing”
While Lady Gaga may enjoy being outrageous—she arrived at this year’s Grammys in an egg-like vessel in which she’d reportedly been incubating for 72 hours before her performance—she apparently doesn’t have a taste for human breast milk ice cream. Gaga’s lawyers began legal proceedings against the ice cream parlour Icecreamists for its latest flavour, which was recently confiscated by authorities over health concerns. The problem? It’s called “Baby Gaga.”
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(Image: EverJean)
Last Friday we told you about the London scoop shop that was serving up ice cream made from human breast milk. Yesterday, local government officials in London, England, swooped into Icecreamists to confiscate the human-derived treat. Store owner Matt O’Connor had made the ice cream from milk donated by 15 women who responded to an on-line advertisement requesting their services. According to the Associated Press, a spokesperson from Westminster City Council said that government authorities were responding to complaints from the public suggesting that items made from other people’s bodily fluids should not be sold for public consumption.
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The Icecreamists pop up shop at Selfridges in London (Image: Everjean)
Remember that that chef in New York who made cheese out of his wife’s breast milk? Well, now a London store owner has also taken it upon himself to make ice cream out of human dairy. Matt O’Connor, owner of Icecreamists, wants customers to think of this breast milk ice cream as an organic, free-range treat. Except in this case, “free range” refers to the 15 women who answered an on-line ad on Mumsnet and provided their milk to be creamed.
Priced at a whopping £14 (roughly $22) per serving, the concoction is inexplicably named “Baby Gaga,” and its recipe calls for human milk mixed with Madagascar vanilla pods and lemon zest. Victoria Hiley, one of the women who provided her milk to O’Connor’s cause, told Reuters she stands behind the free-range rationale for the product.
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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.
Gosling in 2007 (Image: Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic/Getty Images)
Ryan Gosling admitted this week that he was fired from The Lovely Bones back in 2007 because he put on too much weight in preparation for the role. He told The Hollywood Reporter that he melted Häagen-Dazs and drank it in order to bulk up to 210 pounds, but director Peter Jackson wanted a trimmer look for the role of grieving father Jack Salmon and replaced him with Mark Wahlberg. “I really believed he should be 210 pounds,” Gosling said. “I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong.”
• VIDEO: Ryan Gosling: Why Peter Jackson Fired Me From ‘Lovely Bones’ [Hollywood Reporter]
• Gosling fired from film after ice cream binge [ABC News]
The St. Clair West strip between Bathurst and Oakwood is known for its diverse population, interminable TTC construction, and that classic Toronto mix of urban grit, Old World–authentic mom and pop shops, and yuppie startups. Our list of 20 can’t-miss stops is the best way to get to know the area.
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