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All stories relating to little italy

The Dish

Opening
February 3, 2012 | 9:31 am

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Introducing: Playful Grounds, the new kid-friendly coffee shop in Little Italy

Kids and coffee, together at last (well, sorta) (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)

Playful Grounds has only been open a few days, but the kid-friendly College Street café is already garnering plenty of attention from the neighbourhood. Indeed, when we dropped by, one mother looked around incredulously before asking, “When did this open?” The shop is the creation of Davina Cheung-Brown and Tera Goldblatt, who met at a local drop-in centre. “We wanted to create a place that has everything moms need,” Goldblatt told us. “Drop-in centres are life savers, but we wanted an adult place that can accommodate kids—rather than the other way around.” Tired of getting the hipster brush-off in regular coffee shops, the duo decided to open a café that welcomes kids but can still appeal to adults.

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The Dish

Opening
December 21, 2011 | 4:29 pm

3 Comments

Introducing: BruDa, a new pan-European restaurant from two Little Italy vets

Inside BruDa, once home to Negroni (and, briefly, Carpano)

Little Italy has seen a brisk changing of the guard in the past couple years, with the rise of new buzzy spots like Woodlot, Acadia and Frank’s Kitchen. A couple weeks ago, Neil Da Costa and Victor Brum, two veterans of the neighbourhood who first met at Trattoria Giancarlo, opened BruDa in the space that long held Negroni (and briefly held Carpano). Rather than pigeonholing themselves into specifically Italian, French or Spanish cuisine, they describe their restaurant’s menu as “European.”

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The Dish

Locavoracious
December 12, 2011 | 2:04 pm

31 Comments

Nine members of Toronto’s backyard-chicken underground on the special bond between man and bird

By Signe Langford | Photographs by Kevin Hewitt

On November 30, councillors Joe Mihevc and Mary-Margaret McMahon took on the considerable challenge of trying to overturn nearly three decades of city hall opposition to backyard hens. They didn’t quite succeed. (Their motion to study the issue was referred to the municipal licensing and standards committee for consideration in February.) With his trademark zeal for kindergarten humour, Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti opined, “Now we’re going to have thousands of chickens crossing the road and we’re going to have neighbours fighting against neighbours because they don’t want to hit the chickens.” But what Mammoliti and his ilk don’t understand is that urban hen keeping didn’t really go away when it was outlawed in 1983. It just went underground—into garages, sheds and secluded corners of backyards. The hopes of these renegade urban hen keepers are now running high, riding Toronto’s ever-growing wave of locavorism. Here, nine of those rebels, who break the law every day, talk about that other love that dare not speak its name: that between man and hen.

First up, Jill and Sunshine »

The Informer

Gimme Shelter
October 28, 2011 | 2:15 pm

4 Comments

Condomonium: $800,000 for a converted condo in a Methodist church at Dovercourt and Bloor

ADDRESS: 701 Dovercourt Rd., Unit 305

NEIGHBOURHOOD: Palmerston-Little Italy

AGENT: Daiva Dalinda, Royal LePage

PRICE: $749,500

THE PLACE: A recently converted, 105-year-old Methodist church at Ossington and Bloor.

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The Goods

From the Print Edition
September 23, 2011 | 2:00 pm

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The Chase: A couple finds the street life of their native Caracas at Yonge and Eglinton (of all places)

The BuyersBy Monika Warzecha

The Buyers: Venezuelan expats Adriana Rosemberg, a 29-year-old scriptwriter, and her husband Jonathan, a 32-year-old ad executive.

The Story: The Rosembergs moved to Toronto in June 2009 to escape the violence and political instability of Venezuela. They were accustomed to the noise and street life of Caracas and wanted to live in a vibrant neighbourhood downtown. They also wanted enough space to spread out, and they quickly fell for the idea of a finished attic that could serve as a studio—she writes, he deejays. So the couple set a limit of $800,000—and armed themselves with a home inspection handbook—before setting off last December on a search that would span five months and more than 40 houses.

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The Dish

Opening
September 19, 2011 | 2:11 pm

37 Comments

Introducing: Hey Meatball!, Rodney Bowers’s new Little Italy mix ’n’ match meatball joint

Kyle Brown and Rodney Bowers outside Hey Meatball!’s College Street storefront (Image: Caroline Aksich)

On a wall in Rodney Bowers’s new College Street venture Hey Meatball!, there’s a photo of a bandana-clad Bowers holding up a sign that reads “You’ll love the taste of our balls.” Bowers’s name is usually associated with more elevated dining—he worked at Mistura, opened The Citizen and The Rosebud and consulted for The Gabardine—but after getting married and having a daughter, he wanted a break from the high-stress world of $45 entrées.

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The Dish

Opening
August 2, 2011 | 3:17 pm

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Introducing: Acadia, Scott Selland and Matt Blondin’s new southern-inspired College Street restaurant

Acadia, Scott Selland’s first restaurant, serves food inspired by the South, the Lowcountry and the Maritimes (Image: Renée Suen)

Earlier this summer we previewed Acadia, a new venture by first-time restaurateur Scott Selland (Splendido, Colborne Lane, Susur) aimed at introducing the flavours of the Lowcountry and the South to the city. The restaurant opened without much fanfare in late July, but has already seen a lot of buzz in the industry. We ventured back to the corner of College and Clinton to check out how Acadia is doing on its promise to shake up Little Italy’s complacent dining scene.

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The Goods

From the Print Edition
July 7, 2011 | 1:00 pm

3 Comments

Great Spaces: A Toronto screenwriting couple steals a home renovation idea from their own show

By Serah-Marie McMahon. Photography by Michael Graydon

Great Spaces

Karen Troubetzkoy and Derek Schreyer met at film school in Vancouver more than 15 years ago and have been romantically and professionally inseparable ever since. Nine years ago, they bought a 1940s two-storey home in Little Italy—their first house. It was stumbling distance from Café Diplomatico, Schreyer’s favourite hangout, and a bargain because it had been slow to sell.

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The Informer

Gimme Shelter
May 11, 2011 | 2:53 pm

8 Comments

House of the Week: $799,000 for a chic home in a trendy west-end neighbourhood

ADDRESS: 6 Shannon Street

NEIGHBOURHOOD: Palmerston–Little Italy

AGENT: Michael Camber, Bosley Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage

PRICE: $799,000

THE PLACE: Inside and out, this two-bedroom, three-bathroom row house in one of the Toronto’s hottest neighborhoods is the ideal home for a new family or a pair of up-and-coming young professionals. After a complete gutting and full-scale renovation in 2007, the house looks and feels brand new while still fitting into its traditional Victorian neighbourhood.

BRAGGING RIGHTS: The bright blue paint job, slatted wood detailing and manicured landscaping exude the kind of curbside charm that will make your neighbours wonder who the architect was.

BIG SELLING POINT: The backyard. Complete with integrated automated lighting, a bubble-rock fountain, two separate sitting areas—one with Nova Scotia slate—and a custom-designed garden by Mark Cullen, it’s the kind of space that makes any of the local patios seem completely redundant.

POSSIBLE DEAL BREAKER: The busy, fun-filled locale isn’t for everybody. The house is an urban oasis in so many ways—but the nearby College, Dundas and Ossington strips don’t exactly promise quiet, restful nights.

BY THE NUMBERS:

• $4,095 in taxes
• 3 bathrooms
• 2 bedrooms
• 2 backyard sitting areas
• 1 ensuite study
• 1 private front balcony
• 1 bubble-rock fountain

The Dish

From the Print Edition
March 30, 2011 | 10:05 am

59 Comments

Best New Restaurants 2011

Oysters from Frank's Kitchen

This year’s crop of restaurants, from a million-dollar dining room to a brazen burger joint, pushed Toronto’s culinary culture in creative, comforting and blessedly cheap directions. Here, the 10 new spots that are redefining the way we eat, drink and play in the city By Chris Nuttall-Smith | Photography by Ryan Szulc

See the list »

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The Dish

Opening
February 25, 2011 | 3:59 pm

4 Comments

Introducing: Briscola, Cinq 01’s rustic Italian successor

Inside Briscola Trattoria (Image: Gizelle Lau)

Briscola, the new rustic Italian restaurant from Ink Entertainment’s Charles Khabouth and Amber’s Toufik Sarwa, opened last Friday to the packed crowds one would expect from a collaboration between the two nightlife vets. After taking over the space of Sarwa’s short-lived Cinq 01 restaurant, Briscola apparently saw visits from Ben Mulroney and Galen Weston Jr. on its first weekend.

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The Hype

Creative Types
February 25, 2011 | 12:07 pm

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Awesome Foundation’s first grant winner, Stephanie Avery, to play connect the dots with Toronto

A gravy boat around City Hall

Who’s the awesomest of them all? According to the Toronto branch of the Awesome Foundation, it’s Stephanie Avery, who was named the recipient of its first grant last night. A self-described “totally rad” artist, Avery was awarded $1,000 for her Connect the T-Dots pitch, a project that aims to turn aerial satellite views of Toronto into a giant connect-the-dots number puzzle.

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The Dish

From the Print Edition
January 14, 2011 | 3:14 pm

2 Comments

Modern comforts: Chris Nuttall-Smith takes on Woodlot and Ici Bistro

Two neighbourhood restaurants serve up light-handed renditions of our rib-sticking favourites By Chris Nuttall-Smith

(Image: Vanessa Heins)

The comfort food revolution has brought us much to be thankful for, including cheaper, more casual restaurants, and the glories of deep-fried mac-and-cheese, but it hasn’t exactly delivered a surge of culinary innovation. Spurred on by a sputtering economy, the comfort trend spawned a wave of barbecue joints, gourmet burger shops, neighbourhood pubs and by-the-book bistros, and it introduced childhood-evoking staples like cookies and milk to scores of restaurant menus where the “licorice root, three ways” used to be. It offered certainty when everything else around us seemed ready to collapse, not only for diners but for restaurateurs, too.

Comfort eating, like love and psychotherapy, is driven by equal measures of longing (for simpler times) and industrial-grade denial (s’mores are less fattening when they’re made with single-estate chocolate from São Tomé), powerful motivators both. So most chefs have been happy to feed our cravings without letting their own high-minded notions get in the way.

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The Hype

From the Print Edition
November 11, 2010 | 8:52 am

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The Conversation: Claudia Dey and Bridget Stutchbury discuss sex

The place: Arabesque Café in Little Italy. The people: writer Claudia Dey and biologist Bridget Stutchbury. The subject: the sex lives of creatures great and small

What do our courtship rituals have in common with the mating habits of birds? Quite a bit, as it turns out. Take, for instance, the fact that male birds are expected to sing and strut for the females in their lives, or that lady birds have a thing for older feathered fellows. These tidbits, plus dramatic tales of avian betrayal, are unveiled in The Bird Detective: Investigating the Secret Lives of Birds, the second book by the biologist and York University prof Bridget Stutchbury (seated on the left). Claudia Dey, a novelist, playwright and former Globe and Mail relationship columnist, is equally adept at discussing the birds and the bees, though her oeuvre is restricted to the human realm. Her new self-help manual, How to Be a Bush Pilot: A Field Guide to Getting Luckier, gives would-be Casanovas the what’s-what on everything from the female anatomy to how to talk dirty in a way that will turn women on, not off. We introduced them, bought them a cup of tea and listened in.

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The Informer

Urban Diplomat
September 3, 2010 | 2:52 pm

6 Comments

Urban Diplomat: what to do when a cyclist is breaking the law with a toddler in tow

(Image: Incase.)

Dear Urban Diplomat,
I was cycling behind a father with a toddler in a rear bike seat, and he was weaving in and out of traffic, and even ran a red light. I was so angry that when I caught up to him at an intersection, I lit into him. He told me to mind my own business and sped off. I obviously didn’t get through to him. What should I have done?
—Good intentions, bad temper,
LITTLE ITALY

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