Every year celebs from all over the world flood into the city for TIFF, but for many, it’s the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario that’s the real star throughout the month of September. Just in time to combat post-summer blues, the AGCO grants certain venues the rights to the elusive 4 a.m. last call. While last year’s list clocked in at 44 venues This year’s list of venues with extended hours finally caught up with last year’s, bringing the current number to 44—some of them not open to the public (we’re looking at you, Windsor Arms) and others open for one night only. Check out the list of late-night watering holes after the jump and stay tuned for updates on extended hours, as more are expected to roll in before the festival.
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Best of the City 2011: Five top spots for a delicious drink

(Image: Christopher Stevenson)
Rooftop drink Cocktail class Ice Blood orange margarita Wine by the glass
The Secret Life of a Bay Street Hooker
The X-rated trade secrets of a Bay Street call girl. She’s sophisticated, smart and open minded. She meets her clients at Le Germain or the Hazelton and gives them what they want.

On an unseasonably warm evening in October, Chloë Marcelle decided to walk to work. Her slim figure encased in a silk blouse, silver-speckled Chanel leather skirt, net stockings and black silk Manolos, she left her apartment and strolled through the downtown core to her favourite boutique hotel, Le Germain on Mercer Street.
For $12 million, you can name this pink diamond after yourself

It even outshines the competition
After the joy of rolling around in a pile of $100 bills wore off, we started wondering what to do with our millions—extreme wealth can be so tiresome. That’s why we were thrilled to find out that Canada’s largest pink diamond will be auctioned off next month in Toronto. It’s expected to fetch between $8 and $12 million, but here’s why that’s a steal:
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Q&A with Carey Mulligan: Fighting with Keira Knightley, working with Ryan Gosling and eavesdropping on moviegoers

Carey Mulligan at the TIFF premiere for Never Let Me Go. (Image: Jeff Vespa/Wire Image/Getty Images)
In Never Let Me Go, she’s the plain, overlooked member of a love triangle (the others are real-life friend Keira Knightley and Andrew “New Spider-Man” Garfield), but off-screen, Carey Mulligan is a showstopper. The 25-year-old, who was a first-time Oscar nominee after last year’s TIFF hit An Education, walks into a suite at the Park Hyatt with a chic bleached-blond layered cut and TV-ready makeup that makes her look more like the movie star she is than the girls next door she usually plays. During a round-table interview, the London-born actress shows she a starlet with definite ideas about where her career is heading. Specifically, it’s heading into the role of a late-20s Latina in a Ryan Gosling movie. Maybe it’s better if Carey explains—the full interview, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Are the doomsayers right? Is it the end for Yorkville as TIFF epicentre?

The mean streets of King West (Image: Google Maps)
With the Bell Lightbox TIFF headquarters at King and John finished, doomsayers have begun predicting the demise of Yorkville as the festival epicentre. The new Lightbox—with its five screening rooms, festival programming and trendy new restaurants—is obviously going to provide Yorkville’s facilities with some competition. It’s also across from the Hyatt Regency, the official host hotel, and very close to the Thompson Hotel, where Shenae Grimes, Adrian Grenier and Enrique Iglesias have been spotted recently.
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Fisherman’s Friends: Chris Nuttall-Smith reviews Maléna and The Atlantic
The season’s most anticipated openings are two seafood-centric spots

Maléna at Av and Dav (Image: Ryan Szulc)
Toronto is a raw bar town. We’re over-served by excellent oyster houses, and we probably consume more sushi per capita than any city east of Vancouver. But cooked fish is a problem here; we’ve never had a standout seafood spot. This spring, Nathan Isberg, of Czehoski and Coca fame, opened what early adopters described as a nose-to-tail disciple’s take on the life aquatic on Dundas West. And in Yorkville, a neighbourhood that’s desperate for a few more decent places to eat, front-of-house kings David Minicucci and Sam Kalogiros launched Maléna, a flashy fish spot. It looked like Toronto might finally turn into a seafood town. Read the rest of this entry »
The TIFFing point: last night at 9 p.m., the film fest ended in spirit, if not in fact
We regret to inform you that TIFF‘s party circuit is dead. The knell sounded just before 9 p.m. last night, on a quiet Yorkville Avenue, and it sounded a lot like cougars shrieking. Sure enough, up stumbled a terribly lush twosome. One was big and tall, with badly dyed blond hair and a suspiciously crumpled Holts bag (all the better to stow her flip-flops, we guessed). The other squeezed more easily into her Costa Blanca duds, but by the same token, seemed less able to handle her Jager shots. “Hey you guys! Are you gunna party all niiiight?” shrieked the lightweight into the street. She then added, redundantly, “We’re so wasted.”
With a helpless shudder, we realized: she’s going to talk to us.
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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
The patio season started early this year, which simply means there’s more time to hit the city’s best al fresco dining and drinking destinations. 


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