Along with prix-fixe menus and pink slip parties (we’re looking at you, Globe), reduced corkage fees have become a popular recession-era tactic for restaurants trying to attract diners. Ontario jumped on the BYOB bandwagon in January 2005, it has never had the same success as similar programs in Quebec. That is, until now.
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Starfish’s Shucker Paddy brings some more Irish to the east end

Patrick McMurray stands before yet-to-be-completed Ceili Cottage in Leslieville (Photo by Signe Langford)
Leslieville must have the luck of the Irish. The east-end neighbourhood will be home to two new Irish pubs this spring: The Roy, at 894 Queen Street East, and the Ceili Cottage, at 1301 Queen Street East. The latter doesn’t look like much right now, but the bones are there. And according to proprietor Patrick McMurray, champion oyster shucker and owner of Starfish, they are good bones. The space was last an unremarkable auto body shop, but the building itself dates back to the 1850s. McMurray is now peeling back the layers of paint, paper, motor grease, plywood and cement in order to create the Irish cottage of his dreams. “My wife and I often came down to Sweet Bliss Baking Company, across the road, and when she ran in for cupcakes, I’d sit in the car and stare at the place. I could see the outline of my Irish cottage under those bricks. One day, I was sitting and staring and there it was, the ‘For Rent’ sign.”
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Raw milk on trial, Loblaws infestation, a match made at Starfish
• The green “Pass” notices from Toronto Public Health are so ubiquitous, they barely even register anymore. But they certainly make the blood red “Closed” version all the more terrifying-especially when it’s on the door at the local Loblaws. The Dupont location is apparently infested with mice. [blogTO]





