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Introducing: Inigo, a Queen West churrasqueira, takes over Igor Kenk’s old space

Inigo is Carlos Hernandez's take on the churrasqueira

While Dundas West is in the midst of a carnivorous craze with a serious emphasis on the pig (we’re looking at you, Porchetta and Co.), a new Queen West takeout spot at the southern end of Trinity-Bellwoods Park is putting its faith in the original white meat: chicken. Carlos Hernandez opened up shop at Inigo last week—in Igor Kenk’s old spot— where he’s offering his take on the Portuguese churrasqueira, those homey greasy spoons ubiquitous on College and Dundas West.

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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

Gaming Around

January 11, 2011 | 10:12 am

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Wonder no more: Queen West becomes 8-bit video game on Youtube

Having grown up with the sore thumbs that only the original Nintendo controllers could give, we always wondered what Queen West would look like if we could run and jump, Mario-style, through the foot traffic and over the streetcars.

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The Goods

Shop Talk

November 23, 2010 | 8:59 am

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Shopping on-line this holiday season? CB2 is now shipping to Canada

Crate and Barrel’s hipper, more modern spin-off, CB2, is in the middle of opening its first Toronto store on the beleaguered Queen and Bathurst corner in the old Big Bop building. We’ve been antsy waiting for the company to turn that monstrous, blue landmark into a gleaming outpost of contemporary furniture. But there’s still much work to be done. In the meantime, the store has just begun shipping to Canada from its on-line store (large furniture must be ordered over the phone).

Here, 10 pieces on our wish list >>

The Goods

Shop Talk

November 19, 2010 | 9:01 am

2 Comments

Introducing: Oliver Spencer, Queen West’s new menswear boutique

The clothes at Oliver Spencer are wearable and made for cool temperatures (Image: Fraser Abe)

The place: British tailor turned menswear impresario Oliver Spencer has opened his first Canadian outpost (his third shop; the others are in New York City and London) on Queen Street West, smack dab between fellow men’s retailers Fred Perry and Ruins. Spencer has clearly received the Queen Street decor memo: there is the requisite exposed brick, rough-hewn hardwood flooring and kooky accents (this time in the form of beakers, test tubes, butterfly specimens under glass and a human anatomy poster). Beyond the standard-issue interior, there’s a lot for guys to get excited about here—namely, a collection of wearable clothes not too avant-garde (read: weird-looking) to pull off.

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The Goods

Shop Talk

November 18, 2010 | 4:53 pm

1 Comment

Introducing: Jacob and Sebastian, where bathtime is for adults

Organic cotton towels from Amy Butler are $25

The place: As the giant tub in the centre of the store and the glass ducks floating around the perimeter would suggest, bath concoctions are everywhere. But washing up isn’t about Mr. Bubbles and soap crayons anymore—it gets the grown-up treatment at Jacob and Sebastian, a new beauty boutique at Queen and Bathurst.

The stuff: Aside from bubble bath accoutrements, look for Nuit Divoire candles ($35) that smell like a crackling fire (a fitting accompaniment to the Rogers fireplace channel for cramped apartments), handmade toothbrushes (who knew?) from Alan Stuart ($10) that come in op-art patterns and look great next to tubes of Marvis (the toothpaste that’s less Shoppers Drug Mart and more Drake General Store), and Curpon pillow cases ($40) that claim to reduce wrinkles. We’re skeptical but can’t argue with the methodology—it’s a whole lot less scary than this.

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The Hype

High Art

November 10, 2010 | 2:10 pm

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The National Gallery art-share program: one less reason to go to Ottawa

The National Art Gallery comes to Toronto (Image: Catherine Bulinkski)

We’ve all got one less reason to go to Ottawa, thanks to a new art-sharing program that will display items from the National Gallery of Canada at Toronto’s Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art. MOCCA announced Tuesday that a new three-year partnership with the National Gallery will bring prestigious contemporary artwork to the newly renovated Queen Street West gallery space. The partnership follows a similar agreement made last year between the NGC and the Art Gallery of Alberta.

The MOCCA and NGC will co-present at least five shows a year over the next three years, kicking things off yesterday with Adams/Demand/Farmer. The joint show features the work of photographers Kim Adams, Thomas Demand and Geoffrey Farmer of Toronto, Berlin and Vancouver, respectively. It will be followed in February by an exhibition of the work of Peruvian-born Torontonian Luis Jacob, who will select pieces from the National Gallery to be shown alongside his own art.

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The Goods

Shop Talk

November 9, 2010 | 2:33 pm

2 Comments

Introducing: the Lomography shop, where digital cameras are so 2009

The retro-looking point-and-shoots are much more affordable than digital SLRs

The place: Formerly the cluttered Red Indian Deco, 536 Queen Street West is now home to Lomography’s only Canadian store. First launched in 1997 as one of the first social networking sites for fans of LC-A cameras—everyday point-and-shoots known for their auto-exposure capability—the company quickly created an on-line product shop, followed by stores in major cities (Beijing, Paris, New York) around the world. At a time when both professionals and amateurs were making the switch to digital, Lomography developed a cult following among tastemakers (blame the nostalgic design and low price tag), who picked up the cameras on trips to Asia and Europe.

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The Hype

Prime Time

September 23, 2010 | 1:13 pm

8 Comments

The Being Erica BS detector: Season 3, Episode 1

CBC’s hugely popular Being Erica premiered its third season Tuesday night.

The good news: 1) With Lost out of the picture, BE stands a solid chance of being the best time travel–related TV show on the planet (Dr. Who? Exactly). 2) Fans finally got to see what was behind that mysterious green door from the season two cliffhanger.

The bad news: What is behind the door was, well, underwhelming. We’re giving the show the benefit of the doubt, hoping episode 1 was all about providing the somewhat snoozy but necessary set-up for another amazing season, and that we’ll eventually warm to the new group therapy posse (right now, we’re still kind of crushing on Kai). In the meantime, let us get down to the business at hand: time copping.

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The Dish

Restauran-TO

September 1, 2010 | 8:44 am

34 Comments

War on fun: New zoning bylaw prohibits restaurants and bars located south of Bloor from having back patios

Patio season ended early this year (Image: Matt MacGillvray)

Think the one-year ban on bars and restaurants on Ossington was strict? This week, a new zoning bylaw quietly went into effect; it forbids any restaurant or bar located south of Bloor from Victoria Park and west to the Humber from opening a backyard patio.

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The Dish

Opening

August 13, 2010 | 9:13 am

19 Comments

Introducing: Mangez, Parkdale’s new house of grilled cheese

Parkdale's local grilled cheesery (Image: Jon Sufrin)

When young entrepreneurs Paul Stavro-Beauchamp and Mike Scrimshaw set up newly opened Mangez (as in French for “eat!”), the idea was to address at least two deficiencies of the west-of-the-tracks bit of Queen West: the neighbourhood’s curious ice cream void and the limited grub options for late-night revelers. By day, Mangez is a quaint place to grab a sandwich or sample some ice cream from the east end’s Ed’s Real Scoop. Scrimshaw is particularly passionate about the French mint, which is drizzled with chocolate by hand as it’s crafted. The sandwiches are simple with gourmet touches, like the grilled portobello on ciabatta ($9) with aïoli, arugula and hummus. Add a leek and potato soup for $3.50.

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The Informer

Summit Survivor

June 28, 2010 | 2:42 pm

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Toronto G20 photo gallery: the eerie aftermath

A collage of the many businesses that had to cover smashed windows over the G20 weekend. Most have already been replaced (Image: Karon Liu)

Before hundreds of bystanders were corralled into a human blockade at Queen and Spadina under torrential rain, the downtown core had a sense of peacefulness, albeit one that was basically forced down with an iron fist. Yonge and Queen streets, where much of Saturday’s riots happened, were practically deserted at noon. Stores were boarded up or closed, the roads were empty, save the streetcars that were running unusually frequently, and the only people on the sidewalks were police officers guarding every city block, tourists and amateur photographers who were weirdly hoping for a repeat of the previous day.

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The Dish

Bottoms Up

June 28, 2010 | 11:17 am

1 Comment

Pride: a complete list of bars serving until 4 a.m.

Woody's will be serving late (Image: Neal Jennings)

Of all the fun associated with Pride—the parade, the wild outfits, the half-naked people littering the streets—call us jaded, but our favourite part is getting our drink on until 4 a.m. Like in recent years, most of the festivities will be split between Church Street and Parkdale, but this year, Queen West will be a whole lot quieter as homo hipster hot spot Wrongbar (and host of such major Pride events as Big Primpin’ and the Will Munro memorial Vazaleen) was denied a late licence—surprising news, as it was allowed to stay open late two weekends ago for NXNE. Here, the bars officially licensed to stay open until 4 a.m., from Thursday July 1 through to Sunday July 4:

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The Informer

Summit Survivor

June 28, 2010 | 10:54 am

1 Comment

Toronto G20 photo gallery: a surreal Sunday

Yesterday, protests throughout the city remained peaceful. Security officials, however, were taking no chances, breaking up groups of activists at various spots throughout the downtown. The final showdown on Spadina ended in mass arrests under teeming rain. Here, our photos from the confrontations on Queen West and at the Eastern Avenue detention centre.

The Informer

Summit Survivor

June 27, 2010 | 2:27 pm

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G20 Toronto photo gallery: after the riots

In the wake of yesterday’s violent anti-G20 protests in downtown Toronto, police attempted to regain control of the streets while people looked on, continued with peaceful demonstrations or snapped photographs of the unusual events. After more than 500 arrests and a night of continued violence, the downtown core became calm once more. Here, our slide show of the state of Toronto after yesterday’s upheaval.

A man offers free hugs to police, protesters and passersby in downtown Toronto on June 26, 2010 (Image: Aaron Leaf)

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