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(Image: Jon Sufrin)
Two weeks ago, Jesse Girard and Richard Lambert, the pair behind Parkdale’s Parts and Labour, went before the Ontario Municipal Board for the last stage of their protracted fight for a 180-person rooftop patio. We caught up Girard to find out how the hearing went and catch up on Toronto’s ongoing war on fun.
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The 2011 issue of Piola Magazine
Queen West’s Bohemian Embassy condo will soon be home to the first Canadian location of Piola, a chain of eat-in pizza restaurants (not to be confused with local chain Pizzaiolo, whose closest location is 1.4 km east). The restaurant, which features a brick oven and 95 seats, touts its “rigorously Italian” heritage, although only the original location is in its home country (compared to eight in Brazil and 10 in the States). The Toronto menu is still being finalized, but we’re told it’ll be similar to the restaurant’s Miami fare, with a few twists.
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Splendido’s younger, hipper (and possibly drunker) younger sibling (Image: Laurent Hilaire)
When we heard that Splendido co-owners Carlo Catallo and Victor Barry were taking over the Queen West space formerly occupied by Oddfellows, we were eager to see how they were going to bring their high-end background into a new spot and neighbourhood that were anything but. The result is The County General, a casual restaurant and bar where, it turns out, Catallo and Barry have a few new tricks up their sleeves—and aptly, in Catallo’s case, a bunch of tattoos as well.
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Dishcrawlers in San Mateo ended their meal with an haute pop (Image: sjsharktank)
Now that the inaugural run of the Toronto Underground Market is behind us, it’s time for Toronto to hop onto the next hot foodie trend out of San Francisco. That’s right: Dishcrawl—think a pub crawl for food—will make its first excursion in Queen West on October 5. And just like TUM, Dishcrawl Toronto sold out well in advance.
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Resident urban creative class guru Richard Florida recently drew up a list for USA Today’s Larry Bleiberg of 10 up-and-coming North American neighbourhoods that are just booming with “new restaurants, parks and condos,” and—shocker—Queen West made the cut. Florida notes in particular the art and music scenes at the Drake and Gladstone hotels. Apparently, it “keeps getting more interesting the farther west you go.” Read the whole story [USA Today] »
They love it. We want it. Three red-hot releases
“The Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami was a big deal back in the ‘90s and early 2000s, and this is an exciting return for him. An English man and a French womanin sun-drenched Tuscany are mistaken for a couple and decide to keep up the pretense. There are beautiful, subdued moments looking at relationships, before the film turns into more of a mystery.”
—Chris McCarroll Manager at Black Dog Video
Certified Copy
directed by Abbas Kiarostami
(Sept. 6)
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Inside Paul Boehmer’s new pub (Image: Renée Suen)
The Böhemian Gastropub, the new casual restaurant from executive chef and owner Paul Boehmer (Böhmer), stands out from the takeout joints and bars that dominate its section of Queen West. Built on the site of the now-defunct Oh Boy Burger Market (whose menu Boehmer consulted on), Böhemian, which opened last Friday, arrives just in time for the first residents of the new Queen and Portland Condominium and Lofts.
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(Image: Gluekit; D-Sisive by Melanie Moore; Shad by Christine Lim; Drake by Christian Lapid/CP Images; Airplane Boys by Justin Create)
At 3:46 a.m. on December 12, 2010, a post titled “Introducing The Weeknd” appeared on the blog of Toronto’s most famous rapper, Drake. Two songs—“What You Need” and “The Morning”—revealed a new R&B singer to the world and kick-started a rabid following. The Weeknd’s free nine-song release House of Balloons garnered 200,000 downloads in its first three weeks, and his videos have been watched on YouTube hundreds of thousands of times. It’s been a rapid rise, like that of his mentor, Drake, whose 2010 full-length debut Thank Me Later went platinum in the U.S. just over a month after its release. This is Toronto’s hip-hop moment, and the city’s steadfast identity as safe, stable and middle-class—once the basis of its lack of rap credibility—is the reason.
Inside the city’s newest scoop shop (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
The Boreal Gelato Company, Parkdale’s laid-back new scoop shop and café, is a breath of cold, fresh air after the slew of recent hipster café openings along Queen West. Owner Melanie Clancy originally considered opening up shop over by Trinity Bellwoods Park, but found herself too smitten with her own hood to head further east. Not wanting to infringe on the business of her neighbourhood pals—like the crew from The Mascot across the street—and noting the absence of a family-friendly hangout spot, she decided a gelateria would be the perfect addition to the strip.
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(Image: Steve Mann)
Much more conveniently located than a galaxy far, far away, a small tech company called InteraXon on Queen West is developing products that will allow you to control your iPad with your mind. InteraXon uses software originally created by the legendary U of T engineer Steve Mann, who was dubbed “the world’s first cyborg” because of his ingenious wearable computer devices. The company’s thought-controlled computing technology translates brainwaves into digital signals recognizable by a computer—be it in a video game, automobile or robot butler. In other words, the brain’s electrical activity, which you can supposedly learn to manipulate just like any muscle, is converted by an interface into binary code. InteraXon’s first public splash was a demo during the 2010 Winter Olympics that allowed headset-equipped visitors in Vancouver to mentally control light shows at the CN Tower, Parliament Hill and Niagara Falls. The company promises more radical breakthroughs in the next couple of years, including an unobtrusive, wearable home-monitoring system that will predict epilepsy seizures and notify doctors and family.
Mavrik Wine Bar’s cozy room with an open kitchen in the back (Image: Davida Aronovitch)
Mavrik Wine Bar, a cozy new place replacing the Korean spot San, quietly opened a couple weeks ago one door east of Queen West staple Czehoski. Following the lead of DeKefir, Prairie Girl Bakery and these guys, co-owners Joanne Park and Elizabeth Choi have done what so many cubicle-slaves only dream of. The childhood pals left high-paid corporate jobs to open their ideal hangout spot: a homey wine bar—hold the pretension. “We left our cares behind,” says Elizabeth, a former Wall Street trader whose love of wine was inspired by hip New York hubs like Terroir and Blue Ribbon.
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(Image: Nicole Villeneuve)
The sign still reads “Chippy’s,” but it won’t stay that way for long. The Bloor Street West location of the self-proclaimed “rock ’n’ roll chip shop” is no longer, and the windows are now covered with the distinct caricature and familiar red-and-black flannel motif of the incumbent Smoke’s Poutinerie.
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Nadège Patisserie’s new 700-square-foot Rosedale space
Fourth-generation confectioner Nadège Nourian won over many Toronto palates when she opened her eponymous Queen West bakery and café almost two years ago—it’s become a destination for high-end pastries. This week, Nourian, along with her front-of-house manager and partner Morgan McHugh, opened a second store in Rosedale, bringing a little bit of Paris to the gourmet strip.
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