Toronto | torontolife.com

The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com

All stories relating to Toronto

Toronto-born Tanya Taylor debuts at NYFW with a sense of whimsy and some killer prints

Tanya Taylor fall/winter 2012 (Images: Billy Farrell Agency)

While New York Fashion Week officially kicked off today, the week’s jam-packed schedule means shows have been running since yesterday morning. Among those early birds was Toronto-born Tanya Taylor, who debuted her eponymous fall/winter 2012 collection with a tea room–themed presentation at an art gallery in Midtown West. Taylor spent two years as a designer for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s Elizabeth and James brand before launching her own label, and we could see the influence of that line’s relaxed fits and eclectic outlook in her 17 looks. Covetable items? A short grey wool dress paired with a slim medallion-printed sweater, and all of Taylor’s chic tapered pants. Check out all of Taylor’s debut looks in our gallery after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Opening

February 9, 2012 | 4:17 pm

Comments

Introducing: Via Mercanti, Kensington’s new Neapolitan-style pizza parlour from a pair of Queen Margherita exiles

Massimo Di Lascio making a pizza (Image: Caroline Aksich)

For those tired of Terroni’s traditionalism, Libretto’s lineups and the long ride on the 501 out to Queen Margherita, there’s a new, laid-back Neapolitan-style pizza operation in town: Via Mercanti. The latest addition to Kensington Market is helmed by two Sicilian expats, Romolo Salvati and Massimo Di Lascio, who both have some serious pizza pedigree—they left the Queen Margherita only two months ago to set up shop in the recently shuttered Back Alley Woodfire BBQ and Grill, where Salvati was once the chef. Their new venture reflects both of their passions: pizza and coffee.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Caffeine High

February 9, 2012 | 12:29 pm

Comments

Over a million Tassimo machines recalled for spraying hot water

The TAS651, one of the models being recalled (Image: Tassimo)

Canadians who like their cuppa joe produced through futuristic robotic labour will be upset to learn that nearly a million Tassimo coffee makers are being recalled in Canada, as well as about 800,000 units in the U.S. In case you’ve never used a Tassimo, the machines uses “T Discs”—small containers filled by one of the partner brands with coffee grinds, tea leaves or other stuff—to make single servings of hot beverages. Tattooed baristas might hate them for their prepackaged, pre-ground coffee; armchair environmentalists might direct their scorn at the packaging that goes in the trash with every cup. But the latest round of haters is more likely objecting to the burns they can cause. According to the Toronto Star, in the U.S. there have been 140 reports of the machines “dousing people” with scalding water. In 37 of those cases, the victims suffered second-degree burns. Apparently, the discs can explode during the brewing process, spraying hot water on the unlucky brewer—or, in one case, a two-year-old girl. Full details of the recall are available on the Tassimo website. If indeed this is the beginning of the robot uprising, it seems it will be well caffeinated. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

The Hype

Prime Time

February 9, 2012 | 12:24 pm

6 Comments

Four Weddings Canada, episode 6: your wedding sucks

Mary, Shannon, Gayle and Julia (Image: Four Weddings Canada)

This week, Four Weddings Canada showcases its first gay wedding. Naturally, given past reality TV show models, we’ve come to expect the gay contestant to be the sassiest. Not so for 38-year-old Gayle, who’s about as entertaining as a 12-hour wait in a hospital waiting room. Instead of sass, episode six gives us a battle for bitchdom, complete with some of the bluntest honesty we’ve heard to date and a bride we have to assume is an infant because she can’t understand how to eat a slice of kiwi with her bare hands (it’s just never been done before!). Find out who doesn’t like drag queens, who’s the worst person ever to her own mother and whose boobs look great in her dress in our Four Weddings Canada TV brief after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

TV Diner

February 8, 2012 | 4:57 pm

Comments

Top Chef Canada reveals the rather stacked list of guest judges for season two

Remember last year when Chris Cosentino, one of the pioneers of the offal revival, visited Toronto for undisclosed reasons and claimed he could smell Chinatown from three blocks away? Or when Richard Blais, the molecularly inclined winner of Top Chef All-Stars, tweeted about the interesting tasting menu he’d just lunched on in Toronto? Or when Italian food legend Lidia Bastianich dropped in at All the Best Fine Foods? Turns out they weren’t here just because they love us—they’re all guest judges on season two of Top Chef Canada. Other notable judges and tasters include—and let us be clear, this is a bit of a spoiler for those who really like to keep their Top Chef Canada viewing pure—east-coast chef Michael Smith, season one host Thea Andrews (no hard feelings, we guess!), chef-about-town Matty Matheson of Parts and Labour, Leafs assistant captain Colby Armstrong, Susur Lee and his soon-to-be restaurateur sons Kai and Jet Bent-Lee, Toca’s Tom Brodi, Roger Mooking, Top Chef Masters winner Marcus Samuelson, last season’s winner Dale MacKay and his adorable son Ayden, Keisha Chante, Rick the Temp Campanelli, Lorenzo Loseto of George, Charlie’s Burgers mastermind Franco Stalteri, husband-and-wife dynamos Marc Thuet and Biana Zorich, Odd Bits author Jennifer McLagan, Vancouver Indian restaurateur and chef Vikram Vij and assorted competitors from last season, not to mention the somewhat bizarro guests we already told you about, like Alan Thicke and Mike Holmes. (Whew!) Not bad.

The Dish

Opening

February 8, 2012 | 3:30 pm

1 Comment

Introducing: Gusto 101, a new King West Italian joint that’s got wine on tap (from the basement winery)

The bar at Gusto 101 (Image: Gizelle Lau)

Gusto 101, the latest shiny new thing to appear in the perpetually-in-construction King West neighbourhood, opened its doors last Friday. Built out of a dilapidated old auto garage, Gusto 101 is still decidedly King West—and that’s exactly what owner Janet Zuccarini (Trattoria Nervosa), director of operations Jill McAbe and designer Alessandro Munge were going for. Inside, the bare cinderblock walls are outfitted with industrial-style light fixtures, and old licence plates hang on a wooden beam. The open kitchen shows off the restaurant’s centerpiece: a Tuscan-style wood-fire grill.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Hype

Prime Time

February 8, 2012 | 2:13 pm

Comments

The L.A. Complex, episode 5: everybody gets laid

We believe it was the great Sheryl Crow who once remarked that L.A. ain’t no country club. In this week’s episode, written by local playwright Brendan Gall (with cameos from Toronto comedians Chris Locke, Rebecca Kohler and Aaron Eves, no less), every character faced the challenge of how to act on their impulses, especially the self-destructive ones. More deets on who did the nasty and with whom after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Restauran-TO

February 8, 2012 | 1:34 pm

4 Comments

Zagat’s 2012 survey picks Toronto’s best restos and settles that pesky average tipping question

Scaramouche’s Keith Froggett (Image: Renée Suen)

Online restaurant review sites like Yelp and Urbanspoon may have cut into the crowd-sourced territory that Zagat once owned, but the yearly survey still has some clout—and the power to get diners in the door. The 2,266 food-loving Torontonians who voted in this year’s survey were crazy for Keith Froggett, giving fine dining restaurant Scaramouche top honours for food and also placing Scaramouche’s pasta bar in the top 10. But the winners weren’t all about linen tablecloths and tasting menus: The Burger’s Priest, with its epically greasy Vatican City burger, broke the top three for best food, while pan-Asian chain Spring Rolls was voted most popular restaurant (proving that democracy isn’t foolproof).

Read the rest of this entry »

The Hype

To-Do List

February 8, 2012 | 1:30 pm

Comments

The Weekender: Potted Potter, Rhubarb Festival and six other items on our to-do list

The Weekender: Potted Potter, Children’s Story Jam and Hamlet Live

1. HAMLET LIVE
Part post-apocalyptic dystopia (it’s set in 2080, and the set-up name-checks everything from violent solar flares to displaced populations to wartime atrocities), and part Shakespearean classic, this Hamlet adaptation keeps Will’s wording but places the young prince, Claudius, Gertrude and the rest of the gang in a futuristic Denmark. King Hamlet oversees a bloody battle to maintain the country’s borders, only to die at his brother’s hand “at the very height of his glory.” Now his son, the young Hamlet, is out for vengeance. In the interest of accessibility—and achieving as large an audience as possible—the play will be live-streamed online ($5), complete with multiple camera angles and on-air editing. To Feb. 11. $20–$40. The Annex Theatre, 730 Bathurst St., hamletlive.com.

2. EROTIC ARTS AND CRAFTS FAIR (FREE!)
Sweetly handmade crafts meet X-rated content at this fair, and it’s the only event of its kind in the country. Think saucy prints, bondage-inspired jewellery and maybe even a choose your own adventure–style zine. Be sure to stick around for the after-show: a cabaret (PWYC or $7) and a sure-to-be raucous after-party. Feb. 11. Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W., eroticartsandcrafts.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Hype

To-Do List

February 8, 2012 | 12:41 pm

Comments

The Pick: Love From Afar, a haunting tale of longing that occasionally masquerades as a circus act

Krisztina Szabó as the Pilgrim and Russell Braun floating above as Jaufré (Image: Michael Cooper)

To say the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Love From Afar has a lot going on would be a bit of an understatement. This particular take on Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s 2000 opera—about a medieval poet who falls in love with a faraway woman he’s never seen—was directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, a Cirque du Soleil alum, and the result is like a less flashy, opera-fied version of the troupe’s Michael Jackson Immortal show. Before the singing even begins, a shimmering sheet of blue silk flies over the audience. Then there are the cartwheeling tumblers, the dazzling video projections, and Russell Braun hanging in a suspended throne that looks like Glinda’s bubble from Wicked. It’s almost enough to distract you from the music.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Hype

Prime Time

February 8, 2012 | 12:01 pm

Comments

If you’re having no-strings-attached sex with your roommate, you can’t be on The Bachelor Canada

The Bachelor is a reality show that gets people talking, so it was only a matter of time before Canada got its very own weekly one-hour look into the world of insane women who vie for the attention of one presumably wealthy and attractive single man. But ladies, while you may check out on the “will do anything for screen time and public lip-locking” front, certain rules and regulations may keep you from being selected to compete. To be eligible, a candidate must be in line with the show’s definition of single—they must not be involved in a committed intimate relationship (those in a committed, intimacy-free relationship are good to go!), in a common-law co-habitation relationship involving physical intimacy (do you live at Melrose Place? Sorry, no Bachelor for you), or in a monogamous dating relationship lasting two months or longer. People who use reality TV as a vehicle for stardom are notoriously honest, hardworking people, so we can’t see anyone doing anything unspeakable, like pretending they’re not married or not shtupping their roommate. This application is absolutely foolproof.

• The Bachelor Canada: Thinking of applying? Read the fine print first [The Toronto Star]

The Dish

Aprons & Icons

February 8, 2012 | 10:38 am

2 Comments

QUOTED: Galen Weston on just what he thinks of the competition

Farmers’ markets are great….One day they’re going to kill some people though.

—Loblaw executive chairman Galen Weston at the Canadian Food Summit, reflecting on the importance of food inspections (to be fair, he later added, “I’m just saying that to be dramatic though”) [Toronto Star]

The Dish

Restauran-TO

February 7, 2012 | 4:49 pm

Comments

Councillors say there’s hope for patios at Campagnolo, Woodlot and more

(Image: Jon Sufrin)

Last week, we pointed out that city staff had recommended that patio permit applications for Campagnolo and Woodlot (among others) be denied at the February 14 meeting of the Toronto and East York Community Council, which prompted a helpful commenter to suggest things might not be as grim as they’d initially seemed. We called up a pair of councillors—Trinity-Spadina’s Mike Layton and Davenport’s Ana Bailão—who confirmed that, yes, staff must follow the letter of the bylaw in their reports. In other words, they must recommend that an application be denied for a patio within 25 metres of a residential zone—but that doesn’t stop councillors from approving patios that don’t meet every nitpicky requirement.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

De-licious

February 7, 2012 | 2:13 pm

Comments

We called the 10 most clicked Winterlicious restaurants to find out how the festival’s going (and how to get a table)

Hoping to squeeze into Canoe this Winterlicious? You’re out of luck (Image: Jen Chan from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool)

With the end of Winterlicious in sight, we got curious about how this year’s prix fixe madness was going. “Stronger than last year,” said Pangaea owner Peter Geary, who credits social networking with driving last-minute reservations throughout the festival. “Even last night, you could see people taking photographs of their meals and tweeting,” he told us (apparently phones at the dinner table are no longer a faux pas). The folks over at Canoe also noticed the impact of word of mouth, saying, “As soon as we change our voice message to say we have some availability, the phones go crazy.” While quick-fingered foodies have snapped up all of Canoe’s remaining tables, there’s still hope—the people at Scarpetta, Biff’s and Jump all advised diners to call last-minute, since no-shows are still very much a Winterlicious tradition. We also talked to the 10 restaurants whose menus got the most hits from our list of the 61 best bets to find out whether and when tables are still available.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Foodie Follies

February 7, 2012 | 12:51 pm

Comments

Brampton man asks council to permit extra backyard chickens (proving his city is cooler than Toronto)

Brampton resident and sometime poultry freedom fighter Joe Arlotto is doing everything he can to make sure his city looks cooler and more permissive than Toronto—at least when it comes to backyard chickens. Toronto councillors recently killed any hopes that our fair burg might allow its residents to keep laying hens in their backyards, meaning Brampton remains the only city in the GTA where chickens can still run free. Not satisfied with his city’s unusually relaxed stance on the birds, Arlotto recently asked Brampton councillors to allow him to add four more chickens and a rabbit to his collection (he already has two of each), purely for his family’s enjoyment. Arlotto’s property is 1.7 acres, and the Brampton Guardian reports that, at times, he’s had as many as two dozen animals on his property. If Arlotto doesn’t get his wish, we recommend he adopt the methods of Toronto chicken owners: buy a sweet mask, ignore the rules, and enter the chicken underground. Read the entire story [Brampton Guardian] »

All stories relating to Toronto

Contests

Links and Offers

Most shared stories today

The latest from across the St. Joseph Media network