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The Weekender: Private Lives, Queen West Art Crawl and six other events on our to-do list

Rakim, the Queen West Art Crawl and Private Lives

1. PRIVATE LIVES
This 1930s comedy by Noël Coward is responsible for about three quarters of romantic comedies today. Just look at the plot: divorced couple Elyot and Amanda and their respective new partners find themselves on vacation at the same hotel on (wait for it) the French Riviera. Campy, banter-laden shenanigans ensue, naturally. Kim Cattrall and Paul Gross star as the lovely ex-couple, which sounds just about perfect. Sept. 16 to Oct. 30. $35–$175. Royal Alexandra Theatre, 260 King St. W., 416-872-1212, mirvish.com.

2. STIFFED! FILM FESTIVAL
TIFF wraps up this weekend but that won’t stop this indie film fest from trying to steal its thunder just a little. The filmmakers featured at this one-day event have three things in common: they’re all Canadian, they’ve all recently directed a short film and they were all passed over for a screening at TIFF. Sept. 18. $15. The Annex Wreck Room, 794 Bathurst St., stiffedfilmfest.com.

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The Hype

From the Print Edition

July 19, 2011 | 8:45 am

25 Comments

How the music now ruling the rap charts became so decidedly middle-class

By Anupa Mistry

(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.

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The Hype

The Inn Crowd

February 14, 2011 | 12:34 pm

7 Comments

Seven-year itch: the Drake Hotel announces plans for expansion

The Drake Hotel (Image: Amber Dawn Pullen)

Since the day its current incarnation opened—Valentine’s Day, 2004—the Drake Hotel has been the restless centre of West Queen West. Unable to remain contained in its original building, the self-proclaimed “hotbed for culture” spread east, spawning a retail shop and barbecue joint. And now, as part of its seventh anniversary celebration, the Drake has announced that it will be expanding yet again. The plan is to provide additional rooms, new menu items, and enhanced performance and exhibit spaces for artists.

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The Dish

De-licious

January 4, 2011 | 4:15 am

5 Comments

The Best of Winterlicious 2011: Toronto Life’s 62 favourite restaurants

(Image: Renée Suen, from the torontolife.com Flickr pool)

January is upon us, and for many hungry Torontonians, that means one thing: Winterlicious. The menus are less predictable than previous years—crème brûlée’s out, lentils du Puy are in—so even the ’Licious haters might have a reason to take advantage of the festival this year. We’ve already named the 12 menus that we think are the best bets, but that doesn’t begin to cover it. Here, find Toronto Life’s 62 favourite Winterlicious restaurants, complete with menus, reviews and reservation numbers.

Winterlicious runs from January 28 to February 10. Reservations are accepted from January 13 onward (January 11 for American Express users).

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The Dish

Opening

November 25, 2010 | 12:56 pm

5 Comments

Introducing: The Big Guy’s Coffee Shop, Queen West’s latest coffeemonger

With a name like The Big Guy’s Coffee Shop, it’s tempting to think of Parkdale’s latest café as some kind of ironic jab at Starbucks and Tim Hortons. It’s named after the owner, Steven Turner, who earned the moniker during a managing stint at Second Cup because, well, he’s a pretty big guy. The South African expat has had a fairly successful run with The Big Guy’s Little Coffee Shop in New Toronto and decided a new venture closer to downtown was the next step.

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The Dish

Locavoracious

November 25, 2010 | 10:40 am

3 Comments

Cowbell is the first restaurant in Toronto to get LEAF certification for its green ways

Ring my bell: Cutrara and company get a green thumbs-up (Image: Google)

When it comes to providing environmentally sustainable cuisine, locavore haven Cowbell walks the walk, according to Leaders in Environmentally Accountable Foodservice (LEAF). The new Alberta-based organization, which aims to help diners recognize green restaurants, spent hours extensively examining Cowbell’s energy and water use, its menu and the way it deals with waste and recycling, among other criteria, before giving Cowbell the distinction of being the first LEAF-certified restaurant in Toronto.

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The Informer

Cityscape

November 19, 2010 | 3:01 pm

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Dufferin Street jog is fixed: finally, the bus ride to the Ex is not scarier than the rides at the Ex

The finished product of the Dufferin Jog correction looks remarkably like this artist's conception (Image: St. Lawrence)

Two things happened under a rail bridge in Parkdale yesterday: Dufferin Street was straightened out after a century, and mayor David Miller got an end-of-term (and desperately needed) boost to his credibility. Construction is now complete on the three-year project to eliminate the Dufferin Street jog, which heretofore forced drivers to use Gladstone, Peel and Queen West in order to go north or south.

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The Dish

Opening

October 28, 2010 | 12:01 pm

19 Comments

Introducing: Churchill, the latest lo-fi bar on “destination” Dundas West

Remember West Queen West before it was a zoo? The folks at Churchill, Little Portugal’s newest bar, sure do. The owners of the new place are looking to resurrect that 2006 feeling, one street north. Churchill, staffed by Parkdale expats, joins Camp 4, Red Light and Brockton General in the glut of lo-fi-vibe bars that seem to be spilling off Ossington onto Dundas West.

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The Goods

Shop Talk

October 21, 2010 | 11:43 am

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Introducing: Ruins, a new men’s store at Queen and Shaw

Ruins has been lovingly renovated by the owners and their friends (Image: Hayley Murray)

The place: Impresario turned storekeeper Mikey Apples’ résumé lists several vocations: band manager, wardrobe assistant and vintage picker. So it’s fitting that Ruins, the menswear shop he owns with Josh Reichmann, another music industry veteran, functions as a cultural hub on Queen West. The store displays works by local artists, hosts shows by up-and-coming musicians and stocks obscure fashion tomes.

The owners and their friends did all the renovations, down to the metal window cages, fashioned by publisher, artist and smithy Tony Romano. A gothic archway salvaged from a church outside Toronto leads to Leonard’s—the in-house salon—where clients can go for a straight-razor shave.

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The Dish

Opening

September 27, 2010 | 11:16 am

3 Comments

Introducing: Bar Salumi, an aperitif bar by the owners of Local Kitchen

The interior of Bar Salumi. Volano meat slicer located near bottom left (Images: Jon Sufrin)

Inside Queen West’s new Bar Salumi—under hanging Berkshire prosciutto, garlands of hot peppers and a wild boar’s head—sits the Ferrari of all meat slicers: a Volano. In the hands of the right operator, the apparatus is supposed to make a perfect slice every time. Michael Sangregorio and Fabio Bondi, Bar Salumi’s owners, are hoping to become such operators. “It’s the most expensive thing in the entire bar,” says Sangregorio, who likens it to a Swiss watch. Bondi admits they’re trying to figure out how to use it to its full potential.

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The Hype

TIFF Talk

September 7, 2010 | 12:23 pm

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The 75 must-know TIFF hot spots

From Yorkville to West Queen West, here are the 75 restaurants, bars, clubs, cinemas and party venues that every festival-goer should know. Be sure to check back throughout the Toronto International Film Festival as we plot new celebrity sightings, event locations and more.

See the full-sized map »

The Informer

From the Print Edition

July 6, 2010 | 9:05 am

21 Comments

Risk Assessment: a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood guide to the safest places to buy real estate in Toronto

No neighbourhood will react the same way to a burst bubble. We talked to market watchers, economists, mortgage brokers and seen-it-all real estate agents for the scoop on where to park your money, what streets to avoid and when to sell, sell, sell By Bert Archer

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The Informer

From the Print Edition

June 16, 2010 | 5:00 am

22 Comments

50 Reasons to Love Toronto

Clockwise: no. 13 Jeanne Beker, no. 27 Drake, no. 4 Regent park, no. 2 cheese, no. 1 Smitherman, no.8 Royal Conservatory, no. 14 Yannick-Muriel Noah, no. 48 new TTC cars, no. 7 Jewish Lesbian Wiccan Wedding

HOW DID WE DO IT? While the Great Recession battered other cities, Toronto has emerged triumphant—Bay Street is bullish, our real estate market is hot, and the streets are sparkling for this month’s G20. Yes, our success has a lot to do with our stingy financial system, but it’s also because smart, interesting people move here every day, attracted to a city that’s challenging and gritty and exciting and indulgent (we have a restaurant dedicated entirely to grilled cheese sandwiches, Reason No. 2). If Torontonians have one shared flaw, it’s that we’re pathologically reluctant to acknowledge our greatness. Now, more than ever, we have reasons to brag

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The Hype

Fake Rivalries

May 4, 2010 | 1:59 pm

4 Comments

Toronto’s east vs. west debate fuelled by iPad-toting Star reporter

So excited he must be an east-ender (Image: Sam Pullara)

For those who believe the hype, the iPad is capable of doing just about anything. Well, it can’t make phone calls, but apparently it can perpetuate Toronto’s east-west stereotypes like nobody’s business.

As if the iPad needed more publicity, the Star casually took one into various cafés throughout the city just to see what would happen (for the record, the Globe’s Amy Verner did this weeks ago). Patron reactions to the much-coveted device were nearly comical in their predictability: with few exceptions, east-enders acted as if the Messiah had returned (or finally arrived, to be PC about it), while west-enders sipped their lattes with studied indifference.

Various media organizations (including ourselves) have tried, with little success, to determine which end of the city is cooler, but the iPad managed to elicit this telling quote:

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The Dish

Bottoms Up

April 7, 2010 | 11:06 am

15 Comments

Next target in city’s war on fun: West Queen West

Sound and fury: many are irked by the loud revellers in West Queen West (Image: 416style)

There was the moratorium on new restaurants on Ossington, the end of community pizza nights at Christie Pits and the brouhaha over Ici Bistro because teenage gangs were attracted to J.P. Challet’s croissants. Now the Star is reporting that West Queen West is a hotbed of hooligans because places like The Drake are serving more booze than food (somehow, this is news). Customers leaving these establishments are noisy and have a penchant for “public urination and vomiting,” says the paper. It’s an old neighbourhood issue that has flared up again, with local councillors Adam Giambrone and Gord Perks wondering if the city should cap the number of bars on Queen West. There’s just one problem: technically, Toronto has no bars.

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