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Posts Tagged ‘Wine’

Bottoms Up

Wayne Gretzky goes back to his pre-Olympic work: promoting wines, curling

Wayne and Walter Gretzky: His wish is our command (Image: Karon Liu)

Bedlam ensued at the Royal York Hotel last week as Wayne Gretzky mingled with guests, signed autographs and sipped wine from his very own label: 99 Estates, which makes 12 wines, ranging from chardonnays to rieslings to icewines. The event, held for members of the hotel’s loyalty program, was intended to promote the Great One’s vino and remind the world of two things: that proceeds from sales go to support young hockey players and that Canada is really great at curling. “My American friends came up with a theory that we created curling so that we could win a gold medal,” said Gretzky. “I said to them that they should make a third division that’s coed so that we can win another gold there.”

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| 2 Comments » March 9, 2010 | 12:20 pm | Karon Liu

Bottoms Up

Two vices are better than one: Toronto’s cafés break out the booze

A match made in Paris (and, increasingly, in Toronto) (Photo by Rob and Dani)

If we’re to believe Leah McLaren, the MacBook army has totally colonized Toronto’s coffee shops. Now, thanks to a new trend, they don’t have to leave when the sun goes down. More and more indie cafés are combining their coffee house concepts with bar concepts. By alternating between espresso and alcohol, spots like Blondie’s, Charlie’s Gallery and SpiceSafar are able to offer an all-day experience, while their teetotalling counterparts face a sobriety-induced early closure. “People enjoy a good coffee and a nice pastry in the morning, but they’re less likely to want the same thing in the evening,” says Scott Vivian, who recently took over Hank’s and added a nocturnal component, complete with Ontario wines and beer. “Rather than closing at 5, it just makes sense to do something else with the space at night.”

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| 4 Comments » February 18, 2010 | 11:40 am | Richard Trapunski

In Print

Best Ontario vintages of 2006 and 2007

The rainy 2006 weather produced lean, elegant reds, while the blistering hot summer of 2007 was perfect for bold bottles. Here, the best of both vintages.

Rosewood 2007 Pinot Noir Reserve (Photo by Daniel Shipp)

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| 3 Comments » February 9, 2010 | 8:33 am | Toronto Life Staff

Aprons & Icons

David Miller to Corey Mintz and carbohydrates: “Bugger off”

David Miller, then and now (Photos by Joe Howell, Tsar Kasim)

David Miller will walk out of city hall a changed man, having lost 50 pounds and the approval of most Torontonians. We can draw our own conclusions as to why he’s no longer a municipal rock star—workers’ strike, TTC, garbage bins—but the Star’s Corey Mintz has the skinny on the mayoral figure. The critic-cum-columnist cooked dinner for Miller last week and reports, among other things, that the mayor is strictly anti-carb. “The only thing the mayor doesn’t clean off his plate,” writes Mintz, “are wedges of sweet potato.”

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| Leave a Comment » January 29, 2010 | 10:21 am | Natalie Goldenberg-Fife

Restauran-TO

Five 2010 trends to watch: we ask Jamie Kennedy, Anthony Walsh, David Lee and other chefs what to look for in the coming year

Bespoke bread from Marc Thuet (Photo by Renée Suen)

It’s no secret that 2009 was rough for restaurants—“It’s a year a lot of restaurateurs are happy to see go,” says C5’s Ted Corrado—but with the new year almost a month old, optimism is back on the table. We talked to some of the city’s top chefs about five culinary trends for the coming year.

1. Less Is More
Small, chef-run restaurants that are down-to-earth in both atmosphere and culinary style. Chef Jamie Kennedy, who’s focusing on the Gilead Bistro, a decidedly more casual restaurant than the Wine Bar he sold last fall, anticipates more “chef-driven” spots like J.P. Challet’s Ici Bistro and Grant van Gameren’s Black Hoof. Claudio Aprile, who’s working on his second restaurant, Origin, agrees: “I’m hoping that we see a lot more restaurants that are open kitchen, 30 seats, three line cooks.”

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| 4 Comments » January 28, 2010 | 11:45 am | Davida Aronovitch

Bottoms Up

Is sacramental wine an Ontarian’s ticket to cheap booze? An atheist toys with the “province’s most glorious loophole”

Sacrelicious: holy wine is hard to come by (Photo by Guillermo Viciano)

“Sacramental wine may be the province’s most glorious loophole,” says Mark Schatzker in the Globe. He risked fire and brimstone recently by trying to buy wildly under-taxed vino from a religious supplies store near Pearson airport. The LCBO collects only 15 per cent on the 200,000 bottles of holy hooch sold each year—that’s one quarter its normal rate—making a three-litre jug of Burgundy ring in at $24.75. The catch, of course, is that the wine must be used for religious purposes; Schatzker, an avowed atheist, had trouble making up a scenario. “The bottom line, it quickly became apparent, is that without a signed letter from a deacon, rabbi or bishop, I wasn’t walking out with any wine.”

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| Leave a Comment » January 27, 2010 | 11:20 am | Robert Furtado

Opening

Just Opened: Ciao Wine Bar mixes South Beach and Italy, and moves it all to Yorkville

Upstairs, downstairs: a modern staircase leads to Ciao's rustic underground (Courtesy of Ciao Wine Bar)

For Ciao Wine Bar, its newest high-octane hub, the Liberty Entertainment Group has shaken up the formula that has served them well at Rosewater, Spice Route and Tattoo Rock Parlour: one part dinner, two parts party is being replaced with two parts dinner, one part party. “We’re diversifying our portfolio,” says CEO Nick Di Donato, who tapped his Neapolitan roots to give Ciao an authentic Italian feel (he added a pinch of South Beach for good measure).

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| 1 Comment » January 21, 2010 | 9:45 am | Davida Aronovitch

Restauran-TO

Jamieson Kerr talks about selling Crush and opening a second Queen and Beaver-esque pub

CrushWineBar After eight years as owner and operator of Crush Wine Bar, Jamieson Kerr has decided to sell the once-French, now-British King West bistro in order to focus on his growing family and the Queen and Beaver—his Elm Street gastropub that opened last spring. “I’ve been spending six nights a week at Crush, and I felt it was time to give a bit of time back to my family,” Kerr tells us. “A great offer came my way, to be honest. We all know that the economy was tough on large fine-dining restaurants, and I managed to hold my own, but when this offer came along, it was worth looking at.”

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| 1 Comment » January 15, 2010 | 3:38 pm | Jon Sufrin

Read All About It

World bitters shortage, the end of “foodie,” early bird specials as youth fad

• A hiatus at the Angostura Bitters plant in Trinidad has resulted in a paucity of the boozy drink ingredient at American bars. The recent resurgence of such old-timey drinks as manhattans, old-fashioneds and dark and stormys has led to a rise in the use of bitters in fashionable bars everywhere. Freemans in New York City (think Le Petit Castor, but on the Lower East Side) is reporting that suppliers are rationing three bottles per account, on-line retailer BevMo is sold out, and San Francisco bartenders are canvassing the city, looking to hoard the stuff. At least some bars here in Toronto aren’t suffering—they’re making their own. [Grub Street]