(Image: Erin Seaman)

Having established its presence in Canadian malls, J.Crew is apparently now ready for Bloor West (both Kate Spade and Mulberry have followed a similar plan). A retail blog reports the preppy powerhouse is opening a new store in Guerlain’s former space at 110 Bloor. There’s no word on what exactly it will carry, but at only about 6,500 square feet, the space is likely a too small for both men’s and women’s apparel. [Retail Insider]

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New Hawthorne Food and Drink chef Mark Cutrara
(Image: Davida Aronovitch)

Hawthorne Food and Drink, the six-month-old Financial District lunch spot, has had a rocky spring. First executive chef Eric Wood left to run the kitchen at the boutique Beverley Hotel on Queen West. Then his replacement and former sous-chef Binh An Nguyen followed Wood to his new post, leaving Hawthorne in need of a chef once again. Enter Mark Cutrara, the man behind Parkdale nose-to-tail bistro Cowbell, which closed earlier this year after a six-year run. Cutrara started three weeks ago and he’s already made some changes, including a more protein-heavy menu and a $10 lunch special that’s keeping the place packed with cubicle-dwellers. He’ll make his official debut at The Stop Night Market tomorrow night, where he’ll be serving chicken satay at the Hawthorne booth. [Now]

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A silly woman threw a cup of juice on Rob Ford at a Little Italy street festival this weekend, sparking a slew of news articles, a predictably lame joke from brother Doug and the reluctant concession from the mayor that he may need a security detail. Of course, Ford is hardly the first public figure to be targeted by a riled up citizen with low impulse control. He’s now part of an elite club of political figures that have been ambushed by protestors with makeshift weapons, like Sarah Palin, George W. Bush and many more. A quick retrospective of the most awkward projectile-meets-politician incidents below.

Eggs: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnie barely seemed to notice when he was hit in the shoulder with an egg during his 2003 gubernatorial campaign in California. The Terminator star coolly shed his jacket and cracked a joke about wanting some bacon.

Shoes: George W. Bush

While George Bush was in Iraq in 2008, an Iraqi television journalist took off his shoes and chucked them at the president, who ducked with laudable quickness.

Green Custard: Lord Mandelson

In 2009, an environmental activist threw green-tinted custard on Peter Mandelson as he arrived to a low-carbon summit in London. The British business secretary later said, “She was so busy throwing what seemed like green soup or something in my face that she failed to tell me what the protest was about but, as you can see, thankfully is wasn’t paint and I’ve come through it intact.”

Tomatoes: Sarah Palin

During a 2009 book signing in a mall in Minnesota, a man threw a couple of tomatoes at the politican-turned-author, but missed her entirely, hitting a police commander instead. Palin didn’t even know about the incident until later.

Flour: François Hollande

Hollande, a presidential candidate in France’s 2012 election, expressed mild surprise after being hit with a bag of flour at a campaign appearance. He took a few minutes to shake out his hair, then resumed his speech.

Glitter: Mitt Romney

In February 2012, a protestor in Minnesota threw a shower of glitter on the then-presidential hopeful, who played it off like it was confetti. Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, and Rick Santorum were all also glitter-bombed during the race.

(Images: Sarah Palin, Pete Marovich/Getty Images News; Arnold Schwarzenegger, Scott Barbour/Getty Images News)

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Address: 27 Mill Street
Neighbourhood: Bobcaygeon, Ontario
Agent: Saskia Sevink, Century 21 Pinnacle Realty Ltd., Brokerage
Price: $898,000

The Place: A log cabin custom built 12 years ago in the Kawartha Lakes area.

Bragging Rights: The Tragically Hip’s popular, cryptic song “Bobcaygeon” celebrates the town’s constellation-filled skies.

Big Selling Point: The expansive deck has a hot tub, several areas for relaxing and an outdoor kitchen with a bar, which means you really only have to go inside to sleep.

Possible Deal Breaker: The heart-shaped Jacuzzi tub in the master ensuite is less swanky spa and more Niagara Falls honeymoon suite.

By The Numbers:
• $898,000
• $7,800 in property taxes (2013)
• 2,700 square feet
• 12 years old
• 5 bathrooms
• 3 bedrooms
• 1 hot tub
• 1 bunkie/storage shed
• 1 boat port with lift

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Name: Jelly Modern Doughnuts
Neighbourhood: Harbord Village
Contact Info: 376 College St., 416-962-2053, jellymodern-toronto.myshopify.com, @JellyModern
Owners: Rita and Rosanne Tripathy
Pastry chef: Grayson Shermon

The Food: Pastel-pretty doughnuts with glazes, fillings and toppings that are mostly made in-house. The menu changes daily, but flavours like maple bacon, s’mores, peanut butter cup and salted caramel are permanent fixtures. There’s also a rotating doughnut of the month; for June, the Hollywood Bollywood: a salted caramel doughnut topped with Indian-spiced caramel corn and deep-fried carrot curls.

The Place: An almost clinically white room with pops of fuschia. The glass countertop display case flaunts the day’s confections and a small seating area looks out onto College Street.

The Numbers:
• 20 doughnut varieties available on weekends; 12–15 on weekdays
• 3 organic doughnut bases: yeast-raised, cake and gluten-free
• 2 sizes of doughnut available: three-bite ($2.25) and regular ($2.75)

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Toronto chefs have become remarkably mobile, flying from food events to pop-ups to guest-chef gigs with the ease of musicians flitting between jam sessions. Last week, Marc Thuet joined Splendido’s Victor Barry for a special, two-night dinner at Splendido with tickets going for $120, plus $75 for wine pairings, and a high-profile guest list including big-wig lawyers Howard Levitt and Clayton Ruby. On the menu: seasonal veggies, like poached white asparagus, and Canadian game, like bison and bear. Here, a slideshow from the six-course feast.

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MuchMusic’s annual award-show-slash-star-studded-concert is usually a hotbed of crazy get-ups, but this year’s MMVAs was almost classy. Taylor Swift and Drake both picked up awards in low-key black and white, British singer Ed Sheeran catered to the crowd in a Blue Jays tee and Demi Lovato led a pack of starlets wearing LBDs. Still, there were a few instances of boundary pushing: punk princess Avril Lavigne wore a spiked crown (along with a draped dress that fuelled more speculation that she’s pregnant). Meanwhile, Vancouver band Marianas Trench came outfitted as mermaids, and instead of a limo arrived in a truck with a dunk tank in the back. Below, the best of the red carpet.

See the red carpet photos »

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(Image: Clinton Steeds)

Dear Urban Diplomat,
My wife and I recently bought a cottage. It’s a charming two-bedroom with a bunkie near Orillia. Unfortunately, my university buddies, with whom I’m still close, have decided it’s their cottage, too. One even circulated a Google doc so everyone could lay claim to the bunkie this summer. How do I break the news to my friends without offending them?
—Former Frat Boy, Moore Park

Get thyself to the Google doc but quick, and in the most garish neon available, highlight the dates that you and your wife deem open to visitors. Your buddies should intuit that every other date is therefore off limits, but given how obtuse they sound, you might need to spell it out by slashing red X’s through the rest of the calendar. In the meantime, consider finding some new friends. As a rule, adults do not commandeer friends’ cottages. You’ve moved on from your keg-draining, couch-surfing, freeloading days; they clearly haven’t.

Send your questions to the Urban Diplomat at urbandiplomat@torontolife.com

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(Image: Ontario Craft Beer Week)

The fourth annual Ontario Craft Beer Week brings together 30 brewers for seven days of boozy revelry. Over 150 events, including free barbecue, marathon tours of Ontario’s best microbreweries and craft beer taste-offs at city bars, take place in more than 50 towns across the province. Here, our six-pack selection of tastings, collaborative dinners and random beer-powered events to make sure you get the best brews, and a good buzz, starting this Sunday.

Beach BBQ and Brews Festival
An annual Father’s Day tradition: a free rib-fest at Woodbine Park with barbecue competitions, grilling demonstrations and lots of craft beer for approximately 18,000 people. June 16, 3 pm – 11 pm, Woodbine Park, 416-635-9889, beachbbqandbrews.com

Great Lakes Brewery Dinner at The Harbord House
The fourth annual collaboration from Great Lakes Brewery and The Harbord House includes a four-course pub dinner with beer pairings and a special one-off collaborative cask ale made just for the event. $60 (plus tax and tip), June 17, 7 pm, The Harbord House, 150 Harbord St., 647-430-7365

Get Well Presents: Bottle Royale
Beau’s All-Natural, Great Lakes Brewing, Nickel Brook Brewery and Sawdust City Brewing Company compete in a summer brew smackdown at Get Well on Dundas West. Get ready to rumble. $1.50 (per sample). June 18, 8 pm, Get Well, 1181 Dundas St. W., 647-354-BEER

It’s A Beer World After All: Beau’s Around the World Tour in Four Hours
A four-part, four-hour tasting from Beau’s All Natural with food from Parts and Labour, Samuel J. Moore, Restaurant Radio and Ceili Cottage. The evening starts with a pre-Canada Day barbecue and fireworks at C.J. Skateboard Park before moving indoors for an Oktoberfest-style party, a Scandanavian-themed New Year’s Eve celebration and finally an Irish supper and nightcap. Tickets include food, four glasses of beer and transportation to and from Kipling Station. $45, June 20, various locations, 7 p.m., 1-866-585-BEER, beaus.ca

Ontario Craft Beer Week Marathon Madness Toronto Beer Tour
A seven-part journey through the city’s top breweries, beginning with Black Creek Brewery in Pioneer Village, then hitting Black Oak Brewery, Great Lakes Brewery, Steam Whistle Brewery, Mill Street Brewery, Amsterdam Brewery and finally Granite Brewery, from the Beer Lovers’ Tour Co. Tickets include beer, lunch and transportation. $129, June 21, 10:30 a.m., various locations, 416-662-6312, beerloverstour.com

Session Toronto
Ontario Craft Beer Week’s official closing party is at Wychwood Barns next Saturday from 4 pm to 9 pm. A slew of breweries, including Flying Monkey’s, Muskoka and Lake of Bays, are serving their suds. June 22, 4 p.m. – 9 p.m., Artscape Wychwood Barns, 76 Wychwood Ave., 1-705-646-0706, sessiontoronto.ca

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It’s 4 p.m. on Friday, and you don’t have a dinner reservation. Still, there’s no need to fret (or waste your night waiting for a table). We just called some of the city’s hottest restaurants and found three that can squeeze in two for dinner tonight. Now it’s up to you to get dialing and snag a table before they’re all gone. Today: Acadia, Glas Wine Bar and Canoe.

Tables available tonight at:

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(Image: Neil Ta)

The top stories in Toronto real estate this week: the Bank of Canada takes aim at the city’s condo market (again), and the building industry tallies up taxes and government charges on new houses.

• Toronto’s condo sector could imperil Canada’s economy
One stat worrying the central bank: 18,000 of the more than 85,000 condo units currently being built or in the pre-construction phase remain unsold. Meanwhile, an estimated 60 per cent of the condos under construction are owned by investors. If they get spooked or feel pinched by rising interest rates, they could try to dump their units, sending prices tumbling, along with net household worth, consumer confidence and consumer spending.

• Condo construction surged in May, but it won’t last
Despite fears surrounding the condo boom, construction began last month on more new units than expected. Developers say the buildings starting construction now were marketed and pre-sold when the market was hotter a few years ago. A slowdown is almost certainly ahead.

• Taxes and fees account for nearly one-fifth of the cost of a new house in Toronto
Thanks in large part to swelling development charges, government fees now account for $101,300 of the cost of a new detached house valued at $540,000 (and $67,300 of a new condo valued at $406,900). A study commissioned by the building industry also gives stats for Markham, which had the highest fees of all municipalities, Oakville, Brampton, Ajax, and Bradford West Gwillimbury.

• Overbuilt condo market puts Canadian economy at risk: BoC [Canadian Press]
• Sky-high Toronto condo numbers renew fears of overheated market [Globe and Mail]
• Government charges blamed for record new home costs [Toronto Star]

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Name: Cabana Pool Bar
Neighbourhood: Polson Pier
Contact Info: 11 Polson Street, cabanapoolbar.com, @cabanapoolbar
Owners: Charles Khabouth, Ink Entertainment (La Société, Patria, Weslodge, Union, CUBE)
Chef: Jamie Meireles (Oliver & Bonacini Events)

The Place: An outrageous, booze-and-skin-fuelled resort for all-day drinking and partying in the middle of the city. The 50,000-square-foot pool and bar at Polson Pier can house 2500 people and includes a restaurant, octagonal pool, 790-seat patio, indoor soccer stadium, volleyball courts, go-cart track, driving range and cabanas with low-slung white banquettes and gauzy curtains framing the Toronto skyline.

The Food: Burgers, wraps and sushi platters, along with summery snacks, like ice cream sandwiches.

The Drinks: There’s a full bar, plus bottle (and shisha) service at the cabanas.

The Numbers:
• 2500 people at max capacity
• 850 seats total
• 42 oversize poolside loungers
• 12 luxury cabanas
• 11 a.m. until 11 p.m.
• $10 cover ($20 on Sundays), plus an additional $20 for pool access

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(Image: Nejibee)

Nejibee ½
24 Wellesley St. W., 647-748-2882

Nejibee, tucked furtively behind a Rabba on Wellesley, focuses on iron-griddled Japanese meats, also called teppanyaki. Cooks grill, fry and sear dishes that range from minimalist (a strip of firm, torch-crisped cured mackerel with sinus-clearing horseradish mustard) to massive (a heaping plate of highly slurpable, soy-sautéed udon loaded with pork belly, scallions cabbage and bonito flakes). Nikumiso, a Japanese take on poutine, brightens up the classic with a creamy miso sauce, but the fries underneath are limp and the crumbled pork on top is too salty. The place is quickly becoming an after-five destination for the area’s office workers, who crowd around the communal tables or perch at the counter, where cooks chat with diners while working the grill.

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Lululemon has had a tumultuous year. The stretchy-pant mega-corp issued a massive recall of its signature pants (they were too see-through) in March, its stock has suffered a double-digit drop and CEO Christine Day resigned earlier this week. But the Vancouver company has a plan for getting its groove (pant) back: it’s opening mens-only stores by 2016 in a bid to make inroads in the lucrative male sport-wear market. The brand already has a small following among male yogis and, apparently, NHL players, who are secretly enamored with their undies.

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By Frances McInnis | Photography by Jenna Marie Wakani

Bloor Street’s high-low mix of luxury brands (Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel) and mass-market giants (Gap, H&M, Winners) means casual U of T students and edgy shopgirls are as much a part of the street life as diamond-wearing, it bag-toting society types. Here, our favourite looks from a recent visit.

See all street style photos »

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