Next door to the equally date worthy Goods and Provisions, this petite Leslieville wine and food bar boasts intimate vibes and incredible service with a menu that makes fine use of ingredients from local mongers and an exclusive VQA wine listing. It might just be the perfect neighbourhood date spot.
Read my review of Glas Wine Bar in the restaurants section.
Strolling through the art deco-styled Toronto Coach Terminal today, one notices a cathedral window that sits atop a flight of stairs overlooking the main waiting area. Lighting up with the late afternoon sun, it bears the name Gray Coach Lines, a reference to the bus operator that originally called the terminal home back in 1931. Now you're more likely to see a Greyhound than a Gray Coach at Bay and Edward streets, but for 64 years the latter was a common sight on Toronto roads and Ontario highways.
Gray Coach Lines was founded by the Toronto Transportation Commission in 1927 as a sightseeing tour operator and suburban commuter service meant to replace the old radial railways that serviced places like Mimico, Richmond Hill, and Schomberg. Over the following decade, the TTC snapped up competing operators across the province, which ushered in a vastly expanded reach for Gray Coach. By the mid 1930s, the bus operator provided service to places like Barrie, Guelph, Hamilton, Buffalo, and, of course, Niagara Falls, a route that was particularly popular given its tourist status.
When the TTC built the Toronto Motor Coach Terminal in the early 1930s, it was in response to the growing popularity of bus travel, which was booming at the time. A whole world of inexpensive travel was opened up by the motor coach, and people ate it up. Car ownership was yet to become widespread, and the bus offered a measure of freedom that was in high demand.
By the 1950s, the range of destinations reached by Gray Coach covered most of Southern Ontario and extended as far north as Sudbury. While the bus has always been a lower class of travel to the train and the car, this was something of a golden age for these vehicles, where the greater number of towns and cities serviced by the motor coach mirrored the post-war fantasy of ever increased mobility (it's no coincidence that motels undergo a building boom during this period as well).
The spirit of Gray Coach Lines is perhaps best captured in a photo of its Sunnyside bus terminal in the 1950s. Perched at the edge of the city, the striped building brims with the promise of exploration and travel. "Travel the King's Highway," an accompanying slogan reads, marking the degree to which the bus was deemed a dignified way to travel. That would eventually fade with a dramatic rise in the popularity of commercial air travel in the 1960s and '70s, but there's a lingering romance to coach travel even as it's deemed an inferior mode of transportation. Air travel is destination-driven, while the bus offers the double promise of escape and exploration captured in the figure of the road.
By the time GO Transit was founded in the early 1970s, Gray Coach was contracted to operate some of the routes it already serviced, but despite the strength of the operation at the time, the ability of the TTC to run the company would eventually come under pressure from competitors like Greyhound and Trentway-Wagar. By 1990 the decision was made to sell Gray Coach Lines in order to focus exclusively on urban transit. The company was eventually acquired by Greyhound and Ontario Northland in the early '90s, leaving behind our coach terminal as a legacy of its former domination of inter-city bus travel in Southern Ontario.
Photos from the Toronto Archives and York University
When I was nineteen, I landed what I thought was the coolest job ever: bookseller at the World's Biggest Bookstore. Five years later, the job was a nightmare that was the trigger for depression which led me to leave two hours into my last shift, distraught and in tears. I couldn't return to the store for two years. When I heard the store was closing its doors, I breathed a sigh of relief because I'm really very glad the World's Biggest Bookstore is closing.
Yes, it's a beloved Toronto landmark and yes it's known for carrying that one book that none of the other Indigo stores have in stock. Yes, its bright yellow walls and quirky signage make it feel more casual and down-to-earth than the seemingly upscale Indigo stores. Yes, it's a pity that a great bookstore is going to be turned into a line of restaurants. However, for those who have worked at WBB in the last ten years, the store's closing comes as no surprise because a bookstore of that size was bound to fail.
Rumours circulated the entire time I worked there about the future of the store. Rumour always had it that Indigo's CEO, Heather Reisman, wouldn't agree to renew the lease for the store. The former Coles flagship store, the property was owned by the Cole family who make a tidy sum charging rent for the massive downtown location. However, running a bookstore (especially one of that size) is a losing venture in today's world of eBooks and digital magazines and the Cole family was wise to sell off the property.
I'm guessing the trouble really started when eBooks starting becoming a big thing. People were enamoured with the new technology and the ease of carrying around a library of books without the weight, but that meant that brick and mortar stores were becoming obsolete. While the United States saw the closing of Borders bookstores across the country, Canada fared better with many of the large format Chapters and Indigo stores remaining open. Reisman's attempts at diversification of products sold have thus far kept most of the stores in the chain from succumbing to the same fate. However, in the process, she has partially abandoned books.
While we had an impressive selection of books, magazines and DVDs, we couldn't say the same for our gift merchandise. In fact, when I started there we had no gift merchandise, but rather a clearance section where all the unsellable gift items from other Indigo stores came to die. This clearance section was the bane of everyone's existence because it was hell to keep tidy and there would always been customers who were dissatisfied with the heavy discount they were already getting and demand more.
When Reisman brought in more gift items to keep brick and mortar stores going, we started getting first hand merchandise as well as an attempt to prove to everyone that we could survive as a book and gift store. But the truth was, we couldn't.
Corporate was always on our case to sell more rewards cards and up-sell whatever promo item they were featuring, but always seemed to fail to realize that we weren't like the other stores in our chain. Many people didn't know that World's Biggest Bookstore was owned by Indigo and a lot of our regular customers came to us because we were so unlike the other stores in the chain, so they were all totally uninterested in an Indigo rewards card. Despite this, corporate held us up to the same standard as stores like Indigo Eaton Centre or Chapters Festival Hall - high traffic stores which never failed to do well.
As a result, our managers were under duress to improve sales and, as a result, inelegantly pushed cash supervisors to sell more rewards cards. Supervisors then put pressure on cashiers and even floor staff to push the rewards card, but no matter how hard we tried, we just couldn't be as good as the other Indigo stores. And still, we were pushed and pushed and pushed until we'd dread coming to work, especially on the days which were traditionally not busy. I myself took the pressure so personally that it became a burden I carried with me and which eventually led to a breakdown of sorts which resulted in my resignation.
To be honest, I never actually suspected that the company would decide to close the store down, regardless of the trouble we had keeping up. I always, naively, suspected that the company would finally realize that we were unlike their other cookie-cutter stores and would hold us to different, fairer standards. At the same time, having been under their regime for five years, I knew in my heart of hearts that the store would never be given the same love and attention as the other stores. We were the black sheep of the Indigo family, the odd man out. We were an embarrassment and it seemed like the company was going out of its way to make us fail just so they'd have a reason to shut us down.
We had a lease which expires this year and the question on all our lips was whether or not it would be renewed. Now we know the answer to that question and I'm glad it's come to this. We always referred to the World's Biggest Bookstore as Indigo's black sheep: the short, stout redheaded child in a family of tall blondes the store was more of a quirk than anything else. It was almost like Indigo's way of saying, "We can relate to the Everyman, as well!"
It was always my belief that if the bookstore should ever close, the building should be turned back into the bowling alley it used to be before Coles moved in. I was devastated to hear it might be turned into condos and felt only a bit better when it was revealed that a series of high end restaurants would take over the site. Perhaps the only comfort is my knowing that at least the location won't be housing a sad, deteriorating bookstore which was once, but is no longer, glorious.
Writing by Sarah Khan who is a former employee of the World's Biggest Bookstore where she spent five years. She now works as a freelance writer. Follow her on Twitter @sarathofkhan. Photo by Roaming the World in the blogTO Flickr pool.
The top Toronto clubs for bottle service are fun, high-energy and perfect for a night out on the town. Most of the time, it's perfectly appropriate to buy your booze like any other regular Torontonian (one ounce at a time after waiting for ten minutes behind someone who loudly describes their sociology class as "totally paradigm-changing. Is that how you say it? Paradigm?"). However, there are certain occasions when you just need to treat yo' self.
Maybe you got a new job or are celebrating your birthday or your late owner's deadbeat son hit you with his car. Regardless of the reason, there's something special about having all the comforts of being in your own home mixing your own drinks; having comfortable seating all to yourself but with more well-dressed attractive strangers and less old pizza box stench.
Here are the top 15 clubs for bottle service in Toronto.
Gravity Soundbar
Number of booths for bottle service: Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday: 15 booths. Friday: 26 booths. Saturday: 44 booths.
Days and times available: Wednesday-Saturday: 10 pm- 3 am.
Maximum occupancy: 1038 people
Minimum spend: Wednesday and Saturday: $300 minimum. All other days: $260 minimum.
How to make a reservation: Call 416.977.8900.
Best bet if: It's your birthday. If you book on or near your birthday (and can verify it with ID), you get a free bottle of champagne
Switch Nightclub
Number of booths available for bottle service: 11 booths and two high top tables
Days and times available: Thursday to Saturday: 10:30 pm- 2 am.
Maximum occupancy: 400 (both upper and lower floors)
Minimum spend: None.
How to make a reservation: Call 647.824.4993 or email info@switchtoronto.com
Best bet if: You want more than just drinking and dancing. Switch has video games on the lower level and sometimes brings in entertainers for special events.
EFS
Number of booths for bottle service: 16 (plus 10 on the rooftop patio in the summer)
Days and times available: Wednesday-Saturday: 10 pm- 2 am.
Maximum occupancy: 650 (plus 250 on the patio)
Minimum spend: Thursday: 2 bottle minimum (bottles start at $180). Friday and Saturday: Three bottle minimum.
How to make a reservation: Call 416.477.5460 or email info@johndoegroup.com
Best bet if: You want a club that also has breathing room. EFS' rooftop patio is gorgeous and provides some fresh air when you need a break from dancing up a storm.
Pravda Vodka Bar
Number of booths for bottle service: Four booths/tables, two semi-private rooms and one private room.
Days and times available: Friday 4 pm-2 am, Saturday 6 pm-2 am.
Maximum occupancy: 280 people
Minimum spend (if any): $40 per guest.
How to make a reservation: Call 416.366.0303
Best bet if: You're a vodka affectionado. Pravda has an enormous selection of vodka from all over the world. Yes, they all pair well with Red Bull.
Cube Nightclub
Number of booths for bottle service: 12-14 (with 12 on the patio during the warmer months)
Days and times available: Friday-Saturday: 10 pm-2 am (with Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday added during patio weather)
Maximum occupancy: 350 (plus another 350 when the patio is open)
Minimum spend: Two to three bottles (bottles start at $190).
How to make a reservation: Call 416.263.0330 or email info@cubenightclub.com
Best bet if: You want a high female to male ratio. Cube is known for being a place where ladies go to dance.
Bloke and 4th
Number of booths for bottle service: 14
Days and times available: Tuesday, Thursday-Saturday: 10 pm-2 am.
Maximum occupancy: 350 people.
Minimum spend: Thursday: Two bottle minimum (bottle start at $180). Friday and Saturday: Three bottle minimum.
How to make a reservation: Call 416.477.1490 or email info@blokeand4th.com
Best bet if: You want your dinner and dancing in the same place.
The Fifth Social Club
Number of booths for bottle service: 11 (increases to 15 booths for special events)
Days and times available: Friday-Saturday: 10pm-2:30 pm
Maximum occupancy: 600+ people
Minimum spend: One bottle per five guests (bottles start at $200).
How to make a reservation: Call 416.893.0059 or email viphost@thefifth.com
Best bet if: You're looking for a fun event. The Fifth often holds fun events to entertain club-goers. Their latest venture is a Tinder Lounge where users of the app, Tinder (the straight Grindr) can expedite the dating app process in person.
Parlour
Number of booths for bottle service: 6.
Days and times available: Wednesday-Thursday: 5:30 pm- 12 am. Friday-Saturday: 5:30 pm- 2 am.
Maximum occupancy: 120 (plus 33 on the patio during the summer)
Minimum spend: Two bottles (bottles start at $220).
How to make a reservation: Call 416.408.3666 or email info@parlour270.com.
Best bet if: You want a more intimate experience. Parlour is a smaller club so you won't lose track of your friends.
Cabin Five
Number of booths for bottle service: Three
Days and times available: Friday-Saturday: 10 pm- 2:30 am
Maximum occupancy: 200+ people
Minimum spend: One bottle per five guests (bottles begin at $200).
How to make a reservation: Call 416.893.0059 or email viphost@cabinfive.com
Best bet if: Bachelorette parties. Cabin Five offers special package deals for brides-to-be.
The Hoxton
Number of booths for bottle service: 14
Days and times available: Friday-Sunday: 10 pm- 2 am.
Maximum occupancy: 715 people
Minimum spend: None
How to make a reservation: Call or text 647.400.4788 or email vip@thehoxton.ca
Best bet if: You want live music with your bottle service. The Hoxton is known for hosting amazing concerts.
Uniun Nightclub
Number of booths for bottle service: 16-20
Days and times available: Friday-Sunday: 10 pm- 3 am
Maximum occupancy: 1000 people
Minimum spend: Two to three bottles (bottles start at $190).
How to make a reservation: Call 416.603.9300 or email info@uniun.com
Best bet if: Justin Bieber isn't responding to your tweets and you really, really have to talk to him. He's been seen partying at Uniun when he's in town.
Product Nightclub
Number of booths for bottle service: 10
Days and times available: Friday- Saturday: 10 pm- 2am
Maximum occupancy:1200
Minimum spend: Two to three bottle minimum (bottles start at $190).
How to make a reservation: Call 416.351.1100 or email info@productnightclub.com
Best bet if: You need your club to be visually appealing. Product's mannequins and reimagined twinkle lights will satisfy even the most devoted Matisse scholar.
F-Stop
Number of booths available for bottle service: Eight booths and three high top tables
Days/Times available: Thursday to Saturday: 10:30 pm- close
Minimum/maximum occupancy: 250 people
Minimum spend: None
How to make a reservation: Call 647.824.4993 or email info@f-stoptoronto.com
Best bet if: You're specific about the way your beats sound. F-Stop has a state-of-the-art sound system.
Cabana Pool Bar
Number of booths for bottle service: 28 (8 poolside and 20 outside the pool)
Days and times available: Tuesday-Friday: 12- 8 pm, Saturday-Sunday: 12-11 pm (Cabana Pool Bar is only open in the summer)
Maximum occupancy: 2500 people
Minimum spend: Lakeside $1000. Poolside $2500.
How to make a reservation: Call 416.479.7645 or email info@cabanapoolbar.com
Best bet if: You're celebrating something and want to go all out with luxury.
The Guvernment Complex
Number of booths for bottle service: 50
Days and times available: Friday-Saturday: 10 pm- 4 am.
Maximum occupancy: 6000 people
Minimum spend (if any): 2-3 bottles minimum (bottles start at $190).
How to make a reservation: Call 417.869.0045 or email vip@theguvernment.com
Best bet if: You're in the mood for a crazy dance party complete with meeting new people.
SEE ALSO:The best nightclubs in Toronto
The best vintage clothing stores in Toronto are the absolute cream of the crop in a city that's earning itself an international reputation as a secondhand mecca. There's a reason for that - there's great vintage shopping to be found in all corners of Toronto (though Kensington Market, Dundas West, and West Queen West remain reliable hot spots).
The sites that made it onto this list represent the city's most reliable sources of fantastic, one-of-a-kind finds. Depending on where you go, there's a price point for every budget (from "change I dug up from the couch" to "brown-bagging it for a month, and I'm not even upset about it"). That perfect leather jacket/sequined dress/pair of badass boots is out there waiting for you - start your search here.
Here are the best vintage clothing stores in Toronto.
See also
10 under-the-radar vintage clothing shops in Toronto
The best vintage and designer handbags in Toronto
8 places to buy vintage eyewear in Toronto
8 stores to buy vintage jewelry in Toronto
The best consignment stores in Toronto
The best vintage furniture stores in Toronto
A new campaign to extend the last call for alcohol in Toronto bars to 4am is in the works via lastcallto, a website which makes claims for everything from safety to Toronto industry as reasons to change current legislation.
"To be a world class city, Toronto needs world class nightlife" the site decrees, citing New York and Chicago's 4am last call - Chicago is smaller than us now! - Berlin's 5am bell, and legal all night bars in Shanghai, Rio De Janeiro, and Las Vegas as inspiration. Toronto only currently extends last call for events like Nuit Blanche or, as was the case this past Sunday, Olympic hockey (did you get wasted at 7am? Were the consequences as horrible as I imagine?)
According to lastcallto, the City of Toronto has the authority to make this change as per Section 62.1(1) of the Liquor License Act. And given this is an election year, the site seems to think extending last call can become dominant election issue.
You can sign the petition at lastcallto.com.
Should Toronto extend last call? Add your thoughts to the comment thread below.
Great news for Toronto's literary scene - Pages Festival + Conference will launch this March. If the name rings a bell, that's likely because this is put together by Marc Glassman, the former owner of Pages Books & Magazines as well as founder This Is Not A Reading Series. The format challenging fest will explore how new technologies effect the worlds of publishing and literary arts.
The Pages Festival is a unique concept in that it will mix lauded Canadian writers up with digital media artists and more. The fest will include presentations (pdf) by Atom Egoyan, Shawn Micallef and Dalton Higgins, a multimedia tribute to Susannah Moodie, and a graphic novel talk with Seth, Fiona Smyth, and Michael DeForge, plus way more. For those interested in how written language and publishing is evolving, this will be the place to be.
Pages Festival + Conference will take place between March 13 - 15 at The Randolph Theatre (736 Bathurst St) and The Tranzac Club (292 Brunswick Ave). Passes are $60, tickets $15, and half price rates are available for students.
Toronto has plenty of great coffee roasters but what do you do if you want to try them all - plus the dozens (and counting) of other roasters percolating across the country? If you're Suneal Pabari and Adam Frank you scratch your own itch and create The Roasters Pack, a Toronto start-up that takes inspiration from the numerous delivery services and subscription clubs. Each month they send a box containing beans from three different independent roasters.
My first box arrived this week and in it where beans from Bean North Coffee Roasting Co. (WhiteHorse) Carvalho Coffee (Oakville) and Diesel House Coffee Roasters (Bracebridge). The cost to subscribe falls between $27 and $30 a month depending on how long you sign up for but you can specify your grind (anything from Whole Beans to Extra Fine) and it all comes neatly packaged in a cardboad box making for hours of fun unboxing over the course of a year.
More info on the company's web site.
Today in Toronto Anser's Crowded Kingdom opens at Hashtag Gallery. You'll likely recognize ANSER's portraits from around Toronto unless you're a major shoegazer, and the graffiti artists' work has also made it into gallery settings from time to time, yet this will be his first major exhibit in over six years. Hip hop fans should head to Isaiah Rashad &Tre Mission at Tattoo, while Young Lions Music Club is doing a "mid-nineties rock n' roll revivalist" thing at the Dakota. For more events, click on over to our events section.
Have an event you'd like to plug? Submit your own listing to the blogTO Toronto events calendar or contact us directly.
It is jokingly referred to as the Toronto Bar Mafia. Its members: a group of city kids who grew up together, now in their 30s, who all went on to own their own bars on College St. and Dundas West. They have become somewhat of an institution, but this mafia takes doing legitimate business in Toronto very seriously - and personally.
I sat down with bar owners Andrew Kaiser, Jasmine Burns and Bobby Valen, who preside over The Emmet Ray, Crawford and The Henhouse, respectively. They're just three out of a group of grade school and high school friends that extends through Toronto's bar and restaurant scene - others include Wild Indigo, Ortolan, Studio Bar, Northwood - just to name a few.
Truly trying to make sense of the scope of this extensive network of childhood friends and the bars and restaurants they own is something they even admit to losing track of.
After high school they all went their own ways for a while, but all admit that their formative years in high school had a profound impact on who they are.
"The first time I ever got drunk was with Andrew in Riverdale Park," said Burns. "I used to take the 504 streetcar over to his house in Grade 9."
When Burns visits The Emmet Ray, Kaiser will ask her how her business is doing, but he'll also ask about her mom. Everyone's families still live in the same neighbourhoods where they grew up, East of Yonge Street.
After attending city schools like Jarvis Collegiate, Earl Grey, Deer Park and Rosedale Public School, these Toronto natives faced some aspect of adversity or struggle that required them to make hard choices at a young age, and all say it made them realize that the regular 9 to 5 workplace was never in their makeup.
"We weren't privileged kids. We wanted to make money for ourselves and we needed to do something that kept us creatively in tune," said Valen. "Andrew and Jasmine were always so creative. Through these friends and through this community I developed a real entrepreneurial spirit.
Their final products - their bars - are very different. Each of them opened up a place that reflects themselves and what they want to do.
Kaiser's Emmet Ray, opened in 2009, is a whiskey bar on College Street with an intimate performance space in the back room.
"The first time I ever got drunk was on whiskey," he laughs. "And there's a bit of an obsession with collecting it. And it's the live music, the jazz, making a bar that's just welcoming in all aspects."
Kaiser likes to call Burns' Crawford, which she opened in early 2011, the urban club. It's a party spot on College in Little Italy. Hip hop, R&B and reggae fill a two-floor club-like space. The Crawford doesn't open until 10 p.m. and can fill up with 200 patrons and a half dozen security guards in a flash.
"Just don't come in here with an attitude. Have smiles or go home. That's what you can rely on at The Crawford and that's how this place is a reflection of me," said the confidently upbeat Burns.
Valen, who bought The Henhouse in 2011, was working as a Toronto party promoter at the age of 19 for some big-name clubs.
"I was always in club land. I'm a party promoter, and I saved The Henhouse because it's queer. I saved it because of what it was and that's a big part of my identification. And that's how The Henhouse is what it is."
The Henhouse has events almost nightly.
"We don't seem like the likely crowd because we are all so different," Valen said. "What are the chances that all of us in this circumstance would all end up doing the exact same thing in the exact same city, and using each other to learn?"
Kaiser and his then business partner and fellow high school classmate, Krista Rasport, helped advise Valen through the purchase of The Henhouse.
"We're still close and we help each other out," Kaiser said.
"We are so different but we all have that one thing in common," said Valen. "We like to bring people together."
Burns laughs at the Bar Mafia nickname. "Andrew the muscle, Krista the head, Jas the spaz. To think about it it's kind of weird, I didn't know the others would get into the bar game, but it does make sense."
Toronto has become a small place for all of them. None of them can walk down Queen, Dundas or College Streets if they have somewhere to be, because everyone wants to stop and say hello.
Every owner of the mafia says they make a conscious effort to conduct legitimate business in their hometown, despite having to spend a significant amount of time fighting bureaucracy at City Hall to keep their businesses and neighbourhoods flourishing.
"All our businesses are legit. We have to be on it. The AGCO gave us a hard time at first, but our neighbours love us and we love them, " Burns said of her Little Italy bar. "Your place has to be diverse and welcoming to everyone and I think that's a reflection of being a Toronto city kid. You have to be diligent and on it."
But, they say, the city can make it difficult.
"I negotiate peaceful transitions and Jasmine is really good at that too. But it's not a quality that as a young business owner you should necessarily have to have," Kaiser said.
"It's intense but I try not to get stressed," Burns agrees. "You shouldn't have to manipulate to get something that should already be supported by the city."
"I spent five weeks calling the city about street lights on my block once. Someone screwed up in paper work town, I don't know, but I spend a lot of time calling back bylaw departments and I'm trying to logically take care of my small business," Valen chimes in. "I just have to keep being pragmatic."
All three talk about their businesses with a swelling pride that is intrinsically wrapped into their love for Toronto. "I like learning from people who know the city like I know the city," Valen shrugs with a smile.
Writing by Erin Obourn
It all started at the age of thirteen when he picked up a can of spray paint for the first time. Over the years, one of Toronto's most recognizable (art wise) street artists honed his skills and eventually ended up painting his first face on a wall in Australia.
Today if you keep your head on a swivel, you can't get far without catching one of his faces staring you down. Stylistically straddling the line between swift graffiti bomb style and minimal, modern art, there's an interactive element to Anser's work where one can witness their progression over time, from a simple outline to a colourful face filled in with emotive characteristics. Last year he was invited to be a part of the AGO's Merge, but he has his first solo exhibit in years coming to the west side of Toronto.
Here are 5 things to know about Toronto street artist Anser.
This solo show is a rare event
Although the walls in this city sometimes feel like an ongoing Anser show, in reality he hasn't had an official major exhibition in six years. This mysterious silence comes to an end tonight at Hashtag Gallery for an event dubbed "Crowded Kingdom". The show runs until March 9th. Anser's collaborate with Toronto-based Big Trubble to create 30 original sculptures made of resin that have been hand painted with the signature Anser lines.
A giving spirit
For those of you who already follow his Instagram, you probably caught wind of Anser leaving gifts for strangers scattered around the city during the holiday season. Usually appearing in the late night or early hours of the morning, some people were lucky enough to stumble across canvases left on random benches, stuffed into the arms of a snowman or leaned up against buildings. Chances are this will happen again sometime soon, so follow his account and you might just happen to be around the corner from his next random drop zone.
Affordable art Fridays
If the potential of stumbling across free art isn't enough of a reason to follow Anser's Instagram, it also caters to those with a modest amount of money. Every Friday he posts an image of a new piece that usually goes for $100 - $300 and comes on a variety of different mediums, from thick textured paper, to marker on canvas, all the way to random pieces of wood. If you miss out on both the gifts and the affordable art, there are sure to be plenty of pieces available at his exhibit. The time to jump on is now, as his notoriety will only be rising.
He's toyed with fashion
Not long ago Anser partnered up with local street art friendly clothing line Echkart Soul for an exclusive limited run of t-shirts, which quickly sold out. Anser donated some art pieces to bundle with the products and some lucky buyers were randomly selected to receive. Although this round is no longer available, rumour has it that the collaboration might be revived for a 2nd run - time will tell.
Three hints
Part of the enjoyment of street art stems from curiosity surrounding the artist's identity. Chances are you'll never see Anser's own face, but in preparing this article I was left a series of clues hinting at his history and influences. His favourite artist is Egon Schiele (one of Gustav Klimt's protégés) known for his intense portrait style during his short but illustrious career (he died in 1918 from Spanish Flu). Not so surprisingly, Anser's favourite movie is rotoscope animation Waking Life, which examines the deep philosophical complexities of dreams, consciousness, and existentialism. Lastly, although his gifted pieces have popped up in Trinity Bellwoods, his favourite park is actually High Park.
Crowded Kingdom opens Thursday, February 27th at Hashtag Gallery (809 Dundas West) from 7pm to 11:30pm. The show runs until March 9th.
Toronto Restaurant Openings highlights the latest restaurant openings and closings in Toronto and also gives a preview of what's coming soon. Find us here every Thursday morning.
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Have you seen restaurants opening or closing in your neighbourhood? Email tips to liora@blogto.com
Photo via Starving Artist
It's hard to imagine a time when it was impossible to legally order a cocktail, get a cup of Tim Hortons coffee, or go home to an apartment in Toronto but, of course, the city didn't always have those things, and there had to be a first for everything.
Broadly speaking, Toronto began to develop the things we now recognize as ubiquitous - shopping malls, apartment buildings, chain restaurants - in the 20th century, sometimes decades behind other major North American cities. Alcoholic drinks that weren't beer or wine took a particularly long time to reappear after prohibition due to tight license restrictions.
Here are the stories of 5 major Toronto firsts.
THE FIRST TIM HORTONS
If there's one thing Toronto, or any Ontario community for that matter, has in spades, its Tim Hortons outlets. The first Toronto store of the ubiquitous chain opened at 853 The Queensway in Etobicoke (a previous incarnation of the company, a chain of drive-in steak restaurants, ran a short-lived "Tim Horton Do-Nut" in a Lawrence Ave. shopping plaza in the 1960s) and looked much like the store pictured above.
Former Toronto Maple Leaf strongman Horton founded the company we recognize today out of a former Esso station at Ottawa St. and Dunsmure Rd. in Hamilton with the help of business partner Ron Joyce in the late 60s. The Queensway store arrived on the 1st June, 1970, and it's still there - albeit substantially renovated.
THE FIRST SHOPPING MALL
Built in 1883, Yonge Street's Toronto Arcade was by just a few years the first building in Toronto to enclose multiple stores within a single, multi-level building.
A two-storey atrium, skirted by ornate woodwork and lit by a massive 130-foot glass skylight, provided storefront space for 52 retailers, including the Arcade Saloon and Restaurant, Arcade Cigar Store, Alexander Chinn's Barber, James Pape's florist, and Miss Westmacott's School of Design and Drawing for Ladies.
The third and fourth floors were leased as apartment and office space. The British American Business College, which taught book-keeping, manufacturing, correspondence, penmanship, shorthand, mental arithmetic, and, oddly, "steamboating," occupied the first level above the shopping concourse for many years and advertised on its exterior.
The Toronto Arcade fell into dereliction in the 1950s following a series of fires and many inglorious years as a discount mall, and was knocked down. The Arcade Building with its neon rainbow exterior opposite Temperance Street was built on the site in the 1960s.
THE FIRST APARTMENTS
Toronto was extremely slow to issue the permit for its first purpose-built apartment complex. Cities like New York, Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo had already seen demand for mutiple-occupancy buildings when, in 1899, the Improved Realty Co. of Toronto Ltd. started work on the St. George Mansions at Harbord, Hoskins, and St. George streets.
The six-storey, C-shaped pressed brick and Bedford stone building contained 34 apartments and was home to 99 people in 1904, many of them wealthy middle-aged married couples. It was soon joined by similar buildings on University Avenue, Huron Street, and Spadina Road.
It was demolished in the years after the second world war, during which it was repurposed as the Toronto home of the Canadian Women's Army Corps and nicknamed "cockroach palace." It was replaced by the University of Toronto's Ramsay Wright Zoological Laboratories building in 1965.
THE FIRST COCKTAIL LOUNGE
Toronto took a long time to emerge from the paranoid prohibition years between 1916 and 1927. With the formation of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and a slight loosening of the rules, taverns were eventually allowed to serve beer and wine - no liquor, and certainly no cocktails - before 1930.
In 1947, the LCBO relaxed a little more and issued the province's first cocktail licenses and the spectacular neon and chrome Silver Rail at Yonge and Shuter streets was first (by a hair) to obtain one of the coveted permits. Its liquor menu featured a dazzling range of whiskies, brandies, champagnes, rums, liqueurs, egg nogs, gins, sours, "long tails, and flips."
Jazz legend Charlie Parker drank at the Silver Rail before a now legendary performance with Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, and Dizzy Gillespie across the street at Massey Hall. Pianist Oscar Peterson was played an impromptu concert on the bar's baby grand one night. Metro Toronto chairman Fred Gardiner (he of the expressway) also liked to visit after work.
The Silver Rail met its demise in 1998 when the landlords decided to replace it with a Bay outlet.
THE FIRST COFFEE SHOP
The Toronto Coffee House could rightfully lay claim to two firsts: it was the earliest business to use the word "Toronto" in its name and it was the first public meeting place to style itself after European coffee houses. Opened in 1801 on the east side of Jarvis Street, just north of Front Street, the two-storey building really didn't operate much like a modern coffee shop.
Owner-operator William Cooper, who was at times a teacher, wharf operator, and the town's coroner despite having no formal training in the field, described his business "as nearly on the footing of an English inn as local circumstances" allowed. It served wine, brandy, gin, lime juice, and London porter beer as well as food: "oysters, red herring, and anchovies." There was also a dry goods business and inn under the same roof.
Cooper chose the name in an attempt to position the business as a European-style meeting place, a shrine to conversation and a hub for the local community. He sold the business in 1806 to focus on his Humber River mill.
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Images: City of Toronto Archives, Tim Hortons, Toronto Public Library
Life drawing classes in Toronto are fun for everyone. Models have the joy of remaining stock-still in a rotation of odd poses for three hours at a time, and aspiring rogues on sinking ships can sketch them like one of their French girls. It's a win-win for everyone.
One of the most important steps of becoming a good artist, some say, is learning how to realistically render the human form. You will be aided in this endeavour, hopefully, by paying painstakingly close attention to the knobbly knees of a strange man. Also drinking seems to be a prerequisite in Toronto, so there's that.
(Or, if you hate drawing and it makes you crazy and a tad homicidal, you might be better off just reading Pat Barker's Life Class. It'll make you feel slightly less awkward about being such a stabby weirdo).
Life drawing locations are peppered across the city, from Parkdale to Leslieville. Most require that you bring your own materials, and almost all budget-friendly options are drop-in classes where you can go for just one session, though Centennial College offers affordable courses (see below) compared to those found at George Brown or Toronto School of Art (where you're looking at spending a few hundred bucks).
Here are some of the best spots in Toronto to learn to draw the human form (or begin nude modelling: I hear it can be a truly liberating way to overcome insecurities).
Creatures Creating
Creatures Creating at Dundas and Bathurst has regular life drawing classes on the first Tuesday of each month at 8pm. It bills itself as "Life Drawing with a Kinky Twist," and tickets(?) are 20 bones, $25 at the door. The models wear lingerie, and there are drinks available.
Round
Round is a quirky community of artists who come together to draw. Their meetings are parties with drinks, DJs, entertainment, and random items for sale by members, like headbands handmade from vintage fabric.
The White House
The White House in Kensington Market has offered life drawing classes on a weekly basis for about a year and a half. Cover is one of the cheapest in the city, at $8, and classes run from 7pm until 9pm.
Ben Navaee Gallery
The Ben Navaee Gallery in Leslieville offers free life drawing classes on Tuesday evenings from 7pm until 9pm. This program is bare bones - there are no cocktails being served, and no bathrooms either. They provide chairs and drawing boards only, making for a true spartan artist existence. But it is free, so who's bitching?
The Gladstone
The Gladstone claims it has the longest-running life drawing class in the city. It's not an outrageous claim, either - class has been in session since 1957. The class is held in the hotel's Art Bar, which is actually named for the classes, every Wednesday evening from 8pm until 10pm. Classes are taught by Toronto artist Walt Rushton, and cover is $10.
Dr. Sketchy's
From 2007 until 2011, Dr. Sketchy's operated out of the back of Cameron House on Queen West. Now, they run out of Round in Kensington, the first Friday of every month. The anti art school comes offers cabaret style life classes, with the most recent one featuring a mermaid model and, of course, mermaid-themed cocktails to match. The classes run from 7pm until 10pm and cover is $10.
OCAD
OCAD offers drop-ins, too, on Wednesdays from 7pm to 10pm, and Saturdays 10am until 1pm. Classes are generally once a month, and the schedule can be found online. It's $10 per session, and no registration is required. They offer painting day sessions, too, from time to time.
Centennial College
For those looking to make a commitment, Centennial College offers a series of life drawing classes at $40 for the series, and $8 per course. Sessions are in the fall, winter and spring only. They provide an easel, but all other supplies are up to the student. Classes are at the Story Arts Centre at Pape and Mortimer, and they're one night per week for eight weeks, from 6pm to 9pm.
The top 10 songs from Toronto unleashed during this past cold, dreary month add up to some solid singles, albums, and music videos, warming you up while you wait for Spring. Toronto artists have been hard at work and the result is handful of tracks from all across the genre spectrum. If you've been following our music coverage some of these will look familiar, but they're all worth digging into again. Blossoming new talent has mixed in with old favourites for a stellar line-up.
Here's a digest of the past month in Toronto-based tracks.
Nadja - Dark Circles
A building post-metal opener from the new Nadja album, "Dark Circles" blurs through all phases essential to an epic nine minute rock jam. It begins with an eerie looping guitar riff and doesn't hold back on the distortion as it builds. The barely audible vocals moan in between heavy sessions where instruments swirl into one attack on your senses: drone rock cooked to perfection. Albumwise, some truly badass art accompanies white or black vinyl, making Queller a score for post-rock lovers, metalheads and vinyl nuts. It even comes with a folded poster.
Digits - Lost Dream
Toronto artist Digits has revamped this three year-old gem for his new mixtape Shake Your Body Down. Bumping and popping with 80s vibes, "Lost Dream" claps and snaps its way into your heart. You can stop-start dance along to this track if you feel particularly courageous, or you can just tap your feet on the floors of streetcars while Alt Altman whispers to you through your headphones.
Weaves - Buttercup
Jasmyn Burke and Morgan Waters release another loosen-the-screws rock slam dunk. Enough said.
Black Walls - Communion
Ken Reaume takes you deep under water for the opener to his five-song album of the same name. Seven minutes of heavily-reverbed guitar and vocals concoct a slow motion dream bound to lull anyone into introspective meditation. With a writing experience described as being a very personal journey of self-discovery, "Communion" washes over you like waves on a beach. The art is stunning to boot.
Trust - Capitol
The second single released off Trust's upcoming sophomore album Joyland starts off sounding like a Crystal Castles demo, but quickly transforms into bouncey goth-pop. What was a duo of Robert Alfons and Maya Postepski has now become a solo, and arguments could be made for how this has changed the Trust sound. You can be the judge by streaming Joyland here (it officially drops on March 4th) or when Alfons plays Adelaide Hall March 8th with Mozart's Sister.
Kevin Drew - Good Sex
Drew's latest video features him rolling around on a stage of lights in a bloodstained t-shirt, strangling himself with the microphone cable. This is interspersed with scenes of attractive hipsters almost-but-never-quite having the "good sex" Drew refers to throughout the track. The Broken Social Scene co-founder has never been one to shy away from the weird. This falls in line with much of Drew's catalogue: steady backing drums and bass support a warm chord progression led by several guitar layers and a tinkling piano line. Vocals are the main focus - you can hear Drew's smile as he reminisces on past encounters, if you're into that.
Petra Glynt - War Cry (Pale Eyes Edit)
Lisa Smith and Ben McCarthy come at you full force in this vibrant, beat-oriented take on what was basically Alexandra Mackenzie banging a gong and singing operatically for almost five minutes (remixes are new tracks too - if they're worthy). The beat changes consistently, often dropping out for sections and then cutting back in with a new style. The Pale Eyes duo had to take some serious liberties on this edit to get the song from where it began to where it ended.
Omar LinX - Can't Forget
The latest release from the frequent Zeds Dead collaborator has an absolutely banging beat that samples the Marlena Shaw classic, "California Soul." Reminiscent of Hilltop Hoods' "The Nosebleed Section", the track uses the sample hook in lieu of a chorus. During the verse it's led by the probably too-serious-for-a-white-dude staples familiar in Omar LinX's library. It's a great track on the whole - definitely worth putting on the stereo during a weekend cruise through the city this summer.
Liam MacKenzie & Young Rust - Wrote It All Down
Cue the "fixing up my life" montage. This steady rocker blasts out for three solid minutes in classic rock fashion - howling vocals, clashing cymbals and wailing guitar solos. Liam MacKenzie of Troubadour fronts a gang of usual suspects from the Toronto rock scene in this act that promises to shake the foundations of The Bovine when they jump onstage March 14th. Check their brand new music video (released yesterday) for some familiar sights from around Toronto.
Resolved Dissonance - Less > More
This Hamilton-based artist is really digging himself deep into the beat community, with warm vibes that bring to mind beat mammoths like Gold Panda and Shlohmo. This producer just needs to be heard.
What Toronto tracks did we miss? Let us know in the comments.
Trust photo by Denise McMullin. Follow Adam on Twitter and Instagram
A group of friends have transformed a former drycleaners into a fantastic coffee and wine bar across from Summerhill Station. The attention to detail is felt at every level, from the uniquely sourced beans to the warm, open space, makes it a wonderful addition to the neighbourhood.
Read my review of Boxcar Social in the cafes section.
Rob Ford says don't call him an celebrity in the latest batch of Ford Nation YouTube videos just posted online today. The pair were answering a question from a viewer who asked how Rob Ford juggles being a politician and an international celebrity.
"I'm just an average, hard-working guy that goes to work every day, comes home to their family, takes my kids out, supports my wife and family, and does whatever I can," he said. "That's what normal fathers do."
The pair also discussed Doug Ford's controversial plan for the Port Lands, which included a monorail, mega-mall, and a boat-in hotel. Ford announced the idea in 2011, saying Waterfront Toronto, an agency charged with revitalizing the city's lakefront lands with money from Ottawa, Queen's Park, and the city, wasn't doing a good enough job.
"We have a great waterfront, the problem is we don't have anyone running the waterfront," Doug Ford said today. He said Waterfront Toronto had "wasted over a billion dollars" on projects like Sugar Beach, which he called "a concrete beach with some aluminum umbrellas."
Doug Ford called city councillors who don't visit Toronto Community Housing "poverty pimps."
"If the late night shows want to make fun of me, that's their job, let them make fun of me," Rob Ford said near the end of a video called "Ready for Late Night."
"They're also calling every night to get you on, by the way," said Doug. "They're doing everything they can, calling me every night, and you know something, we might go on one of them."
"I'm going to be going on a plane going somewhere, you just set it up," Rob said.
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Who is David Soknacki? A new candidate is throwing in his hat for Mayor of Toronto, and he's crafted a clever online campaign strategy (such as the image above). Soknacki is the former City Councillor for Scarborough East as well as the city's former Budget Chief - it sounds dry, but according to a post Soknacki made for the Huffington Post, that's the point. What good will it do Toronto if Jimmy Kimmel knows our Mayor's name? Probably... none?
In the Huffington Post piece Soknacki explains he's a lot like Ford: he's a business owner, in favour of tax cuts, dismayed by Scarborough's transit situation, and comes not from snooty downtown TO (right?) but from one of the city's oft-neglected regions (Scarborough, in Soknacki's case). That's where the commonality end though. Soknacki champions playing it cool at City Hall - "building creative solutions requires patience, good humour and a deep base of policy knowledge." Not exactly the warpath attitude that Ford is displaying in his own race to Ford More Years.
Soknacki is campaigning on his website (it's about as pro lastcallto's - this looks like an election that will be all about fancy web presence) and on on Twitter.
As the Toronto food scene comes of age there's been much chatter of how our young and talented collection of chefs are the new celebs on the block. (yeah, take that Mayor Ford) However, aside from the occasional magazine cover and various trade show appearances there hasn't been a whole lot of basis to this claim.
Enter Roots, the Canadian clothing giant who this week decided to take this celeb chef claim a step further. While its ads are usually home to famous Canadian faces such as Wayne Gretzky and Dan Aykroyd, Roots decided to enlist Bar Isabel chef Grant Van Gameren to star in its latest campaign.
Love his grilled octopus or fried rabbit? Now you can take your chef worship a step further and wear the same (er, similar) limited edition premium fleece that Van Gameren chooses to kick around in when chillin' with friends.
Roots' latest campaign is running in local print media and online and is promoting The Roots XL Pop Up Shop running this weekend at 567 Queen St. West.
