The 6th annual Toronto Fabulous vegan bake-off went down yesterday at Daniels Spectrum in Regent Park. The event saw sixty of Toronto's most talented vegan bakers bring their pies, cookies, cupcakes, squares and other baked treats for an old fashion bake-off where attendees voted for their favourite indulgence in categories with names ranging from Decadent Raw Desserts to Nutty Gluten-Free Sweets.
Get ready to gain some calories with a look at our photo gallery from the event.
The best bookstores in Toronto give bibliophiles hope that, despite the wagging fingers and threats, the printed page isn't dead. Sure, in the face of big box bookstores, e-readers and online purchasing, bookstores have had to specialize or promote themselves through events and classes. But the best bookstores have always gone the extra mile to encourage pleasure in reading, the love of literature and literary culture, and the adoration of the book as an aesthetic object.
When so much makes minds narrow and dull, the bookstore remains a haven of curiosity and imagination. Volumes can open up unknown worlds of possibility, and bring light to dark times. With the knockout success of Canadian literature in recent years, the growth of the self-publishing industry, and signs of book love everywhere, it's not all doom and gloom for the book business.
I personally live by Erasmus's creed: "When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes." But perhaps the best book-related credo comes from John Waters: "If you go home with somebody, and they don't have books, don't %#*$ them!" You've been warned, now get out there and get yourself some books!
Here are the best bookstores in Toronto.
See also:
The best used bookstores in Toronto
The best comic shops in Toronto
The Silver Dollar Room could become a Toronto heritage property and be protected from possible demolition if a city report gets the green light. Heritage staff say that adding the music venue to the list of protected properties would allow the city to control alterations to the site and refuse plans that call for it to be torn down.
The report doesn't call for the Hotel Waverly, which is also threatened with demolition, to be given the same protection, however.
A plan by property owners The Wynn Group that would demolish both the Hotel Waverly and The Silver Dollar Room for student housing is currently being appealed at the Ontario Municipal Board. In January, Toronto and East York Community council rejected the proposal, saying it "does not promote a harmonious fit with the existing neighbourhood context."
The plans for a 20-storey tower were first revealed in June 2013. If built, The Silver Dollar Room would be given an new home in the ground floor of the building, owner Paul Wynn said at the time. Local councillor Adam Vaughan called the tower "a terrible idea."
The simple one-and-a-half storey bar was built in 1958 as a cocktail lounge for the Hotel Waverly. It became "a venue for erotic dancing and striptease" in the 1960s and emerged as an incubator for rock and blues music in the 1970s. Heritage staff say the building deserves to be protected for its association "with the development and growth of music in Toronto, particularly the genres of jazz, blues, rock and bluegrass."
The report also says The Silver Dollar Room, Grossman's Tavern, the Horseshoe Tavern, and the El Mocambo are part of the cultural heritage of Spadina Avenue and that the circular Silver Dollar Room sign is also deserving of protection.
What do you think? Should The Silver Dollar Room be protected by the city? What about the Hotel Waverly?
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Image: City of Toronto, The Wynn Group/Kirkor Architects and Planners
Borrel is the term for a casual get-together in the Netherlands and is also a new weekly pop-up fixture helmed by Justin Go and Alison Broverman at The Ossington on Sunday afternoons from 1pm to 6pm. On the menu are three dishes of Dutch origin: stamppot, bitterballen and poffertjes, traditional foods that are typically scarce on Toronto menus.
My first introduction comes in the form of bitterballen ($7.50), golden fried croquettes made up of a savoury roux mixed with a choice of minced chicken, beef or vegetables. Whole grain, Zaanse mustard imported from Holland, is served on the side for dipping.
Stamppot ($9), a hearty mash of kale and potato is studded with bacon lardons and topped with a pool of gravy. Smoked pork sausage fanned out on the plate is similar to Keilbassa and sourced from a Dutch butcher in Dundas, Ontario. Vegetarians can opt for a meatless version for $8.
Poffertjes ($6.50), poured from batter and browned in a specialized press (like a waffle iron) are addictive miniature pancakes served with a dusting of confection sugar and a nob of cold butter that melts at the table. Polishing off two orders is hardly a challenge.
The duo is toying with how to expand the menu for the summer months and potentially introduce Dutch libations like Jenever, a gin-like alcohol that is traditionally served with a spoonful of sugar to mix in or as a shot alongside beer. For now, take advantage of $5 tall cans of Old Style Pilsner offered by the bar.
Take note that, food and drink are billed separately and this is a cash only operation.
Photos by Jesse Milns
Toronto restaurant openings continue at an untamed pace this spring, promising the imminent arrival of innovative new culinary fusions, regionally specific specialties, and even more street food-inspired fare.
Here are the 10 most anticipated Toronto restaurant openings on our radar this spring.
Lucky Red
The new bao shop from Banh Mi Boys plans to offer steamed buns, noodle bowls and Vietnamese desserts. The Spadina shop is slated for a May opening and will offer take-away and quick service dining in an industrial inspired space.
TLP
This Elm Street sandwich shop from the same team as the adjacent Barberian's Steakhouse still has us licking our chops in anticipation. The menu will feature generous helpings of homestyle Canadian comfort foods in A-grade steakhouse style. Think meatloaf, fried baloney and peameal sandwiches.
Patois
Hoping to open in April or May, this Dundas West restaurant from French-trained chef Craig Wong will meld his own Jamaican-Chinese heritage and offer a fusion of cuisine described as Caribbean meets Asian soul food. Juicy Jerk chicken done churrasco-style on a rotisserie will play a starring role on the menu which will be served family style, a la traditional Chinese restaurants. The bar menu will experiment with housemade ginger beers and rum punches and the vibe, I'm told, will be a party every night.
Fat Pasha
Construction at Anthony Rose's new restaurant on Dupont is nearing completion, and the dining room is poised to open mid April. On the menu, expect a mash-up of Israeli and European-Jewish foods like hummus topped with roasted brisket or beet root horseradish, plus innovative cocktails like one currently in development that uses Kosher Manischewitz wine.
Los Colibris
Due for a late April or early May opening, this restaurant, with a name meaning the hummingbirds, is perched on top of the recently opened El Caballito tequila bar and will offer a more formal dining experience focused on traditional Mexican flavours developed by Executive chef Elia Herrera.
Rasa
Now going by just Rasa (they dropped the "Tabula," pleasing philosophy profs everywhere), this new Harbord Village restaurant is slated to become the flagship location for the Food Dudes food truck and catering company. Taking over the former address of Momo's, the dining room and patio should make a late spring debut, while a street food style takeout counter will be added in the fall.
Market Street Catch
Part of the new restaurant row in St. Lawrence Market, this seafood grill plans to offer four types of tacos, including octopus and seared tuna, plus, lobster, crab and shrimp rolls. Tom Antonarakis (Buster's Sea Cove) hopes to debut the 30-seat licensed eatery and take-away counter in early April. Oh, and in time for warmer weather, there will be a 14-seat patio too.
Barsa Taberna
Also on Market street, this upmarket Spanish eatery is nearly ready to open. Inspired by the vibrant culture of Barcelona, Executive Chef Michael Smith is gearing up to offer tapas and small shared plates rooted in Spanish cuisine but that also embrace global flavours.
Luckee
Details about Susur Lee's new restaurant located inside the Soho Metropolitan Hotel are still scarce but the concept is rumoured to be set to launch in late April. Transformation is underway in the former Senses restaurant courtesy of Brenda Bent and Karen Gable, while the menu of classic Chinese dishes and dim sum is being developed with a nod towards the culinary traditions of Guangzhou, Hunan and Szechuan regions.
Pai
Located on Duncan, this new restaurant from Nuit and Jeff Regular (the same duo behind Sabai Sabai and Sukhothai) plans to zero in on home town recipes from the namesake Northern Thai province near the Myanmar border. The restaurant is almost good to go, and it could be only a matter of days or weeks before we're chowing down.
Honourable Mentions:
Lead photo by Erin Scott from Market Street Catch
Today we're opening up voting in our latest Best Of poll. Now you can have your say in 10 categories including brunch, grilled cheese, gluten-free bakeries, menswear shops and more.
Voting in the poll ends at 1pm on Sunday March 30th.
Today in Toronto, LA-based quartet Warpaint hit the Danforth Music Hall for a show in support of their latest self-titled, Flood-produced album. Smiling Buddha promises to be bumping with Mystic Pizza - a night of psych, hip hop, soul and garage, courtesy of DJs Stuffed Crust and Veggie Delight. Art Battle goes down at The Great Hall with 16 painters in action, and Toronto-based Iranian journalist and writer, Bahram Bahramiis is the night's featured guest at Queen Gallery Poetry Night.
Have an event you'd like to plug? Submit your own listing to the blogTO Toronto events calendar or contact us directly.
Photo of Warpaint by Andre C. on Flickr
The 2014 Hot Docs Festival line-up was just unveiled last week, and Toronto documentary enthusiasts have doubtless been poring over the packed catalogue and building their schedules ever since. There are 139 feature-length documentaries to choose from this year, so it's about that time to start thinking seriously about some of titles you want to see before they start selling out.
The effort to build your Hot Docs schedule will probably feel Sisyphean at times; you finally found a way to fit in film x, only to create conflicts with films y and z. Part of the anxiety in festival planning is the sense that you're forgetting to see something major, so this list is here to help ensure that doesn't happen for you this year. Without further ado, here is our list of the 10 titles with the biggest buzz going into this year's festival.
BRONX OBAMA
Louis Ortiz is a full-time impersonator of the most famous and contentious American citizen since 2008: President Barack Obama. This film offers a portrait of this man, who until being pointed toward this physical similarity by a friend was an unemployed, single father.
RICH HILL
This American doc took the Sundance film festival by storm last January - taking home the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Documentary section - and then played to similarly triumphant praise in Missouri's True/False festival a month later. In the spirit of films like 45365 and Only the Young, Rich Hill follows three young residents of Rich Hill, Missouri, population 1,393 as they dream of the modest lives they could live.
SACRO GRA
This unassuming documentary by Gianfranco Rosi (El Sicario, Room 164), which details some of the quotidian existences to be found along the major motorway circling the entirety of Rome, shocked the film world last September when it took home the Golden Lion - the top prize of the Venice Film Festival, where it competed against films like Under the Skin, The Wind Rises, and Tom at the Farm. The number of individuals who saw that coming: approximately nil.
E-TEAM
Winner of the Cinematography Prize in the U.S. Documentary section at Sundace, E-Team (short for 'The Emergencies Team') is like the ultimate human rights activist documentary. The film follows four members of the eponymous do-gooders as they answer to the call of duty, and gains insight into these individuals' motivations and personalities in their downtime.
UKRAINE IS NOT A BROTHEL
This one appears to be filling the Fuck for Forest slot at this year's festival, offering a look at political activism at its most NSFW. The doc has already done well in its festival play, winning the Lina Mangiacapre Award at Venice last year, and has continued (a)rousing festival-goers this year at venues such as True/False and South-by-Southwest.
THE INTERNET'S OWN BOY: THE STORY OF AARON SWARTZ
The Opening Night Film is always going to be a popular ticket, no matter what the film is. It's always a bonus, though, when the selection is as enticing and incendiary-looking as this one. Destined to become one of his generation's most important activists, Aaron Swartz fought to stop government sanctioned acts criminalizing online piracy as well other conservative measures clearly designed by antiquated, 20th-century thinking. Upon facing charges that would lead to 35 years in prison, Swartz was found dead, at the age of 26, of an apparent suicide. This film tells his story.
THE VANQUISHING OF THE WITCH BABA YAGA
For all of the documentaries getting pumped out every year raising awareness to this, that, and the other humanitarian issues, eccentric personalities, and too-crazy-to-be-true bizarro real incidents, there's a tiny percentage of the medium dedicated to the ethereal and majestic beauty of nature and and cultural mythology. Having received a seismic response at the True/False documentary festival in February, The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga would appear to be the cream of this intimate sub-genre's crop this year.
ACTRESS
Another extremely popular title from this year's True/False festival, Actress rides the rigid and wholly arbitrary divide between fiction and documentary. Telling the story of The Wire actress Brandy Burre, who gave up acting when she became pregnant, the film stages and recreates certain aspects of Burre's life, past and present, to create an amazing portrait of the social and familial demands facing women at work.
RETURN TO HOMS
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize in the World Documentary section at Sundance, Return to Homs follows two friends - one a goalkeeper for the Syrian national soccer team, the other a pacifist and media activist - for over a two-year period. Described as an exhilarating glimpse at the Syrian Uprising, this first-hand account will serve as one of the vital documents of one of the 21st century's great revolutions.
THE OVERNIGHTERS
Hailed as the documentary equivalent to The Grapes of Wrath, The Overnighters follows the migration of workers into North Dakota by the oil rush, and the harsh wake-up call awaiting them there. There's a twist in there that'll have everyone talking. I won't spoil it here, of course, but you should be sure to see it for yourself.
Lead still from Bronx Obama
As I was posting this week's DineSafe headline, my browser just auto-filled Ali Baba's... enough said. In all fairness, the yellow card this week goes to the location at Bloor and Lansdowne which has otherwise been in good standing over the last couple years.
Here are the rest of DineSafe's worst this week:
Ali Baba's (1283 Bloor St W)
Inspected on: March 19, 2014
Inspection finding:Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 4 (Significant: 3, Crucial: 1)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to maintain hazardous foods at 60C (140F) or hotter.
The Kathi Roll Express (692 Yonge St)
Inspected on: March 17, 2014
Inspection finding:Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 4 (Minor: 2, Significant: 2)
Crucial infractions include: N/A
Cafe Awtash (419 College St W)
Inspected on: March 20, 2014
Inspection finding:Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 5 (Minor: 1, Significant: 3, Crucial: 1)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to ensure food is not contaminated/adulterated.
Round (152A Augusta Ave)
Inspected on: March 18, 2014
Inspection finding:Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 3 (Minor: 2, Significant: 1)
Crucial infractions include: N/A
Piazza Manna (199 Bay St)
Inspected on: March 20, 2014
Inspection finding:Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 6 (Minor: 3, Significant: 3)
Crucial infractions include: N/A
Diamond Pizza (510 Main St)
Inspected on: March 17, 2014
Inspection finding:Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 6 (Minor: 1, Significant: 4, Crucial: 2)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to ensure food is not contaminated/adulterated. Operator fail to maintain hazardous foods at 4C (40F) or colder.
Fat Phill's (1 Romar Cres)
Inspected on: March 18, 2014
Inspection finding:Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 4 (Minor: 2, Significant: 2)
Crucial infractions include: N/A
This two-story Tudor style home overlooks a ravine just north of Scarborough Bluffs in the Cliffside neighbourhood. It's paradise five kilometres east of the big city. Large floor-to-ceiling windows accentuate one of the best features of this house - the wooded location and early 20th century architecture. Thoreau types will rejoice in the upper terrace overlooking the ravine and the garden located off of the lower level, which integrates the home into the wooded location and makes for the perfect summer drink-nook or barbecue ground (should summer ever come!).
The interior pulls its weight, too. Here you'll find a fully renovated kitchen complete with a cozy breakfast nook (to match the one outside). Despite the renovations, however, the house has maintained many of its 20th century elements, like hardwood floors, bay windows, and a large fireplace. The remaining renovations boil down to a matter of taste, but the home could easily regain some character by adding some colour. You just need to look past the ubiquitous grey and beige staging in the current pictures.
This spacious ravine house includes three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a large first-floor living area. Oh, and you also get a finished downstairs rec room that opens onto the backyard and ravine. Throw your kids or spouse downstairs, and you won't only have privacy from your neighbours, but maybe some much needed privacy from each other too. Perfect.
SPECS
NOTABLE FEATURES
GOOD FOR
Ravine-coveting folk who can't quite get in on Chloe. Active families with older children. People who sneer at cottages. Cliffside is pretty cool, by the way. The neighbouring Scarborough Bluffs and Bluffer's Park are perfect for hiking or running, or a day eating ice cream at the beach if that's more your speed.
MOVE ON IF
You're looking for a downtown location. This ain't that. The ravine location is adjacent to the Scarborough Bluffs, which provides plentiful outdoor and recreation space. But you can't walk for your milk here (the walk score clocks in at only 72). With TTC limited to buses, this home is best for someone who will make use of the four car parking. That said, if you don't have a vehicle, you can make use of the two closest businesses - a Ford and Dodge dealership.
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS
Read other posts in this series via our House of the Week Pinterest board.
Writing by Isabel Ritchie
La Carnita is expanding into the east end with a second taco shop in The Beaches. The new location at 1953 Queen Street East will be similar in size to the original and offer the same signature Mexican street foods with a few minor tweaks.
Alongside tacos, tostadas, and queso-covered corn, expect the new menu to ramp up its dessert offerings. Owner Andrew Richmond plans to accessorize the new outpost with a frozen treat counter that's tentatively titled, Sweet Jesus. The take-away counter is set to offer a line up of ice cream by the pint and fruity paleta ice pops to-go.
Look for the new location to open its doors in June.
Kingston Road doesn't pose much of a challenge from an etymology standpoint. Once the easterly route from Toronto to Kingston, the road dates back to the outset of the 19th century when Asa Danforth was tasked with building a route linking Toronto with the Trent River. While Danforth's road made it all the way east, it never really took and fell into disrepair soon after completion. 15 years later, Kingston Road was built following mostly the same path. During the almost two centuries that have followed, Kingston Road made up a huge chunk of Highway 2, a route that still cuts across Southern Ontario even though it was removed from the official highway system in 1998.
Once served by a radial railway, Kingston Road has always been an important street in Toronto. Businesses capitalized on the travellers making their way to and from eastern destinations, which afforded the the Toronto portion of the street a rather vibrant retail scene earlier than other places to the east of downtown. It was also, rather naturally given its function, a place where some of Toronto's earliest tourist cabins were located.
The Kingston Road motel strip still clings to life today, but back in the 1950s it was positively booming. Prior to the 401, Highway 2 was a major east/west route through the province, and tourists were attracted to the cheap accommodation and proximity to the Scarborough Bluffs. These weren't rundown, shitty places. Take a look at the Roycroft Motel in the 1950s below. Now something of a concrete bunker, it's parking lot pool seems wonderfully optimistic and leisurely.
The whole strip of motels was, in fact, brimming with activity until the traffic dried up in the 1960s, thus mirroring the situation in the US with the rise of the Interstate. One suspects that the remaining motels will be gone in the next decade or so, depending on the level of condo pressure. The purge has already happened on Lake Shore, so that's not a particularly brave prediction to make.
Here's a look at Kingston Road when it was on the upswing.
PHOTOS
Kingston Road looking west from Malvern, 1922
Kingston Road looking west from Victoria Park, 1922
Kingston Road looking east from Dixon, 1922
Kingston Road looking west from Main St., 1922
Hotel / Halfway House at Kingston Road and Midland, 1922
Kingston Road looking west from Scarborough Road, 1922
Kingston Road and Bingham, 1922
Kingston Road looking east from Brookside, 1927
Kingston Road east from Lakeside, 1928
Kingston Road west from Birchmount, 1928
Kingston Road looking west toward Brimley, 1930s
Early tourist cabins near Brimley, 1930s
Kingston Road looking west from near Lawrence, 1930s
114 Kingston Road, 1950
Roycroft Motel, 1950s
Avon Motel, 1950s
Andrews Motor Lodge, 1960s
Park Motel, 1960s
"Someone once told me, 'time is a flat circle'. Everything we've ever done or will do we're gonna do over and over and over again".
While it's likely that True Detective's Rustin Cohle was talking more about the futility of change than dance music, it's a sentiment that hold true for the latter as well. I recently profiled five contemporary attention-worthy dance labels in Toronto happening right now. But go back in time a few decades, and you'll see the seeds planted that allowed dance culture to blossom, expand and envision new ways of existing. Here are a few labels that set the groundwork for today's dance music scene.
Stickman Records
With releases adorned by the label's distinctive stick figure model, Greg Zwarich and Paul Mintsoulis' specialized in equally bare bones house tracks for Canada's after hours crowds. Specializing in tracks that burrow into your consciousness, tunes like Stickmen's "The Drug" still sound contemporary and invigorating today, with Radio Slave including it in his Strictly Rhythm retrospective.
Also notable is how the label was an early adopter of a pro-queer sentiment - Toronto's own Denise Benson was a contributer to the label's "Obscene Underground" mix series, proudly displaying the word "Gay" in unmissable text on the front. For those interested in the intersection between queerness and dance music, Resident Advisor recently traced the history of LGBT disco and house, which you can read here.
Alien 8 Records
Following in the footsteps of New York's electroclash / dance punk vibe set in motion by DFA Records, Alien 8 was home to a thrashing number of releases that blurred the line between dance and noise. Though some might argue that it's tough to classify Think About Life's "Paul Cries" as a piece of dance music, there's a tension between the hoarse vocals and mechanical drum machine percussion that captures the same energy as The Rapture's breakout hit "House of Jealous Lovers".
Running the gamut from house-party staples like Montreal's Lesbians on Ecstasy, to "lay-in-bed-thinking-about-what-it-all-means" records from noise pioneers like Tim Hecker & Merzbow, Alien 8 captured some of the rampant energy that characterized the early 00's resistance to 4/4 house beats.
Turbo Recordings
While those paying attention to pop music may have first taken note of the Montréal label around the time Chromeo's "Needy Girl" was blasting on campus radio, or around the time Tiga was recording acid house covers of Talking Heads songs, Turbo Recordings had been around for more than half a decade.
Starting in the late 90's as an outlet for Tiga's DJ mixes, full of edits that would end with phrases like "XTC X-Press Mix", big European names like Jesper Dahlbäck and Jori Hulkkonen eventually came on board. More recently, Turbo has been involved in championing several Toronto artists, such as the now-sadly-disbanded Azari & III and Gingy. Their reach still extends far beyond the Northern hemisphere, as evidence by snagging Helsinki architects Renaissance Man and Orekhovo-Zuevo-based nihilist electro producer Proxy for recent releases.
Jinxx Records
A sub-label of 90's house-churning monster Hi Bias Records, Jinxx is the type of label that snagged a number of dance superstars before they were in the international spotlight. Two decades before Kenny Glasgow would be known for his Art Department project, he was releasing vocal house on Jinxx, such as 93's "Pressing On", which also received a remix from DNH Records boss Nick Holder, whose label absolutely would've made this list if we hadn't just included him in our last one.
Jinxx was also known for releasing cuts by Chicago-based "house gangster" DJ Sneak, who would stop in at intimate Toronto house venue Element Bar from time to time (profiled wonderfully in the "Then & Now" series).
Plus 8 Records
The toughest thing about these lists are that often labels will jump around geographically to places where there's more support (cough, Berlin). Such is the case with Richie Hawtin & John Acquaviva's Plus 8 Record label, which began as a modest operation run out of a family studio in Windsor, and eventually catapulted to such an international stage that Hawtin was making techno compositions that were performed in the 2006 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony.
Some have accused Hawtin of an Elvis Presley-ification the genre of Detroit techno; questioning his widespread success in a context when many other contemporaries are broke and unbooked. But Plus 8 also supported Detroit legends like Kenny Larkin, whose track "We Shall Overcome" transformed Martin Luther King's famous speech into the chorus of a jittery techno stomper. It also showcased Hawtin's own material under the Plastikman alias, whose track "Spastik" blew minds at the time for the way it solely featured whirring percussion overtop percussion - a near-naked earworm of a DJ tool that's still being mixed into sets today.
A dose of cat nip for Toronto pet lovers -- word is soon not only will you not have to fly to Asia to visit a cat cafe, you won't even have to plan a road trip to Montreal or Vancouver (who both have their own scheduled to open this year).
Smitten Kitten Cafe is "still in the infancy stage" according to co-owner Jen Morozowich, and is slated for a yet-to-be-determined address in Koreatown. The concept will be akin to existing kitty cafes, which have become dream destinations for North American animal lovers who for various reasons don't or can't have cats at home: a coffee/pastry item and time to hang out with cute felines, all for a small cover fee.
The cafe won't just be a place to play chess with some friendly aristocats -- there are also plans to sell toys and host movie nights and Q&A's with veterinarians. Morozowich, who's volunteered with the Annex Cat Rescue and Toronto Humane Society, and her business partner, restauranteur Jeff Jarvis, will be sharing more information about Smitten Kitten in May of this year. Since you'll have to wait a while after that to meet these rescue cats (all will be available for adoption), in the meantime you can check out our posts on animal rescue groups and stray cats in Toronto.
Photo via Feline DaCat on Flickr.
Sometimes the City of Toronto gets its graffiti abatement strategy right. Take, for instance, last year's project to spice up 20 traffic signal boxes around the city with murals from prominent street artists. Not only did this initiative add some unexpected art to what are otherwise urban eyesores, the presence of finished work has served to dissuade others from tagging up the utility boxes. Unlike this little bit of idiocy, everybody wins.
Building on that program, today the City announced that it plans to adorn additional traffic signal boxes with what's being referred to as a "graphically attractive, synthetic wrap." That's not the most promising description (graphically attractive?), but things get a bit more auspicious when you learn that artists commissioned to design the wraps are Gary Taxali and the late Moira McElhinney.
Part of the "Outside the Box" program, the wraps are designed not only to discourage tagging but also postering, which is also graphically unattractive but most people's standards (I kind of like the clutter). The designs are quite as stunning as the murals from last year, but presumably the wrap can be rolled out on a wider scale should the first run of 15 be successful.
What do you think? Is Toronto slowly learning how to manage graffiti?
Today in Toronto, the One of a Kind Spring Show begins at the Direct Energy Centre for all your crafty needs. The Hoxton has some happening sounds courtesy of BBC Radio 1's go-to dance DJ, Annie Mac, and The Pivot Reading Series goes down this evening at The Press Club (our lit pick of the week) with Jeremy Hanson-Finger, Guillaume Morissette, and Stuart Ross reading. 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.
Photo: Jesse Milns
This Week in Fashion rounds up the week's style news, store openings and closings, pop-up shops, sales and upcoming fashion and design events in Toronto. Find it here every Wednesday morning.
NEWS
Park & Province, a slick online boutique based in Toronto, launches today (March 26) at noon. Founded by Chris Naidu and Gray Butler, the curated menswear shop offers hard-to-find quality fashion essentials with a contemporary twist, like All Around Shirt's apple-adorned button-up and Thorocraft's camouflage print oxfords.
EVENTS
Starting today (March 26) and stretching through the weekend (March 30), the One of a Kind Show returns for its spring edition. Held at Exhibition Place, the event is essentially a large convention of all crafty buyable art, photography, clothing, jewellery, food, makeup, toys, and more from about 450 vendors. This year, the Etsy section is back for its second round, bringing the e-commerce website to real life with a lineup of 50 emerging Etsy sellers. Tickets are $14 (or $12 if purchased online) for adults, $7 for seniors and youth, and free for children under 12 years old.
Get up bright and early (or at least earlier than you expected) this Sunday (March 30) for a Vintage Clothing Show at Wychwood Barns (601 Christie St). From 10 am until 5 pm, peruse a large selection of one-of-a-kind clothing, shoes, accessories, and textiles from 30 top vendors from Toronto and Montreal. Admission is $8 at the door.
Shopify wants to give everyone the tools to run a virtual business, so they're hosting free workshops at the Burroughes Building (639 Queen St W) throughout the day next Tuesday (April 1st). First up are DSLR workshops for product (noon - 1 pm) and apparel photography (2 pm - 3 pm), led by Andrew Williamson. Get hands-on experience with lighting, live models, and props to shoot. In the evening, Natasha Singh of Walk In Closet will teach you how to run a pop-up shop, complete with concepts like finding a location, promoting, and merchandising.
Uncrate India - Holt Renfrew's newest pop-up shop to transform their H Project spaces - launches next week (April 1st) in stores across the country to celebrate the richness and diversity of India. With two locations in Toronto (Bloor Street and Yorkdale), the 8-week concept shops will carry sustainably sourced treasures handpicked by Holt Renfrew's Director of Brand Strategy Alexandra Weston and House of Waris designer Waris Ahluwalia on a trip to Delhi, Jaipur, Udaipur, and Mandawa. Expect to find enchanting handmade clothing and housewares like batik silk scarves and hand-woven rugs.
SALES
All sale merchandise from every TNT store is available to rummage at the outlet location (388 Eglinton Ave W) for just 6 more days, meaning you still have a fighting chance at finding that one ridiculous coat you wanted last season in the right size. Everything's going for 70% - 80% off until March 31st, so be sure to head over ASAP to avoid missing out.
Photo from At the Barns
The three S's - salads, smoothies, and sandwiches - are in full spin at this new underground health-conscious hub located near Holt Renfrew in the concourse below Bay and Bloor. It's a quick place to grab lunch that's bound to woo a few people away from Holt's Cafe.
Read my review of Picnic in the restaurants section.
