World Pride is coming to Toronto this summer, and it's already set to be one for the history books: The city has announced that a mass wedding will be held Thursday, June 26 to coincide with the 10-day celebrations.

Up to 200 queer couples are invited to recite their vows at Casa Loma, Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly and Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam have announced in a video message. Officiants from a number of faiths will be available, and facilities, flowers, music and photographers will all be covered - though couple will still have to pay the $45 marriage license fee. Interested couples can register online.

The video announcement serves as a pitch to international visitors, praising Toronto's diversity and touting the ceremony's historic location as one of the few castles on the entire continent. Toronto's Pride attracts thousands of visitors from out of town annually, but with this year's festivities serving as the first World Pride ever held in North America, the city is expecting a massive influx of tourists hoping to enjoy the party - and a marriage certificate, and the bragging rights from a potential record, make a heck of a souvenir.

View the full video below:

Photo by b-real via the blogTO Flickr pool.

The SEW Hungry food truck festival took over politely imposed itself on Hamilton's Ottawa St. this past Friday, bringing together almost 35 food trucks from across Southern Ontario (including a number of familiar faces from Toronto). Stretched along a major street, the festival didn't even shut down car traffic - and yet, somehow, this celebration of street food was one of the most jovial and civilized food truck rallies I've ever attended.

Check this photo gallery for all the SEW Hungry 2014 action

Word spread this weekend of a new Chanel boutique opening in Toronto, though its neighbours were more baffled than excited by the news. The location of the French couture house's latest showroom? 1822 Danforth Ave., between Coxwell and Woodbine - right next door to the neighbourhood pest control business.

An image of the new storefront, bearing the iconic interlocking-C logo and the words "opening fall 2014", ended up posted on Reddit. "Look up gentrification," one Redditor remarked. (A Chanel boutique in your average residential neighbourhood would probably be filed under 'seriously?', but we digress.)

Others floated the possibility that the incongruous location was a pop-up shop for the brand's grocery-store-inspired Fall 2014 collection, which debuted on a Paris runway flanked with shelves of Chanel-branded cotton swabs, detergent and potato chips. (If that were true, the unusual location, more suited to a real-deal corner store than a Mink Mile-style boutique, would have been a pretty fantastic choice.)

As it turned out, the sign was indeed phony. Art of the Danforth is currently underway in the neighbourhood, and the imaginary Chanel storefront appears to be an offshoot of this project, which asks residents to reimagine what the area would look like after undergoing heavy gentrification.

Upon hearing of the signs, representatives from the brand were up in (boucle-jacketed) arms. "We've advised our legal services and we'll be investigating this," Chanel's public relations director, Virginie Vincens, told Canadian Business. "We would never go in that area." (Danforth residents, don't take that too personally; brands like these avoid being associated with anyone who's not an heiress, a very famous actress, or Cara Delevingne.)

Expansion within Toronto likely wouldn't have been in the cards for the French fashion giant. With existing boutiques in high-end spots like Yorkville and Yorkdale, Chanel's as visible as it currently needs to be in the city - if you're about to pick up a new 2.55, it's really not a problem to venture out of your neighbourhood. But if Chanel Marts ever really do materialize in cities worldwide, I would clean up in aisle No. 5.

Photo via Reddit.

The best used bike shops in Toronto offer a useful alternative to fending for yourself on Craigslist. While there's certainly some premium involved in buying from a store rather than some dude in sweatpants, you tend to get what you pay for. If you know a whole lot about bike maintenance, it probably makes sense to skip the middle man. For those of us, however, who prefer to ride rather than tinker, it's nice to know that your potential bike has been tuned and inspected by someone who knows what they're doing. As an added bonus, many of these shops will stand behind the bikes they sell in the event that you encounter problems post-purchase.

Toronto's used bike shops are typically geared to the commuter cyclist, though there are some exceptions where you'll find higher end single speed/fixie conversions of vintage steel framed rides. Because stock turns over quickly during the summer months, you'll want to check in at your shop(s) of choice on a regular basis if you have something specific in mind.

Here are the best used bike shops in Toronto.

See also:

The best bike stores in Toronto
The best bike repair shops in Toronto
The best custom and road bike stores in Toronto
The top 10 stores to buy a mountain bike in Toronto

Photo by Martin Reis

Photo by Bobcatnorth in the blogTO Flickr pool.

Today in Toronto it's do or die for music fans as Canadian Music Week officially returns. Canada's largest music festival, CMW brings established and hopeful musicians from around Canada and the world to Toronto. Tonight's line up includes The 1975, The Reason, The Dirty Nil, Justin Nozuka, and a huge, local celeb-filled Nirvana tribute. Read our full preview of what to see at CMW here, and check out our guide to where to hang out during the fest if you're lazy here. For more events, click on over to our events section.

• Music: Canadian Music Week
• Film: GOETHE FILMS: Germany laughs (TIFF)
• Classical: Night Shift - First Shift (The Gladstone)
• Nirvana: Come As You Are (The Great Hall)

Have an event you'd like to plug? Submit your own listing to the blogTO Toronto events calendar or contact us directly.

Photo of the Dirty Nil via Grace Cavarra‎ on Facebook

This week's DineSafe inspections didn't turn up anything too egregious in Toronto's restaurants, with nary a red card in sight. The most eyebrow-raising news is the yellow card earned by Church St. dine-in-darkness restaurant O.Noir for improper pest control ... among other things. (At least no one can see any pests if it's dark?)

Here are the rest of this week's DineSafe delinquents.

The Big Ragu (1338 Lansdowne Ave.)
Inspected on: April 28, 2014
Inspection finding:Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 3 (Minor: 1, Significant: 1, Crucial: 1)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to maintain hazardous food(s) at 4 C (40 F) or colder.

Pizza Pizza (617 College St.)
Inspected on: April 28, 2014
Inspection finding:Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 1 (Significant: 1)
Crucial infractions include: N/A

St. Louis Bar & Grill (808 York Mills Rd.)
Inspected on: April 29, 2014
Inspection finding:Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 4 (Minor: 1, Significant: 2, Crucial: 1)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to maintain hazardous food(s) at 4 C (40 F) or colder.

O.Noir (620 Church St.)
Inspected on: April 29, 2014
Inspection finding:Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 3 (Minor: 1, Significant: 1, Crucial: 1)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to maintain hazardous food(s) at 4 C (40 F) or colder.

Sushi Club (41 Charles St.)
Inspected on: April 29, 2014
Inspection finding:Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 6 (Minor: 3, Significant: 2, Crucial: 1)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to maintain hazardous food(s) at 4 C (40 F) or colder.

Manila Foods (538 St Clair Ave. West)
Inspected on: April 30, 2014
Inspection finding:Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 6 (Minor: 1, Significant: 4, Crucial: 1)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to ensure food is not contaminated/adulterated.

This Vancouver clothing company's reach has been extending slowly eastward since its 2010 launch, finally landing in Toronto with a Shops At Don Mills boutique (plus a pop-up on Queen). Their clean-lined, pastel pieces and minimal accessories might suggest a high price tag, but many of the items come in at under $100.

Read my review of Oak + Fort in the fashion section.

Drone music mania is sweeping our nation's underground as Canada's first National Drone Day takes place this Saturday, May 10. The weekend will see multiple super chill (it's drone, after all) events booked across the country, including three different zones for drones in Toronto. National Drone Day is the love child of the power couple behind the Weird Canada blog and their ambitious Wyrd Arts Initiatives - remember that $50K nationwide distro for indie music? Yup, they did that too.

Thirteen shows in total are confirmed so far for May 10 across Canada, and apparently six more are in the works in locales as far as Yukon and Iqaluit. Each event represents a different historical facet - or dare I say scene - of drone music (itself a very vague blanket definition for a wide spectrum of experimental sounds). The fact that a niche "holiday" like this has already birthed three separate events in Toronto speaks louder than any Canadian Music Week keynote speaker could to our city's diverse music scene.

"I came up with the idea while making soup," said Weird Canada's Marie Flanagan. "I get so nauseous over these empty holidays and thinly veiled consumer-celebrations - I wanted a day that I could get behind." And she's not the only one. Constellation Records' Graham Latham has made a drone mix to commemorate the day, and the hopes are the buzz will spread and more Drone Day events will come about with each passing year. "Drone draws together a community of people who refuse the binary," said Flanagan, "a group who otherwise might have little in common."

Here's how to celebrate the inaugural holiday (grab a pal or attend only the dronely) in Toronto.

Array Space
In Toronto the sonic explorations are being launched by weathered mainstay promoters The Ambient Ping, who have been promoting ambient music (the older cousin and close personal friend of drone) events since 2000. The Ping's show suitably takes place at experimental haven Array Space during the afternoon and features 20-year ambient veterans dreamSTATE performing a trance inducing two hour set with visual accompaniment. This is the original old school drone, possibly best suited for the chin scratchers. 2:30-4:30pm, Array Space (155 Walnut Avenue).

The Tranzac
At the Tranzac in the Annex come evening, Healing Power Records have culled together a bill of underground droners that have been taking street-level modern drone to fantastic heights - a good number of which we recently covered in our highly controversial top 5 Toronto drone artists list. The sounds at this event are the ones which gave drone its definitive place outside of not only electronic music, but ambient, new age and noise: bleak and confrontational (Panic Engines), sorrowful and beautiful (Black Walls, Moonwood), drugged and hypnotic (Man Made Hill, Hobo Cubes) or mechanical and architectural (Hoover Party). 6pm, Tranzac Club (292 Brunswick Ave).

May
Across town at May Cafe the latest school of young drone artists will be cutting its teeth to a more current cybernetic and electronic pulse. Indeed, one performer frAncis is a member of the multi-laptop working Cybernetic Orchestra. It promises to be an event overflowing with post-everything video art (including works by Jubal Brown, Leslie Supnet, and Clint Enns) and installations, as well as a choreographed performance by Cassandra Witteman. This biggie was curated on the fly by TO hype machine and electronic champion Egyptrixx, who will present A/B til Infinity. 9pm, Mây (876 Dundas Street West).

The first ever National Drone Day is May 10, 2014.

Writing by Kevin Hainey. Photo of Egyptrixx

32 Leuty Avenue reminds me that everyone who's lived in Toronto long enough has a Beaches phase. You know, the dream of walking out your front door and onto the boardwalk, or the vision of a life in which you take your golden retriever down to the water for a morning walk (or is this all just me?). This home, located just east of Kew Gardens, could give you a chance to fulfill that dream. At just a block from Lake Ontario, you can waltz down to the beach at a moment's notice. That is, if you aren't floating in the backyard pool or enjoying a drink on the front porch instead. I can see my tan coming in already.

Aside from the location, the home itself isn't lacking character. Hardwood floors run throughout the open concept first floor and large windows give the house plenty of light. And with four bedrooms and a finished basement, this house certainly isn't wanting for space. It's great for a large family or someone with a lot of visitors, which you might have if you live here.

SPECS

• Address: 32 Leuty Ave
• Price: $1,489,000
• Lot Size: 4500 ft2
• Bedrooms: 4
• Bathrooms: 4
• Parking: 2
• Taxes: $7,622
• Walk Score: 95

NOTABLE FEATURES

• Century home located only a block from the lake
• Spacious open concept feel in main floor
• Renovated with gas furnace and central air
• Large backyard with pool

GOOD FOR

Summer lovers. If you're just waiting for it to warm up enough to lie on the beach, or play volleyball at Ashbridge's Bay, this could be your dream home (it's not exactly withing everyone's reach, of course). Plus, this house couldn't look more like it belongs in the Beaches, so with enough imagination, you can keep that summer feeling going year round.

MOVE ON IF

The summer cottage feel just isn't enough. Once you take off your warm weather blinders and remember that we live in Canada, the location and great outdoor space might not be such a selling point. Instead, you might see that the kitchen is in need of an update, or you might not be wowed by the rubber roof balcony. Why do you have to be so negative?

MORE PHOTOS

Thanks to The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) for sponsoring our obsession with Toronto's real estate market.

Read other posts in this series via our House of the Week Pinterest board.

Writing by Isabel Ritchie

Politicians and journalists do much squabbling over whether Toronto is a so called world class city. Whether we are or we aren't, it's tough to argue that our subway service doesn't measure up to what's offered by cities that indisputably carry that title.

New York City, for example, keeps its subway lines open all night. And in London, five lines will remain open overnight on Friday and Saturday nights, beginning in 2015.

Could something similar ever work in Toronto?

TTC spokesperson Brad Ross doesn't offer a whole lot of hope.

"The reason we don't stay open later is quite simple: it's maintenance," he says. I ask him why is then that whole chunks of some lines are routinely shut down over on weekends. He says those closures aren't for routine maintenance; they're for major upgrades. Daily maintenance takes place from the time the subway closes, at 1:30 a.m., and opens again at 6 a.m.

For a city that ranks consistently at the top of the list of priciest transit cities in North America, a subway closure time that falls half an hour before last call makes me feel a little irate. But Ross says our comparatively early closure time is a function of our system's infrastructure.

Subways in New York and London, of course, require maintenance as well, but they have alternate capacity available to them. Lines in London, for instance, run "both fairly close to one another and parallel," Ross says, allowing some lines to close for maintenance while proximate ones remain open for service. And similarly, in New York, there are parallel express tracks, allowing one track to close while the other one continues to run.

As New York's MTA late night service map shows, the subway operates 24 hours per day, though not all lines operate at all times. All stations are served during late night service, though, which runs from midnight until 6 a.m.

Closer to home, Ross says the daily maintenance required is crucial. Workers have to look at whether the tracks are in good condition, ensure switches are working and signals maintained, and make sure that the tracks are free of ice and debris.

"We only have three hours, but we get a lot done in those three hours," he explains. Though more maintenance time is required right now to do signal upgrades, he says a later closure isn't completely off the table for the future.

"It's absolutely possible, in the future, once we're in a state of good repair, to be open until 4 a.m. on a Friday or Saturday night," he says. Once the system is "operating at a high degree of reliability" and in the event that platform-edge doors are installed, the TTC will have that discussion.

Platform-edge doors are those which you might see in airport monorails, which slide open and closed from the platform itself, rather than having the platform open to the tracks. They keep people from falling onto the tracks, and they also keep the tracks cleaner, preventing newspapers and other garbage from flying on to them. Cleaner tracks mean less maintenance time required, which means the subway could easily stay open later.

Ross says the doors are identified in the TTC's budget as a future priority, but as yet, they're not at the top of the list, and they remain unfunded. Development of a Downtown Relief Line (yeah, that magical thing to dream about) could also make a later closure feasible.

As for all-night service?

"24 hour or later service is just not something that we can consider at this time," Ross admits. "I don't think we'll ever see 24 hour service. It's not warranted." Those of us who like to party, he says, and those who work shift work or odd hours, can always make use of the Blue Night bus, which generally runs along the subway lines and other key transit arteries.

A total of 183,780 Torontonians worked in accommodation or food and beverage in 2013, and I'm sure they would say later service is deeply warranted. As would the thousands of students in the city. Still, this is Toronto -- and this luxury talk. Ross tells me that though internal discussions are had from time to time about staying open later on weekends, no serious talks on the topic have been had recently, and major improvements need to be made to our existing system before we can extend its hours even just until last call.

Photos by Daniel Gueorguiev and tapesonthefloor.

It would appear Rob Ford never made it to Chicago for his stint in rehab. Although he wasn't denied access to the United States, a Globe report suggests that the Toronto mayor encountered some difficulty at the border, which led him to "voluntarily with[draw] his application to enter the USA," according to the Chicago-based Consul General of Canada. I guess Nigella Lawson isn't the only one who finds US border guards an unfriendly lot.

So where is Rob Ford? Like Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, no one really knows. Those closest to him won't reveal his location, except to say that he is, indeed, in rehab. Can you blame them? This is one of those occasions when it keeping the beleaguered mayor out of the spotlight can only do him some good. Ford will be back in front of the cameras soon enough, one suspects, and a little mystery as to his whereabouts right now will only make his return even more frenzied.

As to how long Ford will be gone, his lawyer alluded to "weeks," while others speculate that his return will come far later so as to avoid the possibility of a relapse before the October election. Can a rehabilitated Ford win the mayoralty even if he doesn't have much time to campaign?

This ice cream parlour has been a local legend on Vaughan Rd. for three decades. When it came time to move, naturally, they stayed in the same neighbourhood, shuffling over just a few street numbers down. On the menu are over-the-top, oversized and excessively garnished frozen treats, all made in-house...no complaints here.

Read my profile of Dutch Dreams in the restaurants section.

As World Pride 2014 struts toward us, it's time to think about what we'll be wearing for the huge 10 day bash - and I mean wearing everywhere. Toronto is about to get its first branded condoms, "condomTO." I can already see trademarked Toronto condom wrappers scattered about trademarked Toronto trash receptacles, still just short of the mark (hey, it happens) but now matching in decadent style.

New York and LA already have condoms for citizens to get busy with, and Toronto Public Health figured it was time to light some candles and join the club. Their logic? "When condoms are more easily accessible and available, condom use tends to increase." Or hey, how about "we're a hot city and we deserve this" (the latter is not a real quote). We won't get a peek at the wrappers until June 4 - what a tease - but after that #condomTO's will be distributed (for free!) in Toronto bars, clubs, hotels, gyms and clinics.

Photo: Everett Bogue

Earlier today we asked "where in the world is Rob Ford?" -- apparently we're not the only ones wondering. Spotted at Adelaide and Peter earlier today is this rather perfect poster asking after the mayor's whereabouts. It reads: "Pink face, spherical body, alarmingly sweaty. Last seen wearing an ill-fitting suit and football tie. Answers to Rob, Coach, or Mr. Mayor."

OK, the sweaty remark is a bit below the belt, but it's hard to argue about the accuracy of the description. While there's speculation that Ford might be doing his rehab stint at a Guelph facility, no one really knows (and the Ford camp isn't telling). Yet, miraculously, the city is running just fine in his absence. Who would have thought that? Pfft.

Thanks to @jasegiles for the tip and photo.

According to Joan Clos, the head of the United Nations' human settlements program, gated communities - private urban enclaves with security cameras and in some cases a guard at the entrance - are becoming more common in the U.S., South America, and South Africa, a trend which breeds hostility, he says. For the most part, Toronto hasn't bought into the twitchy habit of private living, but there are several subtle non-public enclaves within the city.

The vast majority of Toronto's "private" streets are access roads on private property. Hart House and King's College circles on the University of Toronto campus make the list, for example. Many others are part of condominium developments, like Annex Lane near Bloor and Spadina and Agnes Lane off Queen just before Greenwood.

There are a few surprises, however. Some of the streets that run through St. James Town are technically private, including portions of Ontario Street and St. James Avenue. Station Street between Simcoe and York streets in the downtown core is private property, too. In total, there are about 600 streets or access roads that are designated non-public by the City of Toronto.

Here are some of the more interesting ones.

(A note to would-be flâneurs: These streets are all on private property and access is entirely at the discretion of the landowner. Though some streets welcome visitors (or at least don't make a fuss when a reporter shows up with camera) others might not welcome the presence of outsiders. Proceed with caution.)

PERCY STREETLittle Percy Street runs south off King, just east of Sumach, in a dog-legged kink that ends abruptly against the Richmond Street off-ramps from the Don Valley Parkway. The "Republic of Percy," as it's known by its residents, is not on a street that's owned by the city as and, as a result, residents pay for their own garbage pick-up, snow clearing, and sewer maintenance.

Percy Street was laid out by between 1885 and 1890 by property developer James Quinn, and its two-up-two-down mansard roof homes belonged to mainly to workers at the nearby distillery and breweries. Its history is full of stories of bootlegging and other shady activities. In 1988, workers renovating the home of former resident Cindy Wilkey found $50,000 in depression-era Bank of Canada bills behind a false ceiling. These days the street is much more down to earth.

BISLEY STREET

Disguised as an unpaved service road off Verral Avenue near Queen and Carlaw, Bisley St. is actually home to a secret little row of brick homes that date back to the 1880s, when it seems access was made directly from Queen. The homes do not have a back yard and share a rear wall with a cluster of houses that face Verral. The only thing that betrays the existence of this weird private strip is a recently installed blue-and-white street sign.

ALPHA AVENUE

Hidden away in north Cabbagetown, Alpha Ave. could be a cousin of Percy Street. Its rare collection of unadulterated 19th century cottages hark back to the neighbourhood's working class roots. As if to illustrate the upward trend in local housing prices, Nos. 1 and 3, which were knocked together to make one big house, were on the market for $985,000 in 2010.

The street was laid out some time between 1884 and 1890, but it's not clear where the unusual name comes from. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet but there is no Beta or Gamma or Delta avenues in the city. Similarly, just off Broadview, First Avenue exists without a Second Street (it was demolished along with the old YMCA.) Alpha Avenue, it seems, is one of one.

ELMSLEY PLACE

The mansions of Elmsley Place, a street on the University of Toronto campus named for a former Chief Justice of Upper Canada who owned the land and bothered his colleagues by quoting Latin, is probably close to what most people imagine a private street should look like: it has a gated entrance, a collection of massive red brick homes, and the distinct scent of old money, but Elmsley is actually entirely owned by the University of Toronto.

It was one of the city's first subdivisions in 1892, home to professional and managerial families, but in 1920, during the extension of Bay Street north to Davenport Road, the city ended up having to cede the street following a legal dispute with St. Michael's College. In 2007, the four homes on the west side of Elmsley - the Gilson, Maritain, McCorkell, and Sullivan houses - underwent a $4 million renovation.

MELBOURNE PLACEMelbourne Place is tough to find if you're not looking for it. Accessed between two houses on Melbourne Street, southwest of Queen and Dufferin, the short dead-end street is lined with seven gorgeous English Mews-style Victorian terraced homes. Like Percy Street and Alpha Avenue, Melbourne Place is listed as private, meaning that it's technically off limits to the general public although there are no signs warning off potential visitors.

That said, the wrought iron gates at the main entrance are a not-so-subtle reminder that visitors are entering private property. The street was laid out as one of the city's first non-public enclaves around the turn of the century, but it seems the actual gates are a more recent addition. According to a recent property listing, some of the homes still have their original gas lamps.

EDYTH COURT

Hidden in south Etobicoke, just off Lake Shore Boulevard. near Royal York Road, Edyth Court is an unpaved, boomeranged-shaped road that provides access to a small collection of waterfront bungalows. Two of the homes have backyard lake access and it seems like a pretty nice place in the summer.

BENLAMOND DRIVE

Benlamond Drive is so private that it doesn't show up on Google Maps or Street View (so no virtual nosing around.) Accessed via an elbow in the road off Glen Oak Dr. near Main Street and Gerrard, this private street provides access to two gigantic homes, one of which is the William Stewart Darling House, named for the rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity.

The large brick home was built in 1873 and was likely designed by architect Frank Darling who, with various partners, designed Convocation Hall and the Bank of Montreal branch that's now home to the Hockey Hall of Fame. The house has expansive views over the Benlamond Ravine all the way to the lake and was later owned by William Davies, the meat packing tycoon, partly responsible for earning Toronto the nickname Hogtown.

ROCKAWAY CRESCENT

Sadly, this street doesn't share much with its New York City namesake. In fact, it could be an east end cousin to Etobicoke's Edyth Court. Located at the eastern terminus of Queen Street, where the road curves north to become Fallingbrook Road, the diminutive Rockaway Cres. sports a forbidding "No Exit" sign at its entrance but does not otherwise appear to be marked. Judging from an aerial view, it looks like there are at least two homes on the unpaved track that have almost exclusive use of a sandy beach.

EDGEWOOD AVENUE

The little northern extension of Edgewood Avenue north of Eastwood Road has all the classic hallmarks of a private street: decorative stone gateposts that form a psychological barrier from the public portion of the road, fancy paving stones, and, of course, a sign that says "Private Road."

Once inside, the messages get a little more threatening: "Private property. No trespassing. Trespassers will be prosecuted," one reads. "Private property. Visitor parking only. Unauthorized vehicles will be tagged and or towed at owner's expense," says another. This, I remind you, is a quiet residential street, yet its residents have felt the need to put up spiky iron fences and little lawn signs carrying the names of a home alarm systems. It's all a bit weird. Even the fire hydrants are angry red.

WYCHWOOD PARK

No list of private streets in Toronto would be complete without Wychwood Park, the most famous of them all. At Davenport Road and Bathurst Street, the bucolic enclave that shields the source of Toronto's historic Taddle Creek and once housed media theorist Marshall McLuhan, established in the 1870s as a community for artists.

The rules have changed over the decades, and the 60 homes of Wychwood Park are now managed a bit like Percy Street, where residents pay into a fund that ensures the roads are maintained, the gates are kept standing, and the central pond is free of silt.

The idyllic surroundings haven't always translated to neighbourly harmony. A number of disputes were covered by local press in recent years and, in 2008, 70-year-old Wychwood activist Albert Fulton killed himself after being charged in connection with slashing his neighbours' car tires. Unlike other private communities, Wychwood doesn't discourage visitors, it just asks that they pick up after their dogs.

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Images: Chris Bateman, Derek Flack/blogTO

What do Baristas do when they're not working? If it's last Thursday night about 23 of them turned out for the inaugural Barista Jam at Propeller Coffee, a new cafe and artisan coffee roasting facility near Bloor and Lansdowne from the folks behind Crema Coffee. After splitting some pizza and beer courtesy of Beus and Junction Craft Brewery, the about 60 attendees zeroed in on the main attraction - a latte art competition that would crown a single Barista champion.

Check out the action in this photo gallery from the Barista Jam.

If you're going to name a brewing company after yourself, it helps if you have a cool-sounding name. So at the very least, Graham Woodhouse, the founder of Woodhouse Brewing Company, has that going for him. Which is nice.

As it happens, he also has some experience in the brewing industry, a keen eye for label design, and a recipe for a tasty little lager that he hopes will be a hit among the city's patio frequenters this summer when his beer officially launches.

Currently operating as a "one man wolfpack," the former Labatt employee's plans are still in the early stages. He's been tweaking the recipe for an all-malt lager crafted with the assistance of Charles Maclean of Maclean's Ales, located just outside of Woodhouse's hometown of Hanover, Ont.

Woodhouse, who is gearing up to brew his beer on a commercial scale in the next few weeks, is working to eventually source hops from Meaford, Ont.'s Bighead Hops. For his first large-scale batch, he'll use hops sourced from the U.S. simply because of the timing of his first brew, harvest season, and the scarce availability of local hops right now.

Woodhouse says that this beer, which will be marketed as simply a "Lager Beer," will be Woodhouse Brewing's only beverage. "I am trying to create an easy-drinking, all-malt lager that will be highly sessionable," he says.

The sample he provided from a small batch he made with Maclean seems to have achieved that quite handily. It's a 5% amber lager, meaning it pours a sort of rusty brown - as opposed to your standard pale yellow lager - owing to the use of imported crystal malt. It's a simple, crisp, and easy-to-drink lager that is single-hopped with Hallertaur Hersbrucker hops and tends a bit to the sweeter side. It's got a great aroma - really sweet, verging almost on fruity - and there's some underlying caramel on the nose from all the malt, too.

While that might seem like this beer has a lot going on, it's really all quite subtle, making this an extremely inoffensive beer with little to no aftertaste that seems well suited to Woodhouse's intended patio-dwelling demographic.

Woodhouse is set to brew his first batch for commercial release at Cool Brewery shortly and hopes it will be ready for the public by Canada Day. He's confident that with the help of Cool Brewery's Adrian Popowycz and Bobby Crecouzos, the finished beer will be even better than the small batches he's made with Maclean's so far. Torontonians can expect to see Woodhouse Lager Beer popping up in bars and restauarants this summer and, once the business is up and running and he's sure he can produce enough beer, he'll aim for an LCBO release in 473mL cans.

Ben Johnson also writes about beer over on Ben's Beer Blog. Follow him on twitter @Ben_T_Johnson.

Just-opened in an old Gino's Pizza location, this new smokehouse served its first rib platter this week - and was instantly mobbed by hungry BBQ fanatics. The meaty menu, featuring racks of ribs and pulled pork sandwiches, is available a la carte along with a wide selection of Southern-style sides.

Read my profile of Smoque N Bones in the restaurants section.

Paying for parking in Toronto is about to become technology friendly. Starting this summer, the Toronto Parking Authority is planning to open up some Green P parking lots to mobile phone payments with an eye to expanding the scheme to on-street spaces later in the year.

It will probably work something like this, although some details are still up in the air: Users will register their license plate, credit card, and mobile phone numbers with the city and agree to receive messages when their meter or pay-and-display slip is about to expire. Instead of returning, users will be allowed to buy more time remotely.

Earlier this year, city council again approved a 10-minute grace period for overstayers at the discretion of the enforcement officer (scofflaws and repeat offenders shouldn't expect an easy ride). Combining the two should, the city believes, should result in fewer parking tickets and less pressure on the court system. According to the Toronto Star, more than 74,000 cases were deferred in 2012 due to a lack of available courtrooms.

The TPA expects the scheme to expand to the city's 18,000 on-street parking spaces after the summer. Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and Winnipeg have similar systems already in place.

City council voted to adopt the necessary by-law changes Tuesday.

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Image: Gadjo Sevilla/blogTO Flickr pool.