With hundreds of movies to pick from every year, the Toronto International Film Festival can be something of a lottery when it comes to quality. Not every movie you're going to see is going to be a winner, but there are ways you can hedge your bets a little.

Every year a few films that appear at TIFF have already been tried, tested, and approved, courtesy of other film festivals like Cannes or Sundance. More specifically, there are some films that have walked away from those fests with major awards that speak to a certain guarantee of quality. Here then are five award-winning, quality assured (your tastes may vary), films that will be appearing at TIFF this year and that you'd do well to add to your must-see list.

Foxcatcher
The based-on-a-true-story drama about an Olympic wrestler who befriends the wrong millionaire sponsor is already garnering impressive Oscar buzz for the dramatic turns from its actors, Channing Tatum and Steve Carell (with a whole lot of prosthetic make-up). But director Bennett Miller (Moneyball, Capote) is the one who has already walked away with an award: he won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival.

Mommy
Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan's latest film, about a single mother struggling to raise her bad-tempered son, won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival (shared with Jean-Luc Godard's Goodbye to Language, also at TIFF). It could also be a strong contender for TIFF's Best Canadian Feature Film Award - which Dolan has already won once with Laurence Anyways in 2012.

Whiplash
The most talked about film coming out of Sundance, this drama about a passionate drummer (Miles Teller) who sees his ambitions complicated by the Simon Cowell of music teachers (J.K. Simmons) walked away with a rare double victory at the festival: it won both the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award and U.S. Grand Jury Prize.

Force Majeure (Turist)
The dramatic thriller about what happens to a Swedish family on a ski trip when an avalanche occurs was not just heavily buzzed about (and compared by some to Michael Haneke) at Cannes, but it also earned itself the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize.

Charlie's Country
The Australian film about an older Aborigine who seeks to return to the Outback to try and live in his people's old ways, saw its lead actor David Gulpilil (Walkabout) win the Best Actor Prize at Cannes' Un Certain Regard.

Thanks to the Equalizer, starring Denzel Washington, for sponsoring our coverage of TIFF 2014.

Writing by Alexander Huls

81 Bywood Drive backs onto Islington Golf Course, offering sweeping views of the neighbouring green space and the quiet street on which it's located. Large windows bring tons of light into the open concept home, which has a modern sensibility without it feeling particularly minimalist. And despite the fact that it's a new home, the large lot features plenty of mature trees, which provide privacy and the sense that you're not living in a new subdivision -- ah, the perks of having over two and a half million to spend on a house.

The first floor is ideal for entertaining. The spacious living room, kitchen and dining room have great flow without feeling like the first floor is just one anonymous space. Speaking of space, this house has four bedrooms and five bathrooms. That's not mansion-like, but the master bedroom is bigger than most bachelor pads, so no one will complain of being cramped.

SPECS

Address: 81 Bywood Drive
Price: $2,597,000
Lot Size: 60 x 137.79
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 5
Parking: 2
Taxes:
Walk Score:42

NOTABLE FEATURES

• Never before lived in home
• Backs on to the Islington Golf Course
• Wheelchair accessible with elevators
• Wired for audio and media

GOOD FOR

Someone who wants a brand new home with all the bells and whistles. This house has everything you could wish for in a modern space - heated floors, walk-in closets, wiring for audio/media, elevators. The design is also contemporary, if not cutting edge. Sometimes understated is good.

MOVE ON IF

You would rather not be car dependent. The golf course adjacent, suburban location mean this house has a large yard, great landscaping, and a lots of space. It also means it has a walk score of 42. If you're an urbanite at heart and love walking for your groceries or down to your local for a beer, this isn't the place for you.

MORE PHOTOS

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

Writing by Isabel Ritchie

It's been three long, brewpub-less years for Duggan's Brewery since its former home at Richmond and Victoria shut its doors. Finally, after a few years of making their trademark #9 IPA out of Etobicoke's Cool Beer Brewing, it looks like the brewery will have another streetside location to call its very own - this time in Parkdale.

The new Duggan's Brewery Parkdale, located at 1346 Queen St. West, has been operating on a pop-up basis over the summer, but it looks like the location will soon be full-time. For now, you can roll by on Thursday and Saturday evenings and sample their their #5 Sorachi Lager, #13 Hefeweizen, flagship #9 IPA, and a brand-new brew, #46 Parkdale Bomber. (As the name suggests, it's mighty, strong). Snacks are available now, with a full menu on the way for the scheduled October grand opening.

Photo via Duggan's on Twitter.

Toronto has something of a complex when it comes to being considered a world class city, this despite numerous high rankings in terms of livability and economic stature. A new study out from Forbes might help to quell this self consciousness or make it worse, depending on how ambitious one's conception of the city's global position is. According to Forbes, Toronto is the 10th "most necessary" city in the world, a spot it shares with San Francisco and Los Angeles.

London, New York, and Paris take the top three spots in this survey, which puts much emphasis on a city's stature as financial hub. "Toronto, as the economic capital of Canada, has becomes a focus for international investment into that stable and resource rich country," the introduction to the ranking reads. "It is also among the most diverse cities on the planet -- 46 % of its population is foreign born."

While the 10th place ranking doesn't necessarily seem so high, when you consider that a city like Chicago comes in at 20th, it should serve as a reminder that Toronto's stature in the world is secure. Let's see if Rob Ford takes credit for this.

Photo by Marc in the blogTO Flickr pool.

One of Toronto's most intriguing art events of the summer will take place in a town I couldn't find on a map - until the presenters of Sunday Drive contacted me. Warkworth, ON is about 150km from Toronto - a quick Google image search of the 700 person community yields a photo of sheep. An art scene you'd imagine for Warkworth might revolve around wind-chimes and lawn ornaments crafted by retirees with sprawling yards, maybe a sleepy gift shop that goes all-out for the holidays. Not so from August 23rd through September 7th: contemporary art is taking a trip to Trent Hills.

Sunday Drive presents Warkworth will span two weeks, as Toronto artists present satellite installations and performances via local art hubs Mercer Union, Gladstone Hotel, Huntclub, Art Spin, Interaccess, Akin Collective, and more. The project is reminiscent of last year's Land|Slide exhibit at Markham Museum, which saw pop up installations scattered throughout pioneer buildings.

The exhibit launches not on Sunday but on Saturday, August 23 with projections by Oliver Pauk, Michael Vickers, and Personnel (7:40pm) and a performance by Hazel Meyer (9pm). No ride? Take the art bus from 87 Wade Ave at 4pm for $25 - the trip includes free drinks, snacks, and surprises, and will return you at midnight. You can also plan your own route to Warkworth here. Find the schedule here - everything else runs Wednesdays - Sundays between 11am-5pm. Check out the full guide include artist bios on Sunday Drive's website here.

Photo by Brian Rome in the blogTO Flickr pool.

Back in January, we learned of a massive development proposal for the current site of the Globe & Mail at Front and Spadina. A partnership between RioCan, Allied Properties, and Diamond Corp., The Well has been characterized as one of the city's largest mixed use developments, where residential, retail, and office space will exist in close quarters on the roughly eight acre site. The news was all very exciting when it broke, but it was difficult to get a good sense of what everything was supposed to look like.

That's changed with the release of new renderings from architect Hariri Pontarini and developer Diamond Corp. (see Curbed's take here). While it's always best to take images of this type with a grain of salt, the latest projections for the site provide a better sense of just how the various aspects of the development will integrate with one another. Spadina will see major retail in the podium of condo towers. A central pedestrian walkway (complete with a soaring canopy) will bring the development together into a main courtyard, which will also be surrounded by retail. Office space will be located along Front St. and throughout the complex.

I don't love the look of the main condo at the corner of Front and Spadina so much (is it round or rectangular?), but the overall development looks promising, and true to the desire to bring the retail, residential and commercial elements together. What do you think? Are you impressed with the new renderings?

MORE PHOTOS

Along with the announcement of TIFF's first few films for the 2014 season last month, film fest organizers revealed that a brand-new street festival would transform the stretch of King St. bordering the TIFF Bell Lightbox from September 4 to 7. More details for the opening weekend fest have been announced, and the schedule of events and attractions certainly looks lively, if not at all film-centric.

Public art will play a big part, including the Light Tunnel, the "world's most soothing red carpet," which will be set up at the festival's entrance near University Ave. As you move along King to Peter, you'll be able to play giant chess, board games (as supplied by Snakes & Lattes), and summer camp-style games (who's ready for trust falls?) with Mammalian Diving Reflex.

A public piano will be available for several thousand key mashings, and a giant HAL 9000 will be on site to take your photo / haunt your nightmares. Each night will be capped off with DJ sets and live performances. The lineup is solid, if not exactly novel: think Jason Collett, Rich Aucoin, DIANA, Maylee Todd, and BADBADNOTGOOD. There are also plans to have food trucks serving guests on site. Basically, it's going to be a good old-fashioned Toronto street festival - right down to the frustrated drivers who forgot King St. was shut down.

Thanks to the Equalizer, starring Denzel Washington, for sponsoring our coverage of TIFF 2014.

Photo of Lightbridge created for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche

The Toronto of the future will be bigger, bolder, and (hopefully) smarter. New technologies and ideas are helping cities around the world improve the quality of life for their citizens by way of better transit, more accessible services, and modernized or repurposed infrastructure, and Toronto should be no different. While we're pretty influential (according to Forbes magazine,) there is still plenty the city could learn from the rest of the world.

Here are 5 useful ideas Toronto could use right now.

Reinvented phone booths
Phone booths are a dying breed. More than three quarters of Canadians have cellphones and as a result the telephones on Toronto's streets are increasingly forlorn and underused (most linger due to their applications in an emergency. In the subway, public phones are a vital piece of the Crisis Link suicide prevention program.) New York City is turning 7,000 of its payphones into Wi-Fi hotspots and in other jurisdictions phone booths have become mini libraries, and even public information points.

Better streetcar service inspired by other cities
Despite having one of the largest surface rail networks on the continent, Toronto just can't seem to get streetcars right. The network has never been expanded beyond the central city and in places downtown crowded streetcars are given no advantage over vehicles with just a few occupants. In Melbourne, Australia, which has a tram system two-thirds bigger than Toronto, there are special road rules designed to keep the road clear for public transit, including the famous hook turn. In Vienna, Austria, where "delays are rare," trams always have right of way.

Simplified parking signs
Street parking in Toronto is a mess. Right now, a typical cluster of signs might read: "No parking 12:01 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. EXCEPT BY PERMIT," "Parking 1 HOUR 8:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. MON-FRI," "SNOW ROUTE," and "NO STANDING," all at the same time. Drivers need to crack the code to find out if it's OK to stop. New York City project "To Park or Not to Park" wants to swap that city's similarly confusing signs for simple, colour-coded schedules a child could understand. Toronto could do with something similar.

Smarter ways to pay
The politics of Presto, Ontario's long awaited transit fare card, are complex. When it finally becomes available on the TTC later this decade, riders will be able to pay fares for both major GTA transit agencies with a single card. That's great, but why stop there? In New Zealand, the country's Snapper card is accepted for coffee, movie tickets, groceries, parking, taxi rides, and bus fares. Here, Presto could pay for bike share rides, Island ferry tickets, road tolls, Green P parking, library payments, essentially any small transaction.

Libraries that lend more than just books
Libraries exist to provide free public access to information, but who says that information has to be printed on sliced pieces of tree? The Toronto Public Library system, like similar institutions in New York City and Chicago, could lend out free Wi-Fi hotspots to people without access to high speed internet, tools such as hammers and screwdrivers like in Berkeley, California, or telescopes as they do in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The TPL is already a world class institution, offering 3D printing, a video streaming service, digital books and magazines, but there's always room for innovation.

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

Photo of an NYC phone booth converted to WiFi hotspot

A key series of improvements to TTC service inched closer to reality this afternoon as the Commission board voted in favour of a a report titled Opportunities to Improve Transit Service in Toronto. Some of the highlights include the roll out of timed transfers (yay!), express bus service on additional routes, all buses and streetcars running 24/7 at no more than 10 minutes apart, the expansion of the Blue Night bus network, and all-door boarding on streetcars across the system.

It all sounds great (someone tell John Tory), but it will cost a few bucks -- $288 million to be exact. Where that money comes from will ultimately be decided by city council next week. In other words, it's too early to bank on these proposed changes, but it's certainly time to be cautiously optimistic. What do you think? Is this the way forward for the TTC?

Photo by Meoko in the blogTO Flickr pool.

Today in Toronto the Wild Blueberry Association of North America (WBANA) will host a Wild blueberry Pizza night with Libretto at Evergreen Brick Works. I'm not sure if there will be blueberry pizza, but one can dream. Belljar will host a dainty and not-so-spooky second edition of its Witch Craft pop-up shop, while at Cameron House the 8 fest will screen films with live bands. Watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit? for free at TIFF in the Park. For more events, click on over to our events section.

• Community: 5th Annual Wild Blueberry Festival (Evergreen Brick Works)
• Film: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (TIFF in the Park)
• Film/Music: August Blackout (The Cameron House)
• Fashion: Witch Craft II (Belljar)
• Delicious Calories: Canadian National Exhibition

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

Photo via Facebook

At the end of this month, the TTC will debut a new design of streetcar for the first time in 26 years. The new low-floor LRVs (sorry, no catchy name like the Toronto Rocket) will enter service on Spadina Aug. 31. It's not clear whether there will be one or two new streetcars available--the TTC is guaranteeing just one, for now--but that there are any new surface rail vehicles at all is due to the efforts of activists. The result of their labours: the current fleet of streetcars.

In the early 1970s, the TTC, like transit providers in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Montreal, Vancouver, and numerous other cities, was preparing to do away with its streetcar network. With each new underground extension, the TTC planned to shut down its surface rail in favour of buses. After opening the Yonge, University, Spadina, and Bloor-Danforth subways, streetcar routes on Dupont, Bay, and Coxwell were taken out of service. By 1980--the planned opening year of the Queen St. subway--the last Toronto streetcars were supposed to have vanished.

Enter Streetcars for Toronto, a group of activists determined to preserve the city's higher-capacity rail vehicles for future generations. In Nov. 1972, the group succeeded in their aim, when council voted to keep the city's streetcar network, albeit in a scaled-down form.

"Streetcar services were much more frequent in 1972 than they are today," transit advocate and former Streetcars for Toronto member Steve Munro wrote at Torontoist in 2012. "St. Clair had cars leaving Yonge Street every 90 seconds during rush hour. Of the downtown routes, only King has service now that is even close to 1972 levels: the system's overall capacity has declined due to a shrinking fleet of vehicles."

The decision to keep the city's streetcars wasn't a simple one. The TTC's Presidents' Conference Committee streetcars were in urgent need of replacement, but no successor was in development. As a result, the province established the Ontario Transportation Development Corporation (later re-named Urban Transportation Development Corporation, UTDC for short) to design a new light rail vehicle it could sell to Toronto and, it hoped, other cities.

The result was the Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV,) which began arriving in Toronto in 1977. The first six cars were built in Switzerland and shipped to Canada with inward-facing bucket seats at the front and bright red interior trim. At the CNE in 1978, The Star cooed over the "space age" new streetcars with their large front windows and streamlined shape.

"The CLRV is a handsome creature, more efficient, more durable, more attractive, and more comfortable than any of its predecessors. It requires less energy to operate--33 percent less than a PCC car, for instance--[and] makes less noise. It's lifetime is at least 25 years. By that time, Toronto's romance with the streetcar should look like a marriage made in heaven."

Though the TTC chose to operate them as individual cars, the red, white, and black CLRVs were designed firmly with light rail applications in mind. They could, before the removal of their couplers in the 1980s, be joined together and operated as a train at speeds of up to 80 km/h. The Scarborough RT--the city's first light rail line--was going to use CLRVs before the UTDC successfully convinced the TTC to buy its new linear-induction vehicles. (The disused turning loop at Kennedy station was built before the change).

The remaining 190 CLRVs were built in Thunder Bay with the faux wood interior and rows of seating we know today, but there were still odd quirks. At first, the windows of the new streetcars were sealed in anticipation of air conditioning (only one CLRV, #4041, has AC, a relic of an abandoned retrofitting scheme.) The Swiss-built streetcars were retrofitted to match the updated seating arrangement, but the red interior trim still remains on the ceiling, seat backs, interior dividers.

Intensive street testing took place through the winter of 1978. The new streetcars were thrashed: brakes slammed and accelerators stamped. Worn track presented a problem for fresh wheels and there were several derailments, many of them near the Roncesvalles carhouse. Despite the issues, the praise was near universal from drivers. TTC inspector John Robinson said boarding a CLRV was like upgrading from a Volkswagen to a Cadillac.

The new streetcars were launched Sept. 30, 1979 on the now defunct Long Branch line. Bathurst, St. Clair, Kingston Rd., and the Downtowner routes got theirs in 1989. Queen, King, Dundas, and Carlton were the last routes to be populated in 1981.

The articulated streetcars--the longer vehicles used on Queen and occasionally Bathurst--weren't delivered with the original fleet, though they were conceived around the same time. The original TTC order for 200 regular CRLV streetcars was revised to 196 so that the remaining four could be used as a base for two extra long prototypes.

Blog Transit Toronto says the first ALRV, which was painted orange, had an electronic roll sign, and a pantograph for drawing electricity from the overhead wires, entered test service on Queen in 1982. The remaining 52, all of which are still operating on Toronto's streets (to date only one CLRV, #4063, has been scrapped) arrived between 1987 and 1989.

When the two new low-floor streetcars leave Spadina station next week, it will signal the beginning of the end of the articulated streetcars. The TTC says the longer, higher-capacity streetcars will be first to the scrapheap, though there's no fixed timeline for their departure.

Catch them while you still can.

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

Images: John Bromley, City of Toronto Archives

Last we reported about Captain John's, the dilapidated 1970s seafood restuarant moored at the foot of Yonge St., there was reason for cautious optimism that the ship might finally make its exit from the Toronto harbour. Entrepreneur James Sbrolla was an enthusiastic suitor for the vessel -- and remains in the game as far its future goes -- but he's refused to lay down anything more than the $3,000 deposit he left after successfully bidding for the ship.

It's not surprising, really. The Toronto Port Authority's (TPA) August 22nd deadline to remove the ship seems like it can be delayed on account of technical problems related to the boat's hydro hookup, and Sbrolla is a tactful businessman who will play ball as long as it suits him. For now the TPA has resisted taking a hardline on cutting the ships ties to the harbour, so the relic remains an anachronistic feature of the waterfront.

I'm not one who's rooting for the aging vessel to be scrapped, but it's obviously time for it to take leave of Queens Quay (alas, time marches on). The latest news is that a new buyer is in the fold, but one suspects that the fate of the old cruise ship won't be sorted anytime soon. It might not be sunk in the mud at its pier, but its history is buried deep enough that moving it is proving very difficult.

Photo by Tom Ryaboi

TIFF is renowned for its vast array of Hollywood and world cinema, it can be easy sometimes to forget the festival does an excellent job of making sure Canada is well represented. This year in particular, the crop of Canadian films (note: not American movies directed by Canadians) seems very promising. Here are our top ten picks for Canadian films worth checking out at this year's festival.

Bang Bang Baby
Between this and the 2010 TIFF selection The Bang Bang Club, it appears Canadian filmmakers have an unexplained "Bang Bang" fixation. But that's about all these two movies have in common. The feature debut for short-film director Jeffrey St. Jules, Bang Bang Baby sounds like a "has to be seen to be believed" genre-mashup of musical and 1950s sci-fi homage set in small town Canada.

An Eye For Beauty
International award-winning Québécois director, Denys Arcand (The Decline of the American Empire, Jesus of Montreal, The Barbarian Invasion), returns to TIFF with his first film in seven years. That alone makes this a must-see, but An Eye For Beauty is also worth checking out to see how Arcand brings his knack for emotional complexity to his first ever love story.

The Editor
Homages to giallo films appear to be becoming en vogue. Following in the footsteps of Berberian Sound Studios (a 2012 TIFF selection), director duo Matthew Kennedy and Adam Brooks create a little homegrown channeling of Dario Argento of their own with this Midnight Madness movie about an editor suspected of murdering the actors of the film he's editing.

Elephant Song
With an air of Primal Fear about it, Elephant Song sees a psychiatric patient (Xavier Dolan, whose own film Mommy is also at TIFF) square off against a doctor (Bruce Greenwood) investigating the disappearance of a colleague (Colm Feore). Intriguing plot aside, this dramatic thriller from Charles Binamé (Séraphin, The Rocket: The Legend of Rocket Richard) should prove worth watching just to see two generations of Canadian actors--Dolan and Greenwood--face-off.

Monsoon
Sturla Gunnarsson, director of the David Suzuki documentary Force of Nature (the People's Choice Award for best doc in 2010), returns to the festival to look at another force of nature: the heavy rain that falls upon India every year. The film promises to be both an insightful and beautiful look at the effect monsoons have all over India.

October Gale
Ruba Nadda's switch from quieter dramas (Sabah, and 2009 Best Canadian Feature winner Cairo Time) to thrillers (Inescapable) continues with her TIFF entry this year. The director reunites with Cairo Time star Patricia Clarkson who plays a doctor that helps a wounded man (Scott Speedman) and suddenly finds herself in more trouble than she could have anticipated.

Preggoland
Director Jacob Tierney has built himself into a popular TIFF regular--all his feature films have premiered at the festival. After the darker Good Neighbours, his latest sounds like a return to lighter fare like The Trotsky. Preggoland is a comedy about a maturity-challenged thirty-something woman (Sonja Bennett, who also wrote the screenplay) who fakes a pregnancy in order to keep in touch with her friends.

Teen Lust
The outlandish "well that's a first" plotline of Blaine Thurier's Teen Lust alone should inspire curiosity. A teenager (Jesse Carere) finds out his Satanist parents are going to make him a virgin sacrifice, so naturally there's only one thing he can do to save himself. Just when you thought teen sex comedies had no new places to go.

Trick or Treaty?
Alanis Obomsawin adds to her essential documentary work investigating injustices inflicted upon First Nation members with her latest feature, Trick or Treaty? Exploring 1905's Treaty 9, her doc will undoubtedly be a powerful must-watch that reminds us being Canadian isn't just about celebrating our victories, but acknowledging our failures.

Tu Dors Nicole
A buzzed about favorite at the Cannes Film Festival this year, Stéphane Lafleur's Tu Dors Nicole recalls Frances Ha in focusing on a recently graduated woman trying to figure out her next step with friends and career. The relatable premise and millennial topicality will hopefully prove to make Tu Dors Nicole as popular at home as it was in France.

Thanks to the Equalizer, starring Denzel Washington, for sponsoring our coverage of TIFF 2014.

Top image from Bang Bang Baby

The Toronto music documentary that everyone is talking about is finally coming home. I Dream of Wires is an independent (let's not say indie for clarity) doc directed by Robert Fantinatto and Jason Amm that traces the lineage of the noble and hard to comprehend modular synthesizer in a film that's surprisingly straightforward and engaging. The history of electronic music is wound up in I Dream of Wires's modular love-in, and it's a can't-miss for Toronto music fans.

Debuting earlier this year at Moogfest, the film goes all out, connecting with electronic music celebs Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Gary Numan, Vince Clarke (Erasure), Morton Subotnick, Chris Carter (Throbbing Gristle), Daniel Miller, Carl Craig, Flood, Cevin Key (Skinny Puppy), Deadmau5, and more.

Claims that analog synths sound like "tearing the fabric of universe" and tales of the intriguing people behind the bleep bloop era (like a NASA scientist who went on to coat modular hardware panels with LSD) mean it's no surprise word of the film is spreading beyond fringe synth fetishists and into the radar of mainstream fans. Wires also explains that whole mysterious "east coast / west coast" modular division thing that seems like a really big deal to synth nerds. If you want to know what that is, you'll have to see for yourself this weekend.

I Dream of Wires' Toronto premiere is Saturday (August 23) at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, with Fantinatto in attendance for a Q&A, plus a live modular synthesizer performance by Keith Fullerton Whitman.

The best ice cream sandwiches in Toronto are available in innumerable, infinitely personalizable variations. While there are classics available for the vanilla and choco-chip types, there are also freakishly-delicious new unions found at Toronto bake shops, ice cream parlours and even fast food burger joints. It doesn't matter if you choose fresh-fried donuts, HK eggettes, and even grilled cheese buns - when paired with ice cream, they're a match made in heaven.

Here are the best ice cream sandwiches in Toronto.

See also:

The Best Ice Cream in Toronto
The Best Gelato in Toronto
The Best Frozen Yogurt in Toronto

Photo by Bo Chen in the blogTO Flickr pool.

Today in Toronto the downtown streets will be filled with Buskerfest's weekend-long celebration of talent from from Queen to College Street including Yonge-Dundas Square and Trinity Square Park. The city's best buskers from old school guitar strummers to chalk artists to ultra weird performance artists will be showing their stuff in support of Epilepsy Toronto.

Open Roof Fest's last run will feature a screening of Chef and fusion band Manatee, and Walnut Studios is throwing a cocktail party/BBQ parking lot fundraiser with DJs, live graffiti painting, and more. Aquatic Mind, Benjamin Marchal, CHOBO, and Marshall Drgun will DJ Coalition, a new club opening in Neutral's place. For more events, click on over to our events section.

• Music: Buskerfest
• Lit: cleo: vol. 2, issue 2 (Elevator)
• Film: Open Roof Festival (99 Sudbury)
• Art/Party: Paint the Wall - Art Parking Lot Party - Fundraiser (Walnut Studios)
• Party: Co-op (Coalition)
• Music: Music in St. James Park: Union Duke (St. James Park)
• Music: Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars (Horseshoe Tavern)
• Fashion/Party: O R I G I N of FoundMissing (Hermann & Audrey)
• Art: Bumper City: A Pinball Exposition (Black Cat)
• Theatre: Unit 102 and Sterling Do the Big Reveal (Unit 102 Theatre Studio)

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

Photo by Jen Tse

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.

OPEN NOW

• Wood Firepit & Tap, a new family owned business specializing in Kansas City-style BBQ, is now open at 2084 Queen St. East.
• Ronnie B's Southern Kitchen & Taps celebrates its grand opening on Monday, August 25 at 243 Carlton St.

RECENTLY REVIEWED

• Sterling Social
• Cafe Plenty
• Gong Cha Tea

OPENING SOON

• As we previously reported, Louis Cifer Brew House, a new micro brewery and restaurant is in the works at 417 Danforth Ave. and is expected to open this fall.
• La Zona Pizzeria is soon to open at 92 Fort York Blvd.
• Another brewpub is coming to Toronto - and this one's from a familiar face. Duggan's Brewerywill open a new location in Parkdale at 1346 Queen St. West (formerly Kanji).

CLOSING

• Having just celebrated its third anniversary with a BBQ, Yours Truly at 229 Ossington Ave. is set to close this September.
• Bero at 889 Queen St. East has shuttered just over a year after opening. The restaurant lost opening chef Matt Kantor earlier this spring.
• Ardor Bistro, the contemporary Peruvian restaurant at 59 Ossington Ave., has closed its doors.

OTHER NEWS

• The Steady (1051 Bloor St. West) has scrapped dinner service to focus entirely on dance parties, brunch and a soon-to-launch series of pop-up dinners and supper clubs.

Have you seen restaurants opening or closing in your neighbourhood? Email tips to liora@blogto.com

Photo of Bero

LCBO locations open late in Toronto aren't exactly plentiful. While many stores have hours that will cover you until 9pm through the week and on Saturdays, that's still a recipe for some scrambling if you've left your liquor plans until the last minute. Even a bigger store like the Summerhill flagship is only open until 10pm Monday through Saturday (it used to be 11pm, but the hours were scaled back a few years ago). There is, however, an exception, a beacon in the dark, dry night, a lone store that mercifully remains open until 11pm.

The LCBO at Weston and 401 is somehow open until 11pm every day but Sunday. Having learned this little tidbit a while ago, I got to wondering after the reasons behind these extended hours, particularly in a location that seems a less likely candidate than other more central stores. "It's open later because of its size (the fourth largest LCBO store in Toronto after Summerhill, Queen's Quay and Bayview Village)," explains Lisa Murray, Senior Communications Consultant with the LCBO.

Add to that its "high volume of sales...its easily accessible location off Highway 401 (which also makes it serve as a "hub" store for that part of the city), and that it is a primary retail sales point for discontinued items," and you have an explanation for the anomaly. So take note, fellow booze hounds. Should you need to stock up late(ish) at night, this is your spot. If only it wasn't the only one. Are you listening, LCBO?

See also: The best and worst LCBO locations in Toronto