The third outpost of this popular pizzeria has landed on Dundas West at Bathurst after a two-year wait. The newest spot is debuting an all-new menu of Italian snacks, starters and of course, wood-fired pizzas that'll soon be rolled out at the other locations too.
Read my profile of the newest Queen Margherita Pizza in the restaurants section.
Toronto now lays claim to 10 fully operational microbreweries, and there are roughly half a dozen more in the planning stages. When you also consider the numerous contract brewers that call the city home, local breweries opening or trying to open second locations, the growing number of nano-breweries, and even the out of province outfits coming to town, it's not unrealistic to say that we're currently enjoying a boom in craft beer.
Along with such a boom comes a tendency for people to attempt to hop on the bandwagon. If you're a fan of craft beer, a homebrewer, or a--yech--marketing guru in Toronto, you've probably thought to yourself, "Hey, I could start a craft brewery!" Well, hold that thought. I talked with a handful of Toronto's craft brewers to learn more about just how hard it is to start a brewery and, well, it's not quite as easy as the current crop of local beermakers might be making it look.
For the purpose of this article, let's assume that you know how to make tasty beer. That's obviously your first step, so if you're not there yet and want to start a brewery, go find a different article first. But, assuming you are a talented brewer or have partnered with one and you're ready to get started, the first thing you're going to need is a lot of money.
"It is a capital intensive business," says Michael Gurr of the still-under-construction / contract brewing Kensington Brewing Company. "Our brewhouse was custom built for approximately $250,000 [...] and it was the biggest system we could fit into our building. You can go cheaper and you can go a heck of a lot more expensive. It all depends on your needs and your budget."
Your brewhouse is likely to be your biggest expense and, while ten years ago you may have been able to find some used equipment to suit your needs, the recent craft beer explosion (mainly in the US) means that used tanks are hard to come by (even if you go looking for used dairy equipment). So be prepared to shell out for an expensive made-to-order brewhouse.
But then of course, the brewhouse is just the beginning of your expenses. Gurr estimates that KBCo spent another $200K on their glycol chiller, steam boiler, piping installation, and construction. Want to add a bottling line? That could run you $30K-$65K, then you'll need to outlay dough for the kegs you're going to be filling, and, depending on the condition of the building you're leasing (because trust me, you're not buying a building big enough in Toronto), you'll likely have to make structural, electrical and plumbing upgrades, and you'll want to spend some money to make the place look nice enough that people will want to visit.
Then factor in legal fees, consulting fees, building permit fees, engineering fees, the cost of your vehicles, office equipment, security systems, and your rent, and then finally, factor in a handful of expenses you didn't even plan for. For most breweries the size of the one KBCo is building (about 15 hectolitres), it's a safe estimate that you probably won't be able to get up and running for much less than somewhere between $700,000 - $1 million.
And Jason Fisher, owner of the Indie Alehouse says that's really just a starting point. "One million is a good ballpark for a small functional brewery to serve 10-20 accounts," but he estimates that costs quickly balloon if you want to get any bigger than that. "It'd probably cost $1.5 million for a small brewpub and $5 million for a larger production brewery capable of bottling and distribution on a decent scale."
And even if you have that kind of dough available, you're going to want to be sure you even have a little more, just in case. "Our budget has increased by more than 40 per cent over our original plan," says Mandie Murphy, the co-owner of the under-construction Left Field Brewery in East Toronto. "You will need more money than you expect, and then you'll need even more. If you exhaust all possible sources of funding in your initial plan, you may be in for some trouble. Always have a back-up plan for where you'll get more money when you need it, because chances are that you will."
Once you've got enough money to open your own brewery (or you think you do), that's when the real fun begins. If you've read anything about beer in Ontario, you probably already know that most processes related to our favourite beverage's sale are bureaucratic at best, so you might not be too surprised to learn that the production of beer isn't that much different: there is a considerable amount of red tape to wade through and permits and licences you'll need to acquire.
"Brewing aside," says Mike Clark, co-founder of Bellwoods Brewery, "you need to become an expert in building code, federal, provincial, and municipal regulatory frameworks, TSSA [Technical Standards & Safety Authority] industrial regulations, workplace safety, insurance, leasing and property rights, legal agreements of all types and local politics, for starters."
But, as it happens, there are people who can help you navigate the process.
"The staff at places like the AGCO and city clerk's office were generally amazing," Fisher says, adding, "No, really. They know the rules are often stupid, but as long we were professional with them they were amazing with us."
Murphy agrees that it was fairly straightforward process to start to build a brewery, but says that once you start trying to actually license the place, that's when things get tricky. "It's pretty convoluted," she says about licencing. "There are four different licenses that we'll need and we only have one of them right now, which is our Manufacturer's license. It took three months to get that license before we got started.
We are currently working on the other three which are the Excise license - our federal beer tax, a By The Glass license for our tap room which requires community council approval by way of a municipal resolution of support for our license, and Retail Store Authorization which requires us to write letters to all the churches, schools, public parks, playgrounds, community centers and libraries within a one kilometer radius of our brewery. They then have the opportunity to notify the AGCO of any objections prior to our opening."
With a little patience (and maybe a gift for filling out paperwork) you can navigate the red tape but, as with any business, it helps to know people who can help. "If you ever find a super helpful, knowledgeable bureaucrat," Fisher says, "treat them very, very well."
Doug Pengelly, co-founder of Junction Craft Brewery, likewise found it helpful to have someone to assist with the process. "Our local city councillor Frances Nunziata was really helpful," he says. "We needed a letter of recommendation from the city to open our taproom and retail store. She organized a community meeting, confirmed there were no objections, and brought it up at city council and everything went through without trouble."
Kensington Brewing Company found help in the form of a veteran property owner. "We have not had to deal directly with the City of Toronto," Gurr says. "That puts us in a pretty unique position as far as breweries are concerned. We've been fortunate to have an experienced ally in our landlord who has been able to navigate these waters on our behalf. That said, the project sat dormant for six months at one point as we waited for some amendments to be approved."
So now that you've procured funding and have started the process for getting the proper permits, then, of course, you actually have to build the place.
Here too, it helps to know people. Jordan Rainhard, founder of the soon to open Stockyards brewery, Rainhard Brewery, says that, unless you're ridiculously handy and willing to contribute a great deal of your time to building your brewery yourself, it helps to have someone capable of overseeing the actual construction for you. "My biggest misconception was that I could open my own place without the assistance of a General Contractor," he says.
"I am doing all the contracting myself, and with limited experience, this is proving difficult. I'm still working a full time job, and trying to coordinate the trades is almost impossible outside of standard business hours. Plus, as soon as you say you are opening a brewery, they assume you have more money than you do, and start upping their quotes for work. It's been tough to find the right tradesmen that will quote a fair price."
Jason Fisher was very hands on in the building of his own business and has a surprisingly zen approach to dealing with the inevitable delays of opening and constructing a brewery. "Any item can and will be delayed at some point," he explains. "So just try and make some progress every day. Figure out the most important thing that you can accomplish each day and work on that first."
While building The Indie Alehouse, Fisher became so accustomed to setbacks that one day, when his boiler fell down the stairs, he says he barely even looked up. "The boiler falling down the stairs represented a potential $100,000 cost, several months further delay, and a huge pain," he says. "I just kept painting the table base I was working on, because that's what I could control that day."
So now that you've got the funding, you've begun to navigate the licensing process, and you've started construction, what more do you need?
Well, to put it plainly, passion.
Yes, it's a bit of a cheesy answer, but one that rings true in every conversation I've ever had with any successful brewer. Brewing is a slog. Brewers and brewery owners will tell you that owning a brewery isn't glamorous and the "cool" stuff, like marketing your product, designing your logos, choosing glassware, attending events, and actually drinking beer is probably less than 10% of the actual business of owning a brewery.
In addition to the setup (and then constant maintenance) of virtually all the things listed above, you're going to have to actually run a proper business and secure accounts to sell your beer--to say nothing of the fact that, hey, you actually have to have the time to make decent beer!
So in addition to having some business acumen, lots of funding, a knack for paperwork and politics, and construction know-how, you should really, really want to make beer for a living in order to put up with all the other shit that comes with it. If you don't or you're not really passionate about the production of beer, it's a pretty safe bet that your beer won't be that great.
And if your beer isn't that great, it's pretty likely your business won't succeed and, more importantly, you'll be putting a mediocre product out in an increasingly crowded market and taking up shelf space that could be used by someone who is passionate about beer.
So maybe even before you ask yourself if you could start a brewery, maybe ask yourself if you should.
Ben Johnson also writes about beer over on Ben's Beer Blog. Follow him on twitter @Ben_T_Johnson
Today we're opening up voting in our latest Best Of poll. Now you can have your say in 20 categories including poutine, pizza, cannoli, consignment and vintage furniture stores.
Voting in the poll ends at 11:45pm this Wednesday November 12.
Today in Toronto the Rendezvous With Madness Film Festival kicks off a week of programming under the umbrella theme of mental health. Check out the schedule here for screenings, talks, and more. In Kensington Market monthly performance art show Doored will be live at Double Double Land (and streaming online) while Dustin Wong & Takako Minekawa will play with Zones and Omhouse down the street at Handlebar. 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: Dustin Wong & Takako Minekawa
This slick and swank subterranean spot is equal parts modern steakhouse and contemporary Italian restaurant. With a custom-made dry-aging chamber for its prime beef and an executive chef who trained at Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy, be prepared to spend a pretty (discontinued) penny dining here. (Pro tip: Ladies, the bathroom is fancy.)
Read my profile of Michael's on Simcoe in the restaurants section.
Fashion stylists in Toronto are the unsung heroes behind countless glossy magazine shoots, runway looks, and celebrity red-carpet hits-and-misses. Designers make the clothes, makeup and hairstylists whip the wearers into shape, and models and celebrities work the look with everything they've got. But when it comes to creating daring pairings, finding just the right accessory to go with that gown, or taking a rack full of clothing and telling a beautiful story over several magazine pages, you've inevitably got the keen eye of a stylist to thank.
Many of Toronto's top stylists work freelance, or for major agencies, while others are in-house talent at magazines and TV shows. All of them are responsible for making a carefully-chosen mix of influences, pieces and aesthetics look seamless and effortless.
Here are my picks for the top 10 fashion stylists in Toronto.
Odessa Paloma Parker
Before she was the fashion editor at the Globe and Mail, Paloma Parker did everything from personal wardrobe consultations to styling editorials for Chloe to heading up the dearly-departed Plaid. A bona fide street style star in her own right, she's at her best when working with her signature mix-and-match, print-happy aesthetic.
Zeina Esmail
FASHION magazine's editor at large does double duty as a stylist for hire. When she's not busy the magazine's styling cover shoots, featuring the likes of Taylor Swift and Lorde, she's collaborating with Pink Tartan's Kimberly Newport-Mimran to style her runway shows, including her oh-so-'70s spring/summer 2015 show at World MasterCard Fashion Week. You'll also occasionally find her talking trends on The Morning Show.
George Antonopolous
Antonopolous has a two-decade track record in the industry, with the roster of supermodel clients to match: he's dressed Iman, Shalom Harlow, Milla Jovovich, Jessica Stam and Andreja Pejic, to name a few. In addition to amassing a massive portfolio of avant-garde, highly-stylized editorials, he's earned a few nods from the Canadian fashion establishment, including a collaborative line with Danier and a Stylist Of The Year prize at the 2014 CAFA awards.
Dwayne Kennedy
As the fashion director of The Collections, which represents designers like Sid Neigum, Sarah Stevenson and Beaufille, Kennedy has a direct connection to some of Toronto's most celebrated up-and-coming lines. He's contributed his signature dark, minimal aesthetic to Mark Fast and Amanda Lew Kee's runway presentations, but also boasts a healthy record of commercial gigs. (He's also easy to pick out in any Toronto streetstyleroundup.)
Rita Liefhebber
Leifhebber started out as a model; now, in addition to designing her own line of breezy staples, she's an in-demand stylist who counts Holt Renfrew, MAC, and Harry Rosen among her frequent corporate clients. Elle Canada brought her in to lend her bold vision to shoots with Carrie Underwood and Jessica Pare; she's also dressed Katy Perry, Emily Haines and Ellen Page.
Fiona Green
Freelancer Green has left her mark on the pages of every major Canadian fashion publication; chief among those is Flare, where she was previously the fashion editor, and now contributes stunning shoots with Chloe Grace Moretz and Olivia Munn. (A recent favourite: This Vegas-set Flare shoot, which reinvigorates the kitschy neon signs and wedding chapels of the strip with a heady dose of drama and glamour.)
Alexis Honce
Honce is best known for her TV appearances, regularly doling out styling advice on Marilyn Denis. She also works behind-the-scenes, styling celebs for their appearances on the show - so if you're ever green with envy over, say, Tatiana Maslany's shoes, Honce is the one to thank.
Talia Brown
Brown has worked closely with homegrown designers Laura Siegel (a perfect match for her own feminine-bohemian aesthetic) and newcomers Elan + Castor and Headmistress to style lookbooks and runway presentations. She's a favourite source of Toronto TV hosts and style writers (including yours truly) whenever they need a stylist's expert advice.
Juliana Schiavinatto
Since we last checked in with Schiavinatto, her profile has continued to rise - she's styling editorials and celeb shoots (with Daria Werbowy and others) at Glow magazine as their contributing fashion editor, while simultaneously running the show over at Pulp magazine (check out this fanciful Mad Hatter-inspired shoot).
Mariko Lauren
Up-and-comer Lauren has doled out fashion tips for Canadian Living, styled for local cult-fave line Dagg & Stacey, and crafted shoot after shoot of contemporary looks that never veer over-the-top.
See also:
The Best Fashion Designers in Toronto
10 up-and-coming fashion photographers in Toronto
Did I miss any? Leave your favourite Toronto-based stylists in the comments.
Photo of Pink Tartan S/S 2014 (styled by Zeina Esmail) by Mauricio Calero.
TTC workers have released a sprawling report that suggests how Toronto should address its transit woes. Packaged with a slick video that tells the story of our putative transit demise, the document makes 68 recommendations for improving Toronto's transit service and infrastructure. Many of them are unsurprising. The union calls for more funding from upper levels of government, the immediate purchase of new buses, expanded turn restrictions on city streets, all door loading on all surface vehicles, expansion of the WiFi network across the subway system, and improvements to the TTC's airport rocket bus.
The report is obviously self-serving in places (e.g. hire more mechanics), but it's not without merit. It does, however, participate in a longstanding Toronto tradition of diagnosing problems without the means to fix them. Toward that end, the recommendations that seem most valuable here are those that don't come tied to large scale capital investments. Turn restrictions and all-door loading don't sound sexy but they can improve transit riders' commutes.
Read the full report below.
Double Double Land is synonymous with those mysterious/practical directions "down the alley, up the stairs," which sounds simple enough until you try to get a friend to meet you there at 1am. Kensington Market's longest running DIY venue is about to hit its five year anniversary, but even if you've been along for the ride the whole time it's okay if you still walk past the downstairs bakery at unassuming 209 Augusta sometimes.
There are few places in Toronto where art is put before all else, and that coupled with a certain feeling-that-cannot-be-named (maybe it's love), has made the tiny venue my favourite place to see a show in the city. While DIY spaces come and go, imagining a Toronto without Double Double Land is a vaguely apocalyptic proposition. Where would the thrift shop riff raff go?
Before the big (really big) anniversary celebration, I met up with founders Jon McCurley, Daniel Vila, and their escaping cat to talk about what gap the venue fills in Toronto's arts and music scene, and where the space is headed. It was like entering a portal to a distant, condo-less past, or a city far far away: five year plans are hazy, profits are low-priority, and someone is actively trying to figure out if music is "good," rather than marketable.
While for now the ever-scroungy venue isn't ready to join the establishment because, to quote one very wise man, "people like to be in garbage," it's clear that something in DDL's relaxed and noncommercial strategy is working, one night at a time. I've included some of the venue's richest, if meandering, war stories here for posterity's sake.
From all night dance parties to pirate internet media junkets, the heartbeat of Double Double Land has become a defining force in the neighborhood, even to those who will never know they were there. Here's how an ex-bakery with an "animal room" transformed into the Market's longest running DIY venue.
THE BEGINNING
DDL was founded in 2009 by current members Jon McCurley and Daniel Vila (also behind Extermination Night, with a habit of throwing shows in nunneries), plus Rob Gordon (who now plays drums for Owen Pallett) and Stephen Thomas (now working as a writer). The venue got a loose start at Jamie's Area, a short-lived venue in a basement apartment at 193 Augusta co-run by Vila and Bonny Poon in a space that now houses the Toronto School of Burlesque.
Neighbours weren't into the noise from Jamie's, so Vila found 209 August in summer '09. Then came months of renos. "The place was full of garbage, cockroaches, graffiti, and smashed walls" Vila remembers.
McCurley joins the walk down memory alley. "Someone lived here in a very gross way. In the back it was all garbage... The room that I eventually lived in for a long time was the animal room. It had animals in it."
Vila laughs. "There was a wall full of industrial sized drawers that had bulk underwear and garbage in them, and we sold them all for $100 to this guy who took them over the course of a month."
"On the hood of his car." McCurley adds.
"Yeah. And the first time he tried to tape them down with duck tape, but they weighed like 50 pounds each and a cop had to tell him it was a bad idea."
"There was a big steel unit - a long steel thing that you put your crates of underwear on - and this guy wanted it. He ran a flower shop and he promised us all these flowers we never got." McCurley remembers.
Vila nods. "We never got the flowers."
Over the past five years, Vila and McCurley speculate about 20 people have called Double Double Land home (not counting the crashing bands and scores of visitors), including Jesi the Elder (currently artist in residence), Laura McCoy, and "this guy who used to take beer all the time."
I ask what their initial goals for the space were beyond getting the garbage out, and McCurley and Vila are at a loss for words. "I think it's been pretty organic" McCurley struggles.
"We never had a mandate." Vila adds.
"If you asked us why we still do it, we probably wouldn't have a good answer either. It just doesn't stop," they both laugh. "But we wanted to clean up the garbage... we've had ideas, and some of them we pull off and some of them we don't."
"The goal has always been to provide performance experiences that don't make sense in other places." Vila says more seriously.
"For a while I was motivated by [making] a place where people can fall in love." McCurley says with sincerity. Vila laughs but McCurley keeps going.
"Why do we run this thing we've built, this thing where people show up at night all the time? I started thinking people come to fall in love here and have these beautiful memories. And it's true. There's been love that's come and gone. You can see it, when people come up and they're really happy. I've also thought about how it's like going on vacation... a cruise or you're going on a trip somewhere. You don't need to go on vacation, because you can have that feeling in Toronto."
Vila explains, "Especially with random people - we do get a lot of random people who don't know what the place is or what it's called, they just end up here somehow really late at night, have an experience, leave, and then don't know where they were or what they did. And maybe they fell in love."
McCurley is enthusiastic. "And that happens on vacation all the time. Maybe you can just tell that [DDL] isn't run like another place. There's a freedom in certain things, you can just feel it. When we first started there was a negative Yelp review that said 'it feels like it's someone's clubhouse.'"
"No, that was positive. It was a four star Yelp review." Dan corrects him.
5 YEARS IN KENSINGTON MARKET
The first event at DDL, in fall 2009, was an Eileen Myles reading. Since then the space has served as an art gallery, music venue, cinema, theatre, studio, music video set, and, of course, dance floor. They've also been robbed twice, witnessed fights, had a guest who "fell asleep and never woke up," and currently boast, in Vila's words, "the best bathroom in Toronto."
"I think there's definitely, in terms of music at least, a scene that is somewhat associated with Double Double Land. Man Made Hill played here eight shows in a row, and there are people who play here more than anywhere else." Vila says of the venue's niche in the city. Sometimes, it seems it only makes sense for a touring artist to play DDL. The venue also hosts performers overnight, and helps however they can so that artists can still, in McCurley's words, "live out their dreams and fall in love - tour the world and stuff."
Aside from monthly performance show Doored, regulars who define the space include Antoine 93, Wham City, Ami Dang, Petra Glynt, Jason Lescalleet, Drainolith, Tasseomancy, Doldrums, New Fries, and Healing Power Records. Grimes, Le1f, and Owen Pallett have also played the stage.
The founders name a Clown Rave (a clown/archeologist rave), the Whack Magic parties, Ian Svenonius, Dieter Moebius (Cluster), and the recent Chandra album re-issue show as other fond, non garbage-related memories.
McCurley stresses the lack of performance art venues in Toronto, which Double Double Land was built to be. "If it wasn't for this place, in my experience, the other places people get to perform that kind of art are really crappy places. Where people don't see you and there's no lights, no audience, no sound, and people don't get paid - you're at the Power Ball and no one cares."
When I ask about their booking strategy, the answer is, predictably, that there isn't one (except there is). "We get all these emails from seemingly random people who don't seem to know what the space is... we'll have weekly meetings where we go through the emails we've received and by the end of it I'm confused about what I think is good." Vila admits, only partially joking.
McCurley continues, "the booking strategy has evolved to where we listen to everything people have sent, then we sit around at the meeting and look at each other saying, 'I don't want to stay up all night on this night, do you?' And they'll say 'I do!' and it's like that, endlessly."
"It's great. And maybe that's why we don't stop. It's always surprising. Someone will come in and it will be really full and exciting and you have no idea who they are, or someone will be nobody and three weeks later become Grimes, and you can hear them in the airport in Mexico City."
Dan adds that they often book artists they know from the community, and that "sometimes we'll think two people are going to show up, but it's really great so we'll do it."
"Maybe that's one way we're different." McCurley adds. "It's not 100% run by whether we can make money off of it. We'll do stuff because we like it."
McCurley is glad that more DIY venues are popping up such as 8-11 on Spadina and Videofag in Kensington. "Down the street Videofag is more theatre and performance based - so now we don't do as much stuff like that, because it can go to Videofag."
When I ask about changes in Kensington Market, he laughs. "The chocolate store closed; the popcorn store opened. It goes in waves - sometimes it feels dangerous. That extremely violent guy isn't around this summer, which was nice."
"It's simultaneously becoming Yorkville and, what's the bad neighbourhood?" Dan attempts. "European Meats turned into, whatever it's called."
"You still really feel it. The market's wonderful even if it's changing." McCurley waxes. "If fancier stores are coming in, it still feels the same."
"The I Deal Coffee patio is very different from five years ago, because all these cafes where people have MacBooks have opened up, and the weirdos are left at I Deal." Vila adds.
"A lot of coffee shops have opened up. It's coffee shops and bars, there weren't bars five years ago. It's still the wild west at night."
"More so - so many bars have opened up since we moved in. Cold Tea, Thirsty and Miserable, Handlebar, the jazz bar, Poetry."
"It's more going Yorkville, but it's still going both ways."
"There are still silly stores that open that are like really Kensington Market - silly ideas. Like "Nice Stuff Off the Truck?" What's it called? "Nice Things... Off the Truck."
"Mecca Body Oils is still there, and hasn't seemed to change over five years. There are places that are unique and they aren't going anywhere. Maybe there's going to be more bars and more restaurants, but it's going slow."
"The anarchist store that nobody goes to is still open somehow. People always say the Market's over, but it just persists. I don't think the Walmart will have any effect on anything. People who come to the Market might go there for cheap things, but they're not going to go to Walmart instead of coming to the Market"
WHAT'S NEXT?
Double Double Land wasn't meant to last for five years, but they owe some of their success to the unconventional strategy of living in-venue, voiding the chance of not making rent. "For the first three years we never counted the money." Vila laughs. They name punk and hardcore venue Soybomb HQ as the only other long standing DIY venue in Toronto.
Over the past half-decade DDL have floated plenty of ideas, including a pirate radio station. "We wanted to start a network where we broadcast internet from a tower" McCurley reminisces.
"Remember free internet for Kensington Market?" Vila asks.
They laugh. McCurley explains "That idea didn't come around. That idea was we'd get a tower for a network where you'd only find stuff in the market."
"I think it was, intentionally or not, in the spirit of UK grime era pirate radio where you'd have a very short range transmitter in an apartment block."
So like, Double Double Land Internet? "I think that's right." McCurley answers.
Vila shrugs. "We never worked it out. It was an idea to provide content of some kind that would be only available within a certain radius. An intranet."
"It's gonna happen" McCurley grins, half joking. "Ideas like that have been simmering for a while. Doored is almost there, and we'll see what happens after. We're incrementally closer now because we have a livestream set up with five cameras... [Doored] is on the verge of something that's exciting: almost running a TV station. It's a step away from us programming a livestream stage all the time. So that maybe is what we'll do in the next five years."
Doored is a two hour long show that's broadcast live from Double Double Land once a month (people in Toronto can attend in person too). "It's kind of like the flagship show of Double Double Land." Vila says. There are 13 episodes left until the project enters the great unknown.
If Doored is the future, it's also tied to the beginning: "Double Double Land" isn't a clever nickname for Canada, country of Tim Horton's. Double Double Land Land was a play produced by McCurley and Amy Lam's Life of a Craphead who host the monthly Doored broadcasts. They've performed at the AGO, and will be releasing a feature film called Bugs in early 2015.
For a venue with no mandate and no plan, McCurley and Vila have a long list of dreams for the coming years including new studios and more artist residencies (they've already hosted a few), starting a Double Double Land record label (mostly for reissues), flying in offbeat artists, finally properly hosting thatAwesome Tapes talk, and someday buying out the bakery downstairs to run as a restaurant like Casa Del Popolo in Montreal - "or like Bambi's and Mr. Flamingo - but reversed."
Hardworking and psychedelic (do those things even go together?) Healing Power Records now run an office out of Double Double Land, which could be a beacon of things to come.
When I ask if DDL would ever go the artist run centre route McCurley asks "isn't that what it is already?" and something in my black heart melts. Bureaucracy's shadow apparently can't figure out the down the alley/up the stairs thing either.
Vila admits he's thought about getting grants to make running DDL a full time job, but isn't sure it would be a good thing for the space. "I kind of like the idea that we've never gotten it together enough to do that." Vila says. "Maybe part of the charm of this place is that things are always a little bit shitty - it's kind of nice to go to a place that's a little bit shitty."
"Carl Didur worked at the Green Room a long time ago, and he was talking to, maybe the owner? He was telling Carl - 'You see the couches here?' (The couches and chairs are all ratty and mismatched.) He's like, 'People like to be in garbage' and it's true. I kind of like to be in garbage. I think it's important to maintain that"
McCurley agrees. "At 8-11 I've seen people perform on a stage made of skids with no lights, and I'm like, this show is great."
"When 8-11 opened that was really exciting, and there's that new place Ratio. I think it would be great if the Double Double Land model was more prevalent. "
Double Double Land are "taking a stupid risk" and flying pop street performer The Space Lady in from San Francisco for their fifth anniversary party, which will carry on over three nights from Thursday, November 13 - Saturday, November 15th. Also performing are Carl Didur, Man Made Hill, Prince Nifty, Tenderness, New Chance, and many many more. See more info here.
Doored 18 is live at Double Double Land and online tonight at 8pm.
Door photos by Yuula Benivolski
The eastern waterfront in Toronto is in the midst of an enormous transformation that will see the former industrial area become heavily populated with condos but also spaces that will grant access to the waterfront in areas that were previously closed off to the public.
Successful projects like Sugar Beach, the Corus Quay Building, and George Brown's waterfront campus have dramatically altered the area already, and there are promising plans for the Aqualina at Bayside development that's set to revitalize the tract of land east of Sherbourne Common.
Now we can get a glimpse of what's in store even further east. New renderings for the Aquavista condo project, a sister development to Aqualina, show off a sleek-looking 14-storey condo that features a rather stunning infinity pool hovering above the harbour. More importantly, these images show the extension of the waterfront promenade that currently begins at Sugar Beach and terminates at Sherbourne Common.
With retail/restaurants at grade and additional waterfront access, it's possible to get excited about developments like this even if one has no intention to buy a unit. Designed by Arquitectonica, this is an attractive building that underscores the idea that Waterfront Toronto's master plan for the eastern lakeshore will pay dividends for a city long cut off from this section of the lake.
Have a look at more renderings below.
First there was Uber, a smartphone application that allowed its users to summon and pay for a taxi without calling a dispatcher, and now there's "UberX," a low cost ride-sharing version of the app that allows anyone with a qualifying vehicle, adequate insurance, and a clean background to hit the streets and start collecting fares.
As one might expect, Since its local launch in September, the service has proved controversial with taxi groups and the City of Toronto. Uber identifies itself as a technology company, not a taxi service, and believes it should therefore be exempt from licensing regulations. The city isn't so sure, however.
In a statement issued shortly after the launch of UberX, the City of Toronto said it had "significant concerns" that the service might be operating in contravention of bylaws and that the matter would be investigated by its legal department.
"Based on the information currently available, the City is concerned that the UberX service may pose a serious safety risk to the public, including those who are signing on as drivers," the statement said, citing the inspections, background checks, and training given to all taxi drivers licensed by the city.
Uber says it isn't a taxi company and therefore does not need to comply with regulations that govern private transportation providers, but the company does screen its UberX drivers and vehicles, says Lauren Altmin, an Uber spokesperson.
"It's actually a very stringent process that we've developed, and we're very proud of it," Altmin says. "All of our driver partners undergo stringent background checks, so this includes criminal screenings at both the federal RCMP and local police level as well as a full review of the driver's motor vehicle record. These checks go back to the age of 18, which is the maximum allowed by federal law."
UberX drivers must be 21 years or older, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and have a four-door vehicle manufactured after 2005 with valid auto insurance. There's a chance, however, that using a private vehicle for commercial purposes like ride sharing may invalidate some personal insurance policies. UberX is backed by a $5 million company insurance policy, but drivers are encouraged to check their paperwork before signing up, Altmin says.
Phil Chao works in the clerical department of a Scarborough hospital. He has been a part time UberX driver for about two months. Once he had passed screening, he was given a special Uber phone that allowed him to receive incoming fares. He says he is given 10 seconds to accept ride requests within a 10 minute drive of his location. So far, the experience has been good, he says.
"Because it's an app for a smartphone ... it keeps it pretty safe for us because we know there aren't any people that can't afford a phone or aren't approved for a credit card, they're not allowed to use Uber so we're not getting any of that questionable crowd," he says. "For me it's been really positive. All my fares have if not been amazing then really great."
Passengers are rated out of five. Messy, rude, or difficult customers may be given a lower rating that may affect whether they get picked up in future. Drivers are not obliged to accept ride requests, or give a reason for not doing so.
Uber takes 20 percent of every UberX fare, which is automatically deducted via credit card and designed to be cheaper than standard Uber rides, but Chao says the concept is still a good way to make extra money.
"I'm making enough to make the time worth it, in no way am I losing money doing this," he says.
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Image from Uber's Facebook page
This past weekend the Toronto International Antiquarian Book Fair opened its second year at the Art Gallery of Ontario, a step up from former digs at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. While the fair's organizers now have to shell out more book hoarding - er, I mean collecting - money on the more prestigious space, the move has been a welcome upgrade for book dealers, who came from across Canada, and as far as the UK, to show their (remarkably un-dusty) tomes.
Antiquarian book fairs proper make up one of the world's most tragically under examined subcultures. These are the people who hated Amazon long before hating Amazon was cool (find them on Abebooks, obviously) and who can name the typographical errors and corresponding page numbers that signify true first edition in famed, or sometimes impossibly obscure, works of literature.
Finds at this year's fair including the usual riff raff of Vonnegut, Hemmingway, Woolf, and Conan Doyle first editions (with original dust jacket - that paper thing that wraps around the hardcovers - daintily preserved in plastic sleeves, naturally), Dickens novels with marbled covers, a $24,000 first edition of Anne of Green Gables (inferior Anne of Avonlea was a mere $17,500), but naturally all paled in comparison next to an appearance by that most basic of holy grails, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
What makes a 218 page novel worth $180,000 is an interesting story, but the dealers of this Gatsby edition, Lucius Books, the only book sellers at the fair from overseas, were glum. The UK shop told me that while last year several Toronto collectors made impressive purchases, this year was disappointing and, short of a last minute miracle, they likely wouldn't return. Bad news for fans of rare works like Ed Ruscha's Twentysix Gasoline Stations ($14,500 at the booth).
To understand what it's like to be a book dealer, imagine spending each day isolated in a room that smells like, uh, a used book shop, peering at tiny, weathered notations and telling tearful customers that their family heirloom bibles would be more valuable as doorstops. The breed of human being that gravitates to a precise combination of nostalgia and and scrupulous attention to detail often appears, like the books themselves, strange and intimidating up close.
The secret to winning over the most cantankerous of dealers is reverential enthusiasm. Armed with respect for the tedious trenches of book hunting, a conversation with a book dealer can turn into a history of the world, or Canadian esoterica. When one seller asked what I'd seen of note so far and I showed her an Instagram of a leather bound called Types of Canadian Women, she laughed and told me Henry J. Morgan was always writing funny books on weird topics, as if the guy was an eccentric pal, not an obscure Canadian who died in the early 1900s.
Every book tells a story, and it's easy to see how someone with means could become addicted to collecting. Alphabet Bookshop hosted a whole shelving unit worth of Crowley first editions and books on magic on consignment from one mysterious collector. Elsewhere a signed Picasso lithograph, a steal at $4,750 and tucked away in a huge folio, could have been hanging in the galleries downstairs. Group of Seven woodcuts made an appearance too, if you're into that, as did Cresswell's lithographs from the first crossing of the Northwest Passage ($12,500).
Toronto dealers included Monkey's Paw from Dundas West, Contact Editions, David Mason Books, Steven Temple Books, Spadina Road Books, Hugh Anson-Cartwright, Rare Photo Gallery, and Webster's Fine Books and Maps, but sellers from Montreal, Halifax, and Winnipeg were more enthusiastic than the UK's Lucius Books about making the journey to Toronto (I'm sure in part because they drove rather than hiring a shipping and importing company), which they hailed as Canada's best book fair.
For voyeurs more interested in people than copies of The Yellow Book III (it's okay, you can love both), hang around a book fair long enough and you'll see someone drop a book, which is awkward yet adorable to witness so long as it doesn't end in tragedy for the book, or book dealer. More dangerous though, are people bringing kids to the fair - maybe not the best idea when $10,000 items are often not kept behind glass. Then again, I did overhear a guy say he made his kids read Catcher in the Rye at age four. Terrifying.
While the fair has grown up and stands easily as Canada's best, it looks like it's now time for Toronto collectors to grow up too - Art Toronto might be where the glitz is, but there's something to be said for having an impressive library of creepy gilded tomes, pop Canadiana or questionable moments in children's literature. The only way to get a chance to see so many rare books in one place is if Toronto has a rep as a city where serious collectors are showing up and writing cheques.
There's comfort in knowing that, dotted across the world, a strange sect of humanity is preserving, indexing, and regularly dusting what otherwise might be lost to mice and basement fog (I've seen it, it's not pretty). Until next year, I'll be at Monkey's Paw hoping someone messed up and put a Yellow Book in the Bibliomat. (Just kidding, I'd tell.)
Despite the inherent gorgeousness of the gilded, domed Great Hall at Union Station, come December, it's more synonymous with slush-soaked winter commuters and hordes of grumpy holiday travellers than it is for Christmas cheer. Until now, that is - plans have just been announced for the first-ever Union Station Holiday Market, which will fill the station with holiday vendors from December 1 to 7.
Decking the Great Hall at the free event will be local vendors like Yo Sox and Foxy Originals, with Nadege, Toronto Popcorn Company and Desmond & Beatrice supplying snacks. Like localTOmrkt, set to take over a vacant lot at Yonge and Gould over the holidays, the market aims to give throngs of conveniently-located passersby (250,000 each day, according to organizers) easy access to nifty, locally-made gifts.
Photo by Gerald Querubin in the blogTO Flickr pool
Today in Toronto Remembrance Day ceremonies will take place across the GTA, and a moment of silence will be observed at 11am. To find a Remembrance Day service or event, see our Remembrance Day in Toronto 2014 guide here.
Bloor Hot Docs will show John MacLachlan Gray's Canadian musical Billy Bishop Goes to War for free tonight in honour of Remembrance Day. Then Brits alt-J, one of our concert picks for November, will be counting down the Kool Haus' last days with good old indie rock. If you need cheering up, Simpsons trivia might do it. 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.
Image from Billy Bishop Goes to War
This week on DineSafe the streak of no closures comes to an end with WE Kitchen on The West Mall's red card for a pest infestation. Kinton Ramen's new North York location gets a yellow card for the second week in a row for improper food holding temperatures.
Here's the rest of this week's worst on DineSafe.
Ajuker Fried Chicken (680 Bloor St. West)
Inspected on: November 3, 2014
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 3 (Minor: 1, Significant: 2)
Crucial infractions include: N/A
Ramen Raijin (385 Yonge St.)
Inspected on: November 3, 2014
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 4 (Minor: 1, Significant: 3)
Crucial infractions include: N/A
Golden Turtle (125 Ossington Ave.)
Inspected on: November 3, 2014
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 4 (Minor: 2, Significant: 2)
Crucial infractions include: N/A
Kinton Ramen (5165 Yonge St.)
Inspected on: November 4, 2014
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 2 (Significant: 1, Crucial: 1)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to maintain hazardous food(s) at 4C (40F) or colder.
WE Kitchen (405 The West Mall)
Inspected on: November 4, 2014
Inspection finding: Red (Closed)
Number of infractions: 3 (Minor: 1, Significant: 1, Crucial: 1)
Crucial infractions include: Operator fail to prevent an insect infestation.
La Prep (2 Bloor St. East)
Inspected on: November 5, 2014
Inspection finding: Yellow (Conditional)
Number of infractions: 3 (Minor: 2, Significant: 1)
Crucial infractions include: N/A
What's open and closed Remembrance Day Toronto 2014:
CEREMONIES
GENERAL
Closed
TRANSIT
DRINK
Did I miss anything? Add it to the comments below.
Photo by Jeff Stewart via the blogTO Flickr pool.
Those with champagne tastes and an RC Cola budget will want to circle December 7 and 8 on their calendars immediately. The Koffler Gallery at Artscape Youngplace is set to host Koffler Couture, a designer vintage clothing sale featuring thousands of donated items, with all proceeds going to charity.
The list of available designers (Prada, Chanel, Yves St Laurent, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Fendi, Alexander Wang and Stella McCartney, to name just a few) is pretty dizzying. Prices start at just $5, with gems like Valentino leather clutches and Chanel tweed suits going for $200 and up. Admission is $10 or PWYC - but if you want to get to the good stuff early, a $50 VIP ticket will grant you access to the sale two hours before it opens to the public - plus a glass of champagne.
Not Dead Yet's annual music festival for Toronto's DIY hardcore community is growing up. This year the short but heavy fest is set to descend from November 20-23, when nearly 80 punk and alternative bands including Code Orange, Perfect Pussy, The Marked Men, WarCry and more are gearing up to play at 11 venues across the city in likely its biggest and most exciting incarnation yet.
Greg Benedetto, avid show promoter behind the Stuck in the City blog and guitarist for local punk foursome S.H.I.T., is the main force behind Not Dead Yet. The inspiration for the event comes from Fucked Up, who used to organize and headline their own mini fest every year around Halloween. Around 2009, critical success and an unending tour schedule began taking the band out of Toronto too often to continue participating, but Benedetto and his friends were determined to keep the tradition alive.
"People travel from all over North America, and increasingly the world, to come see what the Toronto DIY hardcore punk community has on offer," he says. "We love bringing people together in the city to celebrate this incredible and diverse scene."
That communal emphasis has indeed been successful in bringing together Toronto's most passionate punks with other internationally acclaimed acts from all over. The artistic interchange isn't limited to music, either; Not Dead Yet has recently begun inviting visual artists both local and abroad to create unique posters for each and every show (all of which you can currently view on the Stuck in the City blog). "There are so many wicked visual artists working in punk music and we're hoping to expose that more to people in Toronto," explains Benedetto.
With so many bands playing in such a short period of time, it'll be tough to decide who to see and where to mosh this year. If you need help whittling down your choices, here are our top five picks for bands playing at Not Dead Yet 2014.
Perfect Pussy - November 21 - The Garrison
We've spilled much ink on the hype for this band's previous Toronto shows already, but Perfect Pussy continues to do everything right as one of the harbingers of new noise. Singer Meredith Graves is one of the most compelling front-people in music right now - her devastatingly honest lyrics get washed in the rest of the band's fuzzy dischord, almost getting lost but managing to pierce through the chaos thanks to her fervent delivery. They play November 21 at The Garrison with a solid lineup that includes post-punks Pleasure Leftists and the psychedelic-tinged Destruction Unit.
Forward - November 22 - Hard Luck Bar
Since their inception in the mid-90s, Japanese band Forward have steadily built a hardcore legacy that's crossed cultural boundaries and is now internationally recognized. Ishiya is a gravel-throated bear of a frontman whose growls add intensity to the band's old-school punk and thrash metal leanings. Their Friday set at the Hard Luck Bar will be their first ever in Toronto, and they'll be joined by numerous other must-sees such as Massachusetts band Hoax and Fucked Up offshoot Career Suicide.
Puce Mary - November 21 - Milk Glass
The solo project of Copenhagen's Frederikke Hoffmeier, Puce Mary is definitely one of the most experimental acts you'll find at Not Dead Yet this year. The noise-driven soundscapes found on her debut 2013 LP Success are certainly not for the faint of heart, the industrial pieces gurgling with violent feedback, overdriven spoken word and lots of ominous low end. For the adventurous and not-easily-freaked-out music lover, her set at west-end art space Milk Glass will be the best bet.
Iron Lung - November 20 - Sneaky Dee's
It's not that easy to be loud as a two-piece band, but Seattle's Iron Lung are one of the few who can blow out eardrums easily. Drummer Jensen Ward and guitarist Jon Kortland play powerviolence at breakneck speed, their songs usually under-a-minute bursts of intense sludge-filled fury. It doesn't hurt that the duo have a bit of a rep for witty stage banter, either. For extra fun, stick around after their set on Thursday at Sneaky Dee's to let loose at the karaoke after party.
Burning Love - November 21 - Soybomb
Local stalwarts Burning Love have a legendary pedigree, rising from the ashes of (sadly, aptly named) Cursed as well as Our Father back in 2007. Those roots in hardcore have given way to a sound that's a little more mature (or maybe just more world-weary), donning influences of feel-good classic rock n' roll and even daring to throw in some catchy hooks. Toronto punks in the know are proud to call these guys one of their own. Even better: their after-party set's at Soybomb, undoubtedly one of the best places to catch a heavy show in the city.
BONUS
S.H.I.T. - November 19 - S.H.I.B.G.B.'s + November 21 - Hard Luck Bar
Of course, we can't really talk about Not Dead Yet without tipping a hat to Benedetto's own band. S.H.I.T. have become instrumental to the life of punk in Toronto today, whether it's with events like this or by opening their practice space to become DIY venue S.H.I.B.G.B.'s. Their passion for the scene bleeds right into their music, a flurry of derisive howls, reckless drumming and guitar tones drenched in battery acid. It all clearly pays reverence to the punk greats of yesteryear, and I have to think that future Toronto bands will be inclined to pay homage to S.H.I.T. themselves in the same way.
The shows for Not Dead Yet range in price from $5 to $25 and include both all-ages and 19+ events. Pick up advance tickets at Rotate This or at the doors. All ages shows are marked as such here.
Photo of Puce Mary via instantschavires.com
King West is home to a new hybrid business perfect for spoiling women rotten. It's a beauty salon, cafe, boutique, and cocktail bar all rolled into one -- a true destination for some serious R and R.
Read my profile of Her Majesty's Pleasure in the fashion section.
