This Week in Food rounds up the week's food news, restaurants openings and closings, chef movements and upcoming food events in Toronto. Find us here every Friday morning.
OPENINGS & CLOSINGS
- Thomas Lavers Cannery & Delicatessen opens at 193 Baldwin St. in Kensington Market tomorrow. Its Twitter promises handmade, canned, cured, pickled and brined food and sundries.
- Just steps away in the market, Hogtown Charcuterie (61 Kensington Avenure) has taken over the space formerly home to Mr. Cream to offer prepared meats and a lunch time menu for take-away.
- New Vietnamese restaurant Pho Tien has replaced Kimbo at 358 Bathurst Street just north of Dundas.
- The Guild Restaurant is almost ready to open at 1442 Dundas Street West. Originally the restaurant was going to be called NoNo but the owner seems to have decided on a name change at the last minute..
- New Italian restaurant and event venue, Ganzi is opening January 2013 in a historic mansion at 504 Jarvis Street. Those interested in checking it out this calendar year can hit up their New Years eve soiree.
- Dr. Laffa has announced plans to open a second location in the Bathurst and Lawrence area in the new year.
- Bazaar Global Food Bar is set to move from its recently closed Mount Pleasant location to to 33 Baldwin Street (formerly the Jodhpore Club).
- Smoke BBQ House is now open at 291 Harbord Street. Prime rib sliders, smoked fish and corned beef brisket are just some of what's on the menu.
- The second Playa Cabana location is now open in the Junction and is serving lunch and dinner.
- And the spot that used to house Altitude Baking now has a new name - the neighbourhood centric Leslieville Bakery.
UPCOMING EVENTS
- The Depanneur (1033 College Street) celebrates Hanukkah tonight, Friday, December 14th with a Whole Latke Love with Emily Zimmerman serving up 3 latkes (2 potato, one zucchini) and all the fixings for only $10.
- Mavrik Wine Bar (676 Queen Street West) celebrates the holidays with the Mavrik Mrkt on Saturday, December 15th from 10am to 4pm. This one day event offers the perfect chance to scoop-up homemade gifts from local vendors accompanied by live music and drink specials.
- Caplansky's Deli (356 College Street) celebrates the last day of Hanukkah with the third annual Latkepalooza on Sunday, December 16th at 8pm.
OTHER NEWS
- The Depanneur (1033 College Street) Artisanal Food Holiday Market continues this Sunday, December 16th from 4pm to 8pm.
- Porchetta & Co. celebrates 2 years in business on Thursday, December 20th with $1 sandwiches (toppings extra).
- As of this Saturday, December 15th, the ever popular taqueria, Grand Electric (1330 Queen Street West) will open for weekend lunch service from 11:30am to 3:00pm.
- Stock at the Trump Hotel is advertising some lavish NYE packages. If you've got $$ to burn, consider the NYE Gourmand package, priced at $500 per person that includes a six-course menu and one bottle of Limited Edition Dom Pérignon per couple. Or reserve now for brunch on Christmas Day, Boxing Bay or New Years Day and enjoy a $100 per person menu that includes a seafood tower and omelette station.
Toronto New Year's Eve 2013 parties will be equal parts celebration for the new year, as well as revelry in the fact that the world didn't actually come to an end. Simple pleasures, right? As usual, there are seemingly endless options for welcoming in 2013, the best of which usually offer some sort of celebratory hat and champagne ("champagne") toast after the clock strikes midnight. No money? No problem. The annual 
Most childhood era birthdays tend to be innocuous vanilla affairs destined to end up mired in a pea soup of foggy memories, but no kids growing up in Toronto in the 1970s, 80s or 90s will probably ever forget if they attended a birthday party at The Organ Grinder at 58 Esplanade.
Opened in the spring of 1975 and the only restaurant of its kind in all of Canada — "a musical pizza eatery" — the Organ Grinder served up an unforgettable mixture of ear piercing sonics, mouth-watering taste and visual mayhem.
Built from parts of over 50 different pipe organs dating back to the turn of the century, The Mighty Wurlitzer was an aural behemoth. The largest pipe organ was 16" long while the smallest measured no longer than a soda straw. The organ had over 1,000 pipes made of wood, zinc, lead and tin. The deep bass sound this produced was unlike anything you had heard before.
Never mind the Frankenstein's monster sound mix created from various accompanying bonkers gadgets like submarine sirens, sleigh bells, a glockenspiel, bird whistles, horse hoofs, Chinese blocks and even funeral toll bells which adorned the surrounding walls. There were over 267 tuned percussion notes on the various instruments around the room, including upright piano (88 notes), chrysoglott (49 notes), marimba (37 notes), xylophone (37 notes), glockenspiel (30 notes) and cathedral chimes (26 notes). 
Mirror balls, strobes and the octagonal UFO lights were all controlled by the organist, who would often let loose on them as songs built to their climax, resulting in a rave like atmosphere only compounded by the sugar highs which were doled out generously via children's cocktails with names like "the Crazy Cranberry", "Miss Kitty Colada", "Dracula Draft" and perennial kid favourite "The Gremlin Gimlet" (described in the menu as Orange juice, Sprite, and green stuff).
In addition to the famous performance pizzas ("Opening Number," "The Mighty Wurlitzer," "Piper's Delight," "Hawaiian Song," etc.), The menu was filled with lasagna, spaghetti, chicken, burgers and veal parmigiana, assuring patron's bellies would leave as fulfilled as their brains.
The Organ Grinder was a crucial part of the 
Occasionally you can still discover old Organ Grinder glasses or copies of the prized Don Thompson vinyl soundtrack knocking around in local thrift stores, reminders of what a local sensation the place was back in the day. While Chuck-E-Cheese's had the franchised ubiquity, and 
Sadly the Organ Grinder was forced to close in 1996 after 21 years of good vibes, and all of its wonderful artifacts were liquidated at auction. The organ itself was purchased by an individual from New Hampshire who dismantled it, loaded it into a transport truck and then rebuilt it in his own house.
This new Scandinavian restaurant in Bloordale Village offers dishes influenced by Scandinavian cuisine such as open-faced sandwiches (with toppings smoked in-house), pastries, coffee, libations, as well as goods for take-away. In short, IKEA this ain't.
Weekend events in Toronto is our guide to events happening this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Here's what's happening in Toronto this December 14-16, 2012.
Joe Rogan has often said that there's a huge difference between those who headline and those who are legitimate headliners. Follow me as I show you why we are privy to the latter in This Week In Comedy...
In the late-fall gloaming of Nov. 17, 1904, streetcar No. 642 was heading east on Queen Street towards the village of Riverside and the Beaches beyond. The Toronto Railway Company car was one of the city's first electric trolleys, a wooden cabin on metal wheels with an absurd galleon-style steering wheel, driven by Willis Armstrong. 
Before the eastbound tracks out of Toronto were raised and fitted out with bridges, the express line for Kingston and Montreal sliced through the Port Lands, Riverside, and northwest out of town at street level. Trains ran roughly every thirteen minutes in 1904 - 110 a day - so a team of signalmen we employed on the line to ensure the way was kept clear at each crossing point. 
Instead of the Queen East streetcar slowing, it maintained its speed toward the crossing gates. With a collision imminent, the driver leapt clear of the cab, abandoning the streetcar to its fate, and landed with a thud on the street. 
In the immediate aftermath motorman Armstrong was not found among the survivors and he was presumed dead. Two passengers were killed instantly and another seriously injured died in hospital a short time later. A child, Baby Robertson, lost a leg and many others suffered similar wounds.
TRC was criticized in the days afterward for using "poor cheap brakes". The Star wrote the company "failed to have any regard to the value of human life in equipping [streetcars] with old-fashioned hand brake which has been in use for many years. Surely it is a scandalous thing that in the face of such convincing proof of the utter uselessness of the hand brake that Toronto Railway should be allowed to use it."
This week in theatre rounds up the most noteworthy live theatre playing right now in Toronto. It includes just-opened shows as well as productions that are about to close.
Getting the heck out of Canada has always been a challenge for travelers without a car in Toronto. A trip to the airport for most involves a costly taxi ride or a back-breaking ride on the TTC with a freezing cold interchange at Kipling. Hardly glamourous. Now that that the Union-Pearson rail link is under construction those days are over, right? Maybe not. Fares could be as high as $30 each way. I take a look at how that stacks up against the alternatives below.
The price of a ride on Metrolinx's under-construction Union-Pearson rail link could be as high as $30, according to a report from Ontario's auditor general released earlier this week. The steep fare, added together for a family, is more expensive than a ride in a limo and just about any other form of transport to the airport. Single fares, however, might be competitive. Here's a comparison:
You'd have to have been under a rock last week not to have taken some delight in Darwin the Monkey, the escaped rhesus macaque that sent the media bananas and kept us all entertained while Rob Ford was taking a break.
MUSIC | 
The 
Live music picks for WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 19 through SATURDAY DECEMBER 22, 2012.
Do you identify as Geekish?
From 2 p.m. until 10 p.m. over 90 participants paid $5 to hang out with like-minded young adults and indulge in unlimited coffee and tea and all-you-can-play board games, courtesy of 
There was a giant Connect-Four game near the entrance, but most of the groups of geeks were gathered around tables, busily playing games like Settlers of Catan, Agricola, Carcasonne, String Railway, Spot it! and Ghost Blitz.
Four t-shirt designs were prominently displayed at the front, alongside a colourful assortment of Supermeeples, magnets and pins designed to represent the game pieces in Settlers.
There were yummy cupcakes from 
This event also attracted a couple of entrepreneurs who've designed their own board game, which they hope to introduce next year. I sat down at a table with Jonathan and Dave, who were happy to bring out a work-in-progress of their Jam DOWN game for a test run.
It's a somewhat educational game about Jamaica, explained Jonathan. "Jam Down is what Jamaicans call Jamaica." We took turns rolling the dice, collecting fun points and learning about the country through characters with names such as the Friendly Rastaman, Rude Boy and the Dapper Copper. It works.
Looking around, others gathered busily around other boards, playing many card-based games.
The crowd playing Taboo got quite animated at times. Even some of the old classic games like Scrabble got play.
If you missed this event and would like to meet friends over board games, WoodForSheep organize a weekly board game program at Milliken Mills Community Centre Library on Monday nights in the Markham region. About four times a year, they also go to different community centres in the area to promote board games to families.
In a somewhat last-minute show, 
The audience proved an opening act was unnecessary as when the house lights faded and the spotlights found their identical twin subjects, the crowd went wild. For the first couple of songs, the vocal volume was lower than ideal: an issue eventually resolved with a few technical adjustments. By the time they played their third song, "The Con," their unique, harmonic vocals could be heard from the back wall of the balcony. 
After performing both "Closer" and "Now I'm All Messed Up," both from the upcoming Heartthrob, Tegan and Sara thanked the crowd for sticking with them through their changing genre choices. Given the response, I doubt there were any complaints.
Photos by 
For those like me who are still searching for the perfect gift for that food-obsessed person on their list – take a cue from these local food and drink purveyors who shared with me the gifts they're hoping to receive this holiday season. 
Just in case anyone was concerned the gourmet donut trend would slow, this low key take-out spot on the Danforth has been winning over locals with donuts topped with bacon, marshmallows, Froot Loops and even Kinder Surprises. 
This TUM favourite pop-up has finally opened a permanent restaurant in the old Watusi space on Ossington. You can expect its signature lobster rolls, as well as a concise menu of seafood and meat dishes, cocktails, and decor that screams seafood and Canadiana.
