Subway closures are starting to ramp up in Toronto now that the worst part of winter has passed.

Last week, a major section of Line 1 was shut down for signal upgrades and track work, and this weekend all of Line 4 will be closed for scheduled maintenance. 

It's a pretty straightforward closure given that it involves the entire line between Sheppard-Yonge and Don Mills. Shuttle buses will takeover on March 4 and 5 with regular service back up and running at the crack of dawn on Monday. 

You can expect delays, but there won't be any major detours. 

As the beginning of spring nears, closures will become even more frequent. While there are two scheduled for March, by the time we hit April, there will be some form of subway closure every weekend. It'll stay that way for most of the summer.

It might be time to give the old bike a tune up.

It didn't look like there were any leftovers at Trashed & Wasted, Toronto's newest food festival.

Despite its name, Trashed & Wasted wasn't about getting drunk. Instead, it showcased how to creatively curb food waste. However, most vendors ran out food about halfway through the event.

Trashed & Wasted received lots of pre-event coverage, largely because of its noble cause - who wouldn't want to support an event that looks at how we waste less of our precious food?

The execution, however, left some attendees hungry considering there wasn't much to eat two hours before the event was slated to end.

“My biggest fear was having any leftover food at a food waste event, so the opposite happened,” says organizer Brock Shepherd, who estimates the event brought out approximately 250 guests and raised $2000 for Second Harvest.

He says most attendees arrived around the 6 p.m. start time. Those who came later, once the food ran out, could get refunds.

Luckily, the big IMBIBE drink station had lots of beer from Rainhard Brewing as well as cocktails made with Yongehurst Distillery's milky whey vodka. 

The local distiller created this spirit just for Trashed & Wasted using milk left over from Monteforte Dairy's cheese production process. 

Drinks cost between $5 and $10 each, but a ticket into the festival was $35 - or $50 if you bought the all-in pass, which included food (most bites were $5 each).

Inventive offerings included Oliver & Bonacini's bannock topped with brown butter cauliflower (stems only) and toasted hazelnut crumbs (literally crumbs from the bottom of the bag).

I was too squeamish to try Sanagan's pickled tongue and lamb brain mustard on toast (made from the end of loaves), but I'm told it was delicious.

Montgomery's served up chicken tails, Chocolates X Brandon Olsen gave out imperfect, but still beautiful, truffles and Actinolite had dense spent grain rye bread with sweet whey butter from Stirling Creamery.

Despite the pricey entry fee, guests seemed to be in a pretty jovial mood as they picked through the imperfect veggies donated by the Ontario Food Terminal. 

Shepherd knows he has lots to learn before his next event, but he hopes to make Trashed & Wasted an annual affair. 

Toronto Food Events rounds up the most delicious festivals, pop-ups, winemaker dinners, supper clubs and other food related happenings in Toronto this week and next. You can find us here every Friday morning.

Used office furniture stores in Toronto will make you do a double take. You'd be surprised what these stores get their hands on when another business closes. The stores are found all over the GTA and most offer quality, unique products for a fraction of the price for something new.

Here are my picks for the top used office furniture stores in Toronto.

ABCO Used Office Furniture

This business interiors group has three locations in Toronto, Mississauga and Vaughan and an impressively vast selection of types of office furniture in every category you can think of. They even have an auction department where you can bid on all types of office pieces and accessories. 

Barry's Office Furniture

Found on Spadina just north of Queen, this used furniture retailer also allows you to rent pieces for short term use. They'll also work with small or large businesses to help layout and design their space. They also deliver and pick up offices pieces you no longer need. 

The Furniture Guys

This North York store wants to provide you with a modern workspace without paying top price. They have an in-house production team that reconfigures existing office furniture to look and function as new. They're big on up-cycling and also have programs to help visualize your office before you buy.

Habitat for Humanity

Visit one of their many "restores" in the GTA to find lightly used furniture to build your home or corporate office. Call ahead to make sure the location you're closest to has what you're looking for as inventory is changing all the time.

Officestock

This Etobicoke store has a massive stock of used (and new) office furniture and will help you with planning, delivery and instillation. They're great to work with if you're rebranding and need a fresh look or expanding because they carry clean, lightly used pieces that fit in easily to existing businesses.

MAP Office Furniture

This 10,000 square foot showroom in Mississauga guarantees all their furniture works and have replaced and fixed anything that's not. They have a large stock of multiples as well so everything in your new office will match, for a quarter of the price. You'll find everything from call-service stations to modern office chairs here. 

Source Liquidations

With locations in both North York and Mississauga, this is a good place for home office furniture and accessories. Their stock is constantly changing so make sure to check the website for what's new, and for specials. They source pieces from hotels, estate sales, residential and end of line manufactured items.

Vintage Home Boutique

Another way to outfit your office with unique furniture pieces is to go vintage! This store is on St. Clair Avenue West and focus on quality vintage furniture, made to measure, eco-friendly, chairs, live edge and barnboard tables that are made in Toronto.

What the Vintage

If you need a unique looking office space, then head over to this vintage, mid-century and retro specialty shop in Scarborough.  The chairs and tables alone are a wonder to look at online, imagine them placed in your office space or front desk area.

Williams Design

This Junction shop offers used office furniture hunters unique tables, chairs, shelving and accessories that will make your office feel like a respectable history professor from Harvard. Even their lighting and decor are worth checking out to add a salvage look.

The best specialty fitness clubs in Toronto offer a reprieve from the traditional grind of the gym. Whether perfecting your Plié at the barre, or working on your surf skills, these boutique fitness studios encourage a different way to break a sweat in a group setting.

Here are the best specialty fitness clubs in Toronto.

Toronto was definitely sad when HMV announced its Canada-wide closure, especially when that meant it was shutting its giant Yonge Street store. 

But there's a silver lining to all this as Sunrise Records suddenly announced it'd be moving in to the 70 soon-to-be vacant HMV mall locations across the country (it couldn't come to a lease agreement with the Yonge street store) with a heavy concentration on vinyl.

There are currently 10 locations in malls in the GTA.

It seems like a super risky move for the music and toy store, but local vinyl retailers see the fact that it'll be pushing records and creating jobs as a good thing.

"At the end of the day, we’re all in the same industry so there has to be some teamwork to some degree, and we don’t like to see people losing jobs," says Andrew Koppel of Kops Records. 

Like many, Koppel was surprised by Sunrise's move into what seemed to be a dying business. "I didn’t foresee this because I thought the provincial corporatization of vinyl had kind of gone out the window with the collapse of CDs," he says.

"One thing that makes us and other vinyl stores [stand out] in the city is we’re able to cater towards a clientele, whereas when you have 70 stores and they have to follow the same formula... It’s tricky when people in Oshawa want to buy completely different stuff than people in Toronto."

April Walsh at Sonic Boom cautiously echoes the sentiment. "I think it’s a really good thing for the industry in general, we want record stores to all succeed and do well because it means a greater demand for vinyl, which we fully support," she says.

Sunrise has its very own record shop on Bloor Street, but this move, which will employ about 700 people, according to Koppel, is a bold one.

Every shop I spoke to wished them well, and Ian Cheung, co-owner of June Records is even excited.

"I think it’s awesome," he says. "The more people that can be introduced or get into it or buy their first starter record player from them, that’s great. Because of the sheer size of their distribution network, it’s good exposure to get people into records."

Cheung says the small stores can only benefit from Sunrise because they can introduce a younger audience to the world of records. 

That's the main reason most local stores have a more-the-merrier attitude with this announcement. Each store is so unique and isn't limited by what's popular.

"I can’t afford to have all these chain stores to get people introduced to vinyl for the first time,"Cheung says, "but I can afford to have one specialized store that has an amazing crew where we pour our heart and soul into curation and buying of new and used records.

"Independent record stores will always set themselves apart by sheer virtue of passion."

We all know detached houses in Toronto are crazy expensive, but they're not too much cheaper in the suburbs.

As Bloomberg writes this morning, the average price for a detached, single family house in the 905 area is now $1.1 million, up 35 percent since February 2016.

According to the latest Toronto Real Estate Board report, the average price for a detached house in Toronto also passed another benchmark, hitting $1.57 million.

The average selling price for all houses, including condos and townhouses, is $875,983. That marks a year over year increase of 27.7 percent. 

While sales were up across the board, the number of new listings fell by 12.5 percent since last year.

"The listing supply crunch we are experiencing in the GTA has undoubtedly led to the double-digit home price increases we are now experiencing on a sustained basis," said Jason Mercer, TREB's director of market analysis in a news release.

"Until we see a marked increase in the number of homes available for sale, expect very strong annual rates of price growth to continue."

Toronto loves Drake and is also pretty obsessed with food. That's why one local company decided to combine these two passions in a series of phone cases.

TO's Finest, which organizes affordable food crawls in the city, has teamed up with three Toronto artists to create a limited edition run of phone cases. 

The four iPhone cases feature four different designs, including a 6 donut, a towering ice cream sundae, tacos and a Drake relaxing in a bowl of pho.

This one's called the Drizzy case, and it was designed by Pranavi Suthagar. Aquil Raharjo and Megan Stulberg are the other two artists. The cases are available for iPhone 6, 6s, 7 and 7s while quantities last. Each one goes for $26.

It's that time of year again. We're opening the poll to 15 new best of categories including fish and chips, pad thai, baklava, bread, butter tarts, falafel, fitness clubs and more. Voting closes this Sunday March 5 at 2:00 p.m.

Take the poll here

Raw cookie dough is Toronto’s newest food trend, and the folks making your little kid dreams come true are at the new location of Junked Food Co. at Queen and Spadina. This is for all of us who were told never to lick the spoon.

Like the sushi burrito or Uncle Tetsu's cheesecake, their cookie scoops are poised to blow up. Cookie scoops are $4.95 for a cup, but you should shell out the $5.95 for a waffle cone with a fancy rim packed with a scoop of raw cookie dough in rotating flavours.

Currently they’ve got a birthday scoop with a rim of rainbow sprinkles topped with whipped cream and two Sweet Tarts, and an oreo flavour with chunks of golden oreos mixed in, topped with crumbled oreo. Future flavours might include red velvet, spicy hot chocolate and s’mores.

Despite the pure sugary unbaked indulgence of the treat, it also has the advantage of not melting like ice cream and traveling well, making it possible to deliver, Junked’s new hours extending to 3 a.m. some nights.

New York restaurant DO is doing the same thing, but they’re only selling cones of cookie dough, whereas Junked still has all their regular fare like mac n’ cheese deep dish pizza, pulled pork waffle sandwiches, and signature smash bags, which are equally epic.

Toronto's weather has been pretty fickle lately. It feels like all four seasons have swept through the city within the past few weeks, and it looks like the trend isn't easing up just yet.

Pile on your parka this weekend, or just stay indoors. Today, Toronto's medical officer of health issued an extreme cold weather warning. And later, the temperature's supposed to plummet to around -10 C, but it'll feel more like -19 C.

By Sunday, the mercury will rise above 0 C and on Tuesday, forecasters are calling for temperatures of 12 C - that's a 22 degree swing from the weekend. 

And to top it off, on Wednesday night, it could be as cold as -7 C. Don't get too comfy just yet, there are still a few weeks of this wild winter in store. 

While the iconic kitsch palace that was Honest Ed's will be forever missed, new details about the development that'll replace it are starting to get more exciting.

Included in Westbank's most recent plans for a re-imagined Mirvish Village is a sprawling food market building that will become a focal point of the new Markham Street.

Inspired by Borough Market and Granville Island, the new market hall is proposed as a 20,000+ square foot space enclosed by a soaring glass ceiling. To put that in perspective, a NFL football field is 48,000 square feet from end zone to end zone. 

The plan is to fill the space with 30 permanent vendors and as many as 40 temporary stalls on a year-round basis. While the market will be primarily housed indoors under the glass roof, there's amply space in front for seasonal stalls and seating. 

Some vendors will have stalls that face out toward Markham St. as well as the interior of the market in an attempt to create a building that feels permeable and open.

"Mirvish Village Market will offer a culinary experience reflective of Toronto’s ethnic diversity and will draw from the rich resources of Southern Ontario’s craft food producers," according to Westbank.

Given the size and location of the new market, it's clear that it's no after thought. On the contrary, it's at the very heart of Westbank's new Mirvish Village and will go a long way towards animating the new space, particularly given a possible outdoor component in the summertime.

Westbank's plans for the site are still subject to city approval, but extensive modifications to earlier proposals in response to community consultation likely puts the company in a good position to proceed with much of its latest site plan.

Once formally approved, it'll take a number of years to build, so we'll have to wait patiently for the new market in the meantime. 

Plant-based restaurants seem to be sprouting up all over Toronto. And there's a new one germinating in West Queen West.

Hello 123, from the founders behind Kupfert & Kim, is slated to open this summer at 1122 Queen St. W., in the old Queen's Variety space. 

Unlike K&K, Hello 123 will be a full-service restaurant with a cocktail program as well as wine and beer. Like K&K's Spadina location, there will also be kombucha and cider on tap.

This place won't be entirely gluten-free, though there will be plenty of wheat-less options available. Co-owner Mark Kupfert says the menu items will be similar to those at K&K, but they'll be "considerably more elevated, with more mains and sides."

Plant-based seems to be the new moniker for vegan restaurants in the city. Planta, which is in Yorkville, uses it as does Nathan Isberg's Awai.

With the doors to Honest Ed's officially closed for good, it's time to turn our attention to the future of Mirvish Village. We now have a much better of idea of what it'll look like that thanks to the most recent planning documents filed by site developer Westbank.

The Honest Ed's and Mirvish Village project has undergone extensive revisions in response to community consultation, heritage evaluation and municipal feedback. Now in its third iteration, the plans are starting to resemble what we might see in the next few years. 

Some of the highlights from the most recent renderings of the project include a sprawling public park that stretches out from Markham Street, a slick new market building that'll span 20,000-plus square feet, and a micro retail corridor roughly where Honest Ed's Alley once was.

The heritage component is also more clear now, with 23 historical buildings now slated for restoration as part of the current plans. Many of these will be home to restaurants along Markham Street.

Less obvious if you haven't been closely following the project from the get-go is that building heights and density have been reduced. The latest proposal features 13 fewer storeys than what was initially put forward.

Make no mistake, this development will still radically increase density in the area, but given that these are rental buildings located less than a minute from the subway, that's probably a good thing. The robust retail element is also a key factor.

Perhaps most noteworthy is that the new Mirvish Village has been planned as a community rather than a collection of buildings.

The retail and market components are huge in this capacity, but so too is the green space and things like a neighbourhood daycare. 

Westbank's proposal is still subject to approval from the city, but having already altered the project in response to community feedback and taken steps to plan for an actual community, it's likely that the version ultimately approved will be very similar to these plans.

Yorkville is in the midst of a paradigm shift, the scale of which hasn't been witnessed since it transformed from a hippie hub in the 1960s to a high end shopping destination in the decade that followed. 

The Yorkville that's slipping away today can be traced back to the 1970s. While historic elements dating much further back can been seen in the converted Victorian houses that still house retail on Cumberland St., many of the neighbourhood's larger buildings date back to this decade.

Of these, the most significant is surely Cumberland Terrace, a multi-level mall that runs adjacent to the street from which it takes its name. Opened in 1974, when you pay a visit these days, it's like stepping into a time machine.

Picture the Galleria Mall, but nicer. There are payphones and brown tile everywhere, an eclectic mix of vendors you'd never find in a newer mall, and wayfinding signage that dates back to the first days of operation here. 

Truth be told, there's actually considerable charm on display, especially on a sunny day as the light pours in the north-facing glass wall along Cumberland St. The space feels as though it's indoors and outdoors at once, and clever glass gable sections allow light to filter to the lower level.

The problem, however, is that this place is on death row. Long the site of major redevelopment plans for soaring new condos and a retail space, Cumberland Terrace just can't attract retailers like it once did.

Empty storefronts abound, even as they are covered with panels that tell the history of the neighbourhood where the mall sits. It's a smart tactic to keep the place from looking really shelled out, but the various bits of history don't hide the lack of activity here.

Even the food court is mostly empty during lunch hour. 

There are big plans in store, though. This property has been the site of a variety of proposals over the years, with the latest rumoured to be called Yorkville Square from developers Kingsett and Greystone. 

New plans for the site have yet to be filed with the city, but over the years the idea has always been to replace the existing retail at grade while building large scale residential towers above. 

It'll probably take a few years to get the latest redevelopment scheme through the planning process, but you can bet that Cumberland Terrace's days are numbered. In the meantime, it will continue to serve as a quiet throwback to 1970s retail design in Toronto. 

Across the street, the Village Arcade is another throwback retail space that's likely to get eaten up by new development (possibly even the same one as Cumberland Terrace). Few will shed a tear for this one, though, as it's mostly hidden in plain sight these days.

What's remarkable about it, as Retail Insider recently noted, is just how close it is some of the country's most prime real estate. In a wide ranging tour of the neighbourhood, they highlight a slew of retail spaces that are destined for the wrecking ball, all of which share obvious similarities.

We tend to think of Yorkville as the epitome of luxury, but in fact there are numerous pockets retail designed to cater to the hordes of people who work in the area. 

That significant portions of this retail space is dying speaks to our changing tastes in shopping experiences. The local malls of the 1960s and 70s are giving way to hulking power centres and centralized shopping palaces that offer scores of popular and luxury brands under roof (e.g. Yorkdale).

In a place like Yorkville, the land is simply too valuable to waste on semi-deserted retail plazas, which is why there's such an incredible condo boom in the works here. In a decade, much of the old retail will be cleared out and skyscrapers will tower over what was once a neighbourhood of humble coffee houses.

Something does get lost in this change, though. Many of the neighbourhood's anonymous retail spaces won't be missed when they're gone, but a place like York Square is an important bit of Toronto's architectural history that's set to be consumed by a new development.

Built in 1968, it was one of the city's first adaptive re-use projects and helped to usher in a new phase for Yorkville as a retail destination. It's an intriguing complex of buildings that opens to a courtyard that few even know exists these days.

It's just the type of place that ties the past and the future of the neighbourhood together, and while some of the exterior features will be retained in the new development, it's character will be completely altered when the courtyard is eliminated and the new tower rises.

Not all of Yorkville's old malls are endangered species. The most notable exception is what's now referred to as Yorkville Village, but which was long called Hazelton Lanes. 

It's received a sweeping makeover to bring it inline with the standards of modern retail spaces. Wandering around its corridors, however, you get the sense that it's not quite fully integrated. The ghost of its previous layout still haunts the place. 

We'll probably cease to notice this over time, as we'll cease to recall that there used to be a time warp to the 1970s just a few feet away from one of the city's busiest intersections. 

If you care about these sort of things, you best get to Yorkvile quick. Before you know it, it'll be unrecognizable.

Art trade shows are overwhelming. They usually take place in cavernous convention centres, which fill up with a seeming endless number of booths.

At some, such as Art Toronto, major contemporary galleries run the show, but at the Artist Project, which wrapped up last weekend, individual artists shell out a few thousand dollars to participate. But despite the cost, many think it's a worthwhile investment.

The international trade show and exhibition company Informa Exhibitions runs many of Toronto's biggest art fairs, including Art Toronto, the Artist Project and the One Of A Kind Show & Sale.

At this year's Artist Project, approximately 15,500 attendees walked through the Better Living Centre throughout the weekend. 

And getting eyes on her work was one of the reasons illustrator Julia Monson shelled out $2,000 to be one of the 330 artists exhibiting at TAP.

"After art school, you’re so used to critiques and feedback and the minute you’re out of art school, you lose that so it was kind of nice to get that back again and start conversations about my artwork," she says. "That was invaluable to me. That was amazing."

Monson sold seven of the 12 pieces she brought to weekend-long event, which surprised her.

Photographer Alice Zilberberg didn't sell as many pieces as she has at previous TAP iterations, but knows many of her sales can come week, months or even years after a show like.

Events such as TAP help artists build up a client base and develop repeat customers. 

Zilberberg started at TAP as one of the Untapped Emerging artists in 2011. Back then, her booth was free, but this year, she spent $4,000 - there's a base rate for different size booths and essentials such as lights and Wi-Fi are extra.

While Zilberberg knows a lot of artists avoid these shows because they're expensive, she thinks they make sense.“Even if you just make enough money to cover your booth, hopefully, you get customers and you get clients,” she says.

Erin Rothstein, who's originally from Montreal, used these types of trade shows to get more involved in Toronto's art scene. She exhibited at TAP for the first time soon after she moved to the city.

“It was a tremendous experience for me and I’ve just been hooked ever since," says Rothstein, who's well-known for her hyper-real paintings of food.

This year marked her fifth time participating at TAP and she sold around 45 pieces.

But for many, the exposure itself is worth the price of admission. "People come and buy your art," notes Zilberberg. "What could be better than that.”

A stunning building is taking shape on a quiet street just south of one of Toronto's most bustling retail corridors. You'd be forgiven for not having noticed it given the way that it's tucked behind the taller buildings around Bay and Bloor streets, but it's worth seeking out.

Designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects, 7 St. Thomas is a sleek nine storey office tower that rises above a collection of six historic Bay and Gable Victorian homes that will also be used as office spaces when the project is complete.

The juxtaposition between the two architectural styles is at first startling and then astounding. The contemporary structure undulates in conjunction with the gable roofs of the heritage buildings and wraps around them at the northeast and southwest corners.

The result is a seamlessly integrated whole that looks as cool as it does beautiful.  It's the type of building that'll cause you to do a double-take, but when you actually absorb what you're seeing, it's hard not to be impressed. 

If you've seen Hariri Pontarini's work at 5 St. Joseph, the relationship between the heritage elements and the modern building is similar, but the smaller overall scale here allows the whole project to shine as a connected whole in a manner that's even more dramatic.

While not unique, it's also worth noting that 7 St. Joseph is being sold as a commercial condominium. That's not generally appealing to big companies, but could be ideal for the types of businesses that'll be interested in a building of this size.

Occupancy is expected to happen later this year, as individual suite owners will be able to customize their interiors.

So this could be a trend-setting development in a number of ways. If there's a downer in all this, it's merely that the building is kind of tucked away and likely won't get all the attention it deserves.

Startups might not be the buzziest word anymore, but Toronto's tech community is still vibrant, and more so now than ever before. That was clear when meet-up and networking group TechToronto held a celebratory best-of event at city hall in honour of its third birthday. 

 On Monday night, TechToronto featured Mike Katchen as one of its speakers. Katchen founded WealthSimple; you may have seen the company's ad starring Tony Revolori (or Lobby Boy in the Grand Budapest Hotel) during the Super Bowl.

The commercial serves to illustrate how much Toronto's tech scene has evolved, even within the past five years. And many think it's still growing. “The belief is you can build a big business in Toronto now,” says TechToronto founder Alex Norman.

He, along with others, say that five or 10 years ago, small Toronto startups were bought out by bigger American companies and many Canadian founders and employees would head to work in places such as Silicon Valley and New York City.

But people are coming back and now have the experience to build big companies here, notes Top Hat's chief marketing officer Nick Stein.

He, along with Norman, spent time south of the border before moving home. "And that’s kind of allowing for a talent pool in the city to grow that wasn’t really there before," Stein continues.

Top Hat, which creates cloud-based teaching platforms for university students and professors, recently raised $22.5 million (U.S.) from Union Square Ventures, one of the biggest venture capital firms in the world - it was an early investor in Twitter, Etsy and Kickstarter. 

"I think it’s a really a sign that people are starting to look to Toronto as a place where really world class companies can emerge," says Stein of USV's interest in Toronto.

In USV's portfolio of companies, Toronto is the third most well-represented city behind San Francisco and New York. (USV also put money into local startups such as Figure1 and Wattpad.)

Toronto startups also have more support from corporations, such as RBC, as well as access to incubators and accelerators including MaRS, Ryerson University's DMZ and now, TechStars,  an American company that just announced it was opening here. 

Photo of MaRS by Empty Quarter

OneEleven, which helps commercialize startups, opened a 50,000 square foot space on Yonge Street and companies like Top Hat are growing too - Stein says it's moving into a bigger office at Avenue and Bloor and has plans to double its current team of 200.

The DMZ has also increased, in both size and clout, in the seven years since it started. "In the first year of opening up, we were essentially bringing on anyone and everyone that would come to our door," he says.

"Fast forward seven years later, and now we’re looking at a space where we only accept one in every 10 people that come to the DMZ," he continues.

Not only is the cost of living in Toronto cheaper than tech hubs like San Francisco and New York, notes TechTO's Alex Norman, but the quality of life and amenities here are better or equal to those cities.

He also think the city's diversity is a key asset to tech here - Snobar agrees. Toronto has a talent pool from its local universities as well as from the University of Waterloo just down the 401.

Stein, however, says that as more and more companies get bigger here, it's harder and harder to find talent. Though that can be a good thing for new graduates looking to get into tech.

And as someone whose repatriated, he thinks Toronto is finally coming into its own, which works in the tech industry's favour.

"I think now people have really embraced the identity of just being from Toronto and being proud of it. It seems like sort of a soft way at looking at it, but I think that it actually does make a difference that people have developed this pride for Toronto in and of itself." he says. 

"And I think part of that translates to what’s happening in the tech community."

As home prices surge ever upward in Toronto, there's lots of talk about how listing prices are meaningless. After all, when houses are regularly going for way over asking, the initial number can seem a bit arbitrary.

Try as someone might to make that argument, however, it's not quite true. While there are always low ball exceptions, listing prices do tend to tell you about what an educated home owner and realtor think is a base value for a property in question.

And guess what? Plenty of homes sell at or near their asking price. Where it gets interesting is when you have neighbourhoods in which lots of listings are consistently selling for over asking. 

Along with signalling a hot market in general, such a situation often speaks to a bump in the perceived value of homes in a particular area over. Such is the case with Dovercourt Village right now.

In the last week alone, two houses have sold for way above their listing prices. A home on Concord Ave. made waves when it went for more than $800K over asking, while this one on Dovercourt Rd. went for almost $375K above its listed price.

Some will say that these homes were under-priced when listed, but the average price in the neighbourhood in 2017 has hovered around $1 million, so that theory doesn't hold a ton of weight.

While the Concord home is remarkable for its final price of over $2 million, it's additional size (big kitchen, extra bedroom, finished basement) provides some justification for the heights that the bidding war reached.

The livable space in the Dovercourt house is notably smaller, but it's also been recently updated, which helped fuel the final price. What's common to both is that the neighbourhood has become more and more desirable in a real estate market where prices in places like the Annex, Little Italy, and Christie Pits have soared out of reach.

The Essentials

• Address: 1034 Dovercourt Rd.
• Hit the market at: $879,000
• Time on market: 8 days
• Selling price: $1,252,5000
• Amount over asking: $373,500

Why it sold for the price it did

This one was probably a bit under-listed at less than a million, but there are a few drawbacks. The lack of a finished basement reduces living space, the washrooms are kind of cramped, and the backyard could use work. Still, the updated interior is a big selling point.

Was it worth it? 

Yup. Last month the average house price in this neighbourhood was just over a million bucks, and given that this is a turn-key property with an attractive interior and ample outdoor space, the selling price is entirely reasonable given the state of the market.

Toronto's nightclub scene is forever in flux. Spaces come and go, but some leave a longstanding impact. Dance party collective It's Not U It's Me recently organized a panel of experts to reflect on the city's dance history, which is what inspired this list. 

Here are my picks for the top nightclubs in Toronto's history so far.

Boa Redux

Boa was both a Yorkville cafe and a dance spot in late 1990s, but it eventually grew into a full-out nightclub on Spadina in the early aughts. It was best known for its amazing sound system and a focus on international and local underground dance sounds.

Boom Boom Room

A spot for punks, metalheads, freaks and fashion lovers, this loud little spot existed at the north east corner of Queen and Palmerston in the late 1980s. There was a metal go-go cage, and a 350-capacity room riddled in metal and concrete.

Boots

Ask any gay person who was clubbing in the 80s and 90s and they'll tell you Boots was the place to be. The club moved around and though it wasn't know for the best sound, it did have a reputation for amazing music and one of the best LGBT dance scenes in Toronto at the time. 

Catch 22

Lurking on Adelaide before the club district really existed, this underground, alternative spot opened in the late 1980s, had a stainless steel dance floor and a laid-back, open-minded dance crowd. Marilyn Manson and Trent Reznor were fans of the space.

Circa at its peak. Photo by Roger Cullman.

Circa

You'll find a Marshalls where this massive wonder of a nightclub once existed at 126 John Street. Peter Gatien's four-storey fantasy land of dance floors and extreme decor existed from 2007 to 2010 and was one of the most expensive clubs ever to exist in the city. 

Club 56 

Like out of a movie, this dark and probably dangerous basement club in Kensington Market was host to punk, reggae and electro parties in the early 2000s. There were aquariums scattered around the dank space and Will Munro's Peroxide party was born here. 

Comfort Zone

One of the city's last remaining after hours clubs is in a basement at College and Spadina. It's gotten in trouble but that hasn't stopped club goers from lining up on Saturdays and long-weekend Sundays to dance into the a.m. with some of Toronto's finest house DJs.

Domino Club

In the late 1970s, this Isabella Street haunt was the spot for post-punk and new wave sounds oozing into the city at the time. The club eventually moved over to Yonge as Klub Domino in 1984.U2 and Japan showed their faces here. 

5ive

This space on St. Joseph Street is now a condo, but it was once 500-person capacity gay mecca with a couple of lounge areas and a very, very active dance floor. Wednesdays and Thursday nights were huge in the late 90s and early 00s when pop music was having a real moment. 

Fly 2.0

This Gloucester Street nightclub is where you'll see some of Toronto's most big-budget drag shows, big-name circuit DJs and a mostly gay, but very welcoming crowd of dancers over two floors. There are countless bars and they usually stay open until 4 a.m.

Footwork

From 2005 to 2013, this underground after-hours club became known around the world for its house and techno nights. At a time when massive clubs were playing mainstream hits, this intimate Adelaide Street spot focused on local talent and quality over quantity. 

The Gasworks

Toronto's most legendary metal and hard rock bar, The Gasworks was one of the remaining traces of Yonge St.'s history as a music destination. Remembered for raucous live acts and quarts of beer, it ruled the 1980s. When it closed in 1993, Yonge St. was never the same.

Guvernment/Kool Haus

This massive waterfront complex was Canada's largest and longest running nightclub. The world's biggest DJs and live music shows made this Charles Khabouth brainchild a staple in Toronto's dance circuit. It closed in 2015.

Better Days after party at Industry.November 02, 1996. Photo via Facebook.

Industry

This legendary King West nightclub was home base for Toronto's aging rave crowd and brought all types of scenes together under one big, inclusive roof from 1996 to 2000. The city's late-night, underground dance scene owes everything to this club.

It

This two-storey club at 176 Church Street closed up shop in 2003 and was home to a men's athletics club in the late 1800s. It's now a condo, but once housed the infamous Boys Life parties, had hardwood floors, a boxing ring dance floor, and a grand balcony around the main area.

Joy Nightclub

In the mid-90s this Phipps Street club was a big, raw, warehouse space with a nearly 500-person capacity. Saturdays were the big night here and it was a huge hit because as the warehouse scene faded, Joy filled the void for gays, drag queens, scenesters and curious straight people. 

Limelight

For 10 years (1993 to 2003), this three-level, unpretentious Adelaide Street nightclub could fit 1,110 people and would blast popular Euro-dance hits on weekends It acted as a spot for ravers coming out of the warehouse into the club scene.

The iconic Matador sign. Photo by Rene Beignet.

The Matador

The legendary Dovercourt and College dance venue was an after-hours country, rock, and blues club for years. Johnny Cash, Stompin' Tom Connors, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen all played here and the 100-year old building will hopefully soon re-open as a live music venue.

Oz Nightclub

This Mercer Street club opened in the early 90s and feature three separate dance floors, a lounge and lots of go-go dancing. It was home to some famous themed nights, but Thundergroove Sundays was the ultimate night. 

Roxy Blu

Ask any music fan about Toronto's best nightclub ever, and the majority of people will say Brant Street's Roxy Blu. It was unlike anything else Toronto knew and was completely inclusive and took the pretension out of clubbing. According to Denise Benson it "wasn’t utopia but it came damn close." 

RPM

Another one of Toronto's long lost nightclubs, RPM first existed where the Guv once stood from 1985-95. The live-to-air broadcasts on CFNY gave kids stuck at home a glimpse of early dance mixed with industrial beats and alternative (not to mention making a superstar out of Chris Sheppard).

The Social

There was a point when what is now The Dog & Bear in West Queen West was one of the coolest clubs in the city. The Social occupied one floor and was run by the owners of the Hoxton.

Sparkles in the early 1980s. Image courtesy of Retrontario.

Sparkles

This was once billed as the "highest nightclub in the world" when it occupied a section of the CN Tower's main pod between 1979 and 1991. It was a lounge during the day and a disco at night.

System Soundbar

As another famous early club district space, System Soundbar was home to quality underground house, drum 'n' bass, hip hop and techno nights, but closed in 2005. It acted as a huge spot for ravers to dance in as cops cracked down on raves 

The Tasmanian Ball Room 

This classy Jarvis Street club and lounge defined what lounges later became in Toronto. Dripping in decadence, it was like a flapper girl fell into a Studio 54 side room. There was also a very active basement dance floor and in the late 80s, it hosted a mixed, fashion-forward crowd.

Twilight Zone

This legendary Richmond Street West spot introduced Toronto to house music in the 80s. It was an grimy after-hours spot covered in graffiti and modelled after New York's Paradise Garage, where some of the city's first house DJs made their mark.

Zippers

Toronto said goodbye to this iconic gay dance club at Church and Carlton last year. Part cabaret and piano bar, party seedy back room dance club, this place was what gay dreams were made of. It opened in 1998 and was famous for its Sunday retro nights and classy drag shows.

Huge thanks to Denise Benson's research on most of these clubs and her book Then & Now. Benson will be a panelist at the Ebbs & Flows talk. Also thanks to Benjamin Boles for his knowledge.