Boxing Day pricing seemed to kick in earlier and continue on later this past holiday season than in any other year in recent memory—retailers’ response, one can safely assume, to the economic downturn and to the threats it posed on consumer spending.
Now, six months or so into this “recession,” or “depression” — it’s hard to keep track of what they’re calling it these days — there are a number of signs, at least in our neighbourhood of Little Italy, that discounts aren’t just for retail anymore.
On College Street alone, there are a number of restaurants offering limited-time menu specials, giving all of us a little extra incentive to eat out instead of in.
Boom! Breakfast & Co. | 808 College Street | $3.99 Egg-O-Nomic Bailout Breakfast, Mondays through Wednesdays until May 31, 2009
Il Gusto Ristorante | 796 College Street | $15 prix fixe menu, includes house salad, any pasta on the menu, dessert (offered weeklong, until further notice)
Sorriso| 588 College Street | $21 Winter Feature prix fixe menu, includes soup or salad, main course and dessert, Sundays through Wednesdays
This is just to name the ones I happen to have noticed—there are likely other restaurants on the strip (and elsewhere in the city, for that matter) offering similar menu specials.
The cynical among us may identify the reference to the recession as a clever marketing trick, but in this case, I prefer to call the possibility of eating out for less: a win-win situation!
There is something exciting about catching sight onscreen, of a familiar Toronto intersection, or of a local fixture like the streetcar. This seems particularly so when you’re on vacation somewhere else and are going about your business watching a movie or MTV, and all of a sudden, Toronto shows up – unmistakeably Toronto.
I just returned from a week-long vacation in Panama where this happened, hence the inspiration for this post. Consider this Part Two of “A T.O. Mixtape”….
1. The TO subway, a streetcar, a GO Train, several bridges in the City (including the one on Bathurst street south of Front St.), Chinatown, the financial district, and even one of Mel Lastman’s mooses, are featured in this Juanes (Colombian artist) video:
Ever wondered what stood on the grounds of Queen’s Park before the provincial parliament buildings were built? Ever thought about the workers who keep the dinosaurs at the Royal Ontario Museum company at night? Want to know a secret about the family of Mr. Christie who makes such good cookies?
I’ve just come back from “The Ghosts of the University of Toronto,” a 75-minute walking tour of some particularly spooky sites in that area of the downtown. Dressed in period garb, the tour guide animates a series of buildings lit only by moonlight and the odd streetlamp (the tour starts at 10pm), telling fascinating stories made all the more haunting by being present at the relevant sites as the stories are told. In these tales of ghost sightings and strange events, a bygone Toronto of the 1800s or the 1940s springs to life. Despite the name of the tour, it doesn’t just cover University of Toronto buildings but several adjacent sites, some of which have had some ghastly things occur in their 150-odd year history.
If you’ve been to Rocky Horror one too many times or are just looking for something new this Halloween, it’s something fun to consider that will have you looking at Toronto in a very different way. Not to mention give you plenty of reasons to believe in ghosts!
I spent last summer in Montreal trying desperately to stay focused on completing my thesis. Every day I would be confronted with some terribly tempting cultural event that would pit dedication to the work against fun in the city. (I could stay a few more hours at the library today. Orrrrr I could go see a tipsy Rachid Taha trip over his mic cord at the Jazz Fest. Hmmm. A toss up. —Not!)
Montreal as we know is a premiere summer city – festival after festival, week after week, from the Jazz Fest to Just for Laughs. Best of all, it’s mostly free and it’s mostly outdoors. It’s truly amazing anyone gets anything done from June to September.
Though I hope to make a trip back to Montreal sometime this season, I have to say that summer in Toronto is nothing to sneeze at. My mental calendar is already filling up with ideas of wonderful things to see and do in the months of sweltering heat that await. Here are some summer venues and upcoming events worth getting excited about.
Our new recycling bin was delivered today. It’s a large (for the three households/units of our house). What a monster! Dragging the thing up the stairs when it’s empty is hard enough. Nevermind when it’s full of newspapers and glass bottles. Looks like our old bins will still have their use: as intermediaries allowing us to carry recycling down the stairs in decent non-back breaking bundles before transferring everything to the behemoth. Bleh.
All of this lovely sun over the past week or so has duped many a bud in the city into blossoming a fortnight early. Since our “garden” consists of an itty bitty pile of soil tossed in a corner and our household consists of one far-from-green thumb and one indoor plant enthusiast, here spring has sprung in a different way.
Late last week, we gained five new leafy, trunky, bulbous, or petal-bearing pals, bringing our total to 15 or thereabouts.
The current inventory of domestic flora is as follows:
Tropical Monstrosity (referred to as such for excellent reasons – however surely lovely for a pretend day at the beach, piña coladas not included)
Actually rather endearing Umbrella Tree
Cute Little Fat House Plant in Funky Vase
Bathroom tulips (still shy and tucked away) in sleek silver holder
Kitchen tulips
Vines/hanging plants (x2)
Single white orchid (tall and lovely, behind kitchen sink)
Three fuzzy aloe type things
Small red and yellow leafy potted plant
Other leafy green house plant
Thin-leaved excited potted plant
Mini rubber plant
Mini wannabe Christmas tree (out-of-doors)
*Note: May not be actual scientific names.
With all the sun and all this green (minus the thumbs), it might not be May yet, but it sure feels like it.
Scenario #1: You suspect that your partner doesn’t love dogs like he says he does. You need a subtle way to broach the issue. Randomly asking, “Would $50,000 be enough money to induce you to take a loyal, healthy pet to the vet to be put to sleep?” won’t do.
Scenario #2:You forgot to study for your anatomy test – a dissection on a small mammal. You need a last-minute cram session.
The above situations are common. We’ve all been there. And we’ve all been searching for ways to overcome.
The answer is board games. At a pub.
Below, brief reviews of several joints well-equipped to come to the rescue, and a list of their excellent game offerings—from Scruples, to Operation, to Backgammon and everything in between.
The Bishop and the Belcher is a popular spot located on Church Street just steps south of Bloor. Come 6 p.m. on a weekday, it’s bustling with businessfolk winding down in gregarious groups of three or more. It’s a large venue too, the kind of place that a party of 10 could go relatively unnoticed.
A variety of new and vintage editions of classic board games are available for the picking. How long has it been since you’ve played Jenga (’Jumbling Towers’)? Connect 4? Trouble? Things could get pretty silly. (Or if you think you’re too mature for those, every table has its own deck of Trivial Pursuit cards.)
The first sight you see upon walking into Clinton’s (right after the row of regulars at the bar) is a bookshelf holding two dozen board games. Among them are the classics (Scrabble, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit) as well as the retro favourites like the Game of Life and Mastermind, their original 1960s and 1970s boxes showing some healthy wear and tear. Then there’s the random games that have been all but forgotten. Parker Bros.’ Probe (1964) is hailed not immodestly in the instruction booklet as “the most provocative game of words since the invention of the modern alphabet.” (Makes you wonder why it’s not Probulous making waves on Facebook.)
The Old Nick has a very solid collection of games, with as many new ones (Sex and the City Trivia Game, Cranium) as older ones (Monopoly, Risk). It’s also the only pub I know of where you can get a “Greek Chicken Burger”– your classic burger, garnished with tzatiki, feta, and roasted red pepper.
Highly recommended. The cozy alcove in the back of the bar, right underneath the dartboard, is where they keep the goods.
And what if none of your friends are as enthusiastic about board games as you are? Room 101 Games was started a couple of years ago to bring together strangers in Sunday evening board game and Charades gatherings. Drake Hotel played host.
The Room 101 Website describes how this all went down. I’m not sure if this is still ongoing. I joined the mailing list a few weeks back, but so far no news.
The February 21 front page of the Toronto Star had some arresting images of the fire that all but razed a full quarter of the 600 block of Queen West between Bathurst and Spadina this past Wednesday. I think what got me even more though, was the language in a sidebar describing the damage sustained by each affected business: from “water damage,” to “gutted,” to “collapsed”. There’s something about the word “gutted” that’s especially heartwrenching.
Made a point of passing by the scene of the fire yesterday afternoon. Four and a half days after it broke out, the flames have been extinguished and demolition has begun. The area remains blocked to traffic and yellow “Fire Line — Do Not Cross” tape still sections off a vast portion of the street. My curiosity and need to see these ruins in person turned out to be far from unique: dozens of people and their cameras took a moment this weekend to gape at what remains of the strip of Queen West framed by Pizzaiolio and Organized by Design.
Gutted really is the right word for the state of many of these structures. What’s left of them is just a shell, if that. The former buildings’ insides and outsides are spewed on the sidewalk and street in chunks and shards.
The most incongruous thing in all this mess is the presence of a small rack of relatively undisturbed clothing in what used to be the back of preloved. About ten ‘nouveau vintage’ sweaters are just hanging there in a tidy row. Lightly sprinkled with ash, perhaps; maybe a few frozen threads, but essentially fine— probably still with the price tags on. There’s something ostentatious about the intactness of the stuff. If those sweaters were people, they’d be naive, oblivious, blissfully unaware of everything that has crumbled around them.
But there’s beauty here too (well captured by the Star and countless citizen photographers). Elegant icicles hang from charred bits of structure; what used to be walls or doors and are now pieces of brick, wood and glass fall into interesting arrangements… the odd office chair is visible under the rubble, turned on its side. The scene, moved indoors, could be an installation at the Power Plant. Only it’s a lost slice of T dot (not to mention a few homes and livelihoods). It will be interesting to see what pops up in the next couple of years in this spot, and to follow the displaced businesses to their new homes.
