Friday Restaurant Recap rounds up the week’s Toronto restaurant news. In this edition: Montreal-style bagels, cupcakes on wheels, Texas-style barbecue, a new spot for chef Grant van Gameren and more.
Wandering the racks of the new Topman at The Bay on Queen Street, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by some of the shop’s trendier pieces. But if there’s one thing the English do well, it’s the classics.
We consider ourselves lucky whenever we catch a flick of Alfred Hitchcock’s on TV — in measly 2D — so we were pretty excited to hear that his 1954 classic, Dial M for Murder, is screening tonight at the TIFF Bell Lightbox as originally intended: in 3D.
Monkey Bay winery, a label of Nobilo vintners, specializes in bargain-priced, easy drinking wines. Jumping on the Pinot Grigio bandwagon, Monkey Bay has produced a 2011 wine that is more like an Alsatian Pinot Gris than the light Pinot Grigios of northern Italy. The 2011 vintage is coppery-straw in colour with a rich peachy, floral nose. It’s a mouth-filling wine with well-extracted, peach-flavoured fruit and citrus acidity.
In our dreams, these guys had a band and it was called Sugar Daddys. They were so raw that all they needed was a single piano and plenty of testosterone to make the ladies swoon and to keep the hits coming.
Fans of The Bachelor can be rest assured that the Canuck edition lives up to its American predecessor. With a bevy of fake breasts, cat fights, weird chicks and heartbreaks galore, the Canadians brought their A game (as well as a pair of hiking boots, a motorcycle and pom-poms) to The Bachelor Canada, which launched last night.
Torontonian-turned-East-Coaster Old Man Luedecke officially released his latest record, Tender is the Night, on Tuesday night at The Dakota Tavern, and after we got our first listen, it’s clear the banjo-pluckin’, foot-stompin’, wayfaring troubadour has grown up and nestled in his country-tinged, bubbly and soul-soothing niche.
Walking into your local H&M is like entering a botanical garden: everything, from pants to blouses, is printed with pops of blossoming florals. These days, the seasonal rules of fashion have long been forgotten. We’re seeing sweaters — and even head-to-toe black — in summer, and while spring is normally the season for pretty florals, they’ve come early this year.
The months of the beer calendar are marked by a rotating cycle of releases that all seem to use a seasonal ingredient. In the winter it’s high alcohol and warm spices; spring has bocks and hints of maple syrup; summer brings lighter beers, inflected with citrus. And now we’re well into the greatest beer season of all: pumpkin beer time.
Two Door Cinema Club will rock out this Friday at Sound Academy, bringing their catchy tunes to Toronto. The world-famous indie band from Northern Ireland, with their energetic beats and electronic influences, will jam the night away after doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are still available online.
Kimchi has been growing in popularity in Toronto for a while now, but that’s not stopping a kimchi-themed bus from spreading its gospel here. The kimchi bus is a project from three young Korean university students who have set out on a kimchi-sharing mission, covering 38 countries in 400 days. Their next stop is at George Brown College’s Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts tomorrow.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing his new, aptly-titled memoir, Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story, in a PR blitz of damage control following his infidelity ordeal, and he’ll be in Toronto on Thursday for a book signing. Sure, his cheating scandal was super embarrassing, but that’s not the only cringe-worthy moment Ah-nold’s experienced over the years. Below, five totally awkward moments from the athletic Austrian.
