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822 Richmond Street West Toronto, ON M6J 1C9 (416) 361-0025 thecommunity.ca
We’re gathering... One by one, we’ve come together. Congregating in the name of innovation, imagination, and ingenuity. We are a group of like minds, bound by one common thread. We are ideas people, free thinkers, creative visionaries. We are Community.
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COMPANY
PUBLISHER KING WEST MEDIA LTD. PRESIDENT PETER FREED EDITOR-IN-CHIEF KAREN VON HAHN MANAGING EDITOR RONNILYN PUSTIL CREATIVE DIRECTOR CALLUM MACLACHLAN ART DIRECTOR ALICE UNGER DIRECTOR OF GRAPHIC DESIGN MICHAEL BOZINOVSKI GRAPHIC DESIGNER VISHANA LODHIA EDITORIAL ASSISTANT KATE GERTNER COPY EDITOR ERIN LAU CONTRIBUTORS MICHAEL ALBERSTAT JANE APOR ADRIAN ARMSTRONG LEANNE DELAP FRANCO DELEO MARIO FIORUCCI ROBERT GRAVELLE JOE HOWELL SHEETAL LODHIA LEWIS MIRRETT ARASH MOALLEMI MARILISA RACCO RUSSELL SMITH CHRISTOPHER WAHL DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AJ MANJI DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MORAD REID AFFIFI DISTRIBUTION MANAGER CARL BRAY KING WEST MEDIA LTD. 552 WELLINGTON ST. W. PENTHOUSE SUITE 1500 TORONTO, ON M5V 2V5 KINGWESTMAG.CA ON THE COVER AND HERE ALECSA NELSON SHOT BY CHRISTOPHER WAHL STYLED BY STACY TROKE HAIR & MAKEUP BY CARMELLE DA ROZA OUTFITS: SEE CREDITS, PP 67 & 69 SHOT ON LOCATION AT THE HIGH PARK CLUB
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Editor’s Letter
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Contributors
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Proclaimer
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Museum Wars
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Do Gooders in the Hood
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Hard Core
56
Dwell On It
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Online Treasure Trove
61
Let the Music Play
62
Game On!
70
A Fashion Week Diary
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Problem Solved
77
The Very Best Hotel Food Ever
80
Confessions of a Food Truck Junkie
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Adventures in Alcohol
88
The Pour
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On the Town The Playing Field by Marilisa Racco, Test Drive: Motor bikes by Klaus Nienkamper Jr., Street Style: Philip Sparks, Word on the Street: Big box retail
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Visionary
Local Talent: Amy Shackleton by Katheri Lanthier, Meet Your Meat: The Best Burger, Micro-Trend: Bike City, Libations, The List: From Art Basel to the Black Keys, Mr. Smith’s Good Times Guide by Russell Smith
The AGO and the ROM battle for cultural supremacy by Leah McLaren 4 downtowners whose day job is making a difference by Sheetal Lodhia The visionaries behind the new King West by Alex Bozikovic Contemporary cool comes home to The Bay by Tim McKeough Talking shop with 1stdibs founder Michael Bruno by Karen von Hahn Style up your sounds with these hot audio picks Christopher Wahl shoots spring’s sport chic courtside Roslyn Griffith Hall reports from the runway on the Fall 2012 collections 5 fashion pros on how for dress for success without looking hot and bothered The new Shangri-La will blow your Momofuku mind by Chris Johns The meals on wheels phenom hits the streets of TO by Ivy Knight Karen von Hahn, Leanne Delap and Marilisa Racco drink and tell Summer sips by Robert Gravelle
Q&A with Shauna Levy
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WHO: SHANTHA WHAT: CULTURAL CURATOR SINCE: 2008 WHY: I LOVE CONNECTING THE MEMBERS TO ALL THE INCREDIBLE ARTS & CULTURE THIS WONDERFUL CITY HAS TO OFFER.
COME TOGETHER Toronto’s Social Sanctuary for the Creative Community T H E S P O K EC LU B.CO M
EDITOR’S LETTER
PHOTO: MANGO STUDIOS
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here are moments in this city when you find yourself overwhelmed with a sudden crisp sense of possibility. So many new things happening all over town and all at once that it sometimes seems like you’re in another city entirely. Virtually every street you turn down now forces you to look up at the glass façade of yet another new impressive building, another cool-looking shop you hadn’t noticed, another inviting outdoor patio or restaurant. And the people you meet, unexpectedly—at parties, in work scenarios—seem, too, to be a sparkling breed of fresh energetic talent from all over the globe, themselves so vibrant and ripe with possibility. Despite all the complex and difficult things that are happening out there in the world, this spring in downtown Toronto, the air seems to positively hum and crackle with it. The big players from around the world certainly want in on our party. As the Shangri-La completes construction of its elegant glass column on University Avenue just north of King Street, foodies are rejoicing at the imminent arrival of international super-chef David Chang in not one but two of the hotel’s restaurants—a notch in our local culinary belt that is chronicled in this issue by food writer Chris Johns. And Target—which opened up a pop-up shop one afternoon on King at Peter Street that saw 1,500 shopping keeners line up outside its doors—wants in on our action, too. As does Bloomingdale’s, which, rumour has it, has just been taken over by the management team of The Bay under the able helm of our own Bonnie Brooks. Meanwhile, the city dithers about such “world class” and wildly popular additions to the vitality of our streets as food trucks, the challenge behind which is well documented in this issue by chef and writer Ivy Knight. And, as Leah McLaren uncovers, our two major cultural institutions, the AGO and the ROM, battle it out for supremacy while veering dangerously close to losing their respective visions. With the addition of a new art director to our team in Alice Unger, we too here at KingWest are feeling a renewed sense of possibility. Our fashion shoot, which took place the one miraculously perfect day of early spring out on the grass courts of the lovely old-world High Park Club, was shot by photographer Christopher Wahl, widely known as a photojournalist and portrait photographer. But he, like, us, doesn’t believe in limits. And so we hope you enjoy the results of his beautiful fashion shoot, “Game On!” For us, it reaffirms a sort of unspoken King West creed—that creativity should never be fettered and that we should always stay open to its endless possibilities.
MEET YOUR MATCH
IVY KNIGHT
LEAH MCLAREN
A former chef with 10 years of experience under her apron, food writer Ivy Knight is the editor-in-chief of foodie website Swallow. Knight covers the local food scene for The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail as well as The Toronto Standard and winefox.ca. For this issue of KingWest, she hit the streets hungry for “Confessions of a Food Truck Junkie.” SUMMER IS… “Patio season! That means ice-cold beer, mojitos, capirinhas, piña coladas—basically drinking in the sunshine, with breaks for the occasional food truck snack, of course.”
Leah McLaren is a Canadian journalist, novelist and screenwriter who splits her time between Toronto and London, England. For this issue of KingWest, the celebrated Globe and Mail columnist focuses her critical eye on the cultural tensions between Toronto’s public art institutions for “Museum Wars.” SUMMER IS… “The sun! I don’t get enough of it in London. Thank God for July in Ontario.”
CONTRIBUTORS CHRIS JOHNS
A frequent contributor to enRoute, Wallpaper, The Globe and Mail and Toronto Life, award-winning food and travel writer Chris Johns suffers for his art. For this issue of KingWest, he had to dine his way through all the Shangri-Las around the world. SUMMER IS… “That first dive off the dock into the lake. Crossword puzzles, glasses of rosé and salad Niçoise also factor into the equation.”
ROSLYN GRIFFITH HALL We caught up with fashion stylist Roslyn Griffith Hall after her return from Paris to get the lowdown on Toronto’s Fall 2012 presentations. Griffith Hall’s credits include Top Chef Canada, Canadian Idol and So You Think You Can Dance Canada, as well as various commercials and music videos. She also shoots street-style for Zoomer and designs a mash-up jewelry line called FITZ & FUR. SUMMER IS… “My birthday! I’m a Leo. Summer’s my time to shine.”
ALICE UNGER
Long-time magazine art director Alice Unger started her career at Fashion. She went on to direct Gardening Life, Belle and Flare Beauty and worked her magic on this issue of KingWest. Originally from Niagara, Unger lives and plays in downtown Toronto in her new condo she likes to call her “glass house in the sky” with her husband, Pat. SUMMER IS… “Peaches— fresh from Niagara, all fuzzy, the kind that drip all over your face.”
THEY WOULDN’T SELL US THE COVER. 401 4 40 1 KI K KING ING NG S STREET TR REE EET T WEST WE W EST DINING D DI N NG NI N
THURSDAY TH THU H RSD RSD SDA AY FRIDAY AY FRI RIDAY R A SATURDAY SATUR SA TU TUR U DAY Y RSVP@BLOKEAND4TH.COM RS RSV SVP@B SV SVP@B P@ LOK LOKEAN EA EAN AN ND4T D4T D4TH.C TH.C H OM M 4416 41 1 477 4 7 1490 47 1490
BOTTLE B BO OTT TT TLE L SSERVICE E VI ER VICE CE
TUESDAY TU TUE UESSDA U DAY THURSDAY THU THUR HU SDA HUR DAY FRIDAY DA FRIDAY RID RI IID DAY Y SATURDAY SA URD SA SAT RD DA AY Y INF INFO@BLOKEAND4TH.COM FO@B @ LOK LO OKEAN EAND4T EAN D4T D4 4T TH H.C .COM M 4166 477 416 477 1490 47 14900
Photography Tom Stoddart © MMVI. Copyrights and Likeness of La Dolce Vita © International Media Films.
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600 King Street West Toronto, Ontario M5V 1M3 416. 360. 0600 | www.freedhome.ca | info@freedhome.ca
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PROCLAIMER 3
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PHOTOS: ADRIAN ARMSTRONG, (DRESS) COURTESY OF ISSA
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marineLIFE
THE OCTOPUS IS THE NEW OWL 1 Rope Floor Lamp > Throw your living room a stylish line with this sculptural standing light made from natural abaca rope. Base $390, burlap shade $90. Pottery Barn / potterybarn.ca 2 Printed Silk Chiffon Caftan by ISSA > Take the plunge with this easy gown by Kate Middleton’s fave designer. $650. Your Choice / yourchoice.ca 3 Louboutin Soso 100 Platforms > In humble cork, the ultimate in reverse chic. $895. David’s / davidsfootwear.com 4 From the Deep Dinnerware > A dining experience worthy of Melville. $24. Anthropologie / anthropologie.com 5 Engineered Garments Belt > Captain Hook shows his stripes. $162. Jonathan +Olivia / jonathanandolivia.com 6 Betta Fish Silk Pillow Cover > This little fishie goes swimmingly in any decor. $35. West Elm / westelm.ca 7 SS Beaver Mug > Anchors aweigh on another cuppa joe. $7. Hudson’s Bay Company / thebay.com.
“Design first” is the motto that LightForm founder Richard Assaly and staff live by, a philosophy made immediately apparent with the sight of Flos’ knockout 2097 chandelier in the entrance, a style classic first designed in 1958 by Gino Sarfatti. LightForm’s new Toronto showroom, designed by local heroes Castor, adheres to a minimalist, raw aesthetic to best showcase its high-end line of European-made fixtures. Assaly works to import “the most progressive and technologically advanced products in the world,” while maintaining that good design must also meet a culture of sustainability. “The idea is that you only buy a lamp once,” he says. Visitors will be transfixed by the cocoon technology fixtures by Marcel Wanders in homage to Achille Castiglioni—ethereal and papery in look but surprisingly flesh-like in feel, ensconced chandeliers appear skeletal or like creatures trying to hatch. A shop within the shop lightform.ca houses Flos fixtures in its first Canadian showroom. Seek out Thierry Dreyfus’ “Rupture” (pictured here), which looks like a wall gouged open to reveal a subterranean gold mine, and Ron Gilad’s “Piercings,” an intricate set of rings emerging from the wall. Philippe Starck desk lamps, a favourite at the IDS, start at a reasonable $440. —Sheetal Lodhia
The SHINING LightForm 267 Niagara St. / 416.745.5656 /
The UNIFORM Styles may have grown more subtle in this new minimal era, yet the bartenders and waitstaff at boutique hotels have always run to the babe side. And their hotcha uniforms are a key decor element: Think of the paintedon grey catsuits that Rande Gerber put on his foxy servers at the Whiskey at the W nearly 20 years ago. Sure enough, the Thompson Hotel empire ups the coolness factor by commissioning uniforms by the hippest designers: Jenni Kayne (who collaborated with super-stylist Rachel Zoe) did the pretty pink sleeveless California nymph outfits for the Thompson Beverley Hills; Helmut Lang composed the sharp black closely tailored vested suiting for Smyth Tribeca; and Rag & Bone was brought in for New York’s 6 Columbus. At the Thompson Toronto, the Thompson Diner uniforms are by Bustle; the gear for the gals at the rooftop bar is the work of white-hot stitcher Jeremy Laing. The latest collaboration,
The Lobby Bar ladies serve up a red-hot new look. 24
for the hotel’s hopping Lobby Bar, has gone to Toronto’s self-proclaimed “jersey boys”— Greta Constantine designers Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong. The duo’s slinky draped gowns are found in every best-dressed socialite’s closet; Angelina Jolie, Victoria Beckham and Naomi Campbell are all fans. Pickersgill and Wong (who always speak publicly as one voice) say the project unfurled organically. “For us, it was important that the design of the dress balanced fashion and function. Because of the demands of the job, jersey was the perfect fabric.” For the Thompson project, say the boys: “It’s very urban, and downtown but with an elevated touch. We wanted to create a dress that was pretty without feeling precious, sophisticated but not pretentious. Red was the perfect colour: We chose a shade of scarlet because the black undertone made it a colour that’s a little rarer, something a bit more special.” —Leanne Delap
PHOTOS: (THOMPSON LADIES) FRANCO DELEO, (LIGHTS) COURTESY OF LIGHTFORM
Greta Constantine dresses up the Thompson
The SCOOP Cool Hand Luc
PHOTOS: (ICE CREAM) MICHAEL ALBERSTAT, (TARGET) VITO AMATI, (BIG BOP) RICK MCGINNIS, (CB2) FRANCO DELEO
545 King St. W. / 647.919.2661 / coolhandluc.ca King West’s premier ice-cream parlour, the cleverly coined Cool Hand Luc, is gearing up for its second summer in the hood. “Everybody loves ice cream,” says owner Luc Essiambre, whose childhood nickname you can guess. “We offer a bit of variety for the neighbourhood. It’s a fun place.” The fun comes in 32 flavours, with the premium ice cream locally sourced from Kawartha Dairy and all-natural handmade sorbets from Solo Fruit. To debut later this summer will be Luc’s very own; the chill owner comes to this project with years of icy artisanry under his belt, having concocted creams for Summer’s in Yorkville. The rainbow-bright shop with a fantastical mural behind the counter also serves homemade soup, grilled cheese and other sammies, and stays open til 3:30 am on weekends—a tasty after-hours hangout. “Our best customers are the people who live and work in King West,” says Luc, who lives above his eponymous shop. “We see a lot of people multiple times a week.” —RonniLyn Pustil
RIGHT ON, TARGET
When Target tested the waters by opening a pop-up shop at King and Peter for one brief February afternoon, 1,500 people showed up to grab the limited line by Jason Wu. Talk about pent-up demand.
The Big Bop, 2010
NOW CB2, 2012
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Local Talent
my Shackleton’s paintings are feverishly vivid, rendering seemingly apocalyptic visions in disarmingly cheerful hues. Water cascades down canyons formed by office buildings and sluices through fissures in streets as cars manoeuvre past looming foliage. The natural world and urban cityscapes collide, or, rather, commingle in a strangely compatible way. No human figures are visible, just the reflective surfaces of car windshields and the windows of high-rises. Roots reclaim ground even as the city teems around them. The paintings would seem dystopic, inspired by disaster movies—an interpretation that Shackleton's menacing titles support: “Boiling Point,” “Cutting Edge,” “Landslide”—were they not so suffused with brightness, so upbeat. Shackleton is a Toronto artist in her mid-20s who is riding a mounting wave of interest in her work from galleries, collectors and the media. A YouTube video of her innovative painting technique had over 900,000 views as of mid-March 2012. First, let’s tackle her technical wizardry. She takes a kinetic approach to painting that’s both simple and impressive in its refinement. Shackleton rarely uses brushes. She lets her liquid acrylics slide down the canvas, using gravity to direct their path. For the final
touches, she manipulates the paintings on the floor. It’s a painstaking procedure, which begins with photography. “I take photos in urban and wild areas,” Shackleton explains, “and I digitally alter, overlap and transform them in Photoshop to create a study. The study outlines the subject matter, composition and colour palette that I plan to use.” A typical pairing of images might be a park in Croatia and the concrete surfaces of Toronto’s Dundas Square or the towers of Bay Street. “Since each layer (and drip) builds on the last, there is little-to-no room for error, so I need to know where the piece is headed before I start painting. I created a rotating device on my 8” x 12” wall easel that allows me to spin stretched canvases. Now, using the natural force of gravity, I’m able to control the flow of paint but also allow for unpredictable results.” “I first learned how to paint with paintbrushes,” she says, “but it took me longer to learn how to paint without them.” It wasn’t easy for her to stop using the tool she was most comfortable with, but, says Shackleton, “you have to take risks to discover new things. I started using squeeze bottles a few years ago to achieve a more natural/organic energy in my work, but I often used brushes for the more precise, finishing touches. Eventually, I realized that—with more planning, calculating and layering—I could eliminate the brush completely! It took me over three years to master the technique—I’m now able to create hard-edge details and curved lines with gravity.” Asked about her influences and background, she says, “During my studies at York University, I was influenced most by surrealism, specifically Salvador Dali’s work.” Janet Jones, Shackleton’s fourth-year painting professor and the chair of the Department of Visual Art, believed in her, guided her through the art world and pointed her in the right direction after graduation. “Now, I work from my studio in downtown Toronto, but most of my inspiration comes from my travels,” Shackleton says. “So far I’ve managed to explore parts of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Croatia, Vienna, Peru, New York, Chicago, Boston, England and Morocco.” Shackleton is currently at work on a new series that demonstrates the significance of urban agriculture for sustainable development. “Using terraced land in Italy and Peru as inspiration, I am transforming modern architecture into examples of sustainable design,” she explains. But what the paintings reveal is something even more startling. These works are a thunderclap and a power surge in one. —Kateri Lanthier Amy Shackleton is represented by The Elaine Fleck Gallery elainefleckgallery.com
PHOTOS: FRANCO DELEO, (ARTWORK) COURTESY OF AMY SHACKLETON
The FREESTYLER Amy Shackleton
Watch Shackleton’s unique brushless technique at elainefleckgallery.com/video.html
Kateri Lanthier is a Toronto-based freelance writer who specializes in art, design and architecture. Her first collection of poetry, Reporting from Night, was published by Iguana Books in December 2011.
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MEET your MEAT The Best Burger
Mario Fiorucci is the proprietor of The Healthy Butcher. 565 Queen St. W. / 416.organic (674.2642) thehealthybutcher.com
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LIBATIONS The Belleweather ½ oz Campari ½ oz Hendrick’s Gin ¼ oz Chase Elderflower Liqueur 1 drop Scrappy’s Lavender Bitters 2 oz dry sparkling wine Shake and strain everything except the wine into a rocks glass and top with the sparkling wine. Garnish with a small edible flower or orange wheel. “Negronis are great cold-weather cocktails—strong and bitter like Old Man Winter. This time of year, though, calls for drinks that are lighter and more lifting. The Belleweather adds floral notes—Hendrick’s is infused with cucumber and rose petals—but the Campari keeps it all in line and prevents the mixture from becoming cloying. The splash of sparkling wine lengthens the drink and provides effervescence. It’s nearly patio season! Here’s to spring on King.” —Joe Howell
Joe Howell is head bartender at the members-only Spoke Club. thespokeclub.com
“I Kinda Like It Here” Toronto coasters. Soak it up in style with these intricately detailed city maps handcut from birch plywood. $40 for a set of four. Good Egg / goodegg.ca
PHOTOS: (COCKTAIL) JOE HOWELL, (COASTER) ADRIAN ARMSTRONG
Such a brilliant idea—lightly pressing together some good minced beef with a little seasoning, grilling it for five minutes and serving it on a fresh bun with a few choice toppings. I can’t think of many dishes that are so easy to make yet completely transcend the sum of their parts to achieve a culinary work of art. A great burger begins with great beef. If you start with a properly raised animal that has roamed around on pasture and been well fed without added antibiotics or industry by-products, the end result will be excellent. It doesn’t really matter what cut you use; the key is to have the right amount of fat—somewhere around 20 percent. It just so happens that meat from the chuck (shoulder) of the beef will have the proper amount of fat, but so will brisket, and skirt, and flank, and rib… all great cuts for a burger. Proper dry ageing of the beef by your butcher will improve the taste that much more. As to the proper texture, opt for beef that’s been freshly ground only once through a fine or medium-size grinder plate. Or, for a true steak burger, get a cut of meat from your butcher and chop it finely by hand. Go easy on the seasonings. Good quality sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper are all you need. Feel free to add other ingredients but don’t go overboard; you want to complement the flavour of the meat, not completely overtake it. Most “experts” will adamantly argue that eggs and breadcrumbs have no part in the making of a patty. But I’m on the opposite side of the fence. A beaten egg acts as a natural binder, and fresh breadcrumbs absorb the juices that would otherwise melt onto your barbeque and also help maintain the shape and size of your burger. Use just enough for them to do their respective jobs—about 1 egg per 2 or 3 lbs of meat, and about 1 cup of breadcrumbs to 5 lbs of meat. When mixing and forming your burgers, do not overwork the meat. Mix it only by hand, not with a machine, and only to the point where the proteins are binding together firmly. If you under-mix, the burger may fall apart when cooking. Mix until you think it will be easy to form the patties, and not a second more. Finally, grill to pink. Lightly brush the grill with oil if you’re using a barbeque or heat a little oil in a skillet. Cook the patty for 3 minutes over medium heat, flip using a sharp spatula, and cook for another 2½ minutes over medium-low heat to achieve medium rare, an extra minute for medium. Fight the urge to double-flip. A fresh bun and a few choice toppings are all you need to complete perfection. Personally, I’m a fan of caramelized onions, tomato, mayo, ketchup and piece of Romaine lettuce, but I’ll leave you to finish your own masterpiece. —Mario Fiorucci
The DISH Gusto 101
101 Portland St. / 416.504.9669 / gusto101.com
PHOTOS: LEWIS MIRRETT
In a sure sign that KW has arrived, Yorkville restaurateuse Janet Zuccarini (Trattoria Nervosa) has chosen a former auto-body shop in the hood as her latest culinary effort. Gusto 101 is Buca meets Terroni—a casual, rustic Italian menu in a lively, buzzy space that, thanks to designer Alessandro Munge, plays up the industrial King West vibe. “We chose King West because it’s happening, it’s vibrant, it’s busy. And we are slammed every night,” Zuccarini says. Go for the fresh ricotta bruschette, char-grilled octopus antipasto,, Cavolo Nero insalata and the Moroccan “brick” chicken, meltingly tender after being cured sous vide and then grilled. Wines made in their own terroir (the basement!) are served on tap for a buck an ounce. Spring will see the opening of a 90seat rooftop deck along with a street-side patio on Portland. “We set up to be a neighbourhood restaurant,” says Zuccarini. “King West is a demographic of young professionals that eats out a lot. I want Gusto 101 to be an extension of their own kitchen.” Sure, if you’re lucky enough to score a table—RLP
S N EFOW ODIES FOR
tique lounge rict, Cream is a charming bou Blocks from the theatre dist mpers with cha of s glas a r ove the big show where you can warm up for ndesign Thor on Bathurst, at the sleek Sca oysters and caviar… Over hile knocking l—w hygge—Danish for chil Espresso Bar you can feel the tries… Across pas t rme house-made gou back some über espresso and g selection of erin wat uth mo a kons with the street, Cheesewerks bec ugh breads from dwiches on organic sourdo artisanal grilled cheese san liese and Justin g of sandwiches, Attilio Pug St. John’s Bakery… Speakin ing a melt-inserv g, Kin flair at Tavolino on Zamperin are rockin’ it with ie-for shrimp to-d a and nk sha b braised lam your-mouth locally sourced the Bay Street those keen to hobnob with Po’Boy with lemon aoli… For re well-suited whe than the Trump Tower, brokers, you could do worse level Lobby und gro the at ring it up big-time movers and shakers are stir ck… Take Sto of ony balc ng taki and breath Lounge or on the vertiginous e, who Inte Mc st creative mixologists, Moses stock! One of Toronto’s mo Paese, at emy alch for inventive molecular gained his rabid following en on itch l+K ktai Coc id b, just opened Luc TOCA and The Spoke Clu minda be to es mis pro ch whi Bathurst, Queen between Spadina and house drink Cap off your night with the … nce erie exp l ktai coc blowing that could use eho in an ambient brick war at new Sazerac Gastro Lounge ght on King. —Kerry Kni be found nowhere else but
Inside its industrial exterior, Gusto 101 is buzzing.
PROCLAIMER
ARGON 18 GALLIUM PRO. Leave them in the dust with this carbon-framed road master. $5,000 fully assembled. Cyclemotive / cyclemotive.com
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DUKE’S CYCLE
CYCLEMOTIVE
LIBERTY STREET CYCLERY
625 Queen St. W. / 416.504.6138 dukescycle.ca
156 Bathurst St. / 416.916.5551 cyclemotive.com
171 East Liberty St., Unit 125 416.516.8880 / libertycyclery.com
After a three-year sojourn on Adelaide, Duke’s has cycled back to its original location at Queen and Bathurst. Established in 1914, this storied bike store fell to a fire in 2008. Today, its reno’d space displays drool-worthy road gear over two spacious stories. Catering to both casual riders and hard-pedaling weekend warriors, Duke’s offers a wide range, from $550 commuters like the Trek Earl to $6,000 mountain and road bikes. If a fixed-gear ride is what you’re after, hop on a Paddy Wagon by Kona ($750). The bike’s flip-flop hub allows you to switch from fixed to freewheel and back with relative ease. At press time, the Cannondale Quick CX 1 ($1,600) is in stock—a mountain/city hybrid tuned to both trails and city streets, it sold out last year before cycling season even started. To get a leg up this year, visit Duke’s new website to browse stock, enroll in bike repair seminars or schedule one of three essential service packages starting at $70.
Fixed on fitness, Cyclemotive is ideal for the advanced rider. With a deep selection of carbon-framed road bikes including Argon 18, Giant and Scott and recently acquired Felt Bicycles, prices sit in the $650 to $2,500 range and can well clear the $9,000 mark. But if you’re bent on building a bike from the wheels up, Cyclemotive offers unique deals on exclusive rides. It’s one of two stores in the city that offer Milanese-manufactured Cinelli frames, starting at $599. Customers can handpick each component for a custom cycle—prices start at $1,000, including parts and labour. A freshly renovated ladies’ corner features brands like Biria step-throughs and Electra commuters, bikes typically sold at sister store the Cycle Shoppe (630A Queen St. W.). Service rates start at $49 for a basic tuneup and safety check (brakes, gears, bolts). If bringing your bike out of storage, ask for a $200 overhaul where mechanics strip and rebuild your bike so it’s as good as new.
Located in the Liberty Market Building is seasoned mechanic Ed Tsui’s Liberty Street Cyclery. Working 12- to 14-hour days six days a week during peak season, Tsui’s crew keeps to a promise of 24-hour turnaround on all bike repairs. The Cyclery deals largely in repairs and lightly in stock sales. But if you’re after a custom cycle, these bespoke spokesmen will sort you out for a cool $460 to $1,000, parts and labour included. Repairs start at $60 per hour, which is steeper than the competition but the quick turnaround won’t ruin your riding plans. If you have time to watch and learn, take a seat at a barstool as the staff behind the bar/workbench guide you through their intricate repairs and adjustments. —Eli Yarhi
PHOTOS: (STORES) FRANCO DELEO, (BIKE) COURTESY OF CYCLEMOTIVE
Bike City: Bespoke style heads west
The READ
What book is blowing your mind right now?
The LIST
PHOTO: ROY LICHTENSTEIN. “OHHH…ALRIGHT…”, (1964). © ESTATE OF ROY LICHTENSTEIN. PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Heads-up on what not to miss
Boyhood by J.M. Coetzee “I’m a big fan of J.M. Coetzee and recently read Boyhood, the first in his series of memoirs. Coetzee doesn’t shrink away from even the most embarrassing and unpleasant detail, and, as we all know, childhood is full of such details. It’s a lean, clear-sighted and powerful book.” —David Bezmozgis
May 16 – Sept 3
Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective The Art Institute of Chicago
A writer and filmmaker, Bezmozgis’ first novel, The Free World, was shortlisted for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award.
June 8 – June 17
Luminato Toronto
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
June 14 – June 17
Art 43 Basel Basel, Switzerland
June 23 – Oct 7
Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present Annenberg Space for Photography Los Angeles
June 28 – July 7
Montreal Jazz Festival Montreal
June 30 – July 22
99th Tour de France Province de Liège, France
July 11 – Sept 2
60 Years of Designing the Ballet / The Tutu Project, Design Exchange, Toronto
July 27 – Aug 12
London Olympics London, England
July 29 – Nov 5
Century of the Child: Growing by Design 1900–2000, MoMA, New York City
Aug 4
The Black Keys Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto
Aug 4 – Aug 12
Rogers Cup Rexall Centre, Toronto
“Once upon a time—1974, to be exact—a man tight-roped his way between the Twin Towers. Below him was a dangerous and unforgiving city, and a country in moral decline. In perhaps the best novel about New York ever written, Colum McCann gives us the characters who live on the edge every day: prostitutes, their pimps and children; an enigmatic monk; a jaded judge. Life might be a grim business, but McCann gives us beautiful moments of communion between people, tenderness in the unlikeliest of places, reasons to hope.” —Camilla Gibb
Gibb is an award-winning author whose most recent novel is The Beauty of Humanity Movement.
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg “This is a powerful and important book that is astonishingly direct and easy to read. It examines how habits affect corporations, institutions and our own lives—both positively and negatively— and how identifying and changing the detrimental ones is key to changing your life.” —Ben McNally
Ben McNally is the well-read owner of Ben McNally Books.
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MR. SMITH’S GOOD TIMES GUIDE Five things making me happy right now LYNN COADY’S NOVEL THE HE ANTAGONIST
SHINY WET-LOOK STRETCHY LEGGINGS For a few years I have been secretly thrilled by the abandonment of pants by the women of North America. If you had told me in high school that the future promised a moment in which women would walk out on the streets wearing nothing but tights over their bums, and short jackets to show them off, I would have thought you a fantasist: It would have been like imagining a society that went topless to work. But here we are, and I have been walking around hoping nobody noticed because it means daily delight for weird (i.e. normal) guys like me. And now women have taken the extra-aggressive step of adding some kind of shiny, rubbery spandex to their public underwear, so their tights look like costumes for a video with the word Mistress in the title. I think it was American Apparel that first started selling them; now they can be found in every mall. And the drab old streets suddenly look like the supersexed future promised by B sci-fi movies! My high-school self is bug-eyed.
THE CB2 BUILDING AT QUEEN AND BATHURST I’m not particularly excited about a new modern furniture store on Queen West (I’m sure it’s very nice), but I am delighted by what was revealed by its reno of the infamous purple cube that housed The Big Bop for as long as I can recall. That paper-shellacked hangar— inside, it smelled of beer and disinfectant—was just something we accepted, even respected, as an example of Toronto’s makeshift architecture, its arbitrary agglomerations and accommodations, its streetscapes of metal sheeting and plastic facades, even at its most fashionable corners. Then, like a shy chrysalis from a dull cocoon, emerges this modest jewel of Victoriana: It’s got varicoloured brick, it’s got ornamental windows, it’s what the whole street once looked like and could again if we started to think seriously about the commercial streetscape.
Russell Smith writes novels set in Toronto. His latest is Girl Crazy. He also writes two weekly columns for The Globe and Mail, one on style and one on culture, and is one of the founders of the online men’s magazine DailyXY.com.
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Holy testosterone, does this woman understand guys! Her narrative is a troubled former tough guy’s story, told in a series of angry emails to a man he was at university with. Coady’s narrator is a huge goon, a hockey enforcer, product of a crazy family, and his repressed sensitivity is heartbreaking. Magically, it’s funny, too: No one does small-maritime-town park parking lots (the Legion on one side, the Icy Dream on the other) as hilariously and sympathetically as Coady. I’m halfway through it so don’t tell me what happens—some secret is about to be revealed. By the way, I’m reading it on my Kindle, which, I hate to tell my conservative literary friends, is really quite pleasant and useful.
BVLGARI MAN Like a lot of guys, I’m nervous of scents: You read so much mockery in women’s magazines about guys who wear too much. Furthermore, one always wonders about one’s taste: Is this citrusy one like a deodorant? Is this floral one like a pudding? But if it makes me and me alone feel good to have a pleasant fragrance on me all the time, to hell with negativity. Besides, my wife selected this one from the great “nose” Alberto Morillas so I know it’s not chick-repellent. It’s pretty old school: fundamentally woody, technically an “Oriental” perfume. I think it’s complex but at the same time subdued, not overbearing. Let’s say—and I know I sound like one of the annoying wine guys now— it’s sophisticated but youthful. But don’t listen to me, listen to the words that describe some of its elements: bergamot, lotus, violet, white pear, vetiver, cashmere wood…. I don’t know what they all smell like (in fact, I don’t know what “cashmere wood” could possibly mean) but if someone described me I would love to sound as poetic as that.
HOLLOW GROUND BARBER SHOP Speaking of masculinity: There is a downtown vogue for old-style barber shops, but they are no longer run by septuagenarians called Joe. They are run by cleancut young guys with tattoos and skinny jeans. The atmosphere in this airy Bloor-Dufferin shop, though hip, is relentlessly masculine, with Spike on the TV and talk of bands and sports in the air. It’s a relaxing boys’ club, with simple and careful haircuts for only $22. Hot shaves, too. I am so proud of the younger generation, reclaiming the pampering rituals of manhood withoutsuccumbing to an ironic nostalgia or any kind of New Age-y spa aesthetic.
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VS THE AGO AND THE ROM PAINT A PRETTY PICTURE
MUSEUM WARS
VS OF CULTURAL COOPERATION, BUT ARE THEY JUST PULLING THEIR PUNCHES? BY LEAH MCLAREN PHOTOS BY ARASH MOALLEMI
It’s a term that strikes queasiness into the guts of sophisticated Torontonians. The debate over whether Toronto competes culturally on an international level misses the point of what’s truly great about our city in the first place. Its idiosyncrasies, modesty and elegance are what set it apart, rather than its trumped-up attempts to impersonate something—or more specifically some place—bigger than itself. Cultural grandiosity, you might say, is really not our thing. But over the past decade, two ambitious and venerable publicly supported institutions have been trying hard to change this reality. They are the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum. Both are big, bold and, after two costly renovations by world-renowned architects— Frank Gehry and Daniel Libeskind, respectively—both have thrown hundreds of millions toward the project of making their mark, with arguably mixed results. On the surface of it, the AGO and the ROM are entirely distinct in their mandates. But upon closer inspection, interesting similarities emerge. The AGO is strictly an art museum (or “gallery”) with an emphasis on painting and sculpture. As such, it attracts a narrower audience than the ROM, which is a general museum about the world—an “encyclopedic institution,” in curatorial speak. The ROM shows some art, but its main emphasis is on ancient cultures and their treasures, dinosaurs, minerals, and the like. Because the art world is traditionally more rarified, the ROM has always had a broader audience and higher attendance, while the AGO benefits from an association with the sexier, more exclusive and mysterious world of fine art. Both institutions, however, have operating budgets of just under $60 million per annum. Both receive around 40 percent of their support from your tax dollars and official agencies of the Ontario government. Together, they combine to form the cultural backbone of Toronto’s tourist-friendly public arts destinations. In recent years, however, both institutions have undergone significant transformations—the ROM’s controversial Libeskind Crystal was completed in 2007 and Gehry’s undulating AGO facade opened its doors the following year. In order to complete these projects, both institutions had to ramp up their fundraising machines, founding new committees targeting the city’s culturally curious set and raising hundreds of millions of dollars each through swanky galas. When it comes to programming, both the ROM and the AGO share the common, unabashed aim of expanding their membership and drawing in larger crowds. Early this year the ROM cut its admission fees in half in an effort to up attendance. This push toward the mainstream has also led to a certain amount of crossover in programming. In recent years, the exhibition calendar for the ROM’s Institute for Contemporary Culture, for instance, increasingly resembles that of an art museum. Its Shapeshifters show, one of the first displayed in the Crystal, featured works by renowned First Nations artists like Ken Monkman, Brian Jungen and
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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO
WORLD CLASS.
PHOTOS: SAM JAVANROUGH, THE ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM
Alan Michelson. Since then, international heavyweights such as the Ghanaian tapestry artist El Anatsui and the UK’s David Hockney have followed suit. The AGO, in a strange mirroring effect, seems to have broadened its mandate in recent years to include some shows that would have been equally at home in a historical museum. These include 2010’s King Tut show and last spring’s Maharaja: The Splendour of India’s Royal Courts. Are the two institutions battling for cultural supremacy— or, at the very least, in danger of cutting each other’s grass? Janet Carding, director of the ROM, says absolutely not. “We don’t see ourselves as being in competition,” she says of the AGO. “We’re a research institution. We’re a place where you make connections in time and in cultures. For me, the art gallery is a great collection and a great experience, but we’re just a lot broader in scope.” According to Carding, relations between the two institutions are friendly despite their competition for fundraising dollars—many major donors, such as Joey Tanenbaum and the Weston family, give millions to both. When British-born Carding arrived in Toronto from the Australian Museum in Sydney a year and a half ago, one of her first appointments was with Matthew Teitelbaum, the director of the AGO. Today, the two meet and talk regularly. (“We are both great tea drinkers,” Carding says of their informal pow-wows.) “We discuss possibilities of how we can make both institutions do more culturally for the city— what we could do together and on our own. Matthew was one of the first people to call and congratulate me when I got the job. We are colleagues, not competitors.” Teitelbaum, for his part, reiterates this view, expressing his respect for Carding and describing her as a “true cultural partner,” one who understands that “Toronto’s potential depends on collaborations and initiatives.” But one Toronto cultural insider who has been involved in fundraising for both institutions insists this is not entirely the case. “It’s more like ‘co-opetition’ between the two,” he says. “They say, ‘We’re all part of this cultural revival.’ But show me one meaningful joint program. In all my time, I’ve never seen any meaningful effort, let alone a sustained commitment, for the two to cooperate. There’s a kettle of money from government and donors and they pursue their dollop of the pie.” Over at the AGO, head curator Elizabeth Smith insists that at a curatorial level the two institutions maintain an informal relationship in order to collaborate and avoid duplication. “We have our own distinct identities. But we’re all part of the same eco-system and we can complement each other.” In either case, some members of Toronto’s cultural community feel the two institutions could be doing more to serve their core audiences. “Neither of those institutions needed to spend hundreds of millions on renovations,” says art dealer Judith Tatar. “The mentality at the time was: ‘Build it and they will come.’ But my philosophy is: ‘Program it and they will come.’ There were better places those hundreds of millions could have gone. Toronto got caught up in the
JUST THE FACTS: HOW THE AGO & THE ROM ADD UP AGO MOST RECENT RENO: 2008 STARCHITECT: FRANK GEHRY COST: $276 MILLION OPERATING BUDGET (2010/11): $59,923,000 NUMBER OF EXHIBITIONS (2011): 11 NUMBER OF VISITORS: 602,000 SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER: PICASSO: MASTERPIECES FROM THE MUSÉE NATIONAL PICASSO, PARIS ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO 317 DUNDAS ST. W. 416.979.6648 / AGO.NET
ROM MOST RECENT RENO: 2007 STARCHITECT: STUDIO DANIEL LIBESKIND COST: $300 MILLION OPERATING BUDGET (2010/11): $59 MILLION NUMBER OF EXHIBITIONS (2011): 13 NUMBER OF VISITORS: 988,000 SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER: ULTIMATE DINOSAURS: GIANTS FROM GONDWANA ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM 100 QUEEN’S PARK 416.586.8000 / ROM.ON.CA
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PHOTOS: SAM JAVANROUGH, (AGO) COURTESY OF THE ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO
starchitect fuss, but if you don’t have the right programming it doesn’t matter how beautiful your building is.” And whether the results of both renos were actually beautiful was the subject of hot debate. While the critics more or less unanimously praised Gehry’s revamp of the AGO (The New York Times called it “a masterly example of how to breathe life into a staid old structure”), Libeskind’s Crystal attracted as much controversy as it did praise. Proponents thrill to its daring deconstructivist design but detractors sneer at the aluminum cladding (a cost-cutting alteration to the original all-glass design) and unwelcoming interior. But the proof, as with most things, may be in the pudding. As one well-known Toronto arts journalist remarked to me off the record, “The Toronto smart set hates the Crystal but the crowds keep coming.” Indeed, of the two institutions, the ROM has been more successful in appealing to the masses. On any given day of the week, school and tourist buses can be seen forming a convoy outside its unassuming University Avenue entrance. According to Carding, the admission price gamble is paying off. “Our job isn’t just to run a museum,” she says, “but to create new museum visitors.” With more than six million precious objects contained in its 30 galleries, the ROM is a monolith compared to the AGO. However, by national standards, the latter holds its own. The AGO houses the largest Canadian art collection anywhere in the world as well as the Henry Moore sculpture gallery and significant collections of African art and European masterpieces. In terms of traveling shows, the AGO’s recent push has shown an emphasis on accessible 20th-century master works, such as the Picasso and Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera shows. “We really felt that we could reach broad audiences as well as our core constituents by presenting major exhibits of well-known figures,” Smith says. “It’s been a good way for us to sharpen our focus and identity and accessibility.” Some, like Tatar, complain that the AGO still feels overly elitist in the way it pushes its big shows at the expense of smaller exhibits. “They had a wonderful Shary Boyle show a few months back but I’m not sure how many people heard about it.” But David Liss, artistic director and curator of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), takes a different view: “I don’t see either of those institutions as elitist. If anything, I find them far too mainstream. But then, it’s not the role of the AGO or the ROM to be pushing the cutting edge of culture. It’s like big-box stores vs. small businesses.” By any measure, the AGO and the ROM are both worldclass cultural institutions. (There’s that word again!) Whether they can maintain their distinct identities while striving to maintain a healthy “co-opetition” remains to be seen. The next few months, undoubtedly, will be worth the price of admission.
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DO GOODERS IN THE HOOD THE STARS IN KING WEST DON’T JUST COME OUT AT NIGHT. WE ALL HOPE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE BUT THE PEOPLE PICTURED ON THE NEXT FOUR PAGES AREN’T ONLY TIRELESSLY COMMITTED TO SOCIAL JUSTICE AND CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY, IT’S THEIR DAY JOB. AND SINCE THEY ALL SHARE TIES TO KING WEST, WE FEEL THAT THEY DESERVE A GOLD STAR. BY SHEETAL LODHIA PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER WAHL 47
THE PUBLIC IMPRESARIO
HELEN BURSTYN, FOUNDER AND CEO, PUBLIC PROJECTS Helen Burstyn has been a prominent activist for both the province and the city of Toronto, doing her part to make it the public-minded city it is today. The widow of the late David Pecaut, she is the cofounder of the Pecaut Centre for Social Impact, head of the Partnership Project, former chair of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, former director of the Toronto International Film Festival and current board member of CAMH—and if that’s not enough to make you feel inadequate, she also ran for MPP for the Liberals for Beaches East York. HAS THE WORK BEEN GRATIFYING? “It’s exciting to change and to create culture. I love seeing the growth of small business, and we’ve seen that in spades. And the arts are the soul of this city. People gather for the arts and it adds vitality; events like Luminato and Nuit
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Blanche are there to introduce us to our own city. I’ve seen organizations with very little that manage to create something big—they become community builders.” WHAT DO YOU ENVISION FOR THE CITY? “There is a need for beauty. New is not enough. Buildings need to be in keeping with the neighbourhood and supported by the community.” WHAT INSPIRES YOU? “People. I meet interesting people and see interesting work all the time. I love the arts—I think artists are really important for the city. I also support social services and nonprofits. The work of Trillium and the Partnership Project [partnership between the Government of Ontario and the nonprofit sector] have brought about great things and have helped people achieve their goals of community building.”
THE CULTURAL AMBASSADOR SCOTT FERGUSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INSIDE OUT Inside Out—the Toronto LGBT film festival—began because there was a lack of opportunity to showcase queer film. Founded in 1991, the festival has helped to launch films and artists and create dialogue on queer issues. Inside Out has also provided opportunities for youth engagement: In partnership with Sketch and Ryerson’s Journalism program, Inside Out created a mentorship and scholarship for young aspiring filmmakers. Last year marked the 30th anniversary of the first case of AIDS, with many films focusing on that issue. More than 700 films are submitted to Inside Out each year for inclusion in the festival; 200 are selected. Past hits include Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Paris is Burning and A Touch of Pink. This year’s fest will feature a number of Iranian films, reflecting the recent creative surge and new openness in the Iranian filmmaking industry.
INSIDE OUT’S MISSION? “Challenging attitudes and changing lives.” WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES? “It’s always a challenge to stay
relevant and to evolve alongside [mainstream] media, arts and popular culture,” Ferguson says. Funding and infrastructure are among Inside Out’s other challenges, as well as choosing which projects and films to take on and finding venues for screenings. “Venues have always been a challenge,” Ferguson says. “Some have closed down and some are no longer available.” This year’s festival is at TIFF Bell Lightbox. WHAT MAKES IT WORTHWHILE? “Inside Out has always been a platform for cities and organizations to talk about LGBT issues. When a film resonates with audiences—and I can’t always tell when that’s going to happen—I always appreciate it.”
THE ART THERAPIST
PHYLLIS NOVAK, FOUNDER AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, SKETCH Over the past 14 years, Sketch has engaged more than 7,500 marginalized and homeless youth and 2,000 artists, city developers and social workers, helping youth to find new homes and work, overcome poverty and become leaders—and all of this through art (including woodworking, photography, acting, music and literature). In 1998, there were six to 10 participants in two projects initiated by Sketch. By 2010, there were 825 participants in 30 to 35 projects. And these generated $23,000 in revenue for youth at risk. SKETCH’S MISSION? “Sketch creates opportunities for young people to experience the transformative power of the arts, build leadership and self-sufficiency, and cultivate social and environmental change. Our mission is declaring possibility,” Novak says. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES? “Lack of resources and funding are challenges, but there have been greater challenges in addressing systemic poverty, racism and class injustices.
Working to change peoples’ attitudes toward the homeless and homeless youth has been difficult. It is also challenging to prove effectiveness and produce ‘deliverables’ that the business world can comprehend. It can be difficult to demonstrate how much of an impact community organizations make when the measures for impact are steeped in particular ideologies.” WHAT ARE SOME OF THE REWARDS? “The youth give me such amazing perspective on how to live in the world, showing me such raw desire to connect with people.” WHAT KEEPS YOU GOING? “We have created a body of work that represents the idea that young people who navigate adversity are also tremendously creative people. People never think of the homeless as imaginative, they just think that these people need to get jobs. It’s our constant message and our constant practice to value the work and creativity of young marginalized people. It’s one of the most basic things to say to someone that they matter and what they do and create matters.”
THE HEALTHY-EATING ACTIVIST
LULU COHEN-FARNELL, FOUNDER, REAL FOOD FOR REAL KIDS Since its founding in 2004, Real Food for Real Kids has transformed the way children eat at school, serving roughly 8,000 kids per day in 171 childcare centres, 15 elementary schools and five camps across the GTA. Children have the option of both omnivore or herbivore menus, with every child receiving one vegetarian meal per week. All dietary needs and allergies are met (including gluten-free and nightshade-free restrictions) and all meals are peanut free and litterless. RFRK also hosts a nonprofit component called Real Food Forward, which works to provide marginalized children with free meals; in participating schools and daycares, for every 20 children who participate, one child eats for free. This year the organization will likely feed 2,000 kids free lunches. Cohen-Farnell, who has participated in a revision of Canada’s Food Guide, is also participating in a project to revitalize hospital food. RFRK’S MISSION?: “To change the way children eat and understand food. To provide children with delicious, healthy, all-natural meals and snacks. To reconnect children and families to real food. To support local farmers and producers who are as committed to responsible and
sustainable business practices as we are. And, to inspire future generations to make healthier choices, every day.” says Cohen-Farnell. WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGES? Sourcing food locally and keeping peanut free are among the material challenges for RFRK, but most challenges stem from ideologies and cultural differences. “RKFK strives to provide local food with global flavours. There is a perception, particularly in North America, that kids eat only a particular kind of food. Restaurants frequently have ‘kids’ menus.’ That practice sets kids up to desire only particular kinds of foods and limits their palates. The most difficult challenge is telling certain parents that they are not feeding their children healthy food. How do you tell someone that? And especially when parents are used to trusting the fact that food on shelves in grocery stores is supposed to be safe to feed children.” WHAT MAKES IT WORTH DOING? “Every day I hear from someone— parents, children—that they loved a particular item in their lunch that day. I have even heard from people who say that we have changed their lives—parents who have begun to adopt healthier habits after learning from their kids.”
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THE VISIONARIES BEHIND THE NEW KING WEST BY ALEX BOZIKOVIC
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PHOTOS: (OPENING SPREAD AND THIS PAGE) ARASH MOALLEMI
were among the city’s designdriven pioneers. Their first building near King and Bathurst, 32 Stewart Street, was a lonely outlier when it first went up in 2002, behind the Travelodge Motel. Next door, warehouse buildings were home to artists in quasi-legal live-work spaces. “It was like a clean slate, this whole area,” Gane recalls. “We thought: ‘What kind of neighbourhood do we want to live in?’ We wanted something modernist, something with brick and lots of glass. We’ve established a formal language and we’ve been building on that same language ever since.” Developer Peter Freed went to check out that building and saw the 2,000-square-foot penthouse occupied by realtor Brad Lamb. It had an outdoor swimming pool lined with marble and a massive terrace. “Peter liked what he saw,” Gane says with a hint of a smile. A few years later, Freed’s investment had transformed the block, and he had his own pent-
“CORE HAS DONE AS MUCH AS ANY OTHER ARCHITECT TO REDEFINE
hen Core Architects first moved into its offices at Adelaide and Peter, it was 1996, and the west side of downtown was a graveyard of industry. Its Depression-era building was filled with aging furriers, and the block was dead quiet— at least until dark. “You couldn’t work after nine,” recalls Core partner Charles Gane, “because of all the pounding bass from all the clubs.” Flash-forward 16 years. The bass is quieting down, and the construction noise has picked up as 15,000 people and counting have moved into the area. From their sixth-floor window, Core’s three partners can observe the site of the 49-storey condo tower they’re designing next door. As Gane talks about their upcoming work, he mentions a pair of very tall towers at King and Spadina, another at 224 Richmond, another at Bathurst and King. “We have a lot happening right here,” he says. “Just wait. In 10 years this will be Tower City.” The district is well on the way there, and Core, led by partners Gane, Babak Eslahjou and Deni Poletti, has played a major role in its transformation. The firm has designed more than 50 projects in Toronto, coming to define
the look and the form of the King West area along the way. All those mid-rise brick buildings with big steel windows that march down Stewart Street? All by Core. The current crop of towers, like 75 Portland and the new 650 King, that are like Jenga towers, with ziggurats and masses of concrete cantilevered over the street? Again, it’s Core that merits the credit. They are, in other words, some of the leading design innovators behind the condo boom. They chose their name partly to acknowledge their commitment to the city core, and by now they’ve done as much as any other architect to redefine Toronto’s urban form—with King West as their laboratory. It was not an obvious place to begin. “In 1994, the city put up signs calling it the Fashion District, but by then the fashion district was dead,” recalls journalist John Barber, who covered urban design for The Globe and Mail in the 1990s. “It was a desert of surface parking lots, old shmatte guys hanging out in the Avenue Diner, the last of the textile factories.” The city was trying and failing to retain the area’s garment industry, which was being undercut by competitors overseas. In 1996, the city responded by loosening up the zoning there and along King East (the “two Kings”), giving developers lots of leeway. On the west side, it worked—fast. Gane says the area seemed like “a blank slate,” and as designers, “we used that language that all of Toronto learned from.” Their first job, Gane recalls, was 29 Camden Street. That eight-story building on a quiet side street, which mimicked the size, shape and red brick of the old loft buildings in the area, was the first new building since the late 1980s. “The only other condo in the area was Peter Clewes doing 20 Niagara at the same time.” Both buildings went on to win design awards from the city, and Core was ready when more developers came calling. This path was decidedly not what Eslahjou, Gane and Poletti had intended when they founded the firm. Having worked together at the big corporate firm Zeidler for a decade— each leading the design of large institutional projects—they wanted to do more important work. “We always thought we weren’t really condo architects,” Gane says. “At that time, capital ‘A’ Architects didn’t touch condos.” Indeed, the early days of the condo boom were dominated by “hack” design work, says The Globe’s Barber. “Nobody wanted to do residential buildings. They didn’t think there was a dollar in it. It took a while before people demonstrated that you could do slick contemporary buildings within the budgets that were available.” And Core, along with its downstairs neighbours Peter Clewes and architectsAlliance,
TORONTO’S URBAN FORM—WITH KING WEST AS ITS LABORATORY.”
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF CORE ARCHITECTS
house two buildings over. The construction of three neighbouring Freed condos—at 455 Adelaide Street West, 20 Stewart and 66 Portland—allowed Core to build one side of a block in a consistent architectural language. The two newer buildings added deep balconies, one of Core’s trademarks and a detail that Gane feels strongly about. “They’re deep enough to really be usable,” he says. And at 75 Portland—created in conjunction with interior design star Philippe Starck—the outdoor spaces balloon to two metres deep. “When you walk down Portland Street, you see all the terraces with their outdoor tables,” Gane says. “It adds a lot of life to the street.” Gane travelled to England to meet with Starck. “He’s a bit of a character,” he says of the famed industrial designer, and, despite Starck’s association with many high-end brands and products, “a champion of the little guy.” In architectural terms, that makes Starck a fan of buildings that engage with the street, as 75 Portland does with its many large balconies on low floors. A similar spirit underlies Starck’s big gesture—the massive dining table that extends from the lobby into the courtyard. Says Gane: “He felt that having a big communal table would bring the building together.”
A wide range of other opportunities with other major players has followed. The firm has built for different developers at sites across the downtown core, including Concord Adex at CityPlace, which led to adventures in Dubai—two massive mixeduse projects, a hotel and major bank. And, at the other extreme, Core has continued to build private houses and even restaurants through its interior design division. For the Cosmopolitan Hotel on Colborne Street, they designed everything from the building to the lobby bar. But condos remain their focus, and as downtown infill projects have grown in scale, Core’s work has gotten larger as well. The current crop takes the neighbourhood to a new level of adventurousness in its architecture: The complex, terraced form of 650 King, now nearing completion, is a promising sign for other large buildings nearby, including Core’s Fashion House project, another collaboration with Freed. But by far the most polished of them all is 500 Wellington West. With just 17 suites, all 2,500 square feet and up, the building is decidedly a niche product—an ambitious move into the high end of the real estate market that is also to my mind one of the best-designed residential buildings in Toronto. The tower has a subtle zig-zagging profile, Ipe wood cladding, massive expanses of 10-foot-tall glass, and lustrous umber brick. Each of the units boasts large outdoor spaces, which give the building some very pleasing proportions. Its restraint is very seductive, the sort of quiet building that actually improves the streetscape around it. Gane is proud of it. “500 Wellington was going to set a direction about what a condo could be,” he says. “It’s all about the luxury of good space and using good materials.” Inside it is, predictably, even prettier. Entering the building takes you along a wandering promenade through a tall, broad hallway lined with slabs of Bianco Carrera marble, a visual treat. And upstairs, the suites, with interior detailing by Burdifilek, reflect Core’s
preference for truly open floor plans. “The big suites are just wide open,” Gane says. “Essentially it’s one big space—we got rid of all the crap that other designers do with large suites, where it’s a rabbit warren. If you get rid of the concept of rooms, you get a much better result.” Indeed these spaces have all the comfort of a bespoke contemporary house, plus killer views over the neighbourhood. You will pay dearly for them, but there are willing buyers out there: 12 of the 17 suites have sold. And each of them is larger than that penthouse on Stewart Street that was a showpiece 10 years ago. The aging textile manufacturers of 1994 would have been very surprised. Gane says that he and his colleagues, after almost two decades, are still watching these developments excitedly. “Toronto is rebuilding itself,” he says. “It’ll be more like New York City as you get more people with similar outlooks living downtown. It’s an experiment in people of a certain demographic and sophistication inhabiting the core. It’s going to be very interesting to see how it turns out.”
Alex Bozikovic writes about architecture and design for nomeancity.net, Spacing, Dwell, Azure and Metropolis. He also writes for The Globe and Mail, where he is a staff editor.
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Dwell On It
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF DWELLSTUDIO
THE DESIGNERS WHO MADE CONTEMPORARY COOL BRING THEIR NEW FURNITURE LINE HOME When DwellStudio launched its first range of sheets and pillowcases featuring bold geometric patterns and unexpected colours in 2000, it was the sexiest thing to happen to beds—at least for contemporary design enthusiasts—in ages. Since then, the New York–based company has expanded well beyond the bedroom, creating a broad range of products that could almost style an entire home, from rugs and wallpaper to vases and candleholders, all with a breezy sense of style and graphic punch. Last year, the company introduced the final piece of the puzzle— extensive lines of furniture that can help pull it all together. And now it’s all available at The Bay, as a centrepiece of the department store’s newly refreshed home department. For DwellStudio founder Christiane Lemieux, who runs the company with her husband Joshua Young, it’s something of a homecoming. Originally from Ottawa, she moved to Manhattan to study fashion at Parsons School of Design in 1995, before shifting her focus to furniture and accessories design. Regarding her recipe for success, she says she has no secrets. “We just do what we like. Stylistically, it’s very much our thing—a little relaxed modern, a little twisted traditional.” That means pieces like Cooper, a wing chair with clean lines and midcentury modern appeal; George, a sofa with classically elegant lines; and Deco, an upholstered bed reminiscent of 1920s style—all of which can be covered in your choice of DwellStudio textiles, from orderly geometrics to ikats to Swedish-style florals (solid hues are also available, in case you’re feeling shy). “With five different products, you could create 50 different looks because you can mix and match,” says Lemieux of her roster of styles and patterns. This decorative approach might be surprising, especially when you consider that Lemieux is also the author of Undecorate, a 2011 book published by Clarkson Potter with a title that smacks of anti-design
sentiment. But the book doesn’t actually promote leaving your living room unconsidered. Rather, it advocates abandoning accepted interior design rules in favour of developing a style that reflects who you are. “It’s really more about creating personal style, not a cookie-cutter interior,” Lemieux says. “You can mix heirloom pieces with the new, and use design as self-expression.” According to Arren Williams, creative director of home fashions for The Bay, that freewheeling, personalized approach to design is just what the store wanted. “The strength of the whole DwellStudio line is that it’s an eclectic, well-edited collection that hangs together precisely because Christiane has such a great eye for detail, nuance and wit,” he says. “I think it will definitely appeal to a customer who’s sophisticated, and one who wants to take chances with their interiors.” To start, the collection is being presented at The Bay’s Queen Street location, as well as in its downtown Montreal and Vancouver stores. Once the retailer gets a handle on the kinds of pieces that are resonating best with shoppers, it plans to introduce the line in other locations. For Lemieux, the partnership is thrilling, even though other Canadian stores have carried a smaller selection of DwellStudio products for years. “The Bay is such an iconic Canadian brand—it’s heritage,” she says. And, receiving prominent placement at a major retailer helps further her mission to prove that interior design needn’t be stuffy or pretentious. “We want to bridge that gap between DIY and the accomplished interior designer,” she says. “We have something for everyone.” Tim McKeough is a Canadian journalist in New York City who writes about design and architecture for such publications as The New York Times, Elle Decor, Fast Company and Wired.
CHRISTIANE LEMIEUX
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ounded in 2001, 1stdibs.com is now the world’s premier online design resource for everything from antiques to luxury homes. The site represents 1,200 dealers in five countries—40 of them in Canada—and gets 20 million visits every year. Last year, 109,000 one-of-a-kind items were posted, and 77,158 items were sold, for a sell-through rate of 70 percent. Each week, 2,000 new items are posted, making checking into 1stdibs addictive for the design-inclined.
Online Treasure Trove PHOTOS: COURTESY OF 1STDIBS
KAREN VON HAHN TALKS SHOP WITH 1STDIBS FOUNDER MICHAEL BRUNO Images, from below: Up7 series "Il Piede" sculptural chair by Gaetano Pesce (1969); Walnut chaise by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb (1950s); Vintage nautical ship searchlight by Crouse Hinds (1930); Vintage turquoise handbag by Chanel (1960s); Beaded Deco evening dress (1920); Sputnik pendant light by Emil Stejnar (1960s). All found on 1stdibs.
Karen von Hahn: How did you first get the idea for an online antique market? Michael Bruno: After 10 years of selling high-end real estate, I moved from San Francisco to Paris to take a little time out and figure out my next move. I knew I wanted to start an Internet business, but I didn’t know what kind. My friends all said, “You moved from San Francisco to Paris to start an Internet company?” I didn’t know anything about the Internet. And I didn’t speak French. But in the process of trying to get myself set up in Paris and furnish my apartment, a friend took me shopping in the Puces [Paris flea markets]. And that’s where the idea came to me: This is my project. I can put these pieces online and take this ancient crossroads of trade to the world. How was it received? Was it an idea that took off right away? For the first six months, I was the only customer. We’d go into booths, shoot 10 things and I would buy one. I was worried that these people would tire of me awfully quickly if I didn’t sell anything. At the stage where I was running out of room and money, September 11 happened. Interior designers who used to travel to Paris to buy antiques for their clients weren’t travelling anymore. Which is how the Internet and 1stdibs actually ended up saving the Paris flea market. If 1stdibs has changed the way designers shop for their clients, has it also changed the way they work? We made it possible for people who used to have to travel or go to 15 different antique dealers looking for something unique to go to one place. We essentially do their shopping for them. Designers now use our website to find pieces and to share images of them with clients. The choice field has opened and we’ve made it easier for designers to do more interesting projects with one-of-a-kind pieces. Designers have said to me, “Not only have you widened the possibilities, you’ve manufactured time for me.” What is your favourite place in the real world for antique shopping? It's too hard to pick one, but if I had to I would say it’s still the Paris flea market. Clignancourt remains at the crossroads of Europe for vintage and antique design. Dealers from all over Europe send pieces there to be sold. Is there a particular period of furniture or furniture designer that you collect? I collect animal-themed objects from any period. What is the most recent piece you have bought for your own home? Here in Toronto, I visited 1stdibs dealers and bough three bronze monkeys at Fifty One Antiques, a Regency sofa from Five O Seven Antiques, and a pair of modern wood chairs from Decorum. Do you have a style icon? Tom Ford. I admire his quiet elegance. What can’t you live without? My family and health. Objects are for pleasure. I would hate to live without them but you can.
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WHERE PIZZA MET COCKTAIL
King West’s neighbourhood restaurant INSPIRED IN ITALY, MADE IN CANADA
333 King Street West T: 416.599.6585 | 3827 Bathurst Street T: 416.631.6585 www.paeseristorante.com
PHOTOS: ADRIAN ARMSTRONG, (PARROT ZIKMU) COURTESY OF DESIGN WITHIN REACH, (PHONE) COURTESY OF ÆSIR-COPENHAGEN
let the music play (CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT) PARROT ZIKMU WIRELESS SPEAKER SYSTEM BY PHILIPPE STARCK, $1,600, DESIGN WITHIN REACH / DWR.COM; 18K GOLD Æ&Y PHONE BY YVES BEHAR WITH RINGTONES FROM JAZZ MUSICIAN CHRIS MINH DOKY, €42,000, ÆSIR-COPENHAGEN.COM; MONSTER BEATS BY DR. DRE, $250, FUTURESHOP.CA; MIGHTY DWARF VIBRO SPEAKER, $75, THEBAY.COM; HOUSE OF MARLEY’S BAG OF RHYTHM, $350, HOUSEOFMARLEY.CA; BEOSOUND 8 IPOD DOCK, $999, SHOPBANGOLUFSEN.COM
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTOPHER WAHL 62
GAME ON!
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(PREVIOUS SPREAD) VERSACE DRESS AND VINTAGE GUCCI SCARF: VINTAGECOUTURE.COM; SHOES: STUART WEITZMAN AT HOLTRENFREW.COM. (HERE) MESH SHIRT: SEDUCTION.CA; WHITE LEATHER BRA: COMMES DES GARÇONS, STYLIST'S OWN. (OPPOSITE) FRINGE LEATHER SKIRT WITH MATCHING TOP: PINK COBRA BY TANIA MARTINS AT PINKCOBRA.CA. BOOTIES: DRMARTENS.COM.
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BLAZER: GESTUZ CLOTHING: INFO@ AGENCYONE.COM; VINTAGE BRA AND GARTERS: 69VINTAGE.COM; CHIFFON SKIRT: AMERICANAPPAREL.NET
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(HERE) TANK AND MATCHING SHORTS: CHLOECOMMEPARRIS.COM; CUFF BRACELETS: ELIZAKOZURNO.COM (OPPOSITE) ON JORDAN SUIT: STRELLSON AT GOTSTYLEMENSWEAR. COM; SHIRT: AMERICANAPPAREL.NET; SHOES: DRMARTENS.COM; WATCH: RAYMOND WEIL. ON ALECSA SHEER TOP: LUCIANMATIS. COM; SKORT: ROBERT RODRIGUEZ AT INFO@SIMMSSIGAL.CA; ERIC JAVITS STRAW VISOR AT HOLTRENFREW.COM; SHOES: BRIAN ATWOOD AT REMIXCLOTHING.CA; BELT: SUZIROHER.COM STYLIST: STACY TROKE HAIR/MAKEUP: CARMELLE DA ROSA MODELS: ALECSA NELSON AND JORDAN ROSS, FORD MODELS; MONIKA MARCZYK, PUSH MODELS
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FUR WAS FLYING
BADASS
A FASHION WEEK DIARY
STYLIST ROSLYN GRIFFITH HALL REPORTS FROM THE FRONT ROW
ME, ON THE PHONE
LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE BOYS
TOO GOOD!
PHOTOS: ROSLYN GRIFFITH HALL, (CHLOÉ COMME PARRIS) JASON HARGROVE, (MARTIN LIM) GEORGE PIMENTEL
j’arrive... still in Paris runway mode, landing only hours before the “official” startup to World MasterCard Fashion Week—I’m barely back in town and I have a full evening ahead of me. As the limo races down the 427, I’m actually considering pulling up to the tents with all my luggage. My feet are miserably tired and it’s all about flat shoes or boots but not another heel, s’il vous plait. With just moments to spare, I arrive fashionably late for the runway’s main event. Phew! Luckily, Holt Renfrew Presents the Canadian Catwalk is behind on its 8 pm start. When the show does go on, it opens with a snippet of the Hinterland Who’s Who theme. Another curious moment? There’s plenty of “fashion on tap”—perhaps that was the idea behind the tap dancer who Gregory Hines’d his way down the runway before the cavalcade of Canadian talent: Smythe, Judith & Charles, Lida Baday, Mackage, Dennis Merotto, Line, Twenty Cluny and Jeremy Laing. The clothes are in sharp focus with great tunes to back up the mood. It always comes back to the music, right? As I play name that tune sitting beside Gee Bax, Judith & Charles’ dress silhouettes prance out to some sexed-up version of Feist’s “My Moon My Man,” while the night’s song goes hands-down to The Spoons’ “Nova Heart” during Mackage. Between shows the Exclusive World MasterCard Lounge is rammed. My departure is swift as I head over to the Drake just in time to make the premiere of Top Chef Canada Season 2. First up on Tuesday is Chloé Comme Parris. It is immediately apparent that the girls have hit their stride this season with the Beautiful Badass theme striking all the notes for fall. Wistful, with dark lips and braided straw-like hair halos, Chloé’s rock-gothic prairie flowers traipse up and down the runway to a heavier “Heart of Gold” and ’80s throwback Siouxsie and the Banshees. The skirts and dresses are long and sweeping, with deftly printed knife pleats, in dusty, tawny, slate tones paired with knits, oversized biker jackets, tunics and fur vests and slim trousers. A duster coat is studded, the metal fixtures are like jewelry—a delicate, fine armour…armature? Mercedes-Benz Start Up winner Martin Lim revs into action with an introductory video using Brian Eno’s “Baby’s on Fire.” The designer couple made bold statements using graphic colour, with tunics and sheaths in melon, jade, cerise, charcoal and plum layered over skinny legs and cut and slashed into strips. The finale dress is a two-tone draped blessing. By Wednesday the events have kicked into high gear. The scene outside David Pecaut Square echoes Paris with all the posers and street-style bloggers rivaling the action under the tents. One notable feature (and emerging trend) is the video introduction at Vawk. An explanatory intro of the designer’s POV, it is also a segue to his diffusion line Vawkkin (another trend was the diffusion line). As Sunny Fong explained, Vawk kin is “same DNA but different woman.” The Vawk woman was clearly the stronger of the two. Sandwiched in-between shows is the onsite party for The Kit—a great respite before the next rash of must-see shows. Line is a luxe offering of textured knits and washed lambskin separates; a “rustic remix” of artisanal patterns in capes, ponchos, cardigans and coats. “This ain’t my first rodeo” emblazoned on T-shirts and on the back of a jean jacket is the sentiment touted in the promotional video celebrating the Calgary Stampede’s 100th anniversary. Bustle is rife with all the trappings—hay bales, wagon wheels, beefcake
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Beatnik meets Sloane Ranger: the little red riding jacket, cigarette-slim trousers, peplums, furs and feathers seal the evening, in a palette rich in red, oxblood, camel, emerald and a warm gold.
WORK IT!
dudes mucking out the stalls, awkward cowpokes in bolo ties at a line dance, corduroy suits, jeans, plaid shirts with yokes. Yet it’s more Kings of Leon rocking this ranch. Long live the Canadian catwalk(ers) at Joe Fresh! Meghan Collison, Kate King, Heather Marks, Amanda Laine, Anais Pouliot and Alanna Zimmer parade the swinging ’60s with teased backcombed side parts and a little liner on the eyes. In a clip from (Michelangelo) Antonioni’s 1966 cult film Blow-Up, Veruschka sets the tone. The mood is not vintage but the colours are mustard, moss green—and orange, a Joe Fresh staple, is seen on the soles of shoes, Louboutin style. Goldfrapp’s “Ooh La La” charges the runway. As the chorus of “I can give you what you want” from New Young Pony Club’s song “Ice Cream” proves, Joe Fresh certainly can dish it out. The classic ’60s silhouettes are modernized chunky-knit hats, funnel-neck sweaters, winter whites, après-ski motifs, black-and-white macro hounds-tooth prints and shaggy faux scarves. The Shore Club is the scene for the after-party and next door at The Ritz-Carlton the Bustle-ing crew is crammed in at the TOCA Bar. I manage to squeeze in one more party before the night’s end at The Hoxton, where at the DIScONNECT 4th Annual Fashion Film Festival, the Levett Brothers (Adam and Christopher) take the prize/cake. On Thursday and Friday, power couple Joe Mimran and Kimberley Newport-Mimran each take turns mining London. Newport-Mimran’s Pink Tartan went further into the vault for her Beatnik meets Sloane Ranger, as she continued to maintain that posh polish. The little red riding jacket, cigarette-slim trousers, boot-cut flares, a shearling motorcycle jacket, peplums, furs and feathers seal the evening, in a palette rich in red, oxblood, camel, emerald and a warm gold. The era also proved to inspire David Dixon, who pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and its icy blonde star Tippi Hedren. The fur continues to fly as it embellishes collars, sleeves, jackets, belts and gloves, even a white sweatshirt, in Travis Taddeo’s Doomed Generation collection. It prevails at almost every show, much to the chagrin of one lone, mousey soul handing out PETA leaflets with an iPad strapped to her torso bearing a message from Stella McCartney to “give fur the cold shoulder.” Strangely, on another political note, the “V for Vendetta” masks Occupied the studio show of Adrian Wu. Let’s hear it for the boys. Greta Constantine designers Stephen and Kirk have always bucked the trend and shown offsite. And the future is now in their new menswear collection, Ezra Constantine. A longtime admirer of the duo’s draped offerings, I am now coveting their menswear
for my own closet. Which is exactly the reasoning behind RAD by Rad Hourani #5 Unisex collection also debuting at Fashion Week. Both newcomers represent the new wave in urban cool: androgynous street chic. Yes, it takes a village and they came out in droves to support the Stephen Lewis Foundation at Hoax Couture’s Dare to Wear Love finale of WMC Fashion Week But the end wasn’t really the end with the second coming of Paola Fullerton’s offsite offering, The ShOws, over two days the following week at The Ritz-Carlton. David Szeto is the first up in four distinctive showcases. The jerseys are soft and feminine, while a two-tone long-sleeve dress over the ubiquitous slim legs have way more modern appeal. There is an awkward silence after the applause at the David Szeto show, which is repeated after the Ruffian presentation only long enough to hear the high-fives of the designers, Brian Wolk and Claude Morais, congratulating the models backstage. Rightly so, the Madame looks have that ’80s Dynasty, Guy Bourdin party girl down. The collection worked through her day, starting with a plaid double-breasted maxi coat, and flaunted a lot of blouse and skirt pairings. Then the moment we had been waiting for arrived: Jean-Pierre Braganza lays out accessible avant-garde. I’m especially jonesing for any one of his swallow-tailed zippered skirts. Although Jeremy Laing has been shown at Holt Renfrew, it is his first solo show. His Japanese minimalism is layered with boxy tailored jackets, nubby capes and coats in treated fabrics over washed leather legs. The playlist for the evening scores high on my charts: Book of Love’s “I Touch Roses,” Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “Kiss Them For Me,” and we saunter out to Trust’s “Sulk” while humming the previously mentioned tunes. Every year the week gets longer, but in the end my lungs made it through. My six-degrees-of-separation moment happened while I was sitting in the Peroni lounge trying to get a shot of Eve Gordon and her husband, the parents of Chloé Comme Parris, each carrying one of the two large candlesticks that adorned the runway of their daughters’ show. I started chatting with three women. As it so happens, they weren’t just any three chicks in from Denver: Yanita hails from the ’Peg, friends with Susur Lee, Brenda Bent, Joyce and Judy of Comrags, and Zapata babes Karen and Nancy. We even share the same hot yoga teacher, Jason Sniderman at Moksha. Paula, a true rock star, was wearing what I took to be a Chloé Comme Parris cross but was a little something she picked up at Jacflash. And DeeDee just happens to be Tommy Hilfiger’s sister. Yes, that’s right, I asked her twice.
FREED SALES CENTRE
KING
STEWART WELLINGTON
SPADINA
PORTLAND
BATHURST
ADELAIDE
ASK THE FASHION PROS: WHEN THE HEAT IS ON, HOW TO DRESS FOR SUCCESS WITHOUT LOOKING ALL HOT & BOTHERED?
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Shawn Hewson
Susie Sheffman
Creative Director, Bustle Clothing
Fashion Director, Dealuxe
The first solution I’d offer is that guys invest in a cool carry-all bag; I’m not talking about a backpack or a gym bag or a brief-case with a shoulder-strap either. Splurge on a high-quality carry-all that looks just as cool in the office as it does for after-work drinks. A carry-all should be an extension of your style and represents an opportunity to make a statement or even turn a few heads. Functionally, it provides an opportunity to remove a few elements for the commute: Ties, jackets, socks (maybe even a change of shirt or shoes) can be transported to the office and then added or substituted into your outfit upon arrival. This does not give you a license to pair your suit with a concert T-shirt or sandals for the commute; your travel or after-work look needs to be just as sharp as your office look— you may encounter colleagues or other parties of interest at any given time! Secondly, wear the right fabrics—“cool-wool,” cotton and linen blends are great options for keeping it cool.
I always freeze in the summer. Indoors, that is. Running from the steamy street to a sub-zero office can pose a problem. To beat both the heat and the deep freeze I always make sure to have three year-round essentials in constant rotation, and I pop them over everything—from a breezy floral shift dress to white jeans and a tank—as soon as I get inside. First, a charcoal-grey or taupe lightweight cashmere cardigan is an air-con-fighting must—the perfect combination of cozy and effortlessly chic. Adding one of these to any summer look is a cinch. Second, a lightweight wool pattern scarf—try a colourful leopard or snakeskin print! The ultimate office deep-freeze saviour, this luxe item can do double duty: Don’t be afraid to bundle yourself up with it or use it as a blanket to keep warm at your desk. Finally, I suggest a tropical wool blazer. This trans-seasonal fabric is remarkably light and comfortable, plus it will add polish (and warmth) to any look!
Adrienne Shoom
Melissa Austria
Barbara Atkin
Senior Style Director, Joe Fresh
Founder, Gotstyle The Menswear Store
Vice President Fashion Direction, Holt Renfrew
Summer style is all about layering. As a bike-towork gal, I know how difficult it can be to keep your cool. But with a few must-haves, keeping the temp controlled in and out of the office is a breeze. First, the classic white shirt. I love the Joe Fresh button-downs; they can be worn alone or under a jacket to help combat the AC. Pair that with this season’s must-have printed pants and pretty pumps and you are good to go. My number two must is a jacket. The key is to keep it looking light: Go for pastels and add skinny jeans and loafers (sans socks) for a sophisticated summer look. Third must? Skip the mini and make the move to a longer, fuller silhouette. Easy to bike in, a full skirt gives you additional warmth and coverage while allowing for a nice in-transit breeze. Wear it with kitten heels (also great from the bike to the boardroom) and a light cardigan to fight the office freeze in fashion. And, fellow cyclists, don’t forget your helmet— not for fashion but for staying safe (and looking cool) on the bike!
Keeping it cool while staying chic in the summer is all about finding the right balance. Think light— both in terms of colour and fabric. Europeans have been wearing cotton and linen suits for centuries, and, finally, North American men are beginning to understand them. When it’s 30-plus outside, you do not want to be wearing a dark navy wool suit. Not only will you look hot and uncomfortable, you probably are! A light colour physiologically makes you feel lighter and won’t absorb as much of the sun as a dark suit. Do not be afraid of the wrinkles, it’s the nature of the fabric, and most linen and cotton suits are now blended with other fibres so they won’t wrinkle as much as they used to. Another option is to try a shortsleeve dress shirt—it will keep you cooler if you bike or walk to work and under a blazer it looks like a regular dress shirt. Lastly, don’t forget about the oh-so-chic three-piece suit. You can leave the jacket at the office to slip on when the AC is on full blast and rock the vest when walking to and from work.
Dressing professionally can be a challenge during the hot summer months, but looking cool and crisp is a must no matter how hot and humid it gets. The perfect solution is to layer. My personal favourite is to wear a lightweight sleeveless sheath while commuting to work in the summer heat and take with a tailored summer-weight jacket or lightweight cardigan to put on once at the office. Stick to light colours—white, beige or the beautiful pastel shades that are so important this summer. A pair of ballet flats or sling-back peep-toe pumps will finish off the look. If you are lucky, your office will allow you to skip the pantyhose. If this is the case, use a self-tanner on your legs to give them an all-over sun-kissed look— and don’t forget a must-have pedicure. Add some simple jewelry and a bit of “arm candy” and you are ready to face both the outdoor heat and the cool indoors of your airconditioned office.
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PHOTOS: GABRIELE STABILE
FOOD
t is getting harder every day to stand out in Toronto’s booming luxury hotel market. The Donald, in typical Trumpian style, built the tallest hotel in Canada. The Ritz-Carlton has established itself as a virtual clubhouse for celebrities during TIFF, and the new Four Seasons is expected to be the flagship property for that international brand. A hotel like the Shangri-La could easily get lost amid all of the excitement. It’s going to need something more than 300-thread-count linens, Frette robes and Monocru turndown chocolates to stand out in this crowded field and I think I know what that is. Food. I’ve had the good fortune to stay and dine at many Shangri-La hotels around the world and have never had a bad meal at any of them. No other luxury chain, in my view, manages its dining experience at such a consistently high level. From Sydney to Shanghai, Paris to Penang, Shangri-La’s dining rooms are not just great hotel restaurants but often some of the best restaurants in town. At the hotel’s Horizon Club Lounge in Tokyo, I drank champagne and ate sashimi while watching the city lights come to life. I devoured handmade tagliatelle spiked with porcini mushrooms at Piacere, a modern Italian restaurant of such immense plushness that the drawers in the wine cellar are lined with velvet. At Nadaman in the same hotel, I participated in a kaiseki meal that took seasonality to the next level by serving each course in handmade dishes designed specifically to reflect the time of year. At restaurant BLU in the Shangri-La Singapore, I asked chef de cuisine Kevin Cherkas—a Canadian who got his start at Vancouver’s Metropolitan Hotel before honing his skills at El Bulli and Daniel—not to show me a menu and just cook whatever he liked. There was sautéed lobster with sweet and sour eggplant and kaffir lime essence, crab with curried pineapple and peanut powder, and a miniature waffle holding minced egg yolk, chives, sour cream and caviar in each of its little squares. At the two-Michelin-star Restaurant Petrus in the Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong, under a domed ceiling painted with galloping horses, I ate confit duck liver in orange jelly with orange blossom cream. I drank Bordeaux paired with roast Aveyron lamb, sautéed fava beans and warm Jabugo ham while overlooking Victoria Harbour. When Shangri-La moved into North America with the opening of its Vancouver property in 2009, the hotel’s developer, Westbank Corporation (the same company that is developing the Toronto project), brought in Alsatian super-chef Jean Georges Vongerichten to open Market, a kind of greatest-hits survey of the chef’s most popular dishes. It was a bold move. Vancouver, a city with a vibrant, fiercely local food scene, is not particularly welcoming to outside chefs. In 2008, Daniel Boulud, one of the world’s most successful restaurateurs, took over Rob Feenie’s much-loved restaurants Lumiere and Feenie’s, but despite excellent food and service the city never warmed to the French imports and the restaurants closed after two years. Market is still going strong. The dining room, with its scalloped gold walls, soft cream leather chairs and carefully calibrated lighting, is serious without being stuffy and Vongerichten’s food is as fun as it is delicious. His tuna tartare with avocado, spicy radishes and ginger dressing neatly captures the essence of Vancouver on a plate and his soy-glazed short ribs with apple-jalapeño puree and rosemary crumbs should be given the keys to the city. Foodwise, Shangri-La and Westbank have even bigger ambitions for Toronto. David Chang will operate two properties alongside the hotel— Noodle Bar and Momofuku Daisho—and there will be an in-house restaurant, Bosk, under the direction of executive chef Jean Paul Lourdes.
Chang will likely be familiar to anyone with even a passing interest in food and restaurants. The Korean-American chef exploded onto the scene in 2004 with the opening of Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York’s East Village—a simple, bare-bones restaurant that specializes in exquisitely prepared versions of ramen, pork buns and contemporary versions of Asian comfort food. It quickly grew into one of New York’s most talkedabout restaurants. Two years later Chang opened Momofuku Ssäm Bar, followed by Momofuku Ko two years after that. His most ambitious restaurant to date, the 12-seat Momofuku Ko soon earned the chef two Michelin stars. A hugely successful cookbook followed, as did the Milk Bars in Manhattan as well as a restaurant in Sydney, Momofuku Seiōbo, and Lucky Peach, an irreverent, highly influential food journal. Getting him to open not one but two restaurants in Toronto is something of a coup. “We’ve had the opportunity to open in a lot of different places,” Chang recently told me, “but we’ve always turned it down because for whatever reason it didn’t feel right. Toronto is a place I’ve visited several times now and it just seemed to me that the partnership with Shangri-La and with Westbank, and especially the lure of actually being able to have a fresh building, were too good to pass up. Also, because Toronto’s got such a diverse population, I don’t think our food’s going to be so foreign. I think it will make more sense in Toronto than it might in other places.” His overarching vision for the two restaurants is clear. “The food is obviously going to be Momofuku,” Chang says, “but we’re not going to be a carbon copy. Yes, we’re going to have pork buns and, yes, we’re going to serve ramen, but will it taste the same? Probably not, because the pork’s different and the bacon’s different.” The first, more casual space will be an idealized version of a noodle bar. “The biggest thing is that I wanted something where everything would be affordable for everybody,” Chang says. Momofuku Daisho will be a little higher end: “Maybe the best example,” he explains, “is kind of what Danny Meyer has done in New York, where you have formal and informal in the same room, but ours is going to be more informal with some formal.” While Chang’s restaurants share the space with Shangri-La, they are not owned and operated by the hotel. Chef Jean Paul Lourdes’ Bosk, the Shangri-La’s in-house restaurant, is also promising. Although less well known in North America than Chang, my guess is that the New Zealand–born, Japan-raised former molecular biologist will make a significant impact on Toronto’s food scene. Richard Cooke, the general manager of the hotel, says of Lourdes: “He’s worked all over the world in many interesting and high-end establishments and he’s developed his own style of cuisine, which we’ll be bringing to the market. A lot of it is based on our understanding of the traditions and fundamentals of food and beverage that came from Escoffier, but delivered in a more modern presentation.” Lourdes’ most recent appointment was at Grill 79 in the Shangri-La China World Summit Wing in Beijing. If the menu he developed for that restaurant is any indication, we’re in for a treat: Tempura pig’s ear with sea urchin roe ice cream and transparent manchego with compressed melon and olive oil pudding are far from typical hotel food offerings. For his part, Cooke is playing things close to his chest. “Our intent,” he says, “is to come in with a fair offering that is interesting, thought provoking and delivered with a lot of passion, but with humility. That’s all we can do and if we do that well, I trust that people will come back.” Chang echoes this sentiment. “I want to make sure that we tread lightly and we’re respectful to the culinary community that already exists,” he says. “This isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. I’m excited that there’s a lot of buzz about it, but we want to be in Toronto for a long time.”
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FOOD
CONFESSIONS OF A FOOD TRUCK JUNKIE
PHOTOS: MICHAEL ALBERSTAT
FROM SMOKED MEAT TO GOURMET TACOS, THE MEALS ON WHEELS PHENOM HITS THE STREETS BY IVY KNIGHT
Back when I lived in Texas I used to frequent a clanging jalopy of a rig, parked in a lot, with no name and run by a crusty old cowboy wearing a sweat-stained straw hat, a bolo tie and a pristine white undershirt. He only had two items on his menu—pulled pork sandwiches and brisket sandwiches—and because I could never pick one over the other I always ordered both. Standing on the sidewalk in flip flops and a sundress, while the heat made squiggles of the street, I’d chug a Dr. Pepper from his cooler while he got to work on my order. The sandwiches were assembled on Wonder Bread as white as his wife-beater, the meat liberally doused in barbecue sauce before they were wrapped in butcher paper. Sides were big raw circles of white onion, giant pickles and coleslaw, strangely all served in a little deli bag with no fork so you’d kind of shoot back the slaw like someone trying to get the last Frito Lay out of the bag. I’d sit down right on the sidewalk and dig in. His pulled pork was heaven until you took a bite of the succulent smoky brisket and found nirvana—both equally messy and delicious, chased with bites of raw white onion and sour pickle and washed down with a glug of spicy Dr. Pepper. That noname Texas food truck changed me: It made me fatter, of course, but it also made me crazy for street food. And lately, I’ve got company. The popularity of shows like Eat Street and The Great Food Truck Race, coupled with the growing food truck phenomenon in U.S. cities from Portland to Brooklyn, has made us Torontonians ravenous for our own food truck scene. We too want to eat wackily named tacos made by former hedge fund traders serving out of customized Airstreams and follow our fave trucks on Twitter. Thanks to a number of tenacious chefs and one very passionate street food activist, this spring the food truck phenomenon is coming to a parking lot near you. Suresh Doss is unabashedly passionate about street food:. “I grew up in India and Sri Lanka and spent time in Malaysia and Singapore, where it is common to eat at least one meal a day at a hawker stand,” he says. “In Toronto, everyone talks about how diverse we are, but that is not being represented on the street level.”
After the embarrassing debacle that was the Toronto a la Cart fiasco a few years ago— where the city’s genius plan to impose a long list of regulations and require vendors to shell out more than $30,000 each for a “uniform look” cart saw seven of the eight licensed trucks out of business within the first year—Doss decided it was time to take matters into his own hands. He began his mission for better local street food by hosting a Food Truck Eats event in the Distillery District last June. “It was frustrating initially,” Doss says. “People didn’t really get the concept of a gourmet food truck. At the first event you’d notice people would come up and ask for a hot dog or poutine. But there’s been a big change from then to now.” That first event brought out 4,000 people. By Doss’ third Food Truck Eats, the crowd had swelled to 20,000. When Doss announced a collaboration with the Toronto Underground Market to host a Street Food Block Party this May at the Evergreen Brickworks, he got more than 1,000 RSVPs the first day. Thunderin’ Thelma is Zane Caplansky’s food truck. Caplansky took her on Dragon’s Den this year, asking for $350,000 in exchange for 15 percent of his business feeding smoked meat to the hungry hordes. Dragon Jim Treliving’s response? “That scares the heck out of me.” Caplansky, who has a restaurant, explains why he wants to hit the road. “We had done a number of large festivals the year before, like Luminato and Arcade Fire on Toronto Island, and I saw what was happening in the States with the trucks. I thought it was a great way to extend our reach while also efficiently serving food at large-scale events.” He repeats his sell to the Dragons: “I only want to have one restaurant and this is the way I want to expand—with the trucks. They are repeatable, scale-able, franchise-able and, most important, I’m not paying rent.” Being turned down on TV hasn’t stopped Caplansky from selling out of his signature smoked meat sandwiches at events all over Ontario. Thunderin’ Thelma has hit everything from the Picnic at the Brickworks, Beerfest and Jazzfest in Toronto to weddings and bar mitzvahs.
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WE TOO WANT TO EAT WACKILY NAMED TACOS AND FOLLOW OUR FAVE TRUCKS ON TWITTER.
The plain fact that Toronto has a shorter truck-friendly season doesn’t seem to impact the street food enthusiast’s dedication. Doss decided to put this to the test in the middle of winter. “I knew the trucks were trying to show that they can operate year round so I organized an event at U of T in January,” Doss says. More than 1,100 hungry people turned out in the cold. Now that’s dedication. For his part, Caplansky has bought a vintage 1968 Airstream, which is now being converted to his second truck. He plans to have it on the road this summer. “I might name it after my Papa, Sam,” he says. “The first truck, Thelma, was named after my Nana. Sam was the person who introduced me to my first deli experience. We’d go to Switzer’s together. That’s where it all began.” More trucks are hitting the streets this spring, including a gluten-free food truck from the Gourmet Bitches and a schnitzel truck called Dobro Jesti Schnitzel, operated by Slovenian ex-pats Jim and Lori Godina, who plan to serve perogies, savoury donut holes and beet salad along with a large selection of schnitzels. And sometimes it works the other way: La Carnita’s pop-up art/taco truck events have proved so popular they just announced that they’re opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant on College Street. When asked to name a favourite truck, Doss mentions the many he’s worked with so far: Caplansky’s, Cupcake Diner, Gorilla Cheese, Shriner’s Creek, the Roman Chariot, Gourmet Bitches and Toasted Tangerine. “But,” he says, “El Gastrónomo Vagabundo is the most gourmet in terms of its food options right now. They really embrace the originality and inventiveness that makes for a great gourmet food truck menu. My favourite is their pork nachos—crackling pork belly, cilantro, spices and sauce.” After a beat he asks: “What could be better?” Maybe eating it while standing in a sunny parking lot with sauce on your face.
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GET TRUCKIN’ ON TWITTER: @CaplanskyTruck @elgastronomo @gorilla_cheese @CupcakeDiner @ToastedTangerin @gourmetb1tches @la_carnita @ShrinersCreek
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF EL GASTRÓNOMO VAGABUNDO
Caplansky also sells barbecued brisket, deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and, my personal favourite, maple bacon donuts made with his own house-made beef bacon, a classic flavour combination of salty and sweet. A fresh donut is a revelation. If everyone was given the choice Tim Horton’s would be out of business faster than you could say double double—particularly when they’re being served from the window of a customised marine blue truck. Another mobile gourmet enterprise gathering a fan base is El Gastrónomo Vagabundo, which specialises in Southeast-Asian-inspired dishes and gourmet tacos. Chef/owner Adam Hynam-Smith and his wife, Tamara Jensen, keep the menu interesting with items like lamb tongue fritters and beef cheek curry. The couple approximate their startup costs to be around $65,000. Jenson says they got into the business because “we wanted to work for ourselves, and opening a brick and mortar restaurant wasn’t in the budget. The truck gives us a flexibility that isn’t possible with a restaurant. We can change the menu, location and hours to suit our customers and our food interests.” As for the legalities of operating a street food enterprise in Toronto, it’s still a complicated, not-quiteabove-board business. But one way successful food truck owners have side-stepped legislation is by selling from privately owned locations. Suresh Doss, for one, spearheaded a number of outrageously popular food truck gatherings with his Food Truck Eats events of the past year, “The city currently has a moratorium in place which prevents any new food truck from operating on public property in the downtown core,” Doss says. Food Truck Eats gets around this by partnering up with spaces and organizations, like the Distillery District and the University of Toronto, which are privately owned. He’s hoping the popularity of these events will convince the city to change its rules.
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ADVENTURES IN ALCOHOL
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WRITERS HIT THE ROAD IN SEARCH OF LIQUID INSPIRATION. KAREN VON HAHN, LEANNE DELAP AND MARILISA RACCO DRINK AND TELL.
A RUM DIARY:
SHAKEN AND POURED IN NICARAGUA If you ever get a chance to travel to a small Central American country as the guest of a rum distillery, I suggest you take it. Founded in 1890, Flor de Caňa ( or “flower of the cane”) is not only one of the world’s oldest distilleries, it is the de facto head of Nicaragua. The gritty Caribbean nation with its checkered past is not without its charms: Its eerie tropical landscape is dotted with active volcanoes and inland lakes that are swimming with the world’s only freshwater sharks. The charming colonial city of Granada with its shaded plazas and brightly painted stucco is the oldest in the Americas. And virtually every single sign on any significant building or traffic roundabout in the country advertises who’s boss in glowing neon letters: Flor de Caňa. Rum drinking starts early in the day in Nicaragua. The Macua (Nicaragua’s “national cocktail”—an intoxicating blend of Flor de Caňa rum with citrus and passion fruit juices) is best enjoyed in the morning, or so I am told by Flor de Caňa’s suave and charming Brand Ambassador Mauricio Solorzano as he hands me a glass. Freshly shaken and poured by Freddie the bartender, who is mixing drinks in the back of our tour bus, it’s delicious—at 8:30 am. And the rum drinking goes on all day. At lunch, typically a long and drawn-out Latin affair with several courses (most of them involving some kind of meat), no beer or wine is served—just open bottles of 18-year-old Flor de Caňa on the table accompanied by sweating buckets of constantly replenished ice. Turns out 18-year-old Flor de Caňa rum on the rocks is both super smooth and a remarkably good accompaniment to the delicious Nicaraguan steak and shrimp we have for lunch, and then again, for dinner. The word “rum” comes from rumbullion, which means noise and happiness in Haitian patois. Around 1630, the spirits of the slaves on the sugar
plantations seemed measurably lifted after drinking the fermented runoff of molasses and “Kill Devil,” or rumbullion, now shortened to rum, was born. Of today’s versions of the amber liquor, Flor de Caňa’s is particularly pure. Made in small batches, distilled five times and then stored in burnt oak barrels imported from Kentucky that have been used to store bourbon, Flor de Caňa still slow-ages its rum for four to 18 years and uses no artificial colourants or additives. The result, long an insider secret here in Canada—with the 18-year-old vintage a recent addition— is the most awarded rum in the world. A couple days in, I’m not exactly drinking the Kool-Aid, but I’m certainly finding it easy to down the Flor de Caňa. Crowds parted for us in the lively plazas of ancient Leon, with its futbol-playing kids in front of the melting vanilla ice-cream baroque cathedral, and again in tropical-hued and palm-fringed Granada, where residents were gearing up for the big fest of the Virgin Mary—a yearly event that involves the competitive decoration and procession of many be-ribboned and flowered floats, accompanied by a 24-hour serenade of many loud and explosive fireworks (not the most relaxing sound heard outside your hotel room at 3 am in a formerly wartorn country). Seems that if you are travelling with the ambassadors of Nicaragua’s national pride—not to mention the source of its rumbullion—your little delegation has an all-access pass no matter how holy the occasion. There is an expression among distillers, who call the tiny bit of evaporation that naturally occurs in the aging process “the angel’s share.” What I learned in my mucho macho rum-tasting tour of Nicaragua is that if there is an afterlife, they must surely serve 18-yearold Flor de Caňa in heaven. —Karen von Hahn
Sharp editor Jeremy Freed and Karen von Hahn
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A VODKA SHOT:
BOOZING WITH THE BISON IN POLAND Vodka is always about the story. And here’s one: Whisked out of Warsaw with hangovers at dawn (lots of welcome Na Zdrowies over shots of warm vodka the night before), we, a grab-bag of journalists, liquor bloggers— and for random good measure an aging thrash-rock chick from Tampa who, along with her club-king husband, wore full biker leathers every hour of the day—were shipped by rail to the northeastern outpost of Bialystok, a collection of bleak Soviet apartment blocks so grim they are almost beautiful. Yes, this is a place that calls for drinking from the neck of a bottle. Indeed, the distillery for Zubrowska, the world’s most famous bison grass vodka, is located here. A bumpy ride in a bus that smells of sausage and apple juice (one mixes bison grass vodka with the local, plentiful apple juice) lands us at the border of Belarus, in a village called Bialowieza, which is rather cheerful and twee (think carved woodland creatures in the hotel lobby). The village, along with its surrounding protected forest, is an anomaly in this country that has been crushed by so many and varied boot heels: a favourite hunting ground of the czars, it was Goebbel’s WWII getaway before the Soviet elites arrived to erect their hunting dachas. But we are here to seek out the bison and its namesake grass. European bison, it turns out, are very difficult to find. From a one-time-high population of three million, the wild herd was deemed extinct in 1919. A slow infusion of their cousin, the American Plains bison, helped to bolster the colony. Today there are some 4,000, and this World UNESCO Heritage–protected forest is a key habitat. Roused again at 5 am and herded onto another bus, we trek in search. Turns out the bison are shy and only roam the open fields early, before the peskiest flies you have ever met force them even deeper into the woods. Planes, trains, buses and a pre-dawn hike and we don’t even catch a glimpse of them (until later, in a particularly sad zoo). And the bison grass itself is even more shy: The location of the tiny patches is a closely guarded secret of some 25 local families. Ah, but liquor marketing is about mystique, and vodka, which has been leached of its taste by fashion, is turning to uniqueness and authenticity. Hence the Zu label with a picture of the mighty bison, a piece of its grass in every bottle, tinged green by the secret herb. The earliest evidence of vodka was found in Poland in the 15th century. Its use was widespread as a medicinal agent, treating tummy troubles
and, oddly, fertility. (Yes, I can attest that vodka is still one way to get pregnant.) Flavours were added to cover up the taste of primitive stills. Then, in the 1880s, technology advanced to make a clear, more subtly flavoured spirit. At the turn of the century, nearly 90 percent of vodkas were made from spuds. Now Poland has cottoned on to how something rare and mysterious as bison and their grass can be the secret ingredient for a new luxury brand. Enter Luksusowa, formerly a state-owned concern, and now marketed outside the homeland as a premium spirit. Once the norm, now Luksusowa is the rare potato-based spirit. In Warsaw, high above the city in the Remy Picard skyscraper, we ponder its baked-potato-skin notes with the brand ambassador as we overlook the rebuilt Warsaw Ghetto and Stalin’s creepy Gothika-styled Palace of Culture and Science. And then there is the new Warsaw, where we are driven around to the clubs in a white stretch limo. Warsaw by day yields stylish youth, boutique hotels worthy of Paris, some chic coffee bars. By club light, however, it is the full fromage: gangsters and their molls, flaming vodka throwing and gifts of shredded Polish currency—almost as dear to me now as the sausage board given to us by accordion players in native dress. But then Krakow, a couple of hours south by train, takes my breath away. We visit with reps from Wódka Żołądkowa Gorzka, the herbalflavoured vodka known as ZG, which is the middle-class Poles’ tipple of choice. Moody, lovely Krakow, with its massive castle on the banks of the Vistula River dating back to the 12th century, was spared from the bombs because the Nazis placed their headquarters there. And we needed all the vodka we could get after a visit to the phenomenally moving Schindler house, now a Holocaust museum. It is a sensory overwhelm, from the recreated rooms of Schindler’s saved souls, salvaged family photographs of the lost and remnants of Nazi paraphernalia. And, of course, Krakow is where tours leave for Auschwitz. The story is unimaginably sad but also still being written. What lingers in my mind long after all the Polish vodka is gone? Walking along the Vistula at midnight with a bottle of ZG and a shot glass—my own private tour of the city of Polish kings, where the proud heritage of a national drink and the distant suffering of the fallen make for a potent cocktail. —Leanne Delap
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A TEQUILA TALE: DRINKING WITH THE ENEMY IN MEXICO
I guess you could say my experiences with tequila make for pretty standard fare. Typically they start with shooters and beer chasers, and end with me either doing a striptease on the bar or slumped in a corner weeping. You know, the usual. Needless to say, I don’t touch the stuff unless I’ve exhausted every other alcoholic option—and even then I’d still opt to suck on the rind of a spiked watermelon first. So it was with some trepidation that I accepted a cordial invitation to travel to Mexico with Casa Herradura tequila to learn of the venerable company’s history, familiarize myself with the brand and, I imagined, make a complete ass of myself in front of my industry peers. Again. As it turns out, real, authentic tequila is a sipping drink that is submitted to exacting distilling standards not unlike a fine whisky or cognac and is rarely followed by the words “boom-boom,” “popper” or “-fueled rage” (that worm thing is a myth, too). It is presently enjoying top spot as the fastest-growing alcohol category in Canada, with a steady four percent increase in sales annually, outpacing my old friends vodka and whisky. Made strictly from the blue Weber agave plant (other agaves produce mescal), tequila is a pure recipe that involves mixing the nectar that comes from cooking the heart of the plant with the juice that comes from milling it. The two are then fermented and distilled. The virgin spirit, or one that is aged less than 60 days, is classified a blanco, followed by reposado that is aged for a minimum of two months, and anejo, which ages for a minimum of one year. Unlike the flashy tequilas preferred by Bay Street types and moneyed frat boys, Casa Herradura’s spirits are noted for their detailed distillation process that follows tradition to the letter, as well as their trailblazing reputation for creating the industry’s first-ever reposado. One of the oldest distilleries in Mexico, it’s located in the Amatitan Valley north of Guadalajara, and the only one that still boasts an entirely haciendagrade production process today. Their tequilas include El Jimador (Mexico’s number one brand), Herradura and Antiguo, which is not currently available in Canada. The house’s eponymous elixir is its crown jewel and boasts distillation practices that cement its status as the enfant terrible of tequila. Case in point: They distill their reposado for 11 months and their anejo for two years—five times and two times longer than the industry standard, respectively. They have created the first extra anejo tequila (aged 48 months) and exclusively use white American oak casks for aging. Simply put, Herradura is badass. It’s hard to say at what point during my adventure I stopped crossing my fingers in a T formation and spitting every time a bottle of tequila was placed in front of me. But somewhere between a picturesque horseback journey through the agave fields, several sun-dappled alfresco lunches and countless requests for salsa sin cilantro, I made peace with tequila. Admittedly, I gravitate toward the anejo variety because it’s as close as tequila gets to mimicking the fullness and depth of a single malt, but I no longer require it to be masked with fruit flavouring and loads of ice. The jury is still out on whether I can put my weeping striptease days behind me, but I suspect my new drinking partner will take better care of me from now on. —Marilisa Racco
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REAL, AUTHENTIC TEQUILA IS RARELY FOLLOWED BY THE WORDS “BOOM BOOM,” “POPPER” OR “-FUELED RAGE.”
THINKING PINOT GRIGIO, THINK AGAIN
Moschofilero BY
Available at your local LCBO store.
PROJECT FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION AND GREEK GOVERNMENT
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Mer Soleil “Silver” 2010 Unoaked Chardonnay Santa Lucia Highlands, California $29.95 Rogers & Company / rogcowines.com
SUMMER SIPS
This non-traditional California Chardonnay was fermented and aged in cement vats instead of oak. The result is a crisp, mineral-driven wine that is a true expression of the grape variety and terroir. The bottle is ingeniously made of cold-retaining ceramic: perfect for the beach—and you can leave the ice bucket at home.
BY ROBERT GRAVELLE Warm weather inspires outdoor meals— picnics in the park, backyard barbeques and impromptu beach parties—and all require the perfect quaff. Enjoy these wines with simple fare on a hot, sunny day.
Velenosi Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico 2010 Le Marche, Italy $15.95 Profile Wine Group profilewinegroup.com A great value pick is the fresh Verdicchio from the lovely Angela Velenosi. Lemon and almond notes with a delicious streak of acidity, it’s great on its own or with oily foods like grilled sardines or deep-fried treats.
Schramsberg Vineyards Blanc de Blancs Brut 2008 Calistoga, California $42.95 The Vine – Robert Groh Agency robgroh.com Schramsberg is arguably the finest North American producer of bubbly. This sparkler is made entirely from Chardonnay and in the traditional method. Expect aromas and flavours of fresh green and baked apples, citrus and biscuity notes.
Bastianich Rosato 2009 Colli Orientali del Friuli, Italy $16.95 The Vine – Robert Groh Agency robgroh.com Officially the wine of the summer (at least for me)! This vino is made by macerating Refosco grapes in their juice until a neon red colour is obtained. Bone dry on the palate with ripe, mouthwatering acidity and flavours of stone fruit, flowers and citrus. Château de Beauregard Fleurie “Colonies de Rochegrès” 2009 Bourgogne, France $39.95 Lifford / liffordwine.com This wine is pure elegance and finesse. Pretty, fruity and floral notes with light body and very little tannin. A perfect pairing with cheese and charcuterie.
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Robert Gravelle is the general manager/wine director for Jacobs and Co. Steakhouse and an instructor for the International Sommelier Guild.
There’s nothing natural about the way wines are judged. Po-faced judges sniffing, swirling, gazing, musing, at long tables with anonymous wines in identical glasses. It’s a tough test track for any winemaker. But our winemakers have it doubly tough because not only do we have the judges to contend with, but also and more importantly, the hawk-like gazes of our forebears. One hundred and sixty years of the Hill Smith family of winemakers (making us Australia’s oldest family-owned winery). They are the ultimate judges. Would it get their raised eyebrow of approval? Would they put their name to it? Would they talk, eat, live, laugh and share it with their friends? And will you?
Pick up a bottle at your local liquor store. B&W Wines, 1179 King Street West, Suite 016, Toronto, Ontario Canada MK 3C5 P: +1 416 531 5553 F: +1 416 531 1320 kwp!YAL10275
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Available to residential customers in select dwellings in Ontario where technology and line of site permits. (1) Each additional TV requires one HD receiver ($5.53/mo. Rental choice, or $199 purchase). (2) Use of apps on Fibe TV counts towards your Bell Internet usage. Fibe is a trademark of Bell Canada. Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.
International superstar DJ and producer Tiësto released his new mix album, CLUB LIFE - Volume Two Miami. The second installment in Tiësto’s exciting CLUB LIFE series is inspired by Miami - one of the world’s premiere dance music cities. CLUB LIFE - Volume Two offers unique access to Tiësto’s Miami, a city renowned for its world class night life, beautiful party goers and everlasting summers. Tiësto crafts the CLUB LIFE experience masterfully, using his own exclusive original productions and remixes as the driving force behind the album. Exclusive songs, written by Tiësto specifically with the Miami club culture in mind, include the enormous Wolfgang Gartner collaboration “We Own The Night,” the aptly titled “Chasing Summers,” and a high energy team up with Russian trio Swanky Tunes on “Make Some Noise.” Showcasing his pre-eminent remixing abilities, Tiësto has created a handful of remixes for Volume Two. Coldplay’s “Paradise” gets a shot of patented Tiësto adrenaline; Gotye’s international chart topper, “Somebody That I Used To Know,” is reimagined as a late night party starter; and lastly The Naked & Famous’ indie anthem “Young Blood” gets tag teamed by Tiësto and young Dutch star Hardwell.
AVAILABLE NOW IN-STORE AT HMV
A DIVINE FOOD & COCKTAIL EXPERIENCE.
ON THE TOWN
PHOTOS: RYAN EMBERLEY
RIGHT TO PLAY
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Glen Baxter and Right to Play’s Ashton Lawrence; Toronto Standard ’s Sabrina Maddeaux, TDot TV’s Justin Edmead and Sarah Sternfels; former hockey player Eric Lindros and Toronto Maple Leafs’ Luke Schenn; Miss Universe Canada 2011 Elena Semikina and fan; Ralph Lean and CTV broadcaster Brian Williams; Glen Baxter, Ashton Lawrence, Jennifer Williams, Alexandra Richards and Jaime Wilson; Right to Play founder and Olympic Gold Medalist Johann Koss, Jennifer Koss, Diane Bald and Roots founder Michael Budman; DJ Alexandra Richards.
PHOTOS: ARASH MOALLEMI, GLENN BELL
SNOWBALL
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: 3rd Uncle’s Arriz Hassam, Snowball 2012 co-chairs and House and Home’s editor-in-chief Suzanne Dimma and Mark Challen; Smythe Les Vestes designer Christie Smythe and friend; Philippe Meyersohn, Jaime Watt and Langdon Hall’s Mary Beaton; Canada AM ’s Karl Lohnes and IKEA’s Madeleine Löwenborg-Frick; Jenny Francis, Mazen El-Abdalla, Style By Jury ’s David Clemmer and friend; Langdon Hall executive chef Jonathan Gushue; Snowball co-chair Tommy Smythe and Casey House CEO Stephanie Karapita; PR guru Deb McCain and ELLE Canada’s Tracy Finkelstein; DX head Shauna Levy, spouse Anne Vos and friend.
95
PHOTOS: AJ MESSIER PHOTOGRAPHY
PROM:CIRCUS AGO MASSIVE PARTY
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF DEAN TOMLINSON AND JOHN JONES/AGO
Circus performers entertained the sellout crowd, many of whom were dressed for the big top.
HOT DOCS
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Filmmaker Maya Gallus, Justine Pimlott, Michelle Rothstein and Randy Rosenberg; Hot Doc’s director of programming Charlotte Cook, LBJ puppet, Wayne White and Heather Haynes; filmmakers James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot; MP Olivia Chow, Malcolm Rogge and Diana Dal; director Sylvia Caminer and Rick Springfield; filmmaker Jamie Kastner and Jian Ghomeshi; producer Adrian Grenier and Faith Sudela-Junker.
96
PHOTOS: JOSEPH MICHAEL PHOTOGRAPHY, JEN SHORT
Massive revelers included such art-world fixtures as Massive Party artistic director Bruno Bilio and artist John Sasaki; (far right) Massive Party co-chairs Hughene Acheson and Laura Adams.
buca.ca | 416.865.1600
jacobssteakhouse.com | 416.366.0200
thesainttavern.com | 647.350.2100
TEST DRIVE
Easy Rider The king of King’s design scene and a committed urban biker, Klaus Nienkamper Jr. takes the latest for a spin.
98
Royal Enfield is the longest continual manufacturer of motorcycles in the world. It uses the machine fittings from its ’60s design with modern technology, giving riders the best of both worlds—vintage styling and reliability.
Transmission: 5-speed Engine: 4-stroke fuel injected Weight: 410 lbs Max speed: 140 km/h Mileage: 32 km/l Price: $7,595 + $499 fees (freight, DOC & PDI)
PHOTOS: (KLAUS) CHRISTOPHER WAHL, (BIKES) COURTESY OF MOTORETTA
r
Royal Enfield Classic Chrome 500cc Klaus says: “This is an entry-level bike. It’s like one of the first bikes I ever rode. If you don’t have enough jingo or riding experience, it’s a good starter. I like the look of it. It’s not a big bike, it’s not a scooter; it’s heavier than a scooter. I’m a little big for it, but I am larger than most. It’s a good little city bike. You’re not going to go 200 km down the Don Valley on it; you might ride up a little highway in the country, with your vintage saddlebags on. To ride this bike compared to a scooter, you have to know how to operate a clutch. With most scooters, there’s no shifting necessary. Generally, that’s the difference between scooters and bikes.”
Eton Matrix 150cc
Established in 1997, Eton won the best ATV award in the USA by 2005. It now produces for Yamaha in Japan, Europe and the U.S.
Klaus says: “This is a good bike for people who want a second vehicle, are unsure of how much they want to spend and want to try out the idea of having a bike. It’s a cool product because it’s foolproof. This is the kind of bike they give you when you rent a bike on vacation. In terms of styling, it looks like a Transformer. It’s contemporary. The guy who wants this bike just wants to get on and have a dependable ride. He isn’t motivated by style. He just wants to get there. And it goes. It doesn’t have a ton of chutzpah, but it’s fun.”
Transmission: automatic Engine: 4-stroke air cooled Weight: 248 lbs Max speed: 110 km/h Mileage: 30 km/l Price: $2,495 + $499 fees (freight, DOC & PDI)
Genuine Stella 150cc
Genuine Stella hails from the same factory that produced scooters for Piaggio Vespa in the ’80s. This classic P series design uses the identical body to the retro Vespa PX model, only with a modern 4-stroke engine. Genuine Scooters is the only company producing current models with Transmission: 4-speed standard transmission. Engine: 4-stroke air cooled Weight: 240 lbs Klaus says: “If I was going to pick any of these, I’d probably go with Max speed: 110 km/h the Stella. It’s cute, it’s fun, it’s a throwback—the Mods drove this Mileage: 40 km/l style bike. It’s the classic ride from American in Paris. You can see Price: $3,995 + $499 fees yourself cruising up and down the Amalfi Coast with a pretty girl (freight, DOC & PDI) hanging on behind you. It’s a summer thing. And the ride is easy as pie. It’s maneuverable. The turning radius is good, perfect for weaving in and out of traffic in Toronto—or Rome. I’d rip out somewhere on it! But what I really like about it is the vintage styling. I’m kind of a nostalgic guy.” All bikes available at Motoretta 554 College St. / 416.925.1818 / motoretta.ca 99
STREET STYLE
SPOTTED! PHILIP SPARKS
KingWest: How do you describe your signature style? Philip Sparks: A mix between preppy and vintage but with updated fabrics and cuts. Where do you get your inspiration? I find inspiration almost everywhere, but for the most part it comes from old photographs and vintage objects. What excites you about fashion? Always collecting, always doing, looking back while looking forward. I love most aspects of what I do and I like getting dressed in the morning. Does Toronto need to dress up or are we looking good? After a recent visit to a large American city that will remain unnamed, I would have to say that Toronto is looking good. Keep it up. Who are your style icons? The gentlemen in old photographs that I find, making the best of what they have and always taking pride in their appearance. What are you splurging on this summer? I might have to splurge on one of our blue leather bags. On Sparks: Plaid summer shirt jacket, clay work chinos, crisp white shirt, all Philip Sparks. Cole Haan shoes.
100
PHOTO: LEWIS MIRRETT
Owner, Philip Sparks Tailored Goods 162 Ossington Ave. / 647.348.1827 philipsparks.com
KING WEST WEIGHS IN ON:
BIG BOX RETAIL: SIGN OF ARRIVAL OR END OF A GOOD THING?
“I actually design big-box stores, so they pay the rent. I don’t have an issue with them as long as you keep it civil. If you want to build a monstrosity down here, that’s probably not the best idea. These places are clean and convenient, and they add jobs. I like the small mom-and-pop stores but sometimes you have to pay a little more or they don’t have exactly what you’re looking for.”
—Mark Atkins, 31, architectural draftsman
Interviews by Eli Yarhi
“On one hand, it’s a good thing because it provides basic services for condo dwellers; there wasn’t a supermarket of note here before. On the other hand, I’m in favour of development within reason. I don’t want to take down awesome buildings to put up a glass building. Protecting heritage is important but you also can’t slow down progress. Neighbourhoods change all the time.”
—Mike Farrell, 44, musician and researcher
“I think it’s bad. I’ve lived here for five years and have seen a lot of development. It’s like watching The Flintstones—you feel like you’re going by the same things over and over again. With box stores all around, you don’t know where you are. It’s nicer when you know what neighbourhood you’re going through because of the shops, grocers and restaurants.”
“I’m very wary of big business looming over small retailers. It feels like they’re trying to create the suburbs in the city. There are some independent furniture stores in the area that may fall out of business with the arrival of CB2. And the independent grocers might not be able to compete with something that’s shiny and new and has so many things to offer.”
—Jessica Vallentin, 23, artist
—Tracee Smith, 32, executive director of a charity
“It’s convenient. I don’t see how it will destroy the area. I live in a condo here. I like supporting real people who own stores but, out of laziness, I know that everything I need is going to be in a box store. They might even have better prices. But it would be bad if the small guy was crowded out by Loblaws.”
—Jonathan Awgu, 28, lawyer
“I think it’s great! The injection of popular retail will make it a lot less necessary for me to travel out of the neighbourhood for purchases—less car driving! I’m really happy about the Loblaws because now I don’t feel the need to stockpile groceries with one so close by. I can buy meal supplies instead of filling the pantry.”
—Rick Mugford, 50, architect and interiors professional
“I think big-box retailers are a reality of the world we live in and King West is no exception. They are able to achieve an economy of scale that momand-pop shops can’t compete against. And they offer onestop shopping that allows you to save time. As King West increases in popularity, so will big-box stores, along with higher property values.”
—Anne Thouas, 28, associate brand manager
101
THE PLAYING FIELD
THE END GAME OUR SINGLE GAL GETS CAUGHT OFF GUARD BY MARILISA RACCO The American author, humourist and radio personality Garrison Keillor once said: “Nothing bad ever happens to a writer—it’s all material.” In a not entirely dissimilar vein, a friend and fellow scribe recently shared with me the number one rule of revenge journalism: Never fuck with a writer. Sometime around the end of last summer, I took up with a plucky fella— let’s call him “S”—who embodied none of the traits that usually draw me in. He was employed, responsible, gentlemanly and genuinely interested in me. Naturally my first instinct was to run in the opposite direction. It didn’t help that on our fourth date he suggested we take a trip together and asked me to accompany him to a wedding where his parents would be among the guests. I politely declined on both counts. It’s not that I wasn’t interested in him; it’s just that I like to take things slow. Like, date for 10 or 12 years and then talk about investing in a cactus together. Eventually, between his dogged determination and my biological clock, I gave in. What ensued was an exhilarating whirlwind of meeting family and friends, celebrating birthdays and holidays, exchanging mots doux and making plans for the future. It went against my every instinct but, I reasoned, I had clearly found The One and this is what normal, sane people do. Christmas came and we were sucked into a vortex of familial obligations, shuttling ourselves between his family, who live outside of Toronto, and mine, who couldn’t be more thrilled that despite all evidence to the contrary, I was in fact the marrying kind. We exchanged extravagant gifts, the subtext seemingly reading: Let’s be frivolous now before we have a mortgage and a kid. An overnight stay at his parents’ house yielded a very generous gift from them that only solidified my impending official status within his family, which pleased me to no end. As far as I could tell, they would make marvelous in-laws, at once genial and gracious without a hint of intrusive. His sister and her husband were well on their way to being our Best Couple Friends, while their criminally cute two-year-old with her marked resemblance to S served as a blueprint for our future offspring. The die had been cast.
What I quickly learned, however, is that in this modern dating landscape, there’s no accounting for a change of heart. Shortly after ringing in the New Year together and with no warning whatsoever, S ended things. As I drove him home one evening, in an episode that lasted less than 10 minutes, he coolly said that he didn’t see a future with me and would I mind stepping inside to collect my things. Stunned and speechless, I watched as he feverishly packed up the few belongings I had scattered around his house and escorted me to the door. He simply couldn’t get rid of me fast enough. By the time I got home he had unfriended me on Facebook, unfollowed me on Twitter and had squared a minor debt with an email money transfer. One can only imagine that he has since had his house fumigated in an effort to rid it of any lingering DNA. In the days that followed, I fluctuated between anguish and rage. I came to term what had happened “emotional carpet bombing” and blamed the sneak attack for my inability to react on the spot. I toyed with the idea of reaching out to him, working out old hurtful standards like: “I’m too good for you” and “You were lousy in bed” and “I hate your Crocs!” (Only one of those statements is true…OK, maybe two.) But after a week of discussing the breakup ad nauseam with my closest friends, I concluded that confronting him would only serve to reopen wounds. That epiphany helped me to heal, though of course I still have questions, the biggest being: What changed? Maybe there was someone else or maybe it was a garden-variety freak-out or maybe he’s just a little boy pretending to be a grownup. Regardless, he was right about one thing: There was no future with me. My future contains a man who can see past his fears and shortcomings, as well as my own. A man who treats the woman he claims to love with dignity, kindness and respect, even if he is about to break her heart. But, most importantly, my future sure as hell doesn’t contain a man who wears Crocs. Marilisa Racco is a Toronto-based fashion and beauty writer who prefers the company of her dog, Floyd.
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We’re always in the neighbourhood 77 Portland Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 2M9 416 360 0688 | info@psrbrokerage.com
SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL FEATURE
BUY WITH CONFIDENCE Eric Kuzuian, President & Broker of Record of Private Service Realty (PSR), talks trends, the bubble, and gives us an insider’s perspective on the future of Toronto’s real estate market.
Eric Kuzuian President & Broker of Record of PSR
SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL FEATURE
There’s been a lot of talk around the condo bubble bursting. Economist Nouriel Roubini, who accurately predicted the great recession, doesn’t think Canada is headed for disaster. He predicts a 10 percent correction, but not a U.S. style meltdown. Should we be worried?
I would. It has lot has to do with personal choice, I mean, there’s a huge difference between a home and an investment. A lot of people have invested in the real estate market and they’ve done well, and they’ll continue to do well. However, it does get to be a little tricky when you start treating the real estate market like the stock market, where you’re buying at a certain price and you’re hoping it hits a certain point so you can have an exit strategy, an out. That’s very short-term and traditionally real estate shouldn’t be short term. And when it’s a hot market and it’s always climbing, yes, people have made great money, but again, that’s where the risk factor comes in a little bit more. So if you are purchasing a hard asset, like real estate, which we all love – it’s tangible, it’s there, you’re not going to wake up in the morning hearing that a company that you just bought into has gone bankrupt and you have no idea why – real estate is always there, you see it and can touch it, it belongs to you.
As long as you’re buying properly, and can bridge any real estate down cycle you shouldn’t really be worried about a bubble.
I think if real estate always goes back to traditional methods, that is, if you’re buying correctly on an individual basis, then you should never lose or have any fear associated with real estate. We’ve seen a big jump in prices over the last couple of years. That has to do with the fact that on the global stage, they find that Canada is a safe place to put their investment. And again on the global stage, Toronto’s real estate prices are still quite affordable compared to other major cities around the world, so from a local standpoint, there might be a correction. I don’t see a 10 percent correction in the downtown core. Maybe in the sub markets but I think the hub of Toronto is just going to continue to grow. As long as you’re buying properly, you shouldn’t really be worried about a bubble.
I’ve recently read that home ownership is becoming more affordable in Canada despite ongoing concerns about household debt. What’s your take on it? We are in definite market lows in terms of mortgages, and we didn’t suffer the degree of unemployment that the U.S. suffered, so with these conditions, homes are definitely becoming more affordable for more people. A lot of people are purchasing and that’s why you’re seeing our market continue to stay hot. That being said, affordability is definitely a vague way to describe a purchase or a potential purchase. Going back to what I said, there’s a difference between affordability and correct purchasing. I’m always a firm believer that if you do purchase correctly, and by this I mean with a significant down payment, something that if your interest rates do start climbing, you do have a little bit of a buffer zone, and you didn’t completely cap yourself or max yourself out with what the bank is ready to give you, then you should never really lose in real estate. So there’s definitely affordability there but people still shouldn’t defer away from the traditional way of purchasing real estate, which is a significant down payment.
Do you think investors should allocate more money toward hard assets like real estate?
So people should invest in real estate? One of my mentors when I was growing up always told me that the people who are truly wealthy from real estate are always buyers, not sellers. And it’s true because historically, since 1915, real estate has gone up 6.5 percent per year on average, and it will continue to go up. The only difference is, if you’re purchasing shortsightedly, for a one or two year exit strategy, then you’re definitely more market dependent, as opposed to those who are purchasing real estate traditionally, which has always been a 5, 7, 10 year hold. If you purchase traditionally, then you can definitely bridge the cycles that real estate goes through and make sure that you’re not forced to sell when the market’s down.
There are over 40 agents on PSR’s roster and it seems to be growing rapidly. What’s it like being a mentor to all these agents? I hear you’re quite good at it. (Laughs) I guess leading is something I enjoy doing, it was quite a little different for me. In terms of real estate, I always loved the idea of selling, still do; that’s what really drove me to this industry and that one-on-one interaction with the client and getting them to that condo or home that they’ve always wanted and making sure we set them up properly so they can build wealth through their lifetime. But taking on PSR was a completely different challenge because I kind of went from focusing on my clients to now focusing on my agents. I found that making sure that my agents’ careers can flourish is now a new passion of mine.
What style of service are you trying to
If you’re not grabbing a piece of downtown Toronto I think you’re really missing the boat.
promote at PSR? I always tell our upper management and my staff “I think the agents who come to PSR truly appreciate and understand why were so different.” These are the same type of people who probably don’t go to your big box supermarkets. They have their grocer, their butcher, they like that smaller scale service that specializes in something and I think it’s a choice and image. We’re not your big Royal LePage or Re/Max that have thousands of agents in multiple offices, but we are more of a tight family here. We also try to push the boundaries in terms of excellent service and we do specialize in the downtown condo market so I think that’s an attraction for both our clients and our agents, knowing that a high level of service, knowledge and experience is there. And we’re doing it the way we like to do things which is with a little more lifestyle driven service.
What is good taste to you? Being confident in what your choices are. Good taste, like many things, is very personal and as long as you’re confident in what you’re wearing, or what you’re doing or what your style is and that makes you feel great, I can’t argue with why that wouldn’t be considered good taste.
What do you love most about Toronto? There are so many things...I would basically say the opportunity. We still have a lot of room to grow into a world-class city, both from a real estate and business perspective. We’re the major hub of a first nation that is well respected in the world. We’re constantly bidding to host more world-class events and festivals, in addition to TIFF and the 2015 Pan Am games. Toronto has some of the best restaurants, attractions – an overall way of life that a city has to offer.
What’s the best advice you could give to someone who wants to invest in real estate in Toronto? If you look at Toronto as a buzzing city that has so much room to grow in terms of population, real estate, and pricing - it’s definitely a safe investment. You’re going to see opportunity like New York did in the late 70s, I think that’s what we’re kind of going through now. In 10, 15, 20 years from now, Toronto is definitely not going to be as affordable, especially in the downtown core. So it’s a really good time for investors to grab a piece of downtown Toronto. I always tell people you can have your home and career in Aurora or Richmond Hill, or wherever you want to be. But if you’re not grabbing a piece of downtown Toronto I think you’re really missing the boat.
SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL FEATURE
ERIC’S FAVOURITE BUILDINGS IN THE CITY AUTHENTIC LOFT: 468 Wellington
LOVE THE DESIGN: 75 Portland
Boutique 11 unit building with private elevator access to each unit – a true hard loft.
Phillippe Starck put his name on it
Why: Lots of developers have named their projects “lofts” but a true loft in my opinion is something that can’t be recreated, it’s an old industrial building, with high ceilings, 100 year old floors, brick and beam interiors and 468 Wellington definitely encompasses all of that. It’s truly one of the only buildings in the city that has those features.
Why: I like the way it’s architecturally designed. It stands out. It’s also the only Canadian project that world-renowned designer Phillippe Starck has worked on. You’ll notice that with the beautifully designed lobby and courtyard. It’s way ahead of the curve with respect to interior and exterior design in Toronto residential condominiums.
PROJECT IN THE WORKS: 60 Colborne Grade A site, which doesn’t exist in the city anymore Why: Because of its proximity to the core. Facing St. James Park and Cathedral, being within walking distance to the Financial District, Union Station and St. Lawrence Market, which was voted the best food market in the world, is so unique and great. It will add a dynamic look to that great historic neighbourhood once it is built.
THOMPSON HOTEL Residences
55
Hotel
&
552
STEWART
WELLINGTON
Units range from $600/sf - $725/sf on the resale market
MIX OF ELEGANT LIVING SPACES & LAVISH AMENITIES. PROPERTY FEATURES • 336 condominiums and 102 hotel suites • Designed by Architects Alliance • Interior Design by Cecconi Simone • Rooftop pool / Lounge • Gym • Concierge • Scarpetta & Wabora restaurants • Lobby bar • Thompson Diner, Room Service
THOMPSON RESIDENCES
621
KING ST WEST
Now Under Construction Over 75% Sold Price range from $299,900
Units range from $625/sf - $900/sf FOR MORE INFORMATION www.freeddevelopments.com
HOTEL-INSPIRED LIVING PROPERTY FEATURES • 314 luxury condominium, loft and penthouse residences • Designed by at Saucier + Perrotte • Interior design by Burdifilek • Landscape design by GH3 • 140-ft roof-top pool, managed by the Thompson Hotel Group • 24-hour concierge service
F E ATUR E D LISTINGS
468 WELLINGTON STREET WEST #301
Voted Top Ten Buildings in Toronto by Time Magazine. Stunning loft in a boutique 10 unit building has a private elevator leading into a 4500 sq ft expansive space. A truly authentic loft with 12 ft ceilings, exposed brick and
UNIT 301 INTERIOR
beam construction and large windows. The living room boasts custom roll down
FEATURES
projection as well as centrally controlled
• Marble counters
surround sound, lighting, video and audio.
• Top-of-the-line stainless steel appliances
Perfect for entertaining.
• Private elevator access
Offered at: $2,699,000 MLS: C2262486
• Boutique 11-unit building • 12 ft. ceilings 468 WELLINGTON EXTERIOR
75 PORTLAND STREET #1009 Located in Central King West, stylish subpenthouse with custom layout in a Yoo By Starck designed building. A wonderful space to live and entertain with large principle
UNIT 1009 INTERIOR
spaces, and windows allow an abundance
FEATURES
of light to enter. Large sliding doors lead
• Scavolini kitchen with designer grade finishes
out onto a south-facing balcony and private terrace to the east.
• Top-of-the-line stainless steel appliances • Extended kitchen island
Offered at: $889,000 MLS: C2273547
• Engineered hardwood • Philippe Stark designed lobby and courtyard
77 Portland Street, Toronto, ON
|
75 PORTLAND EXTERIOR
416 360 0688
|
www.psrbrokerage.com
552 WELLINGTON STREET WEST #1301 Gorgeous view of the city facing southeast with floor to ceiling windows, this unique suite
offers
863
square
ft.
of
open
concept floor plan. Easy access to famous Thompson Hotel amenities including the UNIT 1301 INTERIOR
FEATURES
spectacular rooftop pool & bar, gym, yoga studio, room service.
• Spectacular city views • 10 ft. ceilings • Gas stove • Top-of-the-line appliances • Walk-In closet
Offered at: $604,900 MLS: C2326198
552 WELLINGTON EXTERIOR
S O L D !
80
CUMBERLAND STREET #301 Beautifully kept and tastefully finished 2-story loft in the heart of Yorkville. Situated in a stylish boutique building with 72 units. There’s 24 hour concierge, fitness facility
UNIT 301 INTERIOR
and common outdoor terrace with BBQ.
FEATURES 1050 square feet, boasting hardwood floors,
• Upgraded real hardwood floors
2 large bedrooms each with their own ensuite bathroom.
• 17 ft. ceilings • 2 balconies
Offered at: $669,000
• Limestone flooring • Jacuzzi tub 80 CUMBERLAND EXTERIOR
E XC LUSI VE ASSIGNMENTS
King Building
650 KING STREET WEST 650 King St. W. is a downtown oasis. Two
No.
Beds
Ft2
Price
Exp
Parking
301
1
480
$299,900
W
N/A
501
1
480
$309,900
W
N/A
603
1
540
$340,900
W
Included
803
1
540
$319,900
S
N/A
403
1
541
$334,900
W
N/A
503
1
541
$339,900
W
N/A
312
1
615
$367,000
S
N/A
412
1
615
$369,000
S
N/A
605
1
618
$415,000
S/W
N/A
1304
1+
626
$399,900
E
N/A
611
1
690
$449,900
S
Included
505
1
698
$434,900
N/W
Included
805
1
698
$419,900
N/W
N/A
310
1+
803
$479,900
S
Included
101
2
1,172
$699,000
S
Included
contemporary buildings feature one-story suites, two-story suites, six unique townhouses plus a full-floor, private elevator access penthouse. A sustainable masterpiece that defines urban luxury living. The King building is fully occupied, with occupancy for the Bathurst building to start this summer.
Exclusive assignments are
available.
Bathurst Building
77 Portland Street, Toronto, ON
|
No.
Beds
Ft2
Price
Exp
Parking
504
1
550
$339,900
S
N/A
518
1
550
$339,900
W
N/A
517
1
595
$369,900
S
N/A
903
1
595
$395,000
S
Included
803
1
595
$395,000
S
Included
1103
1
600
$389,900
S
Included
601
1
645
$409,900
S
N/A
406
1
696
$409,900
E
N/A
209
3
1,450
$754,900
W
Tandem
410
3
1,450
$764,900
W
Tandem
1001-2
2+
1,639
$1,325,000
360째
2 Included
416 360 0688
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When I was in my mid-20s, I fell in love with Paris—everything about it, the literature, music, culture—so I quit my job, sold everything and without knowing a soul, just moved there. It was in Paris where I learned to appreciate design and its importance in the everyday. I come from a line of creative thinkers. What I learned from my family is that everything requires creativity. What inspires me is hearing creative people speak about their passion, motivation and mojo. It’s all about keeping your eyes open and absorbing everything around you. And never being afraid to ask. At the end of the day, most people enjoy speaking about their interests, favourite meals, films—I think it’s my keen curiosity in the interests of people around me that keeps me on top of what is happening out there. Like most industries, design is really all about people. While I always had an interest in design, it was once I started to meet the designers behind the work that I really started to fall in love. For me, there is nothing better than hearing about that “aha!” moment: the inspiration, the connection, that pivotal point in time that leads to something fantastic and brilliant. I live in the Beaches, so when I’m feeling overwhelmed, my husband usually grabs me by the arm and together with our little girl and dog, we go for a long walk along the water. My favourite piece in our house is a standing light by the Dutch/Belgian art/ design team Studio Job (for Moooi)—and when designers Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel were in town for the Interior Design Show a few years ago, they signed it for us. Our cleaning lady thought it was my daughter’s “artwork” and scrubbed it like crazy. Now it just says: “ynke.” Design can be fun and sexy. Design is what makes Apple, Apple. But it can also have a greater meaning—it is about transportation and the design of cities, architecture in post-trauma environments (whether natural or man-made)— and it is as much about culture and capturing the zeitgeist as art is. The new vision for the Design Exchange is to reposition it as Canada’s only museum dedicated exclusively to design. Programming will focus on exhibitions that have wide public appeal so that design is packaged in a way that people can relate to. This has been successfully done throughout the world, for example, at the Design Museum in London. While knowledge of and appreciation for design is better than it was a dozen years ago, there is still a lot to do. We still have to explain what design is and why it matters. The more we can use accessible themes to do this, the more successful we will be in spreading the word. Design is everything we touch from the moment we awake to the moment we go to sleep. Each and every thing has been designed by someone. Design decisions impact on nearly every part of our lives, from the micro to the macro. It is the means by which our lives can be made better, healthier, more balanced, environmentally sustainable and even more fun. It is the MacBook Pro I used to answer these questions, the magazine you’re reading, the clothing you’re wearing, the building in which you may have picked it up, the streetcar you took to get here, and the city in which you live. Former director and cofounder of the internationally acclaimed Interior Design Show (IDS), Shauna Levy is the newly appointed president of Canada’s design museum, the Design Exchange (DX).
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PHOTO: MICHAEL ALBERSTAT
SHAUNA LEVY
THE GAME JUST GOT BETTER
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