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According to recent reports, Paul Boehmer’s long-awaited restaurant at 95 Ossington is set to have a grand-opening party tomorrow night. Doors should be open to the public this Saturday.
We can’t wait to see and taste the results!
For #5 in our series of business profiles, we visit 216 Ossington and Cantadora Naturopathic Healthcare Centre. We spoke to Erin of Cantadora and she answered our 8 questions, below.
What’s your business?
Cantadora Naturopathic Healthcare Centre
How is your business unique?
We are a community-based wellness centre with a collective of therapists offering services such as naturopathic medicine, registered massage, acupuncture, shiatsu, craniosacral therapy and osteopathy. We have a small natural products shop, a book-lending library, and offer some educational
programs and cooking classes.
How long have you been in business here?
Since April 2008
What drew you to be here on Ossington?
I lived in the area for years – it’s where I walked everyday, got my coffee, pho, saw live music, and so on. This area is a beautiful melting pot, with a variety of ethnicities; people of all income levels (all the way from absolutely nothing to too much); musicians, artists & creative people…all kinds of perspectives and states of mind converge here. All are welcome.
What changes have you seen on Ossington since your business has been here?
There is a lot more foot traffic than there used to be, especially during the daytime, which is great.
How do you see your business and Ossington five years from now?
My hope is for it to be more like Kensington or Roncesvalles (or that it become it’s own special and unique community with a broad range of businesses and residents) and less like Yorkville or King West.
What is your favorite spot on Ossington, other than your own? and why?
Frantic City, formerly Babel Books, is great for unique and cheap finds in the books and music department. I think Dakota Tavern is brilliant for live music and it’s family-style Bluegrass Brunch is a good time. Yet I Deal Coffee takes the prize, because it’s delicious.
The Canadian Music Fest starts this Wednesday, March 10 and you can see a lot of great shows right here in Ossington Village. We’ll just let you know which venues in the neighborhood are hosting events for the festival. The full schedule is posted here.
The Painted Lady has a full line-up of bands and djs all 4 nights of the fest, and around the corner on Queen @ Dovercourt, The Social will be hosting CMW DJs on Thursday and Saturday.
The Garrison on Dundas is hosting 2 nights of Eye Weekly showcases featuring indie bands like Cadence Weapon and The D’urbervilles.
We have heard through the grapevine, and so has Toronto Life, that former Project Runway Canada winner Evan Biddell may be opening a studio-shop on Ossington.
Is it going to be in the former Cindiloowho location at 134 Ossington? We walked in to check out the scene last Thursday night only to be turned away for a “private party.” Maybe next time we’ll mention we write the Ossington Village blog and they’ll let us in!
We’ll update when we know more, and comment if you know more too!
Lush and Lavish Salon Spa is the 4th business featured in our Ossington Business Profiles, so owners Linh and Trudy have answered our 8 questions.
If you don’t know already, Lush and Lavish is a full service salon located at 200 Ossington Avenue with plenty of great reviews.
With no further ado, let’s get to the 8 questions!
What’s your business?
Lush & Lavish Salon Spa
How is your business unique?
We’re a one-stop-shop for pampering with a full service hair salon, spa and laser clinic, we offer all beauty services from makeup lessons and airbrush tanning to laser hair removal. All of our spa products are certified organic and our haircare line is chemical free.
How long have you been in business here?
Since October 2008
What drew you to be here on Ossington?
We’ve been watching the strip for a number of years and loved the changes that were happening and wanted to be a part of the community. We have two sister companies in the area, Huh Boutique at 847 Queen St W and Toi Bar on College St. We also own residential apartments on the Ossington strip.
What changes have you seen on Ossington since your business has been here?
Ossington still has the same fun busy vibe as when we first arrived which is great, but sadly Mr Pantalone is doing his best to stem restaurant growth and the daytime cafes seem to be struggling a bit at the moment, what’s driving that is anyones guess.
How do you see your business and Ossington five years from now?
2010 is already shaping up to be a great year for us and we were recently voted as one of the best spas in Toronto on blogto.com. With all the residential development in the area the buzz on Ossington will continue to get louder and we’re looking forward to growing with it for many years.
What is your favorite spot on Ossington, other than your own? and why?
The House of Horvath fascinates me. It’s been in business on Ossington since 1932! Whenever I walk past it I think of the cigar factory tour I did in Havana, Cuba, I’d love to take a tour of the House of Horvath.
This is the third edition of our new series where we profile neighborhood businesses and ask them a set of 8 questions about running their business on Ossington.
Located at 15 Ossington, just north of Queen, Silver Falls Vintage is an upscale vintage shop with art gallery Hunter and Cook in the back.
We asked Lindsay from Silver Falls Vintage our 8 questions about her business and here are her answers:
What’s your business?
Silver Falls Vintage.
How is your business unique?
I sell vintage clothing and my boyfriend Jay runs an art gallery in the back called Hunter and Cook.
How long have you been in business here?
Just over a year.
What drew you to be here on Ossington?
The action! I couldn’t think of another spot to be really. We got in at the right time before the rents started going crazy.
What changes have you seen on Ossington since your business has been here?
The weekends in the summer are nuts on this strip! I used to live on Argyle Street 15 years ago and the neighbourhood was super sketchy. I would run home from the bus stop. Now the only thing you have to be afraid of are drunken, suburbanite douchebags.
How do you see your business and Ossington five years from now?
We are closing the gallery in the spring and will be converting the space into an antique shop.
I hope Ossington gets a few more cheap, daytime food places. More daytime business in general.
What is your favorite spot on Ossington, other than your own? and why?
I love the Vietnamese restaurant Pho Tien Thanh. I probably eat there too much……
And TAN coffee! My pal Marilyn is the owner- I probably drink too much coffee as well.
This is the sign in the window of 214 Ossington: “Our House, opening soon.” We know there has been a lot of construction going on inside the space, located right next door to our beloved dry cleaners. We had heard talk there was a lounge going in, and we did peek in last week and see a bar inside a long deep room.
The only reports we can find are from a September article in Compendium Daily speculating on another name for 214 Ossington.
That’s all we know, so please, anyone who knows more than us (you’re out there!), do tell! Will we have a new lounge, bar, or combo lounge-bar-restaurant to hang out in soon? We’ll let you know when we do!
This is the second edition of our new series where we profile neighborhood businesses and ask them a set of 8 questions about running their business on Ossington.
Our profile today is of art gallery MKG127. Located on the east side of Ossington at Argyle Street, MKG127 is a contemporary art gallery which showcases artists from Canada and around the world.
And now, 8 questions with Michael Klein of MKG127.
What’s your business?
art gallery
How is your business unique?
I’ve had people come in and ask “what is this place ?”
I often show work that challenges people’s idea about what “art” should look like.
How long have you been in business here?
Opened June 2007
What drew you to be here on Ossington?
I thought the strip between Queen & Dundas felt like a unique, self contained little village. There were a few galleries that had located there too.
What changes have you seen on Ossington since your business has been here?
Many more places to eat & drink.
How do you see your business and Ossington five years from now?
Probably the opposite of what I would predict.
What is your favorite spot on Ossington, other than your own? and why?
I have a lot of favourites but here’s a couple I’ve been frequenting recently.
Superior Dry Cleaners, they do a great job , quick and very reasonable, recently even did a little repair job for me for free. I had the same hair stylist for about 20 years and when he retired last year I didn’t have to look very far for his
replacement, I tried Viva Hair, got a great cut, nice price & incredibly convenient.
MKG127 is located at 127 Ossington Street.
This weekend the National Home Show is taking place at the Direct Energy Centre in the Exhibition Grounds. The show is absolutely enormous. There are over 700 exhibitors, and have a fancy dream home and such D-List Celebrities as Ty Pennington. The real fun of the show is checking out the new stuff around the show. I was there working on the booth for HomeStars, my day job, manning a booth we have down there. One of our local Ossington businesses has a full booth down at the show which I stopped by and said hi. 
It seems that our local supplier of everything from paint, to tiles, to lumber (everyone should know they have a big lumberyard behind, down the alley, where they keep all sorts of building material too big for the store) has a full booth at the show. They do more than just being the local retail location. They are also designing and building kitchens and bathrooms with their design centre.
On the HomeStars site they’ve got a good lot of reviews, but it’s all for their retail work rather than their design work.
I like all the neat tubs and hardware they’ve got on display.
One of the booth visitors:
UPDATE: Like Gordon Lightfoot, despite what they’re saying online, Semolina Bakery is not dead. Walked by this morning, the lights are on, the sign is outside, and customers were being served. Perhaps they are looking for someone to take-over their lease, but they haven’t fully closed yet.
It looks like we were correct and Semolina Bakery at 188 Ossington Ave has shut it’s doors for good. Seems they couldn’t compete with the countless other bakeries in the area.
When one door closes, another opens maybe? There has been lots of activity right next door to Semolina, but no word yet what is being built behind the papered windows.
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