The celebration of Cuban food, art, music and drinks is returning to Ossington Avenue this August. Havana Cultura runs August 18-21 and is sponsored by Havana Club Rum. Events will be held at many of the busiest venues around the neighborhood, including Reposado, Sweaty Bettys, Watusi, Delux, Crooked Star, Lower Ossington Theatre, Painted Lady, and, of course, Julie’s Cuban.
The sneak preview happened today at Reposado where they showcased some of the talent – from musicians to cigar rollers. They also allowed us to taste some authentic Cuban food and drink, including a new rum they are launching this year during the festival, Havana Club Selección de Maestros.
Some of the highlights of this year’s event include a Rumba party at The Ossington on Friday August 19th with IYÁ IRÉ Dance Company, and the Latinada Band from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Also on Friday, local Latin artists Son Aché will be performing upbeat Latin dance music at Watusi.
On Saturday afternoon, you can take a master class in rum drinks and the origins of Cuban rum, the secrets of rum production and learn how to mix a few classic Cuban cocktails at a special Havana Club Master Class at LeVack Block from 2 to 3pm. Even the Lower Ossington Theatre is involved with some Cuban films including “Eso Que Anda”and “Lisanka”.
And once again the wall of Levack Block will be painted during the festival by local grafitti artist Angel Carrillo.
The festival is a great fit for Ossington, taking great advantage of the diversity of businesses and individuals in the neighbourhood. Keep an eye on our calendar for a full line-up of events as the date approaches.
Don’t say the people in the Ossington area don’t have a good time and make the best of a bad thing. And who said Thursday and Friday nights are just full of douchy 905ers? We know how to have fun.
The corner of Ossington and Dundas has been closed for a few days while they repave the entire intersection. So the section of Ossington north of Rolyat to Dundas has been barren at night. So what are local businesses and regulars to do? A soccer match, of course.
For the last couple nights impromptu soccer matches have broken out in the street near the intersection with the staff from some of the local bars, including the Painted Lady, involved. While we’ve missed both matches, tweeters @tattsjane, @beatricebastado, and @HiMySyed sent some understandably dark pictures out via Twitter. @HiMySyed even live-tweeted the first game at 10:30 at night on Thursday. Thanks folks!
The Painted Lady has quietly launched The First Annual Jazz on Oz Fringe Festival, running at the same time as the Toronto Jazz Festival and the Toronto Fringe Festival. In reaction to the corporate sponsored, expensive and staid concerts provided by the city jazz festival, they are hoping to attract some of the best and brightest from the festival to extend their nights in a more free-form style. During this time, The Painted Lady will be open, serving, and offering live jazz until 4am. As most of the venues at the official event end around 10pm, it will be just enough time for the musicians to grab dinner, and head out to do what jazz musicians do best: improvise and interact in a comfortable late-night venue. The sets will include (or start with) musicians like Great Bob Scott, Chris Gartner, and Shuffle DemonRichard Underhill, but who knows where it will go from there?
The great jazz musicians – Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie among many others- honed their chops and gave audiences wild and random shows late nights in the clubs in New York, so the Painted Lady is hoping to get musician musicians down to Ossington to keep our neighbourhood in the forefront of the arts in Toronto.
We think there’s room for at least a few more venues to join in on this fun. How about Reposado, The Port on Dundas, Dakota Tavern or Bunda Lounge? Let’s get a few more venues going and be the place in the city where the real fun and creativity happens.
It’s June in Toronto, so time for the annual music, film and interactive whirlwind called North By Northeast, or NXNE for short. This year’s fest runs June 13-19 and passes and individual tickets are on sale.
As in previous years, the organizers of NXNE haven’t mastered good web servers or set-ups, so it’s difficult to search the schedule right now, but I recommend looking by date and venue, then you can see who’s playing at each venue on each day. When NXNE launches, you’ll be able to get a program and printed schedules in the free weeklies.
As more music venues pop up in our neighborhood, so do more opportunities for us to see NXNE acts. Remember to check our calendar for these and all event listings!
For those of you who haven’t experienced NXNE before, here are a few notes and tips:
* Shows start on time. The band scheduled to play at 8PM will most likely be off stage by 8:50PM and the next artist will start playing at 9PM. Stick to the schedule, because the bands and venues will.
* Wear comfortable shoes
* If there is a band or artist you really want to see, get to that venue as early as you possibly can. For more well-known and/or smaller venues (ie, the Dakota Tavern) and for well known or hyped bands, there will be a line-up and you might not get in
* Have a back-up plan. You may not get in to see your first choice
Anyway, on to the shows! As always, The Dakota Tavern is open every night with full sets of performers: Wednesday from 9PM – 2AM, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8PM – 3AM. Horse Feathers out of Portland, ORE, plays Saturday at 11PM.
The Garrison, at 1197 Dundas, has shows Wednesday 9P-2A, Thursday, Friday and Saturday 9P-3A, and Sunday night 10P-12A. Performers include Canada’s own Handsome Furs Saturday night at 1AM as part of the You Look Death.ly showcase
There are NXNE shows at The Painted Lady Wednesday-Friday 8P-2A, and Saturday til 3A.
Trinity Bellwoods Park is even a venue for several afternoons, so let’s hope it doesn’t rain! Called the Live in Bellwoods series, the concerts run every day starting Thursday, June 16 from 2p-5p, with stripped down acoustic sets every half hour. The shows are happening just west and north of the kids park (D5, D6 of the map). These shows are free, so bring a blanket and a picnic and listen to some tunes in the park.
Last night we attended a special event at the Ontario Bread Factory, in the laneway behind Ossington between Rolyat and Foxley. The party was thrown by RAW, the Toronto design firm behind Ossington’s Motif Lofts and an array of other building projects around the city and beyond. And what a party it was!
Along with sampling some amazing appetizers from chef and Globe and Mail columnist Michael Tong of Sublime Catering, we also met the owner of the factory, who is closing down to focus on environmental initiatives and work with Canada’s Green Party. He makes Polish rye bread for bakeries in Toronto and as far away as Kitchener. RAW has drafted plans to turn this old factory space into townhomes, but, because it is in an alley, they are facing resistance from the City.
We got to tour the facilities and enjoy the fabulous food and drink, including free beer from Steamwhistle, harder-to-get scotch from Glenfiddich and ice cream from a conveniently parked ice cream truck. We also watched some of the factory workers still making the bread.
For the time being, you can still go there late night/early morning (depending on your outlook) and buy a loaf of bread. None of the involved parties knows quite when the factory will close, and when the building will be converted. We’ll let you know when we do!
If you walk down Ossington it’s sometimes hard to tell where the good back patios are as they are often quietly tucked away behind the bars.
One of the oldest back-patios on Ossington belongs to Sweaty Betty’s which recently upgraded their furniture and decor. Here there’s always a young and interesting crowd, and sometimes you might even run into a celebrity enjoying a pint. (or, if you’re lucky: owner, Pol, without his shirt). You won’t get table service at Sweaty Betty’s so pick up your drinks before you wind your way through the back room out to the oasis outside. The back patio can get crowded, but usually people will make room on the benches or move chairs around to accommodate you. It’s a friendly crowd.
Another spot which you might not notice from the street is Reposado’s back patio. Here you’ll find a nice retreat where you can imagine you’re tucked away in Mexico City while you drink a blood orange margarita or flight of nice quality tequilas. This patio has less seating, but the servers will come to you, so once you’ve finished your drink, you don’t have to get up to replace it.
There are even more hidden patios on Ossington. Keep your eyes on the blog for more of the street’s outdoor gems.
Just over a year ago Joe Fuda opened a little studio with designer Evan Biddell. Evan left soon after leaving Joe to curate and create from this little storefront next to tequila bar Reposado. The studio represents a lot of the life of Ossington, being a quirky place with many interesting exhibits and events.
Joe is both celebrating and looking back on the year with a book of photos from the year as well as an event this Thursday and showcase at the studio over the next month showcasing 30 of the great artists from the past year.
The book is a great retrospective of the work in the neighbourhood, bringing back memories of nights on Ossington, the G20 conference in the city, Halloween portraits and many exhibits at the show, including one of my favourite exhibits, Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell, a showcase of the work of Vince Carlucci with pictures of punk rockers from the 70s and 80s. There are only a limited amount of books that Joe has available, so head on over and grab one to pick up some Ossington history.
The Juno Awards ceremony is in Toronto this year, and 2011 marks the 10th anniversary of Juno Fest, which is a showcase of Canadian music. Like most other music festivals in Toronto, this one has a presence on Ossington. The 2011 Juno Fest hits Toronto Friday, March 25-Saturday March 26 at venues across the city, including a few in and around Ossington.
The Dakota and The Garrison are two of the local spots hosting musical performances, including Juno nominee Julie Doiron, at The Garrison Saturday, March 26.
All shows are $17.50 a ticket, or wristbands will get you into all venues both nights and cost $30. They are only advertising them as available through Ticketmaster, but if you don’t want to pay those fees, check out Rotate This and Soundscapes.
Yes, this week is Social Media Week in Toronto, a global conference connecting people, and sharing emerging trends in social media. And we have a local event right here in Ossington Village.
Some of the businesses on Ossington are well connected to social media including our Dani Elwell of Jaiden’s Petals, who blogs from her site and is very active on Twitter. Opera Bobs keeps people up to date on Facebook. And don’t forget to be tempted by the tweets from Pizzaria Libretto, Union Restaurant and Bohmer who let everyone know their specials in the twitter stream. Want Tattoo advice? There’s even Imperial Tattoo on Twitter. There’s lots more examples on our street and you can check out our Ossington Places twitter stream here. But there are places on Ossington that don’t even have a website including the Crooked Stars and Sweaty Bettys. Are they losing out?
Luckily, without leaving our home of Ossington we can find out, or at least have a good discussion about, the efficacy of the medium. HomeStars(disclosure – my employer – and no, it wasn’t by coincidence it is hosted here – Thanks Shaun!), a social media site designed for contractors and homeowners looking for those contractors, is hosting an event for Social Media Week called Is Social Media Your Prize Winning Pig – Think Again where we’ll debate the effectiveness of social media. It should be entertaining, and could even get hostile. The event will be tomorrow, Tuesday, night from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Garrison, on Dundas just west of Ossington. If there are tickets still available you can register on the Social Media Week site here. Or you can just come by and see whether you can slip in and get on a side of this debate. Because the week may be full of people who are ‘social media strategists’ it’ll be good to have some social media cynics. Are you one? Want to share your opinion? Come out and have some fun, get in on the debate, and join in this global conference on the future of social media.
Take a look through the entire schedule of Social Media Week and try and check out some of the other events. The week will end at a great event close by at the Gladstone Hotel where there will be an evening of Powerpoint Karaoke, which if you’ve never seen, definitely has to be experienced.
2011′s Canadian Music Fest is a hot ticket, with lots of top-name bands featured this year, and some of these performers are scheduled to play right in our backyard. Involved venues include The Painted Lady, The Dakota and The Garrison.
With big names like Melissa Etheridge and Janet Jackson, and a Big Sugar reunion, the CMF is a industry event. But it’s not all name brand entertainment – you will also be able to hear some new and undiscovered, or just barely discovered, talent too, especially in the local vicinity.
I browsed briefly through the schedule, and, as of now, The Painted Lady offers 2 nights of CMW music, The Garrison 4 nights, including a Manitoba music showcase, and the Dakota offers 4 nights of a “Factor Breakthrough Series” headlined twice by The Schomberg Fair.
Other spots in our extended neighborhood also featuring CMF bands include The Great Hall, The Mod Club and The Gladstone. Dates are Wednesday, March 9 – Sunday, March 13. You can buy wristbands to access most shows, or individual tickets are also available.
The celebration of Cuban food, art, music and drinks is returning to Ossington Avenue this August. Havana Cultura runs August 18-21 and is sponsored by Havana Club Rum. Events will be held at many of the busiest venues around the neighborhood, including Reposado, Sweaty Bettys, Watusi, Delux, Crooked Star, Lower Ossington Theatre, Painted Lady, and, of course, Julie’s Cuban.
The sneak preview happened today at Reposado where they showcased some of the talent – from musicians to cigar rollers. They also allowed us to taste some authentic Cuban food and drink, including a new rum they are launching this year during the festival, Havana Club Selección de Maestros.
For the time being, you can still go there late night/early morning (depending on your outlook) and buy a loaf of bread. None of the involved parties knows quite when the factory will close, and when the building will be converted. We’ll let you know when we do!
