Valentine’s Day is a big day for restaurants and bars, so even though it falls on a Monday this year, lots of places will be open. No surprise that with our wonderful selection of restaurants, there are a lot of choices in the neighborhood for Valentine’s meals and events.
Bunda Lounge, for one, is hosting a special night on Saturday, February 12, with DJs, bottle service and appetizers.
On the dining side, Delux Restaurant is hosting a prix fixe menu on Monday, February 14. Salt Restaurant is also offering a prix fixe menu – you can check it out online. We also called Beau Lieu Bistro, and this lovely French boite is also doing a set menu, so call now for reservations!
Paramour is also doing a special Monday opening for Valentine’s Day and will offer their regular menu and some specials, including a special cocktail menu. They are offering an early and a late seating.
Union Restauranttweeted that they will be open for Valentine’s Day and we are waiting to see what the menu will be.
Bohmer is still working on their set menu, but rest assured, will be open. Reposado is planning some special Valentine’s “oysters, Cava and crooning,” according to their website.
If you don’t want a fancy dinner but want to throw down and have some fun with your S.O. or some friends, there are some good choices for you too! Head on over to The Painted Lady for Big Rude Jake hosting the weekly Open Mic Night. The Rattlesnake Choir will be playing at The Dakota.
And, if your Valentine’s night doesn’t turn out like you plan, check out the fun and original night planned at XPace Cultural Centre on Feb 18! Called “Heartbeats,” it’s a new, live interactive dating show. They are even looking for contestants!
Windfall Basics is Canada’s only new clothing and basic needs bank. As a registered charity, they need fundraisers to survive. I’d imagine that this cold winter they must be busier than ever! Wear White for Windfall includes several opportunities to fundraise, including the one on January 21 at Bohmer.
On Friday night at 10PM, get served at Bohmer by celebrity bartenders including Billie Holliday, Glenn Dixon and Seamus O’Regan. To RSVP, email info at boehmer dot com.
For those of you in the neighbourhood who haven’t been to see The Beauties on a Sunday night at the Dakota Tavern, you are missing out on seeing some great musicians. It had been a while since we stopped in, but last week we did for their post New Years Hangover Party , and the house was packed. There’s often other musicians who stop in and play, or at least come by to listen. In the past we’ve seen Ron Sexsmith, Feist, and others showing up.
In 2010, they released their first full-length self-titled album to muchcritical acclaim. This month they are even heading to Asbury Park, NJ for a music festival, so they are no longer just our local house band. See them while you can!
We’ve had a big year at Ossington Village. It’s nice to look back on the year and see what was popular and what drew people to the site.
These are the 10 most popular posts by site traffic over 2010.
1. Beau Lieu Bistro is now open. – This is one of the unsung stars of Ossington. A low-key French bistro, with really nice food, a good ambiance, and a staff that cares. So we are happy that, at least on our blog, they are getting the attention they deserve
2. Dinner at Salt Wine Bar. – Before this place had a license they were operating on catering certificates. We went over and tried the food and were very impressed. Soon after we ate there they were closed for almost two months. Reader were curious on what to expect when they finally got a chance to taste the food.
3. Ward 19 Candidate’s Debate. – When we announced that we were going to have a candidate’s debate, it was a new thing for us. The debate itself was a lot of fun and there were a lot of folks that ended up watching the UStream video from this post from the night itself. Michael Sims rocked the night and shook some people up.
4. Goed Eton Gets off to a Rolling Start. – One of the quirky, but delicious places that opened on the street is Goed Eten – where the proprietor, Johan, has been putting together a menu of poutine, local fed sausage burgers and other gourmet food. This post we put up right when he open and was still working out the kinks.
5 Salt Wine Bar Looks Open. – Salt Wine Bar gets another place on our top 10 list from our post on Aug 7th when we learned it had opened – albeit without a license.
6 Karen Sun shows good knowledge of Ward 19. – We did a number of candidate profiles over the course of the election cycle, but the big hit on our site was the profile of Karen Sun. Although she didn’t beat out Mike Layton, she was the site favourite in terms of page hits.
7. Call Joe Pantalone, Open Salt Wine Bar. – Again, Salt Wine Bar hits our top 10 list – the frustration with Joe Pantalone’s decision to put a moratorium on the restaurants on the street encouraged others to check out our post.
9. The Evolution of Dundas off Ossington. - This year because of the moratorium, as well as other factors, the Dundas strip to the east and west of Ossington became popular with places like Churchill, Camp 4, Red Light, The Port, Enoteca Sociale and more. This post looked at some of the newer places that emerged.
10. Havana Cultura Starts Today. – Our 10th place post is about a festival that took place in August celebrating Cuban Culture. We have a number of places on the strip as well as just off that joined in the festivities with Cuban food and music.
New Year’s Eve is one of the biggest party nights of the year, and whether you want a nice dinner out, or some rocking music, you can find it here.
Many places will be closed including Julie’s Cuban, Beau Lieu Bistro and Pizzeria Libretto. You still have a lot of options, though, including:
Dance party at The Garrison! Featuring DJ Shit La Merde, revellers will dance to music from 1890 to 2011, in that order. Tickets are available in advance for $15, $20 at the door. The Ossington offers another lively party with Some New Bullshit with Azuree & Carl, Champagne, bourbon and “sleazy tunes for the sinner”, $11 cover. The Painted Lady is a great option, with no cover and burlesque dancers and DJ NV spinning all night. The Port on Dundas West has a whole list of DJs (Poppy Seed, Luxury Bob, Miracle Whip and DJ Hot Pants) to get you moving, with $10 for advance tickets.
Live music is available at The Dakota Tavern, where Sunday night regulars The Beauties are headlining a New Year’s Eve Party, with special guests. Tickets available at the bar until they’re sold out.
We always have great dining options on Ossington, and this New Year’s is a prime example. Union is offering their regular menu plus Grower Champagne, foie gras along with a few surprises, call for reservations! Salt is celebrating their first New Year’s in style, with a special 5 course menu including 1 glass of Spanish Cava. Reservations are required, there are two seatings, 6:30 and 9:30PM, and cost is $70 per person.
Celebrate New Year’s 50s and 60s style at the very mod Watusi, where the dinner seating starts at 8PM and includes a sparkling wine toast at midnight and music from DJ Mark Foreman from 10:30P-3A. Bohmer will be open regular hours with a regular menu for New Year’s Eve, as will Foxley. Call now to reserve!
If you’ve got the coin and the appetite, head over to Dundas where Enoteca Sociale is offering a 6-course festive Italian dinner in honor of La Festa di San Silvestro, and begins at 7PM. Reservations required and details here.
If you’re looking to find Dinner on Ossington on Christmas Day you’re going to be pretty much out of luck. There are a couple places to get food on Christmas day including the Pho place Tien Thanh and Lakeview Restaurant, and you’ll be able to stop by Sweaty Betty’s and Opera Bob’s for drinks.
We’ve collected the hours from many of the local restaurants, cafes and bars for the Christmas weekend so you don’t end up heading out to a closed restaurant or bar.
2010 was the year when Ossington came into it’s own – international press coverage, great restaurants and art galleries, and a regular spot on the schedules of a lot of the city’s festivals.
Summer is the top season in Toronto for festivals, and this year was no different. Ossington area venues hosted parts of the music festival NXNE.
The Scream Literary Festival organized a fun literary pub crawl on Ossington, with Canadian authors reading to audiences in pubs and bars over the course of one hot night.
Ossington welcomed Toronto’s first Beer Week, which launched with full support of Ossington bars this September.
We appreciate that all of these different cultural events take place right around the corner, but even we couldn’t get to all of them. What were your favourite events this year on Ossington? Are there any we should have mentioned? Which ones do you desperately want to return? I can’t wait for the next NXNE – already got my passes!
2010 was a big year for Ossington Village, the blog and the neighborhood. As the year ends, we look back in a series of remembrances of the big events, openings and news draws of our little part of the world. Today we focus on the openings in 2010.
This year brought a lot of new businesses and faces to Ossington, all of which we welcomed, and many of which we covered. We look forward to frequenting many new shops, galleries, restaurants and more to the strip in the year ahead.
Let’s start with February 2010 – Angell Gallery moved from Queen Street West onto Dundas. Angell took over the space of Lennox Contemporary in February 2010, and has hosted a plethora of exhibits ever since.
There was a bustle of activity and then Bohmer launched in March 2010. The beautiful space and delicious food has led more people to Toronto’s new “Restaurant Row.” March also saw the opening of “Oz Boutique,” an art and design hub which has housed Evan Biddell’s clothing line, but focuses on photographer Joe Fuda’s work and curated exhibits.
We started April with City Store Grocery opening on Dundas, and Crepes and More on Ossington. 8 months later, both are still open and catering to the daytime crowd in our area. That month’s other opening was the weekend-only bar, OurHouse.
We don’t want to forget all the new openings on Dundas (part of that “Ossington triangle” mentioned earlier) that we covered a couple of months ago about Dundas’ evolution: Bunda Lounge, Churchill, Brockton General, Academy of Lions, Port, and Enoteca Sociale.
Finally, let’s look forward to the continuing growth with new places set to open soon: Pasta and More, Fish Bar, Lakeview Convenience and The Saint are the ones we know about, but we’re sure there’ll be more. Here’s to a happy and healthy Ossington Village in 2011.
Bunda Loungeopened recently on Dundas just east of Ossington, and we have ventured in to meet the owners and find out what the place is all about.
Ivan is the owner of Bunda Lounge. Ivan has a lot of experience in planning parties and events as a DJ throughout the city, and makes the place lively and fun. He is friendly and warm: every time we’ve been to Bunda Lounge he’s welcomed us as if we are old friends visiting him at home. This warmth and friendliness extends to the customers: It’s a diverse mix of people from all over, communing over the cool music and vibe.
Speaking of music, Bunda Lounge introduces the Ossington neighborhood to different types of music, and people are excited. Each night has a different theme: Wed- Jazz and Blues, Thurs- Brazilian Night (Bossa Nova and Samba) , Fri- Classic and Deep house and Sat-Kizomba, Zouk, a popular Angolan dance and music genre, and Top 40. On Saturday, they offered some dance lessons early in the evening, so check it out and learn Kizomba – if you haven’t seen it before, here’s somevideo.
They are open for business Wed/Thurs 7pm-1am; Fri/Sat 7pm-2am and Sun 7pm-12am, and they have a daily rotating menu, that is Afro-Latin style tapas. Last Saturday night, Ivan served us some good treats, including his own creation: a chicken muffin.
On Friday, December 3, the Tequila and More show comes to Toronto. It will take place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre from 4-10PM that night. If you like tequila, mezcal, and/or Mexican beer, all of those will be featured, plus Mexican food. As a former boss of mine likes to say, Arriba!
In addition to the Mexican beverages, our favorite tequila bar, Reposado, will be part of the action. Their house band, The Reposadists, will play two sets at the show, at 4:30 and again at 8:45PM. Plus, mixologists from Reposado will be serving up some margaritas and other creative cocktails.
Tickets are available online, and include the entertainment and 10 sample tickets. Ole!
Valentine’s Day is a big day for restaurants and bars, so even though it falls on a Monday this year, lots of places will be open. No surprise that with our wonderful selection of restaurants, there are a lot of choices in the neighborhood for Valentine’s meals and events.
New Year’s Eve is one of the biggest party nights of the year, and whether you want a nice dinner out, or some rocking music, you can find it here.
Lounge
On Friday, December 3, the 
