Tens of thousands turned out yesterday for Toronto’s first Dundas West Fest, a street fair stretching from Roxton Road all the way to Lansdowne. The restaurants had tables out in the street, and vendors and onlookers alike were enjoying the great weather all day. Stages were set up along the whole stretch of the festival including in the Beer Store parking lot.
Here are a few pictures we collected from yesterday’s festivities but these were just a small snapshot of an enormous festival. We’re looking forward to this festival again next year. A huge thanks and congratulations has to go out to to the Dundas West BIA for putting together a fantastic day.
The Garrison had windows wide open and a big crowd gathered to enjoy the scene:
The Japanese Paper Place (a local business on Brock Street) organized a collage table where kids and adults got to be crafty with paper:
The garden centre on the south side of Dundas just east of Dovercourt was turned into an actual beer garden, hosted by Bambi’s (a popular late night basement bar on the corner of Dovercourt and Dundas if you haven’t seen it) and Beau’s Beer. DJs played the entire afternoon and into the evening.
The Beer Store parking lot had a stage with plenty of great bands:
Churchill and The Grove moved their business outdoors for the day:
It’s PATIO SEASON! And of course there’s lots of great places on Ossington to enjoy a pint or a meal. Here’s some of the options we found and captured on a walk early this evening.
Starting at the bottom of Ossington, we have the hidden patio of Sweaty Betty’s:
Moving up to Union Restaurant, they’ve created a nice oasis where you can enjoy local food and drinks.
Up at Argyle you can enjoy your pho and other Vietnamese food outdoors at the Golden Turtle:
Across the street, one of the newest additions to the outdoor eating scene is, of course, the Bellwoods Brewery patio. Fine local beers, with a retail shop next door where you can pick up the bottles to take home.
Another hidden gem on the street is the back patio of Reposado. Try out some tequila cocktails while enjoying the outdoors. Don’t forget this Sunday is Cinco de Mayo.
At the south corner of Rolyat we have one of the oldest on-street patios at The Crooked Star.
Up on the north corner of that same intersection you can find burgers, beers and sun at the BQM patio.
Around the corner on Dundas, you’ll find the Lakeview patio – a good place to enjoy the outdoors. Get there early for an outdoor seat for brunch:
Finally, you can enjoy some sports at Opera Bobs. They even have a TV right inside the window so you can follow the game while outdoors:
Other notable patios we didn’t include are Crafted, which has a little back area to enjoy your morning latte, and I Deal Coffee, which is a rustic space off Foxley. And speaking of Foxley, the namesake restaurant has a very nice back seating area which isn’t open yet, but I’m sure will be soon.
A cold Saturday in April. Yes, it was snowing this morning!
Time to head out to the neighbourhood. First stop: The Saint Tavern for scones, maple bourbon bacon and deviled eggs.
Walked down to discover Amaya Express finally has their liquor license:
We stopped into Annie Aime to say hi and see she has her store set up with some very cute displays. Men’s and women’s clothing and some very nice shoes:
And nice jewelry:
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Across the street it looks like the foundations and the start of an elevator shaft tower at Motif are moving along nicely:
We stopped in and said hi at Williams Craig and checked out some of the funky items they have for sale at this interior design shop. This little monkey caught our eye sitting quietly in a chair in the front area. His name is Ludovico:
The group of designers go out shopping often and bring in what they find for display at the front of their store. A lot of neat things on hand today, and keep an eye on their quite active blog for WC Collective.
A further walk down to Angell Gallery where we checked out some of the works of Alex McLeod who creates digital images of fantastical worlds as well as works of art using a 3D printer.
It was time for a beer and so we headed up to Bellwoods for a quick pint and checked out the progress on the area where the kitchen used to be. Looks like it’s almost ready:
Despite the cold there were a lot of folks still on the patio. Lots of hats, gloves and coats with the outdoor pints:
Finally, the walk wouldn’t be complete without a stop at the new Cote de Boeuf where we looked at some of the beef aging in the front window cooler:
Soo Ling Beads and Beadings right off the corner on the north side of Dundas.
    Has anyone actually eaten at Quality Inn?
Our neighbourhood discount store, Dollar Joint, is gone. Who wants to take the space?
Galego’s, a furniture store which had been in the neighbourhood for around 40 years, closed in the fall. We’ve heard the place has been rented to a brand name clothing retailer after some offers from the LCBO who wanted to expand next door.
In the old location of Academy of Lions, the building has now been demolished to make way for Abacus Lofts, a new condo development.
Down a narrow alleyway there’s an artspace at 1254 Dundas.
Ossington is changing rapidly, if you don’t stop and look, you might miss something. Today we did another stroll down the strip to document some of those changes.
90 Ossington, just north of Levack Block, is being renovated into a casual Asian bar. The muchanticipated Oddseoul, owned by the brothers Han of Swish by Han, should be open in 2 weeks, according to the Han brother we spotted this morning.
There is a new resident of 38 Ossington. Williamscraig Design Company now has their office on Ossington next to the self storage place. More daytime people who get to enjoy workday lunches on our street!
Down at the corner of Queen and Ossington, on the east side, construction is underway at what was formerly a sewing machine shop. According to the builders a Skateboarding shop is going in there. We can get our longboards and wheels soon!
This morning when we stopped by they were putting some steps on the new Starbucks on the corner of Queen and Ossington. Now it’s only a couple short blocks to Dovercourt until the next stop on the Starbucks-Queen latte tour.
Building at Motif, at 41 Ossington, is underway. It looks like they are digging the basements and getting ready to set foundations.
In the former space where Frantic City sold books, it looks like our new nail salon, Buffer, is getting ready to open within the next couple weeks.
Yesterday was a beautiful day to enjoy the fall weather with food supplied by many of the restaurants of Ossington at a big outdoor harvest table. Table D’Oz was that and more. People of all ages and from all parts of the city and beyond came to 109 Ossington to sample some of the city’s best food, all for a good cause, The Stop. I was there, I brought friends, we ate some delicious food, and took some photos.
The event began at 2PM, and the parking lot at 109 Oz was set up with one long harvest table in the centre, flanked by smaller tables for all the participating restaurants to serve their dishes on each side:
The tickets were $2 each, and many of the dishes and the beer only cost $2. As my friend Gavin said, “We ate and drank for $10 each!” Plus, we got fed by some of the hottest restaurants in Toronto, including The Grove, Hawker Bar and The Lakeview.
Derek from Grasshopper Records was spinning some great tunes, keeping people entertained while they ate:
On to the food: Hawker Bar served up their wings, the tofu and banana fritters. They don’t look like bananas with the green shell, do they?
Boehmer offered up some really hearty lamb sandwiches:
I didn’t even get photos of Yours Truly‘s deviled eggs or the salt cod iniri. Sorry, I ate it too fast! I did get some shots of the pork pies from The Grove:
The Saint was doing a brisk business with their perogies, doubtless thanks to the lardon topping! Mmmmm bacon:
The Lakeview served up three choices of sliders: pork, beef or veggie. There was a drinks table, and Lakeview Convenience had some packaged goods for snacking. BQM offered sweet potato fries, Amaya Express was serving some samosas, and More Than Pasta had a lasagna dish that looked great too! The number of visitors increased quickly, but line-ups never seemed too long:
The harvest table came in handy and made for a friendly, community feel to the event.
I hope the success is reflected in the proceeds for The Stop!
There have been lots of changes to document down near the bottom of Ossington over the past month, from a new Shoppers Drug Mart, to new retail space being unveiled, to the start of work on Motif, a Reserve Property Development.
Work has begun on demolishing the old electrical supply store to make way for Motif, a new development coming to the street.
The scaffold and covers have been removed from 40 Ossington and it looks like there are 2 new small retail locations, one of which is already leased.
The new Shoppers Drug mart opened last week at the southwest corner of Ossington and Queen.
The new development on northwest corner of Ossington and Queen looks nearly finished.
The building on the northeast corner which was a sewing machine retailers is about to change. We can remember what it looked like.
A view up Ossington from the new Lower Ossington Avenue.
More photos from some changing locations on Ossington from last weekend.
First up is an in development space at 215 Ossington, just south of Fishbar. Will we have another restaurant in there, or something else?
We heard it on twitter first, and confirmed last weekend with the clerk working inside. Frantic City at 123 Ossington will be closing before the summer ends. It’s a shame because it’s an excellent store with loads of fantastic books in stock. It’s hard enough for bookstores to compete with the chains, but now with e-books, it’s next to impossible. We’ll miss Frantic City.
Tens of thousands turned out yesterday for Toronto’s first Dundas West Fest, a street fair stretching from Roxton Road all the way to Lansdowne. The restaurants had tables out in the street, and vendors and onlookers alike were enjoying the great weather all day. Stages were set up along the whole stretch of the festival including in the Beer Store parking lot.
Other notable patios we didn’t include are Crafted, which has a little back area to enjoy your morning latte, and I Deal Coffee, which is a rustic space off Foxley. And speaking of Foxley, the namesake restaurant has a very nice back seating area which isn’t open yet, but I’m sure will be soon.
