We are delighted to see (HT to Trinity Bellwoods CA) that Hawker Bar can finally join the breweries, tapas bars, and other fine dining establishments on the street and start serving liquor. If you hadn’t been following along, there were some neighbours who were opposing the license fearing drunken late-night patrons. There were a few conditions to the go-ahead (mostly very minor, and courtesies any sensible bar owner would do anyway), but at least they will be allowed to stay open late. We’d like to give a big thanks to Mike Layton, who, we understand, worked hard to bring the two sides together.
They have already been receiving a lot of press, and the biggest challenge they will face is having a seat for every patron that wants to visit. It’s a small place and there are already lines there from early in the evening to try their Singapore street-food style cuisine.
The event is being held to raise awareness about environmental improvements, and to allow residents to easily dispose of used, unwanted and hazardous household materials. Some may be reused and/or recycled, and others will just be disposed of properly.
What else do you get if you attend? There will be a barbecue (hosted by Friends of Roxton Road Parks), and you can pick up some free compost from your garden. Also available for purchase are backyard composters, green bins and kitchen containers. Details here.
Go to the park tomorrow, Saturday, April 14 between 10a-2p to participate.
The other night we received a note in the mail from some concerned neighbours about Hawker Bar, the new occupants of the unopened space just north of Foxley previously occupied by Crepes and More (and prior to that Bar a Soup). They are looking to bring Singapore Street Food to Ossington. (see video described by Anthony Bordain)
To keep you as informed as possible, we’re sharing the letter from the concerned citizens as well as the local information package from the team behind Hawker Bar. Share your thoughts in the comments.
Mike Layton, our ward 19 city councilor, is holding a community meeting tonight at St. Christopher House from 7-9pm. Mike’s intention is to inform the process of determining the next budget, including decisions on which programs will be maintained, which will be cut and which will be transformed.
There are a number of changes which the mayor’s office is proposing which may not be good for Ward 19 and downtown Toronto residents. Come out to the meeting and share your opinions on what is important for your Toronto so Mike can take this back to council.
Springtime is a time for enjoying patios and supporting good causes and, of course, enjoying good food. There is a great cause on Ossington worth supporting – the back patio at Union Restaurant. Teo Paul, the owner and chef at Union had a BBQ these evening attended by some locals, encouraging everyone to come and sign his petition to get his beautiful back patio operational.
Teo was out serving the best hamburgers and sausages I think I have tasted in a while, with some great condiments. Mike Layton, our Ward 19 counselor, stopped by and chatted with Teo, explaining that these are the kind of local places that we need in the neighbourhood.
Right now, but current bylaws, Union cannot open their patio to the public, so they will need to go to the Committee of Adjustment. During these hearings, letters of support from locals can be helpful.
Teo’s goal for Union is to be a refuge for both farmers and patrons, and he has wanted a patio since he began his journey to ownership. The idea for the patio is that it would serve a maximum of 24 people, and also house his composting area as well as a charcoal barbeque. Produce from local farmers will also be showcased along the wall. It will close at 11pm, so as not to disturb local neighbours.
He is asking for letters of support so if you can email him at chefteo@gmail.com a letter noting your support, he can then use that at the committee meeting.
About 16 months ago we heard that there was discussion about stoplights going in at Argyle St, breaking up Ossington between Dundas and Queen Street. Over the last few weeks the construction has finally taken place and the new lights are up, but still not operational.
According to municipal documents, Joe Pantalone requested an investigation into the intersection in 2009 and said investigation took place (which is probably quite out-of-date considering the pace of change on the street) in that same year. There was a public meeting about the stoplight, which for some reason was held in East York, so it was unlikely to attract the attendance of neighbourhood residents, the very people most impacted by this decision.
According to the municipal documents, the lights cost the city $130,000. One assumes that there was some safety concerns about the intersection that led to the initial discussion, which is hard for city Councillors to turn down. Interestingly, this doesn’t seem to be the case. The report pointed out that
for the three-year period ending July 31, 2009 …six collisions had occurred at the intersection of Ossington Avenue and Argyle Street. Of the six collisions, none involved a pedestrian, and one was considered potentially preventable by the installation of traffic control signals.
But the report issued by the city raises some valid concerns about the lights at the intersection including:
Possible Increased congestion and delay to traffic on Ossington Avenue is possible;
Increased traffic volume on Argyle Street;
Parking must be prohibited at all times within 30.5 metres of the intersection resulting in a loss of about six parking spaces on Ossington Avenue and three parking spaces on Argyle Street;
Increased wait times for pedestrians crossing Ossington Avenue.
This all seems, to us, like a lot of negatives for not a whole lot of positives. There was a crossing guard at the intersection during school hours, who seems to have been removed, or at least have shorter hours these days. Only one accident (out of only 6) could have been prevented by this light which will cause more pedestrian wait times and more traffic. All this to address a 3 year old request from a now obsolete politician.
Dani Elwell, of Jaiden’s Petals, likes the new stoplight. Her daughter is often crossing Argyle and Ossington and she has always been nervous about cars that don’t pay attention to the cross-walk. The new light, she says, will help to create a bit of humanity at the intersection.
According to current councillor Mike Layton, the lights will remain green for those on Ossington until requested or actuated by a car or pedestrian request on Argyle.
What do you think about the new lights? Good? Bad?
Walking by Bohmer Restaurant today we noticed that they have a city application for outdoor seating on their window.
Currently on Ossington there is only one boulevard license belonging to Painted Lady, and two that face onto sidestreets at Roylat - BQM and Crooked Star. Bohmer is blessed with a bit of a boulevard space in front of their property as well as having front windows that open right up onto the sidewalk. Now that there are signs of the upcoming patio season, hopefully this will go through quickly and we’ll have another place on Ossington to sit outside and enjoy some drinks and, in this case, really nice food.
Last night I attended a round-table meeting with Councilor Mike Layton and several active community members from Ward 19. Part of Councilor Layton’s plan for his first term is to be more open and available to the community, and he will continue to hold these meetings, and bigger town hall meetings, on a regular basis. The next town hall meeting will be scheduled sometime in June. We’ll post advance notice about the where and when.
In last night’s meeting, Mike covered a lot of topics. He gave us an update on the budget dealings at city hall, and some of our esteemed mayor’s other plans. As news readers know, transit is a hot topic in Toronto these days, and that will likely be the focus of Mike’s next community meeting.
Besides his own updates, Mike allowed the 15 or so attendees to discuss their concerns and issues. There were representatives from parks, business improvement groups, resident’s associations and Live Green Toronto.
No one directly from Ossington was there (besides me), but there was a rep from the Do West BIA, the Friends of Trinity Bellwoods Park, and the Trinity Bellwoods Community Association, so definitely local interest groups. We consider Trinity Bellwoods our local park, and we’re not the only ones. Every year more people use the park, and I learned they do not have a great budget, evidenced by the one part-time parks employee who does all the maintenance all summer long. So remember that next time you stop there for a picnic with friends, and clean up after yourself, please.
Other issues include the very long-term work that’s been done with the streetcars on Dundas. This construction is going to start up again very soon, and as of this Monday, April 4, we will once again see buses replacing the streetcars both east and west bound in our portion of Dundas.
One of the purposes of this meeting was to connect like-minded groups and allow them to network, share information and help each other with shared experience. So, the parks people connected, and the BIA people shared info. Good idea, and I think it worked.
Finally, Mike pointed out that it is very likely council will soon revoke the harmonized bylaws. He expects it to happen in two weeks. This means a lot of work for council to start over with zoning rules, but, on the positive side, the laws could hopefully make a lot more sense!
For your chance to learn more about council and what’s going on in the community, and to have your say, definitely stay posted for the June town hall meeting. We’ll let you know.
On January 27th, next Thursday, Mike Layton will be hosting a budget consultation with neighbourhood residents at St. Christopher House, at the corner of Ossington and Dundas.
It’s a chance for local residents to voice their concerns and give their thoughts on how budgets within Ward 19 are allocated.
We believe it’s important for residents to know what’s going on in their neighbourhood, and this is a great chance to ask Mike Layton about
his plans for the Ward going forward. He is new to the role, so now is the chance to express your opinion.
If you can’t make it and you still want to have your say send an email to Mike Layton here.
For a look at the details of the current budget check out the city site here.
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.
