Local designer Virginia Johnson is getting a lot of exposure these days thanks to an arrangement with Shoppers Drug Mart.
I thought it was cool as I was flipping through Metro this morning to see the ad featuring Virginia’s bag. She’s hit the mainstream with this one. Open a newspaper, or visit the Shoppers Drug Mart website, and you will see a brightly coloured tote ”created by Canadian textile designer Virginia Johnson” being offered as the special gift with a $125 or more beauty purchase. That is a good value.
The bag is representative of Johnson’s bright, casual style. Her store on Ossington, and all the other retail locations which sell her products, offers beach bags, totes, hats, dresses and more in summery styles and colours.
Virginia Johnson’s home base is at 132 Ossington Avenue.
Congratulations to the three employees from Ossington bakery Ontario Bread Co. who won Lotto Max! Three men who have worked in that bakery for years are now splitting $50 million!!
For those of you walking down Ossington from Dundas smelling baking bread, that’s coming from Ontario Bread Co, which is in the alley behind and north of the Home Hardware.
We have a lot of bakeries in the neighborhood, but this one is the bakery itself, with no retail space, unlike Nova Era, Venezia and others.
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.
It’s a new year and Ossington remains a popular subject in the press. Here is a round-up of the latest, most interesting stories about our neighborhood.
I’m sure you’ve all seen the arresting Barbie display in the windows of 100 Ossington, and it’s made you curious. If so, read this article which profiles the creator of that collection.
Telegramme Prints had a nice write-up in the Globe and Mail this past weekend, with an article about the popularity of Toronto-themed poster art, which also featured Dave Murray’s poster which we recommended in December.
The Star went on a bar crawl, starting at Dundas and Ossington, and hit several of our local watering holes, including Camp Four, Churchill and The Garrison.
Finally, Via Rail’s “Destination” magazine covers Ossington as the “in street,” with mentions of our hot shops, like Ministry of the Interior, and restaurants and bars, including Foxley, Beau Lieu Bistro and Reposado to name just a few!
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!
Joanne Kates calls the Ossington strip “the hottest restaurant row in town” in her review of Salt this weekend. This follows Gina Mallet coining the term “The Ossington Triangle” when she reviewedBrockton General last month.
In addition to the restaurant reviews, there’s coverage of new crossfit gym Academy of Lions and their program with homeless youths. The Globe and Mail must be sending all their reporters to our neighborhood, because they also have a write-up on Jonathan + Olivia‘s Top Shop.
Last but not least, the city of Toronto ranks neighborhoods by the number of trees living in them, and Dundas and Ossington’s Portugal Village ranked dead last. Better start planting!
This is the only source of this information, and they were unable to get confirmation from City Hall, so we will continue to pursue the news, and update here when we can. In the meantime, head out to dinner on Ossington. It’s been an uphill battle, and hopefully this means it’s over.
UPDATE: Today’s blogTO and Torontoist are confirming reports that the ban on new restaurants on Ossington was lifted on the weekend. Funny how the same way this whole mess started (without consulting the public) is how it ended (no public notice). Now that Joe Pantalone is no longer our city councillor, we hope for more communication with our local council.
Pizzeria Libretto was voted the #1 pizza in Toronto, and the runner-up for specialty pizza, and restaurant for a date. We know the lines are long, but can only recommend going for lunch, or arriving early for dinner, giving them your phone number, and hitting one of the many nearby bars for a pre-dinner drink. That’s what we do.
Naturally, Ossington also topped the list for best bar, and runner-up for best bar or pub. Take that, city council! The best bar as voted by Now’s readers is The Dakota Tavern, and the runner-up is Sweaty Betty’s, both sort of bookending the Ossington strip, and each by now a local institution. Plus, in the category of best bartender, Michael Louis Johnson of Communist’s Daughter was runner-up. We don’t know what the other guy does that’s so special, but Michael serves food and drinks at the same time that he plays with a jazz group. Check it out for yourself!
One of our two pho joints was featured as the runner-up for Best Vietnamese - Rua Vang Golden Turtle on 125 Ossington. Not surprising, considering how popular (and cheap!) it is. The Lakeview won as best diner/greasy spoon. Gotta appreciate that it’s open 24 hours, and has nightly drink specials that really are special.
We think all the spots on Ossington are worth visiting, but it is nice when great establishments and people that we love get recognized. Post your faves that deserve recognition in the comments.
As we have mentioned, the moratorium and other restrictions on Ossington have proven too much for Salt Wine Bar. We heard from an employee there that they were shut down during service last weekend. They have also tweeted they are closed, and blogTO has an in-depth post about it today. BlogTO’s story mentions that Salt hopes to reopen by November. We hope so too. As you know from our previous posts, we were big fans.
This sort of bureaucracy in our ward is not only affecting Salt Wine Bar and Ossington. Joe Warmington’s editorial in yesterday’s Toronto Sun points out the crazy levels of harrassment our city is pulling on business owners on Queen Street as well, instead of focusing on important matters. On a related note, next month we have the opportunity to elect a new city council representative for this ward. Each of us deserves someone we believe will work in our interests. How do we determine that? Listen to what the candidates say and ask them questions. Your chance to do that is next Tuesday night at the Garrison, where we are hosting a Ward 19 Candidates debate which is open to the public. Hope to see you there!
Local designer Virginia Johnson is getting a lot of exposure these days thanks to an arrangement with Shoppers Drug Mart.
The press has been covering Ossington again, with stories about new and existing retailers and a new building project.
Joanne Kates calls the Ossington strip “the hottest restaurant row in town” in 
