The first round of news focuses on bars and restaurants, reflecting where Torontonians spend their time in the winter.

We may have been the first to note the opening of restaurant Yours Truly, but we are not the last. Many are lauding the food and the men behind it, and liking the bar scene – check it out yourself at 229 Ossington.

Singer Emily Haines listed The Dakota Tavern as her favorite go-to for live music in Toronto.

Blogto has been profiling bartenders, starting in our area with The Garrison and The Ossington.

We were there when they were, and now you can read and watch a behind-the-scenes look at new GlobalTV series Bomb Girls when they were on location at The Dakota Tavern last fall.

Soon-to-open new restaurant The Grove, next to Churchill on Dundas at Lakeview, is already getting preview attention for its English menu.

The local art scene is also getting some coverage, starting with a story about art which mentions some street art on Queen near Ossington. It’s a cool picture – definitely want to check it out!

Liss Platt’s exhibit at MKG127 just opened and received a nice write-up for her photography in constant.

Last week, Toronto Life recommended Pinkalicious, the children-targeted musical which has been running every Sunday at Lower Ossington Theatre.

 Did we miss any news about the neighborhood? Let us know in the comments.

The year in festivals kicked off in January with a dance festival called Connect TO at Lower Ossington Theatre, which is a prime festival location.

The music festival season began with the Canadian Music Festival in March. Musicians and bands performed at local venues including The Painted Lady, The Garrison and The Dakota Tavern.  Juno Fest also hit Toronto, and Ossington, in March, with Canadian musicians featured at The Garrison and The Dakota Tavern.

The music came back with the return of NXNE in June, and we saw some amazing shows right here in Ossington Village. This July, the Painted Lady created a new festival to coincide with the Toronto Jazz and Fringe Festivals. Maybe next year, we’ll see more venues join the fun.

The Contact Photography Festival covered art galleries for the entire month of May, and didn’t miss Ossington, with exhibits at The Painted Lady, Angell Gallery, Brockton General and Levack Block.

Jane’s Walks, which take place all over the globe on a May weekend, were also led in our neighborhood. Maybe next year you’ll see an Ossington Village Jane’s Walk instead of “the Hipster’s Guide to Ossington!”

Summerworks returned in August, bringing music and theatre to Lower Ossington Theatre and other local venues. The hugely popular Havana Cultura returned for it’s second year in August, with Cuban music, art and food on offer at almost every spot on the street. Who can forget the cigar roller surrounded by scantily clad women? Another returning event was Queen West Music Fest, which celebrated it’s third year this summer in Trinity Bellwoods Park.

Some was sipped, and some was likely chugged, but either way, Toronto Beer Week also returned to Ossington in 2011, with tastings and pairings at local restaurants and bars. Ossington also saw the return of TO Sketch Fest, with lots of comedic troupes taking to the stage at LOT this past November.

Bohmer Restaurant is holding a Speakeasy New Year’s Eve, with a 5 course tasting menu with a glass of bubbly, for $75 pp.

At this year’s Dakota Tavern New Year’s party, CATL will have everyone dancing with a show starting at 10PM.

The Painted Lady sticks to what it does best, with music by Salazar and burlesque from Anastasia Burlesque.

The Ossington is planning an 80s boogie funk New Year with “Love Handle NYE Edition” with DJs starting at 10PM.

Opera Bob’s is hosting their 3rd Annual New Year’s Eve-Stravaganza, with live music from The Unknown Culprits and guests. Admission is $20 but go buy tickets in advance as they sold out well before the big night last year.

The Garrison‘s Annual New Year’s Eve party features Chronologic and Shit la Merde and tickets are available at Soundscapes and Rotate This for $20.

Lower Ossington Theatre‘s new event space, LOT, is hosting a New Year’s party for $10 with dancing all night. Tickets on sale now and the party starts at 10p.

UPDATE: Fishbar has announced their dinner menu for New Year’s (scroll down) and for $55 pp they are offering a 4 course meal, drinks not included.

People will be dancing at Levack Block. Featuring DJ Dougie Boom in the backroom with special guests in the front. Entry is $20 in advance, $30 at the door, plus there’s a $40 VIP wristband = entry to second floor & champagne toast at midnite. Doors open @ 10pm, serving till 3AM.
Tickets available at the bar from Thursday to Saturday from 5pm or through PayPal via levackblock@yahoo.com

We’ll keep updating this post as we learn of more happenings in the neighborhood.

How did you get involved with the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival?

Toronto Sketch Fest is the one place where we can expose our material to a new audience, and bring people out to our shows that go on the rest of the year. It’s always a great opportunity for us to meet other comedians, and expand our audience. This is our second year being featured in the festival, and we couldn’t be any more excited! We all got haircuts!

We would love to get the chance to see Two Kids One Hall. We are all huge fans of Kids in the Hall, but then again, it’s hard to find a sketch comedy troupe that isn’t. We’re also hoping on seeing some of the new and upcoming troupes that are featured on the roster this year.

We’re all really excited for the material we put together for this year’s sketch fest revue. We always aim to mix as many different types of humour into our shows as we can, and this set has a good mix of physical comedy, musical comedy, straight-dialogue humour, and theatrical sketch. As always, it wouldn’t be a Good Game show without a little touch of absurdity, but there’s really something for everyone in this show. This year we’re putting an emphasis on variety, and feel like this might be our best sketch fest set yet (that kinda rhymes).

Too many to choose just one… Pizzeria Libretto and Dakota Tavern are some favourites… you can often see us at The Lakeview having a few drinks or some coffee before checking out a show or event at Sketch Fest. Ossington Village is one of our favourite places to hang out during Sketch Fest events, since it’s walking distance from both the Lower Ossington Theatre and Comedy Bar.

 How did you get involved with the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival?

We got involved with the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival last year, we had done the Montreal Sketch Festival the year before as our first festival and wanted to do one in our home town, well where we live now. 

 Why should we come to see your show?

You should come see LadyStache because we appeal to all audiences, we perform silly, non gender specific comedy that ranges from crazy characters, to ridiculous puppet sketches to the two of slapping each other as hard as we possible can. Sounds violent but it is actually very humorous even while we are doing it. We never refer to what sex were playing, even if there is a moustache involved. We have so much fun on stage and are very loose, most of our sketches have never been done the exact same way twice. If you like a high energy and silly character based sketch comedy show you will really enjoy LadyStache.  

 Some of our favourite places to hang out on Ossington are the Dakota, Sweaty Bettys and Crooked Star, just to name a few. 

To prepare for next week’s show, check out some of Ladystache’s comedy right here:

Gallery TPW tops the Art category as Best Independent Art Gallery citywide and for Queen West.  Show & Tell Gallery won the same category for Dundas West.

Not surprisingly, our neighborhood had a few Citywide Winners in the food category: Pizzeria Libretto for best pizza, The Dakota Tavern for best bar and pub, The Lakeview for best diner/greasy spoon. All three are also the tops in the Dundas West neighborhood. Pizzeria Libretto, The Lakeview and The Dakota are repeat winners in these categories – they were voted Toronto’s best in 2010.

2011 is a good year for The Dakota Tavern, which won a second award as the Best Blues Club city-wide.

There are many more winners now that they’re awarding every category in every neighborhood, so to see if your favourite is there, just look up Dundas West or Queen West. Congrats to all the winners!

Kerpatty! is a duo from Chicago: Pat Dwyer and Erin Pallesen. We posted a video below so you can get a sneak preview before their shows at Comedy Bar on November 10 at 9PM and November 11 at 7PM. They obliged us by answering our profile questions:

How did you get involved with the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival?

We have been wanting to take Kerpatty! beyond the U.S. borders for a while, so we jumped on the chance to apply for the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival.  We feel exceptionally lucky to be able to take part in such a great Festival.

What other troupe’s show at this year’s Festival do you most want to see?

We’ve been looking forward to seeing the Haircut and Imponderables‘ shows.  We haven’t seen Haircut since their last participation in the Chicago Sketchfest, and we haven’t seen the Imponderables perform since we all did the TBS Just for Laughs Festival together.

Why should come to see your show?

Besides the fact that we are one of the only groups at this year’s Festival that hail from Chicago, we’re really nice people.  Our show is a fun mix of playful and irreverent.  If you’re lucky, you may even walk out with a high five.

What is your favorite place in Ossington?  If you haven’t been to Ossington, where do you most want to go?

We’ve never been to Ossington before, but we just Googled the crap out of it.  Dakota’s is going to be a must stop.  The bar stools are barrels.  YOU GET TO SIT IN BARRELS!!!!

I stopped by this evening to see what I could see, which was: lots of trucks, lots of crew milling about in front of the Dakota, lots of gawkers “waiting for the bus,” and a few actors and/or extras dressed a little old-school and stuffy compared to the usual Dakota customer.

Bomb Girls is a Can-con production for Shaw Media starring Meg Tilly (no, I didn’t see her) and set at a munitions factory on the homefront during WWII. Word is the show will air next year on Global TV. So when it does air, don’t forget to look for scenes of the cast going drinking or to a show at The Dakota!

So, let’s get it over with. Robert Pattinson sightings have been fast and furious ever since his film started shooting at The Lakeview. Bloggers from Hollywood to Toronto have obsessed over where he hung out on Ossington, and the results are in: Crooked Star and the Dakota Tavern. Good choices, vampire.

Speaking of The Lakeview, the owners are being lauded as starting a new trend of restaurateurs opening food shops, as they’ve done with the well-stocked take-out and grocery, The Lakeview Storehouse.

Opera Bob’s is turning into a destination for baseball fans in Toronto. With the introduction of “Jays Days”, where they duplicate the ballpark experience for away games, with a hot dog/beer/popcorn vendor, special menu, full sound and big screens, they are getting rave reviews.

Also getting rave reviews, from Joanne Kates no less, is Bohmer restaurant. She loves the beautiful space, and if you haven’t been, they have early evening specials and serve Sunday brunch.

The Lower Ossington Theatre started a weekend cabaret series this June and comes recommended by the music critic at The Star.

The Churchill on Dundas gets a recommend as an alternative patio to the too busy Drake Sky Yard. Looks like we need to update our Patio Guide!

Thursday

Among a few other bands we saw on Thursday, a highlight was Paper Thick Walls, a 5 piece band from Chicago which played at the Painted Lady.

Friday

Early on Friday night we again stopped by and saw Haunted Hearts, from Charlottown, PEI.

Saturday
Through the magic of Twitter, we managed to catch a secret Stars show down at Edward Day Gallery near the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art at 12:30pm on Saturday. With an audience of just over 100 people, (most NXNEers still aren’t awake at this early hour) it was an intimate setting to see such a great band.

Opening for the show was Chad VanGaalan, who later played at The Great Hall.

Then Stars rocked the afternoon:

We then moved over to Reposado, who held an impromptu, rogue NXNE show with Chains of Love, Hot Kid and Modern Superstitions, generously sponsored by Steamwhistle and Rdio in the north lounge of the bar. The heat in the room was offset by free ice cream offered by the sponsors.

After some recovery we strolled over to the Dakota Tavern for great sets from Chris Velan, Bellewoods, and Portland, Oregon’s Horse Feathers.

Sunday

On Sunday we wandered over to Trinity Bellwoods Park to watch a NXNE showcase played out among the trees in the park.

NXNE is over for 2011. What were your highlights?