Toronto Beer Week is September 20-26, 2010. Participating Ossington bars include The Painted Lady, The Dakota Tavern, BQM and The Crooked Star. This is the first ever Toronto Beer Week, and the purpose, as quoted from their site, is “a chance for breweries from Canada and elsewhere to show how great their beer is” and “will showcase authentically brewed and flavourful beers, the talented brewers who create them, and the licensees who proudly support them.”

From Canadian breweries like Great Lakes, Creemore and Steam Whistle, to importers like Beer Barons, we will be enjoying some good beers next month. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more about the events in our neighborhood.

The festival was founded and is sponsored by Havana Club Rum, and it celebrates Cuban culture in all it’s forms, and each venue on Ossington will highlight something different about that culture.

Delux, a well known home for Cuban food, is featuring a special Cuban lunch each day of the festival. On opening night, Reposado hosts a unique cigar lounge in the backyard patio, with a rolling demonstration, and free samples for guests.

On Friday, August 20, Levack Block focuses on the art of Cuba, with a gallery set up in the second floor (who knew they had a second floor?) and graffiti created live and displayed on the wall outside. The Ossington is hosting a rumba party on the same night.

So, along with music, dancing, Cuban food and art, Levack Block, Reposado, Julie’s Cuban on Dovercourt, and Camera Bar on Queen West are all turning Cuban.

Live music performances at The Painted Lady with the Elmer Ferrer Band, Watusi has the Orlando Cardozo Latin Jazz Trio, and The Ossington features The Kevin Barretto Jazz Trio.

After all the partying and dancing, wind it down on Sunday with some Cuban brunch at Delux or a BBQ at Sweaty Betty’s. Full schedule (and it is quite full) is on the website.

If you don’t know the deal about NXNE already, you can buy a wristband to get into all the music and film events, or pay at the door if you’re only going to a couple of shows.  If you are going to want to check out the music on more than one night, the wristband is worth it, since you are free to walk in and out of as many NXNE shows as you can, and as capacity allows. There are more bands from Canada than anywhere else, but you’ll see artists from Europe, Asia, the U.S. and elsewhere.

Considering our neighborhood has several venues to hear music all year round, we knew we wouldn’t need to travel far for this festival. The Painted Lady, Dakota Tavern, and The Garrison will all be hosting multiple nights of live NXNE music.  You can also check out shows at The Social and The Great Hall, and many places on West Queen West.

NXNE starts Wednesday night at some venues, but Thursday is when the festival really kicks into gear, with shows in every venue.

When you walk into this funky little bordello themed bar, food is not what comes to mind. Empty seats early in the evening, no kitchen or even prep area visible, crumpled plain paper menus, and prices which suggest that food is going to be pulled from a freezer in the basement all tell the unwitting visitor that you won’t want to sit down and eat.

But we suggest you do!

A few weeks ago we sat down at the bar early in the evening, and as time went by we decided it was time to get some food. We were about to head out to one of the many places on the strip, but were convinced to stay and try some food from the small kitchen. The recommended item? – Jess’ Dead Sexy Bad Ass Mother F**** Pulled Pork Sandwich. And was it ever great.

It turns out that The Painted Lady takes their small menu seriously. Put together by Jess, sister of owner Nicky, all the ingredients are prepped well in advance in a home kitchen, so they can be quickly put together in the small space in The Painted Lady. The pulled pork is cooked for hours on end using a tangy, vinegary sauce which makes it perfectly tasty. It is served on a fresh local Portuguese bun with fresh greens on a wooden board. It’s both rustic and delicious.

Other menu items include the One Love Vegetarian Corn Soup, served with cornbread; Gotta Getta Grilled Cheese, with honey and fresh basil; and the more famous White Trash Nachos, with beef chili and Cheez Whiz.

The amazing thing about all the food at The Painted Lady, is that they make everything fresh, with real ingredients. If you order a drink with sour mix at the bar, you can be assured that it wasn’t store-bought, but that the citrus was juiced by the staff. (we’re still not sure about the Cheez Whiz thing). Right now the food is the best deal in town – with the Pulled Pork sandwich being only $7.95. Get one soon, because we’re not the only ones who’ve noticed, and when more people figure this out, the price is sure to go up.

UPDATE – May 11th: Nicky informed me that this event raised over $40,000 for the charity! Well done!

The Painted Lady is a busy place, and Nicky Potter, the proprietor, has her hands full daily with growing and building the business. But, when she’s not running one of Ossington’s local hot spots she has been busy with a charity she holds dear : Friends of Noah Canada. This Thursday, the charity which helps children orphaned by the Aids epidemic in southern Africa is having a dinner and benefit concert at the Berkeley Theatre at 315 Queen St. E. The dinner is early and features a Afro-Fusion dinner by chef Nathan Isberg, formerly of Coca and opening a place soon on Dundas near Brock.  You can get tickets for by calling their office at 416-557-4819.

But for those that can’t afford the dinner there is a great after-party and show featuring local musicians Noah Mintz and Pierson Ross and that’s only $15 starting at 10:30pm.

For those of you who don’t know about Noah, it was originally set up in South Africa to build Arks – essentially places for kids who have been orphaned by the Aids epidemic could go and get necessary service and assistance. Friends of Noah is the Canadian arm, started by Nicky, to raise money in Canada for this great cause.

It should be a great night. For tickets to the after party, and to support a great cause click here.

The Painted Lady has a full line-up of bands and djs all 4 nights of the fest, and around the corner on Queen @ Dovercourt, The Social will be hosting CMW DJs on Thursday and Saturday.

The Garrison on Dundas is hosting 2 nights of Eye Weekly showcases featuring indie bands like Cadence Weapon and The D’urbervilles.

His webpage says he’s for “responsible government”, which really doesn’t help us out much. (not that we don’t like responsible government, but give us some more!).

So, to help us get to know him he’s holding a couple of meet and greets in the area, although unfortunately none on Ossington… yet.

The first of his meetups is at Victory Cafe on Monday the 22nd at 7pm

The second meeting takes place at one of my faves, the Wheat Sheaf Tavern the next night at 7pm also.

I’m sure he’ll be heading and meeting up with us here on Ossington soon. Reposado, Sweaty Betty’s and The Painted Lady make for good meet-up locales, and the local business owners would love to find out more about him.

The Painted Lady is hosting a SuperBowl party with large screen TVs and a special menu including varieties of hot dogs. They are even conducting a football pool so you can really have something to root for.

Reposado celebrates “Superbowl Stupor” at 5PM with free munchies and $5 tall boys.

The Dakota Tavern continues with their usual live music lineup starting with Lickin Good Fried at 7 and house band the Beauties at 10p.

Communist’s Daughter hosts their regular Sunday afternoon jazz starting 4:30ish.

The Garrison’s Wavelength series continues tonight with bands playing from 9p- late.

You can check out some art at AWOL open til 5 with a new exhibition this weekend.

There are likely more events happening, but this is a start. Have a great Superbowl Sunday!

Then right around 10 the party broke out. Fire jugglers, samba drummers, and all sorts of musicians, including the organizer, Michael J. and Richard Underhill, of the shuffle demons.

Here’s a set of the pictures with music accompaniment:

If you have more, let me know and I’ll add them into the mix. Keep an eye on the facebook and yelp pages, for more pics.

This should be a great night. There should be no lights, no mics, no amps, some good acoustic music.

There should be a lot of venues involved. While walking the street tonight I saw signs on Reposado, Painted Lady, Foxley Bistro and BQM.

They have a facebook page here.

And don’t forget about the Yelp Ossington Pub Crawl next week.