This year brought a lot of new businesses and faces to Ossington, all of which we welcomed, and many of which we covered. We look forward to frequenting many new shops, galleries, restaurants and more to the strip in the year ahead.

Let’s start with February 2010 – Angell Gallery moved from Queen Street West onto Dundas. Angell took over the space of Lennox Contemporary in February 2010, and has hosted a plethora of exhibits ever since.

There was a bustle of activity and then Bohmer launched in March 2010. The beautiful space and delicious food has led more people to Toronto’s new “Restaurant Row.”  March also saw the opening of “Oz Boutique,” an art and design hub which has housed Evan Biddell’s clothing line, but focuses on photographer Joe Fuda’s work and curated exhibits.

We started April with City Store Grocery opening on Dundas, and Crepes and More on Ossington. 8 months later, both are still open and catering to the daytime crowd in our area. That month’s other opening was the weekend-only bar, OurHouse.

May brought pop-ups to Ossington with the short-lived but fun launch of 1st Run Art Gallery, which featured the work of it’s creators. In June, LAB Consignment opened with a splash, sharing space with Silver Falls Vintage on Ossington near Queen. In other just as popular fashion news, TOPSHOP came to Toronto by way of London, and opened within Jonathan + Olivia’s space.

The lazy days of summer were anything but for entrepreneurs on Ossington when several businesses opened their doors, starting with Crafted by Te Aro, a coffee shop from Leslieville branching out. Another import from within Toronto was Goed Eten, which started serving coffee, waffles, poutine and more this July.

For a very short time this summer, Salt opened, then closed. Now it is finally open again for good, serving Portuguese wines and tapas.

This fall we supported the opening of Beau Lieu Bistro at 59 Ossington and also Telegramme Prints and Framing at 194 Ossington. O’born Contemporary is also a new gallery to the strip.

We don’t want to forget all the new openings on Dundas (part of that “Ossington triangle” mentioned earlier) that we covered a couple of months ago about Dundas’ evolution: Bunda Lounge, Churchill, Brockton General, Academy of Lions, Port, and Enoteca Sociale.

Finally, let’s look forward to the continuing growth with new places set to open soon: Pasta and More, Fish Bar, Lakeview Convenience and The Saint are the ones we know about, but we’re sure there’ll be more. Here’s to a happy and healthy Ossington Village in 2011.

We are not the only media to cover Telegramme Prints. There has been a lot of enthusiasm for the opening, and we think they add to the perfect blend of retail, dining, service and arts on the strip.  And now, Ian from Telegramme Prints and Custom Framing answers our 8 questions:

What’s your business?

  Our business is really two businesses: sourcing hard to get limited edition prints and posters that you can’t get anyplace else, from Parkdale and Kensington Market to Mexico and Japan. The second business we’re in is custom framing services for artwork we sell, and for artwork that clients bring in for framing. We have all kinds of custom framing services: plak mounting, canvas stretching, any kind of unusual job, but our focus is custom framing of prints and posters.

 How is your business unique?

 There are lots of poster shops and framing shops, but few places like ours in North America. We really work hard at positioning ourselves as an alternative to a bland mall experience. That doesn’t mean our posters and prints are expensive: 80% of our inventory is $25 or less. We have an awesome conservation custom framing package for $99 that is popular. And our prints and posters are the some of the best you can get, we’re always amazed and dazzled by the skills and talents of the designers and printers in the shop.

  How long have you been in business here?

  We’ve been in business since Sept 11, 2010 at 194 Ossington. We’ve also operated a shop since 2006 at 1103 Queen Street East in Leslieville.

  What drew you to be here on Ossington? 

 Much of our requirements involved the space having a specific criteria: parking, space, rear door access etc. We’d had our eye on this spot for 2 years, when it was another custom framing shop. When we saw the For Lease sign this summer, we moved really fast to get a deposit on it. It has everything we need and a lot more. We looked at a few other neighbourhoods, but this is the best.

  What changes have you seen on Ossington since your business has been here?

 Not very many, because we’re so new. But I remember about 3-4 years ago, I was having drinks with friends around here. It was dark and cold, kind of menacing. This summer, the streets were full of smart people at night, lots of laughter and a total absence of any grim foreboding like before.

  How do you see your business and Ossington five years from now?

 I expect it the retail end things to develop more, it will complement the nightlife. Having small independent shops, restaurants and bars run by passionate people is what gives a neighbourhood like this its soul and quality of life, and I hope that continues. I really feel terrible for some of the small businesses on the street that have been stifled by the moratorium on bars. I can’t imagine putting so much time, energy and borrowed money into an enterprise, only to have the city pull the rug out, long after the point of no return. I hope five years from now, city dickering is not the story like it is now.

 What is your favorite spot on Ossington, other than your own? and why?

 Having the Home Hardware so close and with such a nice staff, I think of them as one of my favorite spots because they always save our bacon. There’s a lot else I haven’t seen yet, but I always like going into I Deal Coffee. Sometimes we have meetings at Pizza Libretto, it always feels special. I like BQM and Crafted too; like our shop, they set up their initial location in the east end and opened up another space on Ossington. I have a long list of places that I want to spend time in: Foxley and Crooked Star are at the top of that list… so is Xpace Gallery, one of our employees Tobias Williams, a printmaker, designed a window there recently.

 Even though our doors have only been open five weeks here, all of us at the shop have commented how fantastic the neighbourhood businesses and residents have been. We totally love it here.

Telegramme Prints and Custom Framing is already a thriving business on Queen St East, and now they are expanding to the west end. In addition to signed, numbered, limited edition and otherwise hard to get prints and posters from all over, they’ll be providing all custom framing services at 194 Ossington. That includes competitively priced conservation framing of prints, posters and photographs, canvas stretching, plak mounting and laminating, and unusual wildcard custom framing work. If you click the link above to their website, you’ll see the extensive services that will be available.