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Eat & Drink

Toronto bars, pubs, late night eats (now an iPhone app)

Posted by Tim / February 13, 2013

Late night eats TorontoToday we're excited to announce the release of our newest iPhone app. Following in the footsteps of our main blogTO app and our summer patio guide app we now have a third app to add to our roster: the Toronto bars, pubs and late night eats app.

As the name suggests, this new app, sponsored by Questrade, is intended to serve as your go-to guide for a night out in Toronto. The app not only includes photos and need-to-know details about hundred of locals bars and pubs but it's the first app that we know of that helps you satisfy those 3am hunger cravings after last call.

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Arts

Demand for chalk artistry in Toronto keeps growing

Posted by Tim / December 29, 2012

Chalkboard artist torontoIt was only this past June that I wrote about Rajiv Surendra's work as a chalk artist in Toronto. Since that time, business has boomed and he's been busy doing larger, indoor chalk boards for restaurants like John & Son's Oyster House and entire walls in offices spaces including one in the headquarters of Kraft Foods Canada (seen above). I caught up with Surenda over the holidays to find out what's up with all the demand for his work.

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Tech

TasteAway enters the Toronto restaurant delivery space

Posted by Tim / December 22, 2012

TasteawayOver the past couple of years there's been heated competition in the online restaurant delivery space in Toronto. Two main competitors - Just Eat and OrderIt - have been blanketing the city, signing up restaurants to help them reach hungry diners everywhere. Now, there's a new player in town. TasteAway launched earlier this fall and is starting to create some inroads with restaurants such as Amaya Express, Thai Room and Ginger among its current crop of customers.

Earlier this week I connected with founder Constantine Daicos who told me he's been in the industry for three years after stating a site called MenuBaby in Oakville. What he hopes to create with TasteAway is (in his words) a better, more visual marketplace for customers to..."eat with their eyes" and he wants to offer restaurant customers better tools than the competition.

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Film

Does new doc redeem Ben Johnson?

Posted by Tim / September 18, 2012

Ben JohnsonAs I've noted, one of my favourite films at this year's TIFF was a documentary about the men's 100 meter dash at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. In the ESPN produced doc, director Daniel Gordon snagged access to all 8 athletes in the race and gets their perspectives on who was and wasn't cheating and reveals that the US track and field team may have arranged for a friend of Carl Lewis' to spike Ben Johnson's beer with steroids just before his career defining drug test.

I was drawn to this film because I've always had a soft spot for Johnson. I used to watch him race back when the track meets at Copps Coliseum were a big deal. Like many Canadians I was shocked and disappointed with what transpired in Seoul but I always felt this one time national icon was too much the fall guy for what was wrong with amateur sport. Now, it seems like many others might agree. At the world premiere screening at TIFF, both the film and Johnson received an enthusiastic standing ovation.

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Film

TIFF 2012 award winners

Posted by Tim / September 16, 2012

TIFF 2012 awardsThe TIFF 2012 award winning films were announced earlier this afternoon at a brunch reception (see menu here) at the Intercontinental Toronto Centre. Leading up to the announcement there was some intrigue whether the much raved about Paul Thomas Anderson film The Master would win any hardware or whether TIFF would follow the lead of Venice and pull some surprises.

Last year, some might recall, most of the honored films didn't make much news post-festival. Few (if any) had any box office or critical success when it came to year-end award season. Anyone who's seen a single screening at TIFF this year will notice that TIFF now likes to trump how its award winners go on to have future critical and commercial success. The fact that American Beauty, Slumdog Millionaire and The King's Speech all previously won awards at TIFF was endlessly plugged in cinemas during the last 11 days.

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Film

Is Garth Drabinsky poised for a comeback?

Posted by Tim / September 16, 2012

Show Stopper DrabinskyOne of the more intriguing Canadian films that screened at this year's TIFF chronicled one time theatre impresario Garth Drabinsky. Few would argue that the quality and reputation of theatre in Toronto was never as great then during Drabinsky's reign - an all too brief period of time in the early 90s that saw the staging of mega-productions like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Ragtime and Show Boat.

Many will remember how the story ended - with theatre production company Livent in ruins and Drabinsky and partner Myron Gottlieb behind bars. But this new film, Show Stopper: The Theatrical Life of Garth Drabinsky, takes us on an entertaining journey of Drabinsky's early years through to the present, and can't help make us wonder if the subject is poised for a second act.

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