Eat & Drink
50 Essential Bars: Hard Luck
It's back to Dundas West for our next essential bar. Here we find one of Toronto's newest Hard Rock venues where there's live music at least three times a week plus comedy nights on Sunday. And Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap too.Today's bar: Hard Luck
Eat & Drink
50 Essential Bars: The Roosevelt Room
With both the Club District and large venues seemingly out of favour it took a lot of guts for someone to open a 120-seat dining and 550-person dancing capacity supper club at the corner of Drummond and Adelaide. And with $35 cocktails and $28.95 burgers it better continue to attract the Bay Street crowd that's been its bread and butter to date.Today's essential bar: The Roosevelt Room
Eat & Drink
Cora Pizza Shut Down due to Rat Infestation
Long-time Annex and University of Toronto student favourite Cora Pizza didn't get off so lucky yesterday. While a mouse infestation at a Warden station coffee shop earned a conditional pass, Cora Pizza, (the One Stop Pizza Shop) has been shut down by Toronto Public Health (TPH) due to what has been described as worsening food safety and hygiene conditions in their kitchen. Specifically, closure was forced when the operator failed to prevent a rodent infestation and to prevent gross unsanitary conditions.Complaints about the pizzeria have been ongoing and he situation appears to have gotten worse since previous failed inspections were remedied.
According to a Toronto Public Health inspector, discovered during yesterday's (December 21, 2009) inspection was a bucket (that was used for pizza sauce) showing obvious "signs of contamination with dirt and mold," but worse yet was the finding of "dead rats and rat droppings in the kitchen."
Eat & Drink
Mouse Spotted at Toronto Coffee Shop
Vermin sightings in Toronto restaurants and other dining establishments aren't that rare these days. But since it sometimes takes DineSafe a bit of time to react, I thought it was worth publishing this photo that Borys Machnikowski sent us of a mouse taking a liking to the mini cheese pastries at a Warden station coffee shop called Bakery on the Go.Looking at its DineSafe record, it appears that Bakery on the Go has a less than spotless record having been hit with a conditional pass in August for "Inadequate Food Temperature Control" and "Failure to Protect Food From Contamination".
Eat & Drink
50 Essential Bars: The Black Dice
For our latest essential bar we make a stop at a watering hole that opened earlier this year on Dundas West. Go here for the rockabilly but stay for the Swanson TV dinners and pints of Pumpkin Ale.Today's essential bar: The Black Dice
Eat & Drink
McDonald's Gets a Makeover
Normally the sight of a McDonald's getting a little update doesn't make me pause, but when the McDonald's in question is the once derelict one at the corner of Queen and Spadina - and once home to one of the chain's only walk up windows - it's almost cause for a celebratory milk shake and baked apple pie.Earlier this week there was some buzz that the revamped restaurant was going to be a green location. No, not one with a roof garden and sustainable Filet-O-Fish, but instead a green sign, based on a new brand colour palette being tested in Europe.
