Summer means festival season in Toronto. From food festivals to those showcasing theatre or music, there's more weekend activities from June to August to boggle the mind. Some of the best ones have already come and gone - but there's a lot more on the schedule for the coming months.

We recently asked readers of this site to nominate and vote for their favourite summer festivals. Here's a rundown of the top 20, organized by month.

I love going out to dinner. I also love wine. Unfortunately my wallet doesn't allow me to indulge in the combination of these pleasures as often as I'd like. With many restaurants marking their wines up more than 150%, the cost of a decent bottle is, in a word, exorbitant. Despite this, the prospect of a restaurant meal without wine just isn't that enticing to me. So what to do?

Because eating in on a permanent basis isn't the solution I'm looking for, I've searched the city for those places that offer good food and affordable wine. What constitutes affordable? Subjective as this term may be, I think a good selection of wines below the $40 mark fits the bill when it comes to dining out. And, of course, decent stuff below $30 is a real bonus.

A serious power lunch in Toronto begins and ends on Bay Street. Beyond the food courts and the look alike salad and sandwich operations, a whole other echelon of lunch exists, one marked with sky high ceilings, world class wine cellars and some of Hogtown's most ambitious chefs.

But do $37 burgers, $20 soups and $40 plates of seared fois gras still sell when stocks are sinking faster than, uh, the Toronto housing market? Even though the creations of uber gastronomes like Anthony Walsh or Mark McEwan might not be accessible to the average office worker, AIG shareholder or those who went long on oil, by the looks of things these restaurants will be just fine. For those talking mergers, celebrating a short position or rewarding a star employee, a take-out Thai combo just won't do.

When the lunch hour strikes, the Financial District very quickly dissolves into something of a feeding frenzy. Traders, analysts, lawyers and stock brokers descend on the area's food courts and restaurants looking for a quick fix. And because time is of the essence, the default destination often becomes the food court closest to the escape pod (the elevator).

And that's too bad. When I last worked in the area, I was right at Yonge and Wellington and was often resigned to grabbing a bite at the underwhelming offerings in Brookfield Place. It was the typical generic food court, over-run with ubiquitous fast food chains like Subway, The Bagel Stop, Manchu Wok, Edo, McDonald's, Piazza Manna and Jimmy the Greek. Uh, no thanks.

Queen East is known for many things (vintage furniture finds, some great cafes and tasty burgers), but right at the top of the list is brunch. Yep, this part of town takes brunch with the seriousness it deserves. On a Sunday morning there are enough eggs benedict, buttermilk pancakes and peameal bacon being plated here to warrant the construction of a small hospital.

The action starts just past the bridge (the one that crosses the DVP) and extends through the neighbourhoods of Riverside and Leslieville all the way to Coxwell. At some spots lineups form early (better get there by 10am) but part of the fun (cold, blistery Canadian winters aside) is sharing tips with fellow would-be-diners about what to order and what to avoid.

It's no secret the Danforth is Toronto's Greektown. Come the summer, the whole neighbourhood gets fixated on the annual Taste of the Danforth where it's almost impossible not to eat some tzatziki and meat on a skewer. But for the last decade, the area has slowly expanded beyond the Mediterranean, and the stretch from Broadview to just past Pape has filled in with dozens of worthy non souvlaki related eats.