Toronto's Tasty, Gay Temptations

You've just got to love a city that erects a bronze statue of a local gay magistrate accused of too closely examining the nether regions of three male suspects. On a bronze frieze, at the base of the Alexander Wood statue on the corner of Church and Alexander in Toronto, the deliciously scandalous scene from the dawn of the nineteenth century is recreated for your delectation.

Such attention to personal detail took a heavy toll on Wood, one of Toronto's founding fathers, with the resultant sodomy charges branding him with the epithet "Molly" and sending "Molly" Wood back to Scotland.

And yet, arguably, Wood prevailed - for it was his fifty acres of land that became known as "Molly Wood's Bush," and that "bush" is now Church Wellesley, known the world over as Toronto's Gay Village. Apart from the statue, erected in 2005, acknowledging Alexander Wood as a forefather of Toronto's gay community, there is both an Alexander and a Wood Street in the Village.

Not long after our viewing of Alexander Wood in all his majestically caped glory, we met an ebullient FTM Toronto transsexual who spoke to us about returning to his small town in Scotland. He was there for a family reunion, with more than a hundred extended family members gathered around him - and yet, as he shared with us, it was in returning to Toronto that he felt most at home, surrounded by those he regarded as his unconditionally loving family.

"Colorful at Every Corner"

There's something in both of these anecdotes that captures the spirit of Toronto: something about the city's inclusiveness and its colorful characters. With over 200 ethnic groups represented in its population, Toronto (which is the fifth most populous city in North America) has a citizenry that speaks more than 130 languages and dialects, a fact that becomes understandable when you consider that more than fifty percent of Toronto's populace was born outside Canada. In all the world's cities, only Miami, Florida has a higher percentage of foreign-born citizens.

Arguably, some of Toronto's early inclusiveness can be traced to slavery, which was banned in Upper Canada in 1834 - and which enabled escaped African-Americans to settle in the city then known as York. The city's spirit of inclusion took somewhat longer to reach its LGBT population: for years, police and homophobes targeted gay men. Similar to Stonewall in New York, there came a point when enough was enough - and in 1981, after the mass arrest of more than 300 gay men, Toronto's LGBT movement achieved momentum, thereafter evolving into Toronto's Gay Pride Week, which has become one of the largest pride celebrations in the world.

Today, Church Wellesley, the Gay Village, is anchored by the 519 Church Street Community Center in a beautifully-refurbished building that once housed the Granite Club, one of Toronto's more prominent and private gentlemen's clubs. How fitting and appropriate that a bastion of Waspy privilege now belongs to the LGBT community - for there, in the history of one building, is the evolution of Toronto's character.

Right behind the 519 (which is how the locals refer to their community center) is Cawthra Park, home to the AIDS Memorial. Over on Gloucester Street is the nightclub Fly, familiar to those who watched Queer As Folk (where Toronto stood in for Pittsburgh), while up and down Church are the LGBT bars, restaurants, and shops that have made Church Wellesley one of the more well-known gay villages in the world.

Beyond the Gay Village is a city of neighborhoods, each of them distinct and loaded with character - or as one city motto has it, "Colorful at every corner." Neighborhoods with names as adorable as Monopoly properties: Cabbagetown, Little India, Riverdale, Corktown, Greektown, Baldwin Village, and Queen West. You can be walking through canyons of highly-reflective skyscrapers - and then, six blocks later, you're ambling along a tree-lined street with Beaux-Arts mansions, or a two-block Victorian village redolent of the alternative spirit of the Sixties.

With such a diverse population, it's no wonder that Toronto supports more than 7,000 restaurants - and that fact, as much as anything else, is the overriding metaphor for this urban smorgasbord. Toronto: it's all there, waiting for you to lap it up.

Finally, consider this fact: one of every four Canadians lives in Toronto. Why not come to Toronto and see why.

WHAT TO SEE

From the Gay Village to the Distillery District

Church Wellesley: There's something metaphoric about the fact that Church Wellesley is located in the heart of Toronto. Something apt and right, given the Gay Village's reputation for inclusiveness and openness. Ever since the 1981 bathhouse raids, which served as a wake-up call for Toronto's LGBT population, Church Wellesley has been an ever-evolving neighborhood, increasingly filled with bars, shops, boutiques, theatres, and restaurants.

One of the best ways to discover the roots behind this vibrant community is to take a tour with someone like Liz Devine. A long-term resident of Church Wellesley, Devine's love for her neighborhood is matched by her commitment to LGBT equality. To walk Church Wellesley with someone so well known is to witness firsthand the intense connection that Torontonians have to their city and their gay village - and to hear Devine speak about the neighborhood's evolution is a lesson in gay history. We didn't just arrive here, kids: there were pioneers who fought for us.

LINK: Church Wellesley

CN Tower: Though it's not listed on the lighting schedule, we could swear that we saw the most iconic structure on Toronto's skyline glowing lavender at night. Perhaps it was the reflected light of so many LGBT people in town, but regardless of what it was, after seeing that lavender light, how could we not shoot to the top in a glass-bottomed elevator (introduced in 2008) that traverses the tower's 112 stories in a mere 58 seconds?

Opened in 1976, the CN Tower is still the Western Hemisphere's tallest "tower," which is Guinness' Book of World Records' way of fudging the impact of other skyscrapers the world over. More than 2 million visitors take the 15 mph elevator to the top annually. Check your vertigo at the elevator exit - and step out onto the glass floor. There, below you, is terra firma - and you're high atop the needle feeling like Philip Petit or Jack on the Beanstalk (or else you're hysterical and cowering near the wall. It happens.)

If you need something to calm your nerves, have a cocktail at 360 Restaurant - and watch as the world turns at your feet, a complete revolution every 72 minutes. On second thought, make it a double - and double your fun on the elevator back to earth.

LINK: CN Tower

The Distillery District: A National Historic site, the Distillery District contains some of the best examples of Victorian Industrial architecture on the continent - now converted into a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood not unlike SoHo or the Meatpacking District in New York, where the nineteenth century is evidenced in stone and brick buildings, repurposed timber and planks, all utilized in a creative fusion of 21st-century design with 19th-century materials. The Distillery District opened in 2003 and has subsequently become an anchor of Toronto's booming art scene, with a plethora of galleries, shops, studios, and boutiques. For chocoholics, Soma Chocolate is mandatory - and specifically, their well-loved Mayan Hot Chocolate spiced with chili. In a word: heaven.

LINK: The Distillery District

The Gayest Show on the Planet

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: In case you have yet to hear, this is the gayest show on the planet. If you thought the 1994 film was queer heaven, then you'll be in paradise with this 320-costume extravaganza that's an amalgam of Busby Berkeley and every bar mitzvah and circuit party you've ever attended, along with a healthy dose of San Francisco's long-running, big-hat spectacular Beach Blanket Babylon. With a high-energy, high-kicking cast, headed by the multi-talented heartthrob Nick Adams (Tony award, we're betting on it...), Priscilla is a confetti-shooting cavalcade of disco's greatest hits, performed with heart and humor (and just a spoonful of sugar), wrapped in a sweetly empowering tale of following your fabulous dreams to the end of the rainbow. Warning: resistance is futile; Priscilla will dismantle your disdain - and send you home a disco queen. Now playing at the Princess of Wales Theatre (named for Lady Di - and don't you know she would be dancing in the aisles...) through December 2010. Tip: take a trip to Toronto and see this indefatigable show before it conquers Broadway and becomes a New York City sensation.

LINK: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Art Gallery of Toronto (AGO): Local boy Frank Gehry's reimagining of one of Toronto's premier museums has turned the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) into an architectural wonder whose primary joys are actually on the interior (not always the case with architectural statements). The three-year Gehry transformation expanded the AGO (founded in 1900) by more than 75,000 feet - and the resultant citywide vistas from numerous viewing platforms are a valentine to Toronto.

Currently occupying the entire fifth floor, Julian Schnabel: Art and Film runs through 2 January 2011 - and this galvanizing retrospective alone is worth a flight to Toronto. If you remember Schnabel from the Eighties and you thought you knew him, pigeonholing him to his pottery paintings, then this exhibition will be epiphanic as you reconsider the breadth and depth of Schnabel's passion as a painter as conveyed through his love for film. An award-winning filmmaker, Schnabel proves himself a titan of both mediums.

LINK: Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)
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(Continued on next page: Where to Stay, What to Eat...)

WHERE TO STAY

Hotels: Classic, Contemporary, and Luxurious

Sutton Place Hotel: If you've found yourself wearying of the West Elm/Philippe Starck design sensibility that's conquered boutique hotels around the globe, then you'll appreciate the Old World charms of the Sutton Place Hotel.

Perfectly situated a block away from the intersection of Church Wellesley (aka the Gay Village), the Sutton Place Hotel's Modernist exterior belies its European interiors. Walking through the marbled lobby and the carpeted hallways and entering into a room furnished completely in French Provincial might have you feeling as if you're visiting your godmother: the wealthy one who's always slipping you a fifty every time you brunch with her. Breakfast with her in Accents Restaurant, below the photograph of Liza: the Sutton Place Hotel is where Liza stayed when she was in town performing - back in the Sixties.

Built in 1967 (and renovated in 1998), the Sutton Place Hotel retains all of the high design standards of both periods - chandeliers, Chippendale breakfronts, and chintz - and it's a delicious time warp to be in residence here.

LINK: Sutton Place Hotel

Hotel Le Germain: Located an easy stroll from the CN Tower and the Princess of Wales Theatre, Hotel Le Germain Toronto is a sanctuary of modernism with two-story glass walls and a double-sided fireplace in the lobby. As with the other hotels in Groupe Germain's family (located in Calgary, Quebec City, and Montreal), Hotel Le Germain Toronto's focus on elegant style (Egyptian cotton linens, goose-down duvets, feather pillows) and personalized service (for your canine, too) make it difficult to leave.

Germain Groupe's second Toronto hotel, Hotel Le Germain Maple Leaf Square, opens in November 2010 in a 167-room, glass-and-metal structure with guest rooms ranging in size from 400 to 1,500 square feet. With Frette linens, 40-inch HDTV, and complimentary WiFi, Hotel Le Germain Maple Leaf Square is going to make is just as difficult to leave these rooms. Give in to the Germain difference - and soak up Toronto's charms.

LINK: Hotel Le Germain Toronto

The Ritz-Carlton Toronto: Recently, we had the pleasure of attending a launch luncheon highlighting the culinary skills of Chef Tom Brodi, the man in the kitchen of the about-to-be-opened TOCA at the new Ritz-Carlton Toronto - and if Brodi's sublime cooking is emblematic of this five-star hotel, then Torontonians are about to witness the arrival of the city's most luxurious and lavish destination.

Scheduled to open on the 1st of February 2011, the Ritz-Carlton Toronto soars 53 stories into the sky, with 267 rooms and 159 condominium residences, all located in the heart of the newly-shimmering Entertainment District.

(Did we mention the 23,000-square-foot spa?)

LINK: Toronto Ritz-Carlton
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WHERE TO EAT

Film Stars and Celebrities

O&B Canteen: Already a hit - and it's only been open since September 2010. But then Oliver & Bonancini, the company behind O+B Canteen, has been a significant player in the Toronto culinary scene since the opening in 1993 of Bay's Street's Jump. Partners in the Distillery District's Soma Chocolatemaker (swoon), as well as numerous other excellent eateries around town, Oliver & Bonancini have helped shape the re-emergence of Toronto as a fine dining destination.

O&B Canteen, at the base of the TIFF Bell Lightbox (the brand-new, gorgeous home of the Toronto Film Festival), is the more casual eatery in the O&B empire. With a menu that emphasizes fresh market ingredients and artisanal baked goods, O&B Canteen percolates with energy from morning through night. One of the more cheerful and polished staffs in town (as well as reasonable prices) help make O&B Canteen a perfect post-theatre destination (the Princess of Wales Theatre is right across the street) for one more toast to the stars.

LINK: O&B Canteen

Mengrai: Arguably, and often-accepted as, the best Thai restaurant in Toronto, Mengrai also proves to be one of the more convivial dining experiences in a city well-known for unassuming style, thanks in no small part to the charms of owner Allan Lim.

Toronto's own Mr. Chow creates an ebullient atmosphere, complete with table-hopping and genuine enthusiasm at the arrival of each new party, until nearly everyone in the lovely, low-lit room appears to know one another.

Winner of numerous awards from Bon App�tit, Tourism Toronto, and Fodor's, Chef Sasi Meechai-Lim (wife of Allan) achieved critical acclaim at Me Thai, Mengrai's previous incarnation - and was the first female chef from Canada and Thailand to participate in an Iron Chef event.

Located in a former brewery, complete with dumbwaiter, exposed brick walls, and dark wood floors in a neighborhood known as Corktown for its proximity to the Distillery District, Mengrai is but a few blocks south of the Gay Village - and well worth the walk for its superb and authentic Thai cuisine, such as a sublime Bangkok "street style" pad Thai, and the justifiably famous #54 (the number on the menu at Me Thai), a red curry with lychee, infused with kaffir lime leaf and coconut, and served inside a pineapple.

Chef Sasi's bold re-interpretation of traditional Thai cuisine is the reason to dine here - but we must mention that numerous Hollywood celebrities seem to dine here as well, making Mengrai the Toronto equivalent to Dave in Paris. You'll want to be here too, basking in Allan Lim's joie de vivre.

LINK: Mengrai

From Victorian Industrial to Hollywood Art Deco

Archeo: The quieter half of Toronto's very popular Boiler House, Archeo (a diminutive of "archeology") is named for its location within the Distillery District, a neighborhood with a rich and multi-layered history. Housed in a splendid example of Victorian architecture, complete with high yellow pine ceilings, exposed brick walls, concrete floors, and a reclaimed timber bar, the restaurant is a dazzling marriage of industrialism and contemporary style. Artist Steven Evans's splendid wall-sized photographs of the building serve as movable room dividers - and a reminder of what the rooms were like when used by Victorian carpenters and plumbers.

At lunch, the room is an oasis, a sanctuary of hushed voices and agreeable servers - and a menu emphasizing seasonal cuisine and comfort food. Panzanella is a toothy m�lange of stewed cherry tomatoes and crusty bread, while the pizzas are as crispy as those in Napoli. A cookie plate for dessert includes mocha meringues, almond biscotti, and oatmeal raisin and proves a perfect complement to the delicious espresso. An Italian sanctuary in the Victorian Distillery District.

LINK: Archeo

Commensal: The Toronto outpost of this well-loved, seven-franchise chain of vegetarian restaurants located throughout Canada is situated in the heart of Toronto's business district, a mere few blocks from the Gay Village.

Completely renovated in 2006, Commensal Toronto offers a self-serve, buffet experience, roughly the equivalent of an endless brunch - albeit with entirely vegetarian and vegan options, including an array of over 100 hot and cold options, as well as scrumptious desserts. For nearly two decades, Commensal Toronto has been feeding omnivores, as well as herbivores because their healthy recipes are nearly impossible to resist - a fact which owner Susanna Yeung asserts when she states that many of her customers are not vegetarian.

This clean and well-lit restaurant also serves breakfast to many of the well-heeled businessmen in the neighborhood (we're just saying...). Commensal's commitment to their patrons' (and the planet's) health have earned the restaurant a nomination for the Phenix de l'environnement Award 2010. Want to feel good after eating? Eat here. As Commensal's motto has it: "Taste Life."

LINK: Commensal

Roosevelt Room: Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel is the inspiration for this supper club/lounge, which also serves dinner in an anteroom off the dance floor. Multiple wall-mounted television screens play old movies (silent screen siren Louise Brooks in Pabst's "Lulu" the night we were there) and some of the wait staff and bartenders look as if they might be extras in yet another filmed version of The Great Gatsby.

LINK: The Roosevelt Room
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(Continue on next page: Toronto Winter Calendar, Getting There...)

TORONTO WINTER CALENDAR

Parties, Lights, Christmas Markets - and Winterlicious

Prism Presents Massive
Friday, 10 December 2010
For the first time in ten years, the Guvernment's Main Room will become home for Toronto boys and their international friends for the grand opening of Massive. Called Revival, Holiday Edition, and featuring the sounds of DJ Hector Fonseca, DJ Honey Dijon, with massive sound, massive lights, and massive men, this party is certain to be...massive.
LINK: Prism Toronto

Cavalcade of Lights
27 Nov - 31 December 2010
Created in 1967 to showcase Toronto's new City Hall, this year's 44th edition of Toronto's Cavalcade of Lights kicks off with the lighting of the tree on the 27th of November, followed by fireworks and a skating party.
LINK: Cavalcade of Lights

Toronto Christmas Market
3 - 12 December 2010
Christmas markets originated in the 15th century in Germany, marked by the sights, scents, and sounds of the holiday season - and Toronto's version occurs in the Victorian-era Distillery District, complete with street markets, stage performances, carolers and choirs, as well as Rudolph's Reindeer Zoo.
LINK: Toronto Christmas Market

Interior Design Show
27-30 January 2011
Canada's largest contemporary design fair celebrates its 13th edition with more than 300 exhibitors, including designers and studios, showing unique products and installations to help re-ignite your imagination in thinking about redesigning your personal and professional spaces.
LINK: Interior Design Show

Toronto Winter City Festival / Winterlicious
28 Jan - 10 Feb 2011
Toronto's citywide celebration of all things culinary, Winterlicious enables Torontonians and visitors to indulge in mouth-watering meals at prix fixe promotional rates.
LINK: Winterlicious
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GETTING THERE / OUT AND ABOUT

Out and About

Bruce Bell Tours: Named the Official Historian of St. Lawrence Market (one of Toronto's more capacious and bountiful food halls) by the city of Toronto, Bruce Bell offers walking tours into some of Toronto's more distinctive and character-rich neighborhoods, while entertaining his guests with his dry wit and his archival knowledge of Toronto's colorful history.

LINK: Bruce Bell Tours

Air Canada: Toronto's Pearson International Airport has more daily flights into the US than any other airport in the world; more than 350 flights arrive daily from the US, and more than half of the US population is within a 90-minute flight to Toronto. In other words: Toronto's a breeze to get to by air; from NYC, it's about an hour.

LINK: Air Canada

Amtrak: Travel to Toronto on the Maple Leaf, a twelve-hour pictorial train ride through the Hudson River Valley, New York's wine country, the Finger Lakes region - and on to the spectacular vistas of Niagara Falls. The perfect journey for reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.

LINK: Amtrak
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RELATED LINK: Toronto Photo Album