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Dec 4, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Nick Zarzycki
The sort-of secret: Cosette Coffee, a café and bakery near High Park serving owner Christina Cho’s take on traditional French pâtisserie. You may have heard of it if: You have a nose for good croissants, madeleines and cookies. But you probably haven’t tried it because: You’ve bypassed it in a rush to get to Keele station, which is right across the street.
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Nick Zarzycki
“I’m allowed to cook whatever I want to cook,” says Denis Ganshonkov, the chef and owner of Stop, when asked whether the food he’s making has changed over the past year. “That sometimes makes it difficult to explain to the customer what kind of restaurant this is.”For years, Stop has been a beacon of eastern European gastronomy in Toronto, with Ganshonkov serving up the city’s best khinkali, cabbage rolls and Russian honey cake.
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May 13, 2024 | 
flipboard.com | Nick Zarzycki
The Creator Of 'Magic: The Gathering' Knows Exactly Where It All Went Wrong | DefectorWhen they were still in arts school in Seattle in the early 1990s, Jesper Myrfors and Sandra Everingham would sometimes look for inspiration by …
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Apr 25, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Nick Zarzycki |Haley Steinberg
Caitlin Cronenberg grew up on the film sets of her famous director father, David Cronenberg, but she spent the first two decades of her career as a portraitist, photographing celebrities like Margot Robbie, Billie Eilish and Drake for the New York Times, Vogue and Vanity Fair. Now, she’s entering the family business with her directorial debut, Humane, a dark-yet-comedic thriller set in an eco-dystopia.
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Apr 10, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Nick Zarzycki
For the past two years, Dave Fish has been staring at photographs of coffee shops and restaurants from the 1960s and trying to pack as much mid-century nostalgia and atomic-grade kitsch as possible into a 400-square-foot storefront on Dovercourt. The result: Better Days Coffee and Donuts, Fish’s ode to the doughnut shops of his youth in St. Thomas, Ontario, when chains like Tim Hortons, Mister Donut and Robin’s Donuts were still bakeries churning out hot and fresh doughnuts every morning.
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Mar 20, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Nick Zarzycki |Haley Steinberg
Torontonian and Canadian screen veteran Jennifer Podemski has spent her career fighting for Indigenous creative control and autonomy in film and television. “I will never do anything ever again where I am the only Indigenous person on the team,” she says.
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Jan 15, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Nick Zarzycki
Food & DrinkFood & DrinkFood & DrinkThe sort-of secret: Purple Hibiscus, a weekly pop-up series at Bloordale’s Daily Grind café serving Trinidadian staplesYou may have heard of it if: You’ve been to the original 28-seat restaurant in St. Boniface, Winnipeg, in the early 2010sBut you probably haven’t tried it because: Chef Avé Narinesingh relocated to Toronto, where she’s now staging at Michelin-starred AlmaFor as long as she can remember, Avé Narinesingh has been on the move.
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Jan 3, 2024 | 
torontolife.com | Nick Zarzycki
Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink The sort-of secret: The Daily Grind, a café in Bloordale serving Vietnamese-influenced brunch You may have heard of it if: You visited before the pandemic, when they were still an ice cream parlour But you probably haven’t tried it because: Locals and regulars have been protectively keeping this place to themselves While a slew of trendy restaurants have transformed the block of Bloor between Lansdowne and St. Clarens Avenues into a dining destination,...
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Dec 21, 2023 | 
torontolife.com | Nick Zarzycki
Walking down the stairs and into the basement clubhouse of Owl’s Unit 306, an army, navy and air force veterans’ hall, feels like a reprieve from the city—and the 21st century. Christmas lights hang from an old-fashioned drop ceiling, military memorabilia and kitschy knick-knacks covered in a decades-old patina of nostalgia line walls and tables, and the ghost of past cigarettes lingers despite the fact that no one has lit up here in years.
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Nov 1, 2023 | 
torontolife.com | Nick Zarzycki
Food & DrinkFood & DrinkFood & DrinkThe sort-of secret: Lao Thai, a restaurant at the corner of Queen and Gladstone serving chef Lits Kong’s take on homestyle Lao cuisineYou may have heard of it if: You’re from Winnipeg, where the original location was, or you live in the condo above the Toronto restaurantBut you probably haven’t tried it because: It’s just off Queen, sandwiched between an RBC and a GNC Earlier this year during a family trip to Laos, Lits Kong had an epiphany.
