From the New York Times-- (The conference hotel gets a nice mention) In Toronto
July 21, 2002 By KATHERINE ASHENBURG In the 19th century, when the city was a staunch outpost of Empire, it was known as Toronto the Good. Churches occupied a remarkable number of corners, and Sunday restrictions were serious. As recently as the 1960's, curtains were drawn on Eatons department store windows on Sunday, so no one would covet worldly goods on the Sabbath. Gradually over the last 40 years, Toronto the Good has given way to Toronto the Festive. Enlivened by large numbers of Italian, Portuguese, Indian, Greek, Caribbean and other immigrants, the city became one of the most multicultural in the world. With the New Canadians, as more recent immigrants are called, came a taste for street life and celebration, Greek or Chinese or West Indian style. Toronto learned to party, especially during its short, precious summer. Now that a disruptive garbage-collection strike is over, an impressive number of groups will go ahead with their festival weekends or weeks this summer - from the smallest Portuguese parish fiesta to neighborhood celebrations of Italian food to big events like Caribana. Even the Pope promises to look in on Toronto, at the end of the World Federation of Youth days (July 23 to 28). Rounding out the season every September is the city's largest and most spectacularly successful party, the Toronto International Film Festival. Considered by many film insiders the most important festival after Cannes, for 27 years it's been a palimpsest of popular public event, critics' preview and industry marketplace. With more than 300 films from 50 countries shown on 19 screens, the possibilities range from Hollywood biggies about to be released to the Iranian documentary you won't see anywhere else. And the stars are out in force, performing at press conferences, attending their own premieres, or making merry at bars, restaurants and parties. For nine heady days, the parallel worlds of serious filmgoing, stargazing and deal-making overlap. Events The Toronto International Film Festival runs from Sept. 5 to 14, at the Varsity theater, the Cumberland Theater and others nearby. Details of movies and programs are announced throughout the summer; for the latest information, see www.bell.ca/filmfest or call (416) 968-3456. Individual tickets can be bought for $9, but dedicated festivalgoers will want to take advantage of the Programme Book, which describes the films in detail, and plan accordingly. It is released on Aug. 27; books of 10 tickets cost $80, books of 30 $202. Now in its 35th year, Caribana (officially the Toronto International Carnival) begins Aug. 1 with the King and Queen Extravaganza, a costume contest involving the stars of 17 bands, at Lamport Stadium, 1155 King Street West, from 7 p.m. Advance tickets are $10, $13.25 at the door. The piece de resistance is the parade, a sensational, many-colored ribbon of steel bands, calypso, bejeweled costumes and floats. It begins about 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 3, moving west from Exhibition Place along Lakeshore Boulevard. Information: (888) 210-8789, or www.torontointernationalcarnival.info. One of the best reasons to stay in the city for the past four summers has been the rethinking of classic plays by the innovative company Soulpepper. Among its 2002 productions are "The Beggar's Opera," Aug. 6 to 14; Strindberg's "Miss Julie," Aug. 22 to Sept. 21; and "The Maids" by Jean Genet, Aug. 23 to Oct. 3. Tickets range from $18 to $30.50, and performances take place in two Harbourfront Centre theaters; (416) 973-4000 or see www.soulpepper.ca. The pure, uncluttered bowls, vases and sculptural forms of Lucie Rie and Hans Coper mark the beginning of modernist ceramics. Their collaboration in England, beginning in the 1940's, inspired generations of potters around the world. To celebrate Rie's centenary, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, 111 Queen's Park, (416) 586-8080, gardiner museum.on.ca., presents "Ceramic Modernism," with works by Rie and Coper partnered by pieces from 56 of their "descendants." Until Sept. 2; $6.60. The 19th-century establishment had little time for the district called Cabbagetown, named for the vegetables the poor Irish settlers planted in their front yards. But Cabbagetown, now a smart Victorian neighborhood in the heart of downtown, is magnanimous. Every year the city is invited to the Cabbagetown Festival, a happy jumble of house tours, pub crawls, garage sales, walking tours and street performances, centered on a large crafts market in Riverdale Park, bounded by Carlton, Sumach and Winchester streets. The party lasts for two days, Sept. 7 and 8; (416) 921-0857 or www.oldcabbagetown.com. Sightseeing Spadina Avenue has played host to successive waves of immigration, and it's still an entertaining place to eat Vietnamese food and gape at a Caribbean fish market, among other diversions. The most rewarding section is between College and Queen Streets. On the west side, around Augusta Street, digress into picturesque Kensington Market, originally Jewish but now with a strong Caribbean presence. On the east side, Dundas Street is a crowded, vital stretch of Chinese shops and restaurants that leads to the Art Gallery of Ontario. The permanent glories of the Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas Street West, (416) 977-0414; www.ago.net, include a large collection of Henry Moore sculpture, Inuit art and Canadian painting, especially the so-called Group of Seven. Included in the $8 admission fee is a visit to the Grange, an 1817 Georgian mansion finely restored to the 1830's. On a more contemporary note, a "Surrealist Summer," an assemblage of more than 400 Dadaist and Surrealist images, including such classics as Man Ray's portrait of Salvador Dali and Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain," made from a porcelain urinal - is on view until Sept. 8. Closed Monday; admission is $8. The venerable Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, (416) 586-5549, www.rom.on.ca. is notable for a superb collection of dinosaur material, European furniture and decorative arts, and Canadiana. From Aug. 3 to Nov. 10, its world-renowned Chinese collection will be augmented with "Treasures From a Lost Civilization: Ancient Chinese Art From Sichuan," featuring objects retrieved in the 1980's from sacrificial pits, revealing a previously unsuspected Bronze Age culture in Sanxingdui, Sichuan Province. Admission $12 ($11 after Nov. 11). Where to Stay Its dramatic makeover was finished two years ago, but there's still nothing like the 601-room Hilton, 145 Richmond Street West, (416) 869-3456, fax (416) 869-1478, www.hilton.com - in Toronto or most other places. The striking public rooms, punctuated by curving stainless-steel mesh screens, gigantic fabric-wrapped lanterns and a drop-dead onyx-paneled staircase remind you how timid (or traditional) most hotels are. The larger-than-average bedrooms are comfortable, contemporary oases with olive or gold color schemes. The $138 rate for a double room includes the use of health club and indoor-outdoor swimming pool. Budget: Centrally placed, the 48-room Hotel Victoria, 56 Yonge Street, (416) 363-1666, fax (416) 363-7327, www.toronto.com/hotelvictoria, is known for its friendly, helpful staff. Rooms are comfortable but not large, and the $89 rate for a double includes a generous Continental breakfast. Granted, the grotto and artificial flowers in the lobby aren't promising. But the bedrooms in the 151-room Comfort Suites, 200 Dundas Street East, (416) 362-7700, fax (416) 362-7706, www.choicehotels.ca/cn030, are biggish, attractive and equipped with microwave, fridge, coffeemaker, and iron and ironing board. The fitness facilities include an indoor pool and hot tub. Doubles $98. Luxury: Ideal for star-spotting, the 294-room Sutton Place, 955 Bay Street, (416) 924-9221, fax (416) 924-1778, www.suttonplace.com, is a film-festival favorite. Its public rooms are Frenchified and formal; the bedrooms combine chintz and French provincial furniture. There's a health club and indoor pool with sundeck. Double rooms cost $132 in August, jump to $245 during the festival (Sept. 5 to 14), then drop to $165 for the rest of September. Another festival standby, the Four Seasons, 21 Avenue Road, (416) 964-0411, fax (416) 964-2301, www.fourseasons.com, has 380 rooms close to festival theaters and a reputation for attention to service. The perks that come with an individually decorated double room for $228 include the Four Seasons' custom beds, overnight shoeshine, downtown limo service and preferential seating in the popular new bar, Avenue. Health club and an indoor-outdoor pool. Where to Eat New this spring, Xacutti (sha-KOO-tee), 503 College Street, (416) 323-3957, has already been hailed as one of the city's best places to eat. In a spare, elegant room, the fare is a inspired improvisation on Indian themes. Call it Indian fusion - prawns in a lime mint curry, Goan spiced duck salad or cardamom smoked lamb with lotus root rosti are typical offerings. Dinner for two with wine will cost $106. Open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday, brunch Saturday and Sunday. At the western edge of Toronto's lively Italian-Portuguese strip of clubs and restaurants, Cafe Societa, 796 College Street, (416) 588-7490, cooks sophisticated Mediterranean food. That translates into superlatively fresh fish and vegetables that taste minutes from the garden - pan-seared halibut with a salty crust, baby beets, fava beans and pea-shoot fricasse, for example. The small room with a relaxed, mixed bag of furniture adjoins one of Toronto's nicest patios. Two can dine with a bottle of wine for $65. Open for dinner every day but Monday. Film Festival types love the prevailing perfume of garlic and wine, the tawny stucco interior and the Gallic intimacy of Bistro 990, 990 Bay Street, (416) 921-9990. The longtime festival haunt serves countrified French classics like pate with quince marmalade and cornichons, mussels and steak frites. A three-course prix fixe costs $16.50 a person; add another $16.50 for a bottle of wine. Open for lunch Monday through Friday and dinner Monday through Saturday. Aromatic is the word for the Red Tea Box, 696 Queen Street West, (416) 203-8882, from its collection of organic teas to the imaginative, Asian-tinged menu. Sitting in an amiably shabby-chic room with Louis XVI-style couches and odd tea tables, sipping iced chai and sampling a bento box outfitted with berry-stuffed Cornish hen, saffron rice, and spinach with pomegranate-molasses dressing feels like a forgotten corner of Asia. Two could lunch, have tea or an early supper for about $40. Closed Tuesday. No alcohol. Close to the Eaton Centre shopping complex, Bangkok Thai Kitchen, 112 Dundas Street West, (416) 599-8308, is an appealing room decorated with beaded and sequined wall hangings featuring elephants. Two could dine on mango salad, succulent green chicken curry and Thai beer for $30. Warning: the servers' idea of "medium hot" packs a fair punch, but there's plenty of choice for more timorous appetites. Open daily for dinner, Monday to Friday for lunch. Near the University of Toronto on a street full of cafes and pubs, By the Way Cafe, 400 Bloor Street West, (416) 967-4295, has a diverting clientele and menu. Eggs Dilemma (poached eggs on an English muffin with dill sauce) costs $4.65; a pasta salad with grilled vegetables, arugula and feta cheese $5.30, a hamburger $6. In the evening, two can dine for $30, including beer. Serves lunch and dinner every day. KATHERINE ASHENBURG writes for Toronto Life magazine. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/21/travel/TORONTO.html?ex=1029656380&ei=1&en= 4b7e22bf2b58e7f9 HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [email protected] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [email protected]. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [email protected]
