| NEWS 02.18.09 4:00 PM |
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Rogers Centre, Ontario Place Among Venues Proposed for 2015 Pan Am Games
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The team behind Toronto's bid for the 2015 Pan Am Games has released a list of proposed venues for the 17-day event. The Toronto Star reports that the Rogers Centre would host the opening and closing ceremonies, with sports like artistic and rhythmic gymnastics slated for Ricoh Coliseum. The triathlon would start at Ontario Place and end at Exhibition Place, and the Direct Energy Centre would host fencing, karate, and handball.
The proposal, released Wednesday by bid chair David Peterson, covers 38 sports in 16 municipalities including Ajax, Barrie, and St. Catharines. The majority of events would be held in existing venues, with the exception of the proposed Canadian Sports Institute Ontario at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus, which would include an aquatics centre. The location of the athletes' village has not been determined. The $1.4 million bid is due April 30, and the Pan American Sports Organization will announce the winning city in November. —Susan O'Neill
RELATED TOPICS
Pan Am Games, The Toronto Star |
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| EVENT REPORT 02.16.09 11:46 AM |
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Harlequin Romances Inspire Fourth Annual Book Lover's Ball
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 | Models wearing Greta Constantine
Photo: Henry Lin |
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For the fourth annual Book Lover’s Ball—held Thursday at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel and presented this year by Harlequin—the Toronto Public Library Foundation paid tribute to Harlequin’s 60-year history with a runway show spanning six decades and a special presentation featuring fashions imagined for the future. “Books are a great respite … especially in tough times,” said foundation president Heather Rumball, who reported that organizers wanted to create an atmosphere where guests could “escape” for an evening.
The runway show—produced by Monarch Events Group—featured designs created by the likes of Lucian Matis, Ross Mayer, Bustle, Farley Chatto, Andy Thê-Anh, Greta Constantine, Evan Biddell, and Denis Gagnon. Each designer presented a collection inspired by the romance of a different decade. (The '70s scene featured a live performance by Liberty Silver singing “Last Dance” and models wearing gold fashions designed by Chatto.) “The designers have been so willing to lend their support. They believe in the library,” Rumball said.
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RELATED TOPICS
Toronto Public Library Foundation, Harlequin, Random House of Canada, Whitehots Canadian Library Services, The Toronto Star, The Printing House, TD Bank, M.A.C. Cosmetics, HarperCollins Canada Ltd., CBC, Maclean’s, Quill & Quire |
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| NEWS 02.06.09 11:46 AM |
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Susur Lee's Manhattan Venture Receives Mixed Reviews
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It’s been three months since Shang, the anticipated restaurant by acclaimed chef Susur Lee, arrived in Manhattan. But despite Lee’s list of accomplishments—from battling Bobby Flay on Iron Chef to owning successful Toronto restaurants Madeline’s and Lee—Shang has received less than flattering reviews.
Adam Platt of New York magazine described the restaurant—located on the second floor of the boutique hotel Thompson LES on the Lower East Side—as “low-slung and haphazardly lit,” with “generic club music,” and “a few scraggly sprays of cherry blossoms and oversize lanterns made out of what look like rumpled old stockings.” He considers the restaurant “too prosaic.”
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RELATED TOPICS
New York magazine, Bloomberg, The Toronto Star |
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| NEWS 02.05.09 11:58 AM |
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Chef Serves Canapés to Commuters to Drum Up Business
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Christopher Brown, executive chef and co-owner of Perigee restaurant in the Distillery District, handed out 500 canapés to rush-hour commuters outside Union Station Wednesday in an effort to drum up business, reports The Toronto Star. "Crisis breeds creativity," Brown said. He told The Star his restaurant has suffered a 30 percent decrease in reservations, customers, and revenues this year.
"Desperate times call for desperate situations and desperate measures," Brown said. A security guard reportedly told the group to move on after they spent 15 minutes serving hors d'oeuvres such as sweet-potato pâté with beet-and-apple compote and crostini topped with crème fraîche, local beets, and pickled apple. The team also handed out flyers for a prix-fixe menu on offer at the restaurant. —Susan O'Neill
RELATED TOPICS
The Toronto Star |
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| NEWS 12.16.08 11:00 AM |
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Toronto Star: High-End Restaurants Feeling the Pinch
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Local chefs are removing costly dishes from menus at upscale restaurants in an effort to lure diners, according to The Toronto Star. Mary Nersessian reports "leaner times are pushing chefs to buy smarter and to get smarter." Toronto chef Marc Thuet—who recently rebranded his King Street West restaurant, Thuet (now called Bite Me!)—is offering a four-course menu for $48. "In the old days, a four-course tasting went for $90," he told the Star. "Now you do it for $48 and you have to make a living out of it."
Mark McEwan, the chef behind Bymark, North 44, and One, said he's noticed a change in dining habits and has stopped using pricey ingredients. "I certainly have removed a lot of foie gras from the menu to bring prices down, and things like squab that are incredibly expensive." But Bymark is still offering its $40 burger. "It has become sort of legendary down on Bay Street," McEwan said. —Susan O'Neill
RELATED TOPICS
The Toronto Star |
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| NEWS 03.31.08 2:11 PM |
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Organizers Call Earth Hour a Success
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With a crowd of 10,000 turning out for Nelly Furtado's free acoustic concert in Nathan Phillips Square, and a noticeable drop in energy consumption across the city, organizers of Saturday's Earth Hour are hailing the event as a success. "Earth Hour shows that everyday people are prepared to pull together to find a solution to climate change. It can be done," James Leape of WWF International told The Toronto Star, which reported that more than 380 communities and 300,000 people—including 100,000 Canadians in 150 municipalities across the country—signed up to participate on the organization's Web site.
Several Toronto landmarks switched off their lights between 8 and 9 p.m., including City Hall, the CN Tower, Ontario Science Center, Ontario Place, Toronto Eaton Centre, Harbourfront Centre, Exhibition Place, Yonge-Dundas Square, and Pearson International Airport (where the lights were dimmed in Terminals 1 and 3). "During Earth Hour, we collectively powered down and reduced demand by 8.7 percent," Toronto Hydro reports on its Web site, noting that the reduction in demand equalled a drop of 262 megawatts, or enough electricity to power 180,000 homes. —Susan O'Neill
RELATED TOPICS
Earth Hour, Nelly Furtado, W.W.F. International, Toronto Hydro, The Toronto Star |
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| NEWS 03.26.08 1:12 PM |
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Green Electricity to Power Earth Hour Concert
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Organizers of Saturday's Earth Hour concert in Nathan Phillips Square are taking steps to ensure that the event is as carbon-neutral as possible. Bullfrog Power will supply renewable energy for Nelly Furtado's free acoustic show as Toronto joins 20 major cities around the world—including Chicago, Dublin, San Francisco, and Sydney—in encouraging businesses and residents to turn off their lights between 8 and 9 p.m. "I'm incredibly pleased that we are able to add some entertainment star power to our powered-down night under the stars," Toronto mayor David Miller said in a statement announcing Furtado's performance.
More than 50,000 people and 1,000 businesses in cities across the country have pledged to switch off their lights at www.earthhour.org. Toronto Hydro will measure the impact on the city's electricity grid during the event, which is sponsored by WWF Canada, the City of Toronto, The Toronto Star, and Virgin Mobile. —Susan O'Neill
RELATED TOPICS
W.W.F. Canada, City of Toronto, The Toronto Star, Virgin Mobile, Nelly Furtado, Bullfrog Power |
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