Here at the Morning Throwback, we've been searching for that rare-yet-beautiful gift: an archival image that not only speaks for itself, but also literally explains its context in a truthfully amusing way.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, here is that image. This picture from 1895 shows Mr and Mrs Bowles, two north Toronto fishmongers, out delivering their goods on their horse and cart.
Truly, have you ever seen the simple life look more picturesque? No. And you never will.
Tromba, the new tequila from young Toronto entrepreneur Eric Brass, is rapidly becoming a favourite among the city’s bartenders. Smooth and fresh, this tequila has been receiving deservedly loud praise and has inspired a slew of tasty concoctions from the creative minds and nimble hands behind bars at places like The Drake and Yours Truly.
Tromba is named after the heavy seasonal rains that sweep the highlands of Mexico’s Jalisco province, rains that literally led Brass to where the blue agave grow.
While on exchange with the Richard Ivey School of Business in 2005, Brass and his roommate-turned-business-partner, Nick Reid, were caught in a Tromba-driven downpour. Unable to continue to their destination through sheets of rain, they were forced to spend the night with a classmate who lived nearby.
As the skies cleared, Brass recalls staring out the window mystified by a sea of strange, prickly plants. He spent the rest of the day touring fields of Blue Weber Agave, the sole agave used in the production of premium tequila, and sampling the golden spirit distilled from the succulent’s sugary heart.
Brass fell hard for a lady named tequila that day, and has been fiercely committed to her ever since.
“I fell in love with the beauty of the agave fields, I fell in love with premium tequila and I always say that if it wasn’t for that Tromba, who knows if I would have ever found tequila,” he says.
Returning home to Ontario with a newfound thirst for Mexico’s national spirit, Brass identified a gap in the Canadian market.
“There was really no great quality tequila in the middle that was typical, boutique-produced and affordable,“ he says.
Brass, along with business partners Reid and James Sherry, wasted no time in filling the niche.
The key to Tromba’s quality and authenticity is its master distiller, Marco Cedano, who held the same position at Don Julio for 17 years (the man knows a thing or two hundred about agave alchemy). Cedano’s son, Rodrigo, facilitates bottle sourcing, employs the jimadores (farmers) to tend and harvest the agave plants, and oversees production — making Tromba a true family operation.
This dangerously delicious tequila is currently the only independent tequila available on the general list at the LCBO, a premium product available at terrific value (usually $50 at select locations, you can grab it on sale for $48 until the end of the month). When ordering Tromba, don't neglect to request its signature chaser, Trombito, a snappy blend of mint, cilantro and pineapple that’s available at most bars that carry Tromba.
Tromba Blanco (un-aged) is on LCBO’s shelves, while its rested brethren, Tromba Reposado, will initially only be available by private order. Tromba Anjeo is still in the cask.
Keep an eye peeled for the Tromba cocktail book which should be out this month, featuring creations from 15 talented palates behind the stick at bars including Reposado, Churchill, The County General, Harbord Room, the Fox and TTS.
Tromba is available at a number of fine establishments across the city, including Brassai, Boehmer, Cold Tea, The Drake, Pravda (yes, even a vodka bar carries this tequila), The Thompson, Yours Truly and 416 Snackbar.
Sarah Parniak is a freelance writer, booze nerd and lover of all things delicious. She teaches at the Toronto Institute of Bartending by day and occasionally moonlights as a barfly. You can find her behind the stick at Kensington Market's Cold Tea on weekends, where she cracks a mean tallboy and likes to experiment.
Rummaging around in the Toronto Archive, we turned up this picture of the Titanic starting out its ill-fated voyage.
Even if Titanic 3D wasn't quite the big event that Canadian director James Cameron hoped it would be last week, there's a lot of excitment around this weekend's 100th anniversary of the ship's run-in with an iceberg.
So, maybe there's still time for Torontonians to fall in love with Leo and Kate all over again (though probably not for Celine Dion's singing).
Yesterday evening (April 12) much of the city’s fashion folk headed to Ryerson University to take in Mass Exodus 2012: LUCID. Held at the Ryerson Theatre, the student-run event presented a runway collection of young designers — 25 of them in all — who are graduating from the university’s fashion design program. With past graduates including Amanda Lew Kee, Sunny Fong, Cara Cheung and David Dixon (who was in attendance with Suzanne Rogers), the show is a great place to check out up-and-coming designers.
Guest curator and MuchMusic VJ Liz Trinnear kicked things off. An avid supporter of young designers, Trinnear had selected looks from the graduating class that she felt best showcased the breadth and depth of the designers’ collections. Having previously worn garments by both Lew Kee and Cheung to the MMVAs, Trinnear also let it be known that she still needs a dress for this year’s event.
As the show began, a series of four or five looks from each selected designer were paraded down the runway. Modeled by students with real bodies, collections ran the gamut from lingerie to wedding dresses and included a set devoted to bondage gear (much to the delight of the audience). The designers who stood out most to us were Alyssa Alikpala, Andrea Dineen, Kendra Pegg, Monica Saraguro and Yvonne Lin.
Alyssa Alikpala’s collection (see gallery below) drew its inspiration from a motif of paradox and played with the ideas of innocence and evil, dark and light, hard and soft. Using a palette of black and white, her clothes were urban and darkly romantic, featuring asymmetrical hems and sheer inserts. We loved a leather vest with cutout details.
Inspired by Canada’s northern landscapes, Andrea Dineen (left) used hand-dyed textiles, matching wool jersey knits with leather garments. We liked a grey and black leather jacket with softly folded lapels.
In her designer statement Kendra Pegg (see gallery) noted, “clothing should function as clothing,” explaining that her collection is designed to fulfill basic human needs. Her garments possessed a minimalism, showcasing simple lines and a boxier silhouette. A chunky cardigan paired with leather shorts felt fresh, while a quilted coat felt like the ideal addition to any woman (or man’s) wardrobe.
Monica Saraguro (see gallery) played with various textiles including black lamb leather, roasted silk charmeuse and black fur. An off-white hand-crocheted dress was absolutely breathtaking.
Our favourite designer of the night was Yvonne Lin (see gallery). Executed with great precision, Lim based her collection on intricate paper works of Michael Hansmeyer, an architect-slash-programmer who creates architectural forms using algorithms and subdivision processes. While this may sound like it translates to non-wearable art, much of the cream-coloured collection was easy to envision incorporating into a wardrobe. A woven-effect sweater would pair easily with jeans; a cap-sleeved dress with a series of delicate folds would be an elegant choice for a night out. Although a dress featuring wave-like leather protrusions would require an event like, say, the MMVAs. We know just the person to pull it off.
If you love Glee and The Voice you might want to check out Sing! Toronto Vocal Arts Festival, which kicks off tonight at the Harbourfront Centre. Vocalists from across the globe will be giving workshops and concerts and the festival will close Sunday with a 3,000 person sing-a-long.
Among the acts to watch out for are the Grammy-award-winning group New York Voices (Brigantine Room, Friday April 13, 8 p.m.) and a closing-night performance by British act the Swingle Singers (Enwave Centre, Sunday April 15, 7:30 p.m.). “They’re kind of the veterans of a cappella,” says event co-manager Pat Silver of the group from across the pond.
Opening for the Swingle Singers will be industry newcomers, Countermeasure. Successful crooners, the Nylons (Brigantine Room, Saturday April 14, 8:30 p.m.) even held a YouTube contest where the group hand picked the winner to be their opening act.
Workshops will range from beat boxing 101 to an intro to South Indian music. Music-industry execs will also give seminars on how to make it in the business. All workshops fall into the $25 and under category.
“We’re really trying to educate people on a cappella music,” says Silver. “A cappella is so hot right now, singing has become the hip thing to do.”
Sing! Toronto Vocal Arts Festival, Harborfront Centre, 416-973-4000. To April 15.
After several years of showcasing simple, sometimes rustic cuisine, Toronto’s restaurant scene may be about to embrace a little extravagance.
That’s according to Donna Dooher, exec chef at Mildred’s Temple Kitchen and chairperson of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association.
The CRFA has just published the results of its survey of 300 Canadian chefs on menu trends for 2012. The average foodie wouldn't have much trouble guessing most of them on the list, which is headed up by “Locally produced and locally inspired dishes.” Sustainability, food-allergy-conscious cuisine and farm ingredients are also on there.
Though the nationwide top five is rounded out by “simplicity,” Dooher says she expects Toronto’s restaurants to start mixing things up. The reason? You can thank Canada’s (relatively) healthy economy.
“After the economic downturn we saw a lot of back-to-basics cooking,” says Dooher. “From now on, I think we’re going to see a lot more playfulness in the kitchen.”
But don’t get too excited, that doesn’t mean chefs are going to start whipping up extra-decadent food. Quite the contrary. Also on the CRFA’s 2012 trends list was healthy foods.
“Canadians are very food savvy and concerned about what they’re eating. As members of the food-service industry we’re responsible for what they eat,” says Dooher.
Still, a little decadence never hurt anyone, did it?
Afie Jurvanen, a.k.a. Bahamas, plays music that is as groovy and laid-back as a breezy afternoon on a white, sandy beach, and after inking a new record deal with Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records in the United States, he is destined to become just as hot.
Bahamas’ latest release, Bar Chords, follows up his Juno Award–nominated debut, Pink Strat. The new album hit stores late last year, and the hometown boy makes his grand return to a Toronto stage tonight (April 13) at the Virgin Mod Club.
It’s only just beginning, but Jurvanen, like most who hear his tunes, is excited about a potentially mammoth year ahead.
“Oh, I hope so,” he says, on the phone from his Toronto home. “I hope to be busy and play a lot.”
Jurvanen is part of a musical caravan that trucked south to Toronto years ago from the northern outpost of Barrie, Ont., along with a few other local standouts, including some of the boys from rock revivalists Zeus.
Upon his arrival, Jurvanen spent most of his musical time backing up other artists, most notably as the guitarist and pianist for another Toronto musician by the name of Leslie Feist.
Eventually, as Jurvanen’s mother once told him, it was “time to s**t or get off the pot,” so Bahamas was born and his own music took centre stage.
“For a lot of years, I focused on playing other people’s music. It is distracting and hard to get your own thing done,” he explains. “So I decided to not roll with anyone and to focus on my own songs.”
According to Jurvanen, Bahamas is all about the lyrics, and he says that emotional honesty is the cornerstone of a good tune.
“The lyrics are key. I’m always someone that gravitates towards lyrics first,” he says. “That’s kinda the only way I know how to be, to hear my own voice within the song. Everything begins and ends from that place, you know. Some people write and stand away from themselves. I just can’t relate to that, you know.”
Maybe that’s what caught the ear of Jack Johnson, de facto grand pooh-bah of the mellow, beach-blanket groove club.
“They’ve been great, but we operate very independently,” says Jurvanen, of Johnson and his label Brushfire Records. “Like I’m in Toronto right now where there is a crazy snowstorm, and they’re all sitting around in board shorts smoking weed in California. We live pretty different lives.”
But what’s important is they let Jurvanen make the music he wants to make. On Bar Chords, Jurvanen surpasses his already fine debut effort by offering up wonderfully subtle and unique tunes showcasing his easy delivery and penchant for the offbeat — and he incorporates many different styles. One listen and you’re hooked. But, please, don’t call him laid-back.
“I don’t consider myself laid-back, and I don’t consider myself amped up,” Jurvanen says. “I just move through the world at a slower pace. The name of my band does a lot of work promoting me as the stoner beach guy. I could have called myself Alaska, but that could have conjured up some really different images, you know.” Yes, we know.
Bahamas plays Virgin Mod Club on April 13 at 7 p.m. Tickets $16.
Every week, we gather our favourite tweets from in and around Toronto’s fashion scene. This week: a mega sale at The Bay, a Fashion Collective tussle and glamourous grannies wear hot pink.
Are we the only ones have been left devasted by the news that Fashion Television has ended? What are we to watch on TV now? @Jeanne_Beker talks three decades of FT via @TorontoStar
Fashion Television: Jeanne Beker looks back on 27 years of iconic show https://bit.ly/HCUMyL
We love it when the weekend kicks off with news of a mega sale. Thank you @TheHudsonsBayCo!
Bay Days starts today! Now until April 19th enjoy up to 70% off storewide. Details: https://ow.ly/i/yMUa
In need of a party dress this weekend? Look no further. @styleblogca reminded that @Hmcanada’s Conscious Collection hit stores yesterday.
Don't forget!!! @HMCanada Conscious Collection is in stores TODAY! What's on your must buy list? https://bit.ly/HR5GjH
The Fashion Collective has “disbanded”… but not really. She said vs. He said via @TorontoStandard
Fashion Collective Fiasco: Kate Mullin says it's over but her partners go on record for the first time to say otherwise https://bit.ly/IfC0D2
We love fashion that cares. @Obakki’s foundation makes us so proud to call them Canadian. Check out their amazing FW12 video via @StyleCartel
Obakki Foundation to support humanitarian causes impacting the lives of people in developing countries. https://ow.ly/adXAM
Glam Granny alert! Jewellery designer @maryamkeyhani spotted one of the best ones out there to date:
Omg! Granny in a hot pink coat and purple Cadillac. https://pic.twitter.com/zeyl6fv5
Be the lady in red this summer (but the super cute and fun version) with local label @diepogirls’s new-season dress that hit stores this week:
SPRING/SUMMER 2012 is now available @ Robber on Queen West and Tabula Rasa on Broadview!! https://fb.me/1w5SaI1j0
Three decades ago, a teenager in Iran led a student protest to get her math teacher to stop ranting about politics and return to calculus. A little while later, 16-year-old Marina Nemat was taken to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, tortured and sentenced to death. She was saved from execution by an interrogator and immigrated to Toronto in 1991. In 2007, she penned a best-selling memoir, Prisoner of Tehran, which has been turned into a play that opened this week at Theatre Passe Muraille. We spoke to Nemat about her powerful work, the future of Iran and why it’s important to grumble about Canadian politics.
I just saw the stage version of your book, it is powerful stuff — it just keeps coming.
In real life it was the same; it kept on coming. Like the book, the play is memories, and they switch. From a torture scene, you are thrown into grandma’s arms and eating an ice cream or to the shores of the Caspian and your first teenage love.
How did you approach adapting the book for the stage?
What I love about the play is it doesn’t fool around. We made a point of not making it too graphic, but we wanted to make the people in the theatre really feel uncomfortable. We tried to make it as bearable as possible; we could have done it much more brutally. I am not trying to devastate anyone, all I’m trying to do is to affect them emotionally…. You have to sit there and you have to watch, and I think that is the closest you can get to the experience without actually being cruel.
What’s the most difficult part of your message for North American audiences?
The world is not black and white. People — everywhere, not just in North America — get very comfortable dividing the world into good and evil: “I’m good, the other side is evil, so let’s go kill them.”
How do you balance being a spokesperson on the wrongs perpetrated in Iran with general negativity North Americans may harbour about the country?
I’m an Iranian. I’m telling the world what I witnessed with my own eyes. The government of Iran — there is a difference between a government and a people — has been killing the Iranian people for 30 years, holding them hostage for 30 years.
If you tried to return to Iran—
I would be arrested, tortured, executed on the spot.
But if there were regime change—
I would go tomorrow. I’d be there when the weather is bad here and be here when it is too hot there.
Do you think that day will come?
Yes, the day always comes. Dictatorships fall, they always do. The question is, What will take its place?
What has changed in Iran in the last 30 years?
Not much at all. The only difference is cosmetic changes. You can wear nail polish now and go on the street, you can dance maybe at home, classical music is allowed in universities. But the same law that governed Iran when I was there in the ’80s is operating in Iran now. The Iranian constitution has not changed.
Considering what you have been through, how do you feel when you hear people complaining about Stephen Harper or Rob Ford?
You have to. What we can do is protect our democracy and make Canada a better place. We should show the world that we are taking care of our democracy. Democracy is always under threat. It is like water in the palms of your hands; you take your eyes off it for a second and it will drip through your fingers. And then, good luck getting it back. If we have democracy and we don’t use it, if we have democracy and we don’t vote, if we have democracy and we don’t question our politicians, if we have democracy and we don’t know what bills are being passed in our parliament, what the heck do we have democracy for?
Prisoner of Tehran is playing at Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson Ave., 416-504-7529) until April 28.
Evan Andrew Mackay is a Toronto playwright and humourist who writes about culture and social justice.
This very attractive bubbly from B.C. is grown on the highest vineyard in the province. It has a pale straw colour with an active mousse. On the nose it is yeasty and nutty with lemon-blossom notes. It is medium-bodied with a dry, pear flavour and a crisp citrus finish. Food match: grilled salmon.
$20.95, Vintages #271049
Our round up of the best things to see and do in Toronto this weekend. In this edition: Mad Fashion, Buddy Guy at Massey Hall, sketch comedy, living green and how to plan a wedding.
Three of the award-winning acts from last November’s Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival return to the city in this laugh-out-loud encore weekend. The Second City’s Best of the Fest winner, Falcon Powder, will perform a full-length show and also offer a workshop. Other acts include Choice Award winners, Peter ’n’ Chris and Producers’ Pick winners, Vest of Friends.
The Second City and Lower Ossington Theatre, 647-505-1050. April 12-15. $15-$40.
The AGO presents a fashion show made up of pieces inspired by mental illness, as part of its Extraordinary Artists event. Under the creative direction of Elena Soni, 11 designers present 33 pieces with such themes such as Trauma, Memory and Body, Human/Nature and Mental Chaos.
Art Gallery of Ontario, 651 Dufferin St. April 13, 7 p.m. $15-$25.
Brides-to-be will not want to miss this, if only for the free glass of champagne on arrival. Aside from the free booze, the third annual Original Wedding Soiree will include a series of decorating workshops, talks from wedding-industry experts, planning seminars and a beauty bar, which will feature a make up and BLO-hair station.
One King West Hotel and Residence. April 15, 10 a.m. $20-$45.
Veteran blues guitarist and former Muddy Waters band member Buddy Guy brings his soulful tunes to Massey Hall this weekend. Along with special guest James Hunter, Guy will be playing songs from his recent album Living Proof, which features a collaboration with music legend B.B. King.
Massey Hall, 178 Victoria St., 416-872-4255.
Back for its sixth annual installment, the Green Living Show has over 400 exhibitors presenting eco-friendly products. Guests can browse green fashion options, environmentally friendly modes of transport, healthy foods and more.
Direct Energy Centre, 100 Princes Blvd., 416-360-0044 ext. 327. April 13-15, $11-$15.
As buzz around this weekend’s anniversary of the Titanic sinking moves into “fevered” territory, a number of Toronto eateries are marking the occasion by reviving some Edwardian fine dining.
Perhaps most likely to give you the feeling of elegance from that gilded age (you know, before all that stuff with the iceberg) is an afternoon tea at Yorkville’s upscale Windsor Arms Hotel (18 St. Thomas St., 416-934-6022). On Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m., the hotel will be serving what it calls “tea-time treats” that are inspired by the original Titanic tea menu. It’s likely, though, to only appeal to those who really love the Titanic or tea, because it’ll set you back $75 per person and reservations are required. But they will throw in a commemorative Royal Doulton Titanic plate, like the one shown above.
Meanwhile, Starfish Oyster Bed & Grill (100 Adelaide St. E., 416-366-78247) and its sister joint the Ceili Cottage (1301 Queen St. E., 416-406-1301) are holding two “Last Supper on the Titanic” evenings (April 13 and 14). A first-class menu ($135) including Galway oysters, poached salmon and roasted quail will be served at Starfish, while those keen to sample barley broth and steamed plum pudding can tuck into the steerage menu ($50) at Ceili Cottage.
Elsewhere, Gaspard store (913 Queen St. W.) will be holding a Titanic-themed evening of canapes and refreshments on Saturday.
