Toronto is losing it's identity to Greedy Condo Developers - what does the Sam's sign, Honest Ed's and the Cookbook store have in common.

I feel compelled to write this RANT about the goings on in the city that affect foodies like me and people that live in Toronto or want to visit Toronto.

What Honest Ed's, The Cookbook Store and the Princess of Wales Theatre have in common are the fact that David Mirvish and the owner of the Cookbook Stores building have decided to sell off their properties to developers who will most likely just build massive money grubbing, infrastructure sucking condo developments that suck out all the character that was once alive in the City of Toronto.

What good is it to have 50 story condos plunked in every square foot of the downtown area if there isn't anywhere to shop, eat or go for entertainment. Developers in Toronto are developing a boring glass tower city and taking away the Iconic, historic and huge landmark businesses. I have a personal connection to all three of these Iconic locations and I am deeply saddened at the fact that they will disappear into history in the near future.

I recently visited the Cookbook Store for their 30th Anniversary Open House Celebration in their tiny but mighty little store.  I was so happy to see the respect that they received from the best chefs in the city for their longevity and dedication to all things food and cookbooks.  They don't just sell books but they create a great chef, foodie and food blogger community in the city with book signings, demonstrations in the Kitchen Studio and at locations like George Brown College.  I have attended many Cookbook store events in the past and one of my fellow Food Revolution Ambassadors hosts her Food Revolution Day event at the Kitchen Studio.  Anyone that knows anything about cooking and good food knows about this store.  It is very easy to get to and one of the Owners Alison Fryer can be found at many cookbook authors events interviewing some of the best Celebrity Chefs we have in the city and even visiting Food Related Book Authors like Michael Pollan.

Honest Ed's is a huge part of my childhood.  It's where my father frequented when he would get dolls for my Birthday, Halloween costumes, and all things related to our home and especially our kitchen.  He spent so much time there over my childhood that he would probably feel like his second home is being sold if he was still alive today.  I feel very sad about it and I think both my dad and Ed Mirvish are rolling over in their graves at the fact that it might just all vanish like it was never there.

What I think a Developer should do with the property is to keep the facade and build up a small amount of condos above the store and keep the interior as an artist community centre.  With a Restaurant, small events and film theatre and interesting independent artist shopping stalls.  Thing an early vision of the Grange but in a bigger scale.  Maybe a suggestion is to have the Cookbook Store take up a small corner of the building and have a cooking studio and a space for a weekly farmers market with a space for musicians, artists and filmmakers to showcase their work.   It's easily accessible by TTC and would be a great community location for people that live in the city as well as tourists looking to go to one area to do many things.  A good example of something that was successful in the alleyway space at Honest Ed's was the the Stop's Night Market that was held a few months ago.  They sold tickets for $50 and attendees were able to sample all kinds of food from small food vendors and food trucks.  It was sold out so fast that I couldn't even get a ticket.  I know from a few people that it was a huge success and it had proceeds that served the charity Food Share.  It was a win win event for everyone.  This could be a monthly or seasonal event if the right person develops this.  It's the kind of event that tourists would be thrilled to attend I am sure.

As for the Princess of Wales Theatre goes my connection to it was just recently when I volunteered for the Toronto International Film Festival.  It was the first time my team had volunteer shifts at the Princess of Wales Theatre for the Festival.   It's a beautiful theatre in a style that doesn't get built anymore because of the ornate details and the construction costs and time restraints.  It has beautiful Red Seats that many producers attending TIFF prefer to have at their Premiere screenings like the Gravity screening.  I was lucky enough to see both Gravity and the Dallas Buyers Club in the theatre this past September.  This theatre to me symbolizes the Theatre District charm that was brought from London to Toronto and people made a night out of going to the theatre and out to dinner.  Another sad fact that it might just end up as a Condo with generic businesses attached to it.

How this relates to my food blog is the connection they all have to food and entertainment.  Everyone of these location has a direct connection to restaurants or chefs or tourists who visit these locations and then visit local restaurants or attend related food events.

Tourists don't dream of cities of cookie cutter monster condominiums.  Do people go to Paris to see condos?  No, they go to see beautiful structures like the Eiffel Tower and beautiful architecture and great restaurants.  Even people that go to NYC don't go to see the huge boring towers but they go for the great restaurants, the diverse neighbourhoods and the great shopping and tourist attractions and endless entertainment.

In Toronto we are losing our unique landmarks and our personality.  What's the point of having all of these huge condos where nobody can go anywhere because there is constant construction and cranes and road blocks all over the city and where public transit can accommodate the influx of people trying to get around from those massive condos to their work or other destinations.   If the people that live in the condo spend more time getting around the city than they do actually living their lives with friends and family then what's the point of building all of these monster condos?

I was just thinking while on my way to the Delicious Food Show at Exhibition Place this past weekend while driving on the Gardiner Expressway how the city skyline is now flooded with glass structures back to back and how about 10 years ago I would drive on the Gardiner and think how beautiful it was to see the CN Tower and a few distinct buildings.  Now you can't even tell what most of the buildings are anymore.   I live in a condo area and I live in a highrise but I am still able to walk around my area to restaurants around the corner if I choose to.  If you are just stuck in a big building with nowhere to go and nothing to do then life isn't really much of a life is it?

What's next?
Are they going to sell the CN Tower because it takes up prime condo space?   And look at what's happening with Exhibition Place and Ontario Place.


I wish someone in city planning would finally get that the people that live here have had enough already.   Stop building these condos until you can build a community around them.

Unfortunately we only find out about these things after the deal has been done.  If you have some sort of influence and a voice please make noise and tell the people at City Hall that there needs to be restrictions on developers or pretty soon their will be foreign owned condos that sit empty waiting for overseas owners trying to flip them for profit.

Revised:  And I forgot another Iconic Landmark that is now closed and the great sign is now held hostage by Ryerson University.  The Great Sam the Record Man Sign.   When I was in my teen years the thing to do in Toronto if you had nothing to do and only a little bit of money, was to go down to Yonge Street downtown and browse around the bins at Sam the Record Man and hope that something you wanted was on sale or some band you liked were doing an in store record signing.  It was exciting in those days and the place to find rare or new and upcoming music and it supported many local musicians as well.

This photo was taken during Nuit Blanche just before the store was closed down permanently.  I am glad I have this photo at least and the memories of going there.

Please try and help Ryerson keep their promise to keep the Sam's sign alive and well and keep it around Yonge and Dundas where it belongs.

Yup I am annoyed and don't have much power besides writing about it here and have people read this and try and gather a bunch of people to voice their opinions.

Cookbooks and Cakes - 30 years at the Cookbook Store

I dropped into the Cookbook Store today for their 30th Year Anniversary.  That's a HUGE Milestone for a Bookstore in Toronto or anywhere these days.   The thing is that they only sell cookbooks.  The Cookbook Store is a fixture on the Yonge Street strip across from the Reference Library and just around the Yorkville area of Toronto.

 Alison Fryer the owner is somewhat of a Cookbook Author champion and the best PR person for celebrity chefs we have in this city.  I see Alison everywhere these days,  George Brown College for Chef's cookbook launches,  Word on the Street where there are cookbook author chats, and on shows like Cityline and Breakfast television showing off drool worth cookbooks.

Today was especially fun because some of the best bakers in Toronto sent over a bunch of cakes to celebrate the store's 30 year milestone.   Former employees and fans of the store dropped in to wish them another 30 years plus of success.

There were so many cakes that were too beautiful to cut,  like these ones from George Brown and All the Best Fine Foods, and One.

Also in attendance were Chef J.P. Chalet from Ici Bistro and Le Matin bakery.   And I spotted Marion Kane who was having sugar overload and Chef Higgins from George Brown College who has taught so many of the Chefs in this city.

James Cunningham the host of the Food Network show EAT ST. popped in to sign his Eat St. Cookbook and he took lot's of photos with everyone including me. He was super nice to everyone.  Eat St. is one of the shows that I watch on Food Network that makes me want to eat my TV.
It was a fun afternoon of Cake and Cookbooks and chatting with people that love to cook and love to eat.   I wish they would do an Open House like that every year.
I picked up a copy of the Eat St. Cookbook so the next time I watch the show and want to eat something I see at least I will have the recipes.
It was a fun afternoon at the Shop and I only tasted a couple of things in case you were wondering.   I picked up one of my friend Adell's little cookies to go and I tried the Croquembouche.. this one on the left.  It was delicious.  Reminded me of  something my mom's friend would make for special occasions as a kid.  My mom's friend's were all French so this was normal for them.

Chef Michael Smith chats about Fast Flavours

It was one of my friends birthdays this month so instead of buying each other gifts that just take up space we now give each other food related gifts like cooking demos or chef cookbook chats.  It was his birthday this month so I signed up to go see Chef Michael Smith chat about his new cookbook Fast Flavours at George Brown College.  My friend loves watching his tv show and so do I so we were really excited to go and see him.  

I saw him recently at the Word on the Street where I was surprised to hear him rant about how not feeding your kids proper food was like slow child abuse.  He got on a huge rant about feeding kids so much junk food that they are all developing allergies to everything these days.

So I had a feeling he would have really passion filled Q&A answers after he did his interview with Cookbook Store owner Alison Fryer.

It turned out that I asked him the last question of the night about what he thought about Mayors like New York's Bloomberg banning the 64oz soft drinks.   He agreed that kids shouldn't be sold that kind of excess and he thought it was good that he took a stand.   While I agree that kids shouldn't drink that much sugar in their drinks there isn't really anything to stop them from getting 2 - 32 oz drinks back to back either.   Is this enough to stop the obesity epidemic?  I don't think so.   He thought that junk food should be taxed like cigarettes.   My thought is that some of the toxic substances that are put into the foods at manufacturing should be banned instead, like high fructose corn syrup which is what is actually causing the obesity epidemic.    Here's a thought... what if they couldn't put it into products ...then people couldn't buy them...  hence... the people who can't afford to pay these taxes wouldn't have to pay for the burden of the healthcare system while the manufacturers reap profits.    

My thought is that if toxic substances or food additives that are known to contribute to obesity are changed to non toxic substances then maybe everyone wins....   people won't have to walk around supermarkets with magnifying glasses and dictionaries to figure out what's in the products they are consuming if they are actually indicated what it is.   Some ingredients are disguised as other things or modified to some other thing or are genetically modified without telling the consumer.

I don't think everyone in North America is going to give up convenience food in one day and switch to a 100% plant based diet so I think the answer is to make some of these toxic products disappear so that the only choice is to buy whole foods and start going back to eating real food and making things from scratch where you know what's in them.   You won't get 100% of the population to switch but we don't need a thousand toxic products tempting the exhausted media brainwashed parents into buying easy convenience food to get food on the table for their families.

As Chef Michael Smith said banning something like Foie Gras in Los Angeles because of cruelty to the  duck is ridiculous because other animals like cows and pigs are treated just as badly.  But that's real food.   What about banning toxic chemical filled products that can sit on supermarket shelves for a year without going bad.   Well because the big corporate manufactuers would protest and won't have subsidized jobs for people.

The whole thing is a political toxic soup and there is no simple answer but my thoughts are to start to rethink what is allowed to go into the products before it gets to the consumers to have to do detective work to figure out whether it's going to kill them to consume that product.

It seems I hit a nerve when I asked Chef Michael that question because he got really passionate about it and Alison thought he should run for Mayor of Toronto and everyone in the room seemed to agree.   i think he would make a great Mayor.   He knows right from wrong and has Integrity and passion.    I am not sure our current Mayor has those qualities but that's a whole other story.

One thing that was funny was standing next to him while taking a photo,  I am only about 5 feet tall while Michael Smith is somewhere around 7 feet tall.   Do I look short or what?

About his Cookbook. ....  it's a beautifully put together book filled with recipes that anyone with basic skills can make in their own kitchens which makes it a cookbook that will get used instead of sitting on a shelf.   The photos are large and beautiful and the recipes are written easy to read instead of fine print on colored paper it's clear black large enough print on white paper, making it easy to flip through the book and organize your kitchen accordingly.   I hope to make one of the recipes in the near future.