Virtuoso Life - September/October 2008 - (Page 38) LUXE REPORT | CITY TO GO scallop salad. The see-and-be-seen spot in neighboring Bloor-Yorkville is Sassafraz (100 Cumberland Street; 416/964-2222), a yellow house with a cool celadon interior. The sophisticated Boiler House (55 Mill Street; 416/203-2121) – in, yes, a converted distillery boiler house – has intimate booths in its two-story space. Snack on Yukon frites with truffle salt and lavender honey aioli before a Soulpepper performance and hear live music later in the evening. All Nuit Long Toronto keeps art aficionados up past their bedtimes. » Go For Nuit Blanche, a dusk-to-dawn presentation of art exhibits, installations, and mixed-media performances at sites all over town on October 4. This year, among other events, the German group Blinkenlights will transform the windows of Toronto’s high-rise City Hall into an interactive computer screen, with a light in each window acting as a pixel in the larger screen, which viewers can manipulate using smartphones. Beyond the festival, Toronto’s arts community now encompasses several new venues. The Daniel Libeskind-designed Michael Lee-Chin Crystal addition bursts out of the Royal Ontario Museum’s venerable brick facade (100 Queen’s Park; 416/586-8000), and native son Frank Gehry has added a titanium exterior to his redesigned Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas Street W.; 416/9796660), slated to open on November 14. The Canadian Opera Company has moved to an acoustically brilliant, European-style auditorium in an elegant glass cube (145 Queen Street W.; 416/363-8231). Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre Company now has a home at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts (55 Mill Street, Building 49; 416/866-8666) in the renovated Distillery District. » Eat After exploring the Royal Ontario Museum, take the elevator to C5 Restaurant Lounge, where the view of the city might distract you from chef Ted Corrado’s signature Québec squab or his seared Toronto lights up the night (clockwise from top): The Royal Ontario Museum, the Lobby Lounge and Restaurant, and Distillery District gallery-hopping. » Drink Upstart art galleries and boutiques have infiltrated once down-at-the-heels Queen Street West. The Sky Yard at the artsy Drake Hotel (1150 Queen Street W.; 416/531-5042) sets its projection screen on a rooftop patio. When the weather turns cool, settle into a retro banquette in the hotel’s first-floor Lounge. A hot spot in Bloor-Yorkville, especially during Toronto’s International Film Festival (September 4 through 13 this year), is the Lobby Lounge and Restaurant (192 Bloor Street W.; 416/929-7169). » Shop Find artisanal foodstuffs – a mouthwatering array of cheeses, oils, jams, mustards, vinegars, and olives, as well as baked goods, meats, and vegetables – at the stalls in the historic St. Lawrence Market (Front and Jarvis streets). Handcrafted gifts, from pottery to wearable art, fill the chic shop at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art (111 Queen’s Park; 416/586-8080). The industrial doors of the brick Distillery District buildings (55 Mill Street) open to a trove of fine-art repositories: elaborate glass creations at Sandra Ainsley, fine-art photographs at Jan Corkin, paintings and contemporary photography at Monte Clark. » Stay Only steps away from the galleries and museums of BloorYorkville, the Hazelton Hotel, with 77 rooms and suites, boasts its own Canadian art collection plus a private screening room, heated bathroom floors, and zebrawood dressing rooms. Doubles from $447, including breakfast and a $50 spa credit. BY JOAN TAPPER 38 V I RT U O S O L I F E (ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM) KEN STRAITON/ GETTY IMAGES, (DISTILLERY DISTRICT) JEFF SPEED/ ONTARIO TOURISM
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