Results tagged “alcohol”

For a while, it looked like the furry little critters inhabiting Toronto's waste-addled sidewalks and gutters were the only ones getting a break this week. It's bad enough to have the trash piling up in the city's green spaces, themselves untended for the duration of CUPE local 79 and 416's labour action; it's worse that there's such incensed, heat wave–crazy rage that motorists are taking it out on the picketers with their cars. But then we caught wind that the LCBO—our sweet, sweet LCBO—would throw down as well, possibly walking off the job this morning at 12:01 a.m. You can take our services, you can pollute our streets, you can thicken the bouquet of an already fragrant Queen West, but our booze? We're lucky the frenzied, last-possible-second shoppers at Queen's Quay and elsewhere didn't riot yesterday.

In the heady 1920s, Ontario was a dry province. After the war, the Ontario Temperance Act, which originally prohibited public consumption and sale of alcohol as a wartime measure, had been strengthened to close a variety of loopholes to become outright prohibition. It was, of course, a widely flouted law that gave rise to an underground economy of thriving bootleggers who supplied beer and whisky to blind pigs and speakeasies—as well as to Americans suffering through the decade-long thirst of the Volstead Act south of the border. Rocco Perri, an Italian immigrant to Hamilton, was one of many once-small-time crooks who were emboldened and enriched by the smuggling trade.

As Maclean’s reported last week, alcohol sales at large Canadian retailers were up seventeen per cent this past October in comparison to October 2007, while the Globe and Mail reported in December that the sale of high-priced liquors, such as champagne and ice wine, were way down. This isn't surprising: when times are tough people tend to hit the cheaper bottles a little harder. But sales of inexpensive liquor aren't just up at retailers—in order to save money, more and more Torontonians are making their own booze or turning towards Toronto's on-premise beer- and wine-making establishments.

Advertisement, The Toronto World, January 1, 1909

According to the Canadian Press, the Ontario Government and the LCBO secretly raised the minimum price of a case of twenty-four bottled beers last month, from $24 to $25.60. The price hike, which has already come into effect, was not an economic decision, but rather part of the LCBO's 1993 decision to enforce social responsibility. Apparently, a 24 for $24 was just too much for us to handle.

Anyone who's ever let out a big “harumph!” at movie theatre patrons munching on Burger King and Taco Bell during a flick isn't going to like this. Beginning Dec. 10, Cineplex Odeon is poised to allow alcohol in designated auditoriums at Varsity Cinema, pending approval from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. Booze is currently served in their licensed lounge area, and if they are allowed to proceed with this pilot project, you could knock one back in one of their 40-person VIP theatres (where you pay a $5 premium to enjoy roomier seats and be served like a king).

MUSIC: Toronto electro-punk-nintendo-beep-and-bloop duo Crystal Castles are sure to kick ass tonight at CiRCA (copyright infringement issues aside). These guys put on one hell of a show, and their hipness peak is probably approaching fast given that they've gone from performing in Parkdale to rocking the Harbourfront Centre and CiRCA in just eight months. So if you don't want to wait until next year to catch them opening for Kenny Rogers at Casino Niagara, you'd better head downtown this evening. CiRCA Nightclub (126 John Street), 10 p.m., $15.

Cheap Thrills is a new bi-weekly column filling you in on fresh ways to get your kicks in the city and on the cheap.

Toronto's city councillors have voted to change the rules governing their office budgets, which includes the elimination of alcohol with meals with staff, mileage compensation to and from City Hall, and compensation for raffle tickets or silent auction bids. On the bright side, Torontoist's corporate booze budget is at an all-time high.

Latest transit update from the Torontoist Action News Team Live Info Centre, Your Only Source For All TTC Strike News: if you're a regular TTC rider, GO Transit doesn't want you. A spokesperson for GO has advised that that they're already operating at capacity with their regular passenger load, and don't plan to run any additional buses or trains in the event of a TTC strike.

A new free service called Operation Red Nose launches tomorrow that provides volunteer designated drivers to get drunks and their cars home safely. The service already runs in places like Sudbury and Aurora, and now festive partygoers in the Distillery District can try it out this Wednesday, December 12 to Saturday, December 15. The program is fairly flexible since drivers can request service as often as necessary to get from one place to the...

Over on Q107 on Monday afternoon, Max Webster frontman turned DJ Kim Mitchell was sounding quite enthusiastic about Tuesday's show. It seems that in an effort to bring attention to drunk driving and the negative effects of alcohol, he's going to have two on-air personalities (Maureen Holloway and Ryan Parker from Derringer In The Morning) drinking throughout his show, presumably getting progressively drunker and stupider as the afternoon wears into the evening. An expert...

Remember when you were like fifteen and it was a TOTAL BUMMER that you couldn't buy alcohol, because, you know, you weren't of age yet? And now that you've been legal for what seems like an eternity, and you're older and wiser, with many formative life experiences behind you, you realize that not being able to buy booze at the age of fifteen was probably a good thing, and likely prevented more than a few unsavory situations?

The National Post is reporting today that Coyote Ugly––the raunchy, almost-a-strip-club-bar that inspired a Jerry Bruckheimer movie that everyone, including Piper Perabo, forgot about five years ago––will open up its first Canadian "saloon" next year at 220 Adelaide Street West. Coyote Ugly is upfront about its intentions: on their website, the bar explains the "business plan" of its first owner, Lil' Lovell, was "beautiful girls + booze = money." The organization's slogan is "Don't Just...

Premier Dalton McGuinty says that he is not prepared to follow Quebec's example and ban cell phone use while driving, in spite of studies showing that the practice is more dangerous than driving drunk. McGuinty said that "some people also distract themselves by drinking coffee, eating and applying makeup while driving" and he wouldn't know where to draw the line. Because if you can't stop one stupid and extremely dangerous practice, there's no point in stopping any of them.

Employees of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission, which now oversees the Ontario Lottery Gaming Corporation, will not be permitted to buy lottery tickets in Ontario. A representative of the affected staffers complained, "why do you think we wanted to work here in the first place?" before shotgunning a 40-ouncer of Absolut and collapsing to the ground.

A survey by British research firm Skytrax has named Air Canada the best airline in North America. Travelers who have endured experienced the Air Canada business model of surly staff, vanishing meals, and rising fares will marvel at how low the bar for airline excellence on this continent has now been set.

This weekend is going to be a scorcher. Lured by the siren song of the ice cream truck, it will be hard to resist that choc-vanilla twist cone, or Rocket Pop. Then there’s always the convenience store on the corner for a Strawberry Shortcake or Freezie. Of course, after too many of these sweet treats, your bikini or swimming trunks have a snugger fit than you were hoping for while strutting your stuff on the boardwalk. You can thank the high fat and sugar content for that, not to mention the artificial additives and preservatives you may be getting with each mouthful. Not so much fun any more.

The first time Torontoist encountered Dave Meslin was at the August 2004 Trampoline Hall at the AGO's Walker Court. Ostensibly speaking about "Drinking Games," Mez instead develivered a speech about his first experiences with alcohol, the hegemony of mixed drinks, and the backwardness of the cup half-empty, half-full metaphor. It was one of the most spectacular things we have ever heard.

You can't make this shit up.

Remember when, if someone was shot on the streets of the GTA, neighbours would appear on TV saying something like "I'm shocked—you just don't expect things like this to happen here?" Those were the good old days in Kensington Market. Violent crime has always been part of the area (usually it's attributed to drugs or alcohol), but a spate of seemingly random shootings has neighbours a little freaked out. On May 15, a 24-year-old man was shot in the head at Augusta St. and College St. And the above images of five of the approximately 18 bullets fired in a shootout at Carr St. and Denison Ave. last Sunday morning. 19-year-old Jonathan Musse was found in alley suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. Musse died of his injuries on Thursday, making him Toronto's 27th homicide victim.

This Victoria Day weekend, two things will be on the minds of many Torontonians—beer and BBQ. The weather is good, you’re hanging with your friends, and you just want to kick back and chill with a cold one and a burger. You may have heard about what BBQing can do to your health and the environment, but let’s face it, it’s hard to resist the smoky aroma wafting from your neighbour’s backyard. Don't stress yourself about it—there are some eco-friendlier options when it comes to how you grill, and you can feel better about your BBQ by being choosy about what you grill. Plus, Toronto’s official BBQ season is quite short, leaving you plenty of time to "detox" and focus on healthier fare. That’s what we’re telling ourselves anyway.

First incandescent light bulbs, now toilets: at the recommendation of David Miller, the Ontario government will consider banning conventional toilets to promote low-flush toilets. Low-flushies use only 6 litres of water per flush, while regular toilets will use anywhere from 13-25 litres to flush. Not only would the ban save Toronto 26 million litres of water per day, it would eliminate the need for $60 million in water and sewage-treatment capacity. Here's a ban everyone can feel good about, except Dave Barry.

Yesterday, a friend wrote: We should work to accept that it is unknowable whether one (person, perception, point of view) is objective or subjective. The problem is that there's no test to know, or, if there is such a test, we have no way of knowing that the test works.

Hunter S. Thompson is notorious for his alcohol abuse, his gun collection, and most importantly for developing a new style of journalism called Gonzo. This new style blended fact and fiction and often removed objectivity by placing the author in the starring role.

Torontoist was very saddened to learn of yesterday's passing of Canadian animation legend Ryan Larkin.

It seems to us that everybody we know has been under the weather lately. So we called Dr. Herveen Sachdeva, Associate Medical Officer of Health for Toronto Public Health to find out what diseases are out there and how we can avoid them.

In our last report on Drum Circle, Toronto's weekly celebration of drum and dance, one commenter lamented, "Its going to be a looooong [sic] winter without it...:(" Fear not, faithful reader, for the beat goes on.