Yesterday was a tough day for fans of free ice cream. You see, April 29th was Ben and Jerry's Free Cone Day, at participating store locations worldwide. Los Angeles residents, like much of the rest of the world, easily (and, we assume, happily) got theirs. The Ben and Jerry's at 238 Queen Street West, however—Toronto's only downtown store—was closed, with a sign in the window that declared it was "Closed for the season! See you......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse. Gothamist found that an explosive set off outside the Times Square army recruiting center may be similar to five past bombings in New York City.Seattlest worried when severed right feet and bottles of rat poison started washing......

Winterlicious is back with 130 restaurants participating. For $15 or $20 for lunch and $25 or $35 for dinner, foodies get a three-course meal including appetizer, main, and dessert. Too bad most restaurants play it safe by offering the standard soup or salad, chicken or beef, and cake or ice cream. Although the food is rarely bad, boring food at nearly $50 a head (after taxes and gratuity) is pretty hard to swallow. Luckily,......

There are few things more irksome to a cyclist than a needlessly blocked bike lane. So while some people are making their own, others have created a service to help defend the far-too-few bike lanes we have already. This is precisely the idea behind MyBikeLane Toronto. A North American network of blogs launched in 2006, MyBikeLane is dedicated to outing the road hogs and other boobs blocking the way. All cyclists who have experienced......

With Toronto in the midst of a nasty heat wave, this cooler beckoning walkers-by in Yorkville with "Free Water" seemed like a desert mirage. But sure enough, the lid pulled back to reveal perfectly-chilled bottled water care of The Body Clinic, a high-end spa and salon. At first, the cooler seemed a sweet gesture to us sun-beaten, sweat-soaked pedestrians, bringing back memories of the refreshing Freezies given out on hot days in elementary school. But......

Photo by Blaine Kendall from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Unless you’ve been living under an air-conditioned and rather spacious rock, you will have noted that Toronto has had some decidedly “hot” spells lately (barring this past weekend, of course). One of the best ways to beat the heat, which is certain to back in mere moments, is through the medium of ice cream. With this in mind, we here at Torontoist decided to pit......

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......

Kensington Market Organic Ice Cream has returned! This small, Toronto-based artisinal ice cream joint that took our taste buds by storm several summers ago has always had trouble maintaining a venue. Last summer, it was operating out of The Back Alley (the restaurant, not an actual back alley) on Augusta. The summer before that, it was using the since-abandoned Sancis Fine Foods storefront on Kensington. Torontoist was dismayed a little while back when ice......

This week, the already-awesome Dufferin Grove Park is absolutely ablaze with awesomeness, with tendrils of wicked cool billowing through its leafy canopies and filling the lungs and hearts of theatre aficionados everywhere. The Cooking Fire Theatre Festival, which runs from June 20-24, is a presentation of five short plays, accompanied by a spectacular organic meal and infused with a spirit of collaboration and comraderie from start to finish. This is not your ordinary trip......

It’s time to dust off your basket, bust out the sandals, and head outside to relish the seasonal bounty of Ontario. Tuesday marks the unofficial start of open-air Farmer’s Market season, with the opening of Friends of Riverdale Farm Farmers’ Market. Now in its 7th year, it runs every Tuesday from 3-7 p.m. The timing is perfect; how good is it going to feel basking in the sun, the suddenly-warm air rejuvenating your pale......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

Downtown corners are speckled with hot dog vendors selling wieners to hungry pedestrians. There are no salad bar carts, no roti carts, no souvlaki carts, and no Chinese bun carts. Food vendors on the street sell hot diggity dogs due to Toronto's strict public health bylaws: Food preparation must be limited to the reheating of precooked meat products in the form of wieners or similar sausage products to be served on a bun. Hazardous raw......

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend... Gothamist spent the week writing about New Yorkers behaving badly: at the post office, at the Garden, and at the fertility clinic. Calvin Klein may not be misbehaving, but he's just a little dirty, and in a completely different way than some NYC kitchens. SFist had its share of misbehave-rs, too, like......

The youth offerings of IFOA get under way today and run through the end of the school week. Oriented mainly to school groups, Young IFOA readings feature international authors representing a variety of perspectives and books intended for a range of ages, from picture books and early readers, to young adult fare. Stay-at-home parents and regressive hipsters may also find much to amuse and educate. Tickets are $15. Oct 25 10:30- Eugene Trivizas brings 9-12......

If the creators of Borat knew just how much buzz they'd get from Thursday night's projector malfunction they'd probably have taken a club to the machine themselves. So here we are 24 hours later and finally through a whole screening of Borat. We're telling you now. Don't go see Borat because a couple of months after this film hits widespread release it'll insinuate itself into the cultural zeitgeist faster than a Kazakh prostitute (the cleanest......

It's happened to all of us before - you pass by something and you think "wait, when did that change?" Like, when did all the Kinko's in Toronto become "FedEx Kinko's"? When did that happen? When did that Coffee Time become the Coffee Tip, and then the Coffee Type, and finally the Dream Steak House? It's just natural - we can't notice everything as it happens, not even when we pass by regularly. I......

Theatre people often get a bum deal. Humiliating auditions, selling the car for acting classes or singing lessons or to fund a play, producing blood, sweat and tear-filled work and for what? To end up emotionally drained, penniless and with nothing but a collection of tap shoes and wigs to keep them warm at night? So is life on the stage. And, damn it, they deserve recognition for it. They got it last night......

The topic of HOT needs no further explanation. We all know that it’s hotter than hot. Yes, it’s a bazillion degrees with the humidex. Here are some tips to put a temporary hold on sweating your guts out: 1-Hop on the subway and ride it for hours. The TTC is in full swing and MOST subway cars (but not ALL subway cars) are kept cool. Spend your day listening to music and/or reading a book......

The Toronto Sun and Torontoist agree on something. That Toronto Unlimited Logo totally bites. It bites so much that a giant room of monkeys working in front of iMacs would eventually design a better logo. Instead of going this experimental route billboard company Astral Media teamed up with OCAD advertising students to come up with alternative slogans for the city. The winner was "Metropolitan Flavour" and an image of a giant ice cream cone that......

Who knew the traditional Mexican hat known as the sombrero is also the model for an easy-to-make and delicious holiday dessert? The sombrero - which, by the way, has meaning beyond the headwear aspects - lends structure to this tasty after-dinner treat. Check this out: - 12 doughnuts, the kind with the holes in the middle (no cruellers) - Tub of ice cream, any flavour - Chocolate syrup, "target="new">sombrero cocktail, sprinkles, other like toppings 1.......

The relentless Julia Breckenreid is at it again! The illustratoress with the boundless energy has organized shows at a Kensington Ice Cream Shop and Xpace, and now she's invited fifteen lady illustrators to display their wares at Secrets From Your Sister, in support and with proceeds going to Willow, a group for breast cancer survivors. Sez Julia: The launch is for a new alternative for breast cancer survivors - Beryl Tsang has knitted breast inserts......

They're giving away free ice cream today at The Big Chill, with all donations going to Sick Kids Hospital. What a nice thing to do on such a grey day. If you're in the nabe, stop by before they close.......

Descanter Mark sends us this post about the literary mag's swish fundraiser tonight: Descant Magazine has been bringing out the literary noise for the past 36 years with a commitment to publishing new and emerging writers, and visual artists, alongside such established names as Barbara Gowdy, Alberto Manguel and Edward Burtynsky. And now Descant is throwing a party to celebrate its writers and readers. The Descant Book Ball 2 takes place TONIGHT at Sorauren Studios......

Restaurants: Coffee Mill TIFF...

If you aren't already head over heels for the deliciously intriguing flavours of the Kensington Market Organic Ice Cream Shop (Ist List's #3 choice!), then take the opportunity to try out Rosepetal and Chocolate Ginger when the little ice cream shop that could crams twenty-two pieces of savoury art onto its walls. We don't know if any of the piece are lickable, but learn for yourself at tonight's opening. There will be works by......

...and not the pre-Rod Stewart 60's rock band! Though they were much better before Stewart infused his trademark pub-rocking, scratchy-throat voice. Anyway, not the Faces at all. This is called "Faces of the Global Village" exhibit, and it's at BCE Place starting yesterday. Over 100 images from documentary photographer Irving Posluns will be on display throughout the Allen Lambert Galleria (you know, that main hallway thing there), depicting the humanity and compassion needed for our......

According to the usually infallible Wikipedia, today is Pi Approximation Day in these parts, because the date is written as 22/7, which works out to an approximation of pi (the irrational number, not the much-revered dessert). Now, many a math purist may tell you why this holiday is flawed, but we are firm believers in milking every excuse to eat pie for all it's worth, and no pooh-poohing PhD is going to rain on......

T.J. Dawe all sold out? Too hot to brave the notoriously AC-free Glen Morris? Or maybe you just have a peckish hour to kill between shows? If your Fringing is confined to the central axis of Bloor and Brunswick (the Tranzac, aka Fringe HQ; Poor Alex; Royal St. George’s; and several BYOVs), it’s impossible to walk three feet without falling mouth first into good eats, but patrons of slightly farther flung venues might occasionally feel......

Cinqo, quatro, tres...uh...dose! 2. Hollywood Gelato (1640 Bayview Ave) Ahh Hollywood Gelato! The Bayview Avenue store has branched out of its Leaside roots to become the favourite ice cream joint for people as far as Mississauga and Thornhill. Renovations over the years may have helped turned the store into a real operation (far from the rumored money laundering scheme it once was) but the gelato remains the same, if not better. And Torontoist will be......

On with the Ist List of Toronto's Best Cones! 3. Kensington Market Organic Ice Cream (66 Kensington Ave) A medium cone here is $4.25, but it's an organic $4.25. According to the CBC's Beyond Burgers: No growth hormones, no antibiotics, no genetic modifications, and no pesticides. Kensington Market Organic Ice Cream is the only organic home made ice cream shop in the city. No antibiotics? Bad news for anyone trying to cure a urinary tract......