Mr. Toronto

This entry is for all you armchair athletes out there…got sports on my mind because:

1. I just scored tickets to a Maple Leafs hockey game
2. Just had lunch in Toronto’s newest, hottest jockspot…

This is the time of year when sports fans are really spoiled for choice here in the city. (Unless they want to see a winning team – but that’s a whole nother story…).  Both Leafs and Raptors (basketball) season are in full swing, and Lacrosse is just starting up.  All 3 games are incredibly entertaining to watch, weather you’re a fan or not.  And if you can’t get to a game live, there are some great restaurants and bars in town to catch the action on a big screen.

First and foremost, for the biggest screen you’ll ever see – not to mention dozens of others – head over to the new Real Sports Bar & Grill, across from the Air Canada Centre.  Surprisingly, the food is really good, too!

The pub across the street from the Delta Chelsea Hotel – The Queen and Beaver – is also a great place for a bite, while cozying up to the screen near the fireplace.  And up the road on Yonge is the popular Hoops Sports Bar and Grill, With TV’s in the booths, a whole whack of satellite dishes, and a great vibe, Hoops has survived the closing of the nearby Maple Leafs Gardens to become a beloved local sports bar.

And if you want to get active yourself, check out T.O.’s newest hotspot, The Ballroom, a bowling and bistro hangout with 10 lanes, ping-pong tables and FIFTY television screens!

Game on!

Mr. Toronto

So- after consulting with my peeps (the handful of colleagues here who actually read my blog on a regular basis), I am making my one and only resolution for the New Year – to change my blog ever so slightly, by making more frequent entries, shorter, and more directly related to all the fun and exciting things I get to do in Toronto on a regular basis…no better time to start than right now….so:

This past week was lovely and quiet here in T.O., as people either cocooned inside for the Holidays, or sought sunnier climes (outside of Canada, obviously).  I did neither, but got to wander the clear crisp streets of the City, which are especially beautiful this time of year, between the lights strung across Yonge Street, to the beautiful tree of changing lights at Yonge/Dundas Square, to the traditional Xmas windows at the Bay department store on Queen Street…also wandered up Yonge Street, to College, where my favourite movie theatre has just re-opened.  Called the Carlton, it shows a mix of Hollywood and “art-house” films on a half a dozen intimate screens – at a price that is HALF what you’d pay anywhere else.  It closed for a while, and was near extinction, until the Magic Lantern/Rainbow Cinema group saved it…phew.

Also got to a play this past week – Mirvish brought back the old Sondheim classic “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”.  Always fun to go to the gorgeous Canon (previously Pantages) Theatre, but still scratching my head as to why this is indeed a classic.  Hard to call a play about ancient Rome “dated”, but it was a throwback to vaudeville shtick – Mel Brooks at his worst – that I could live without.  Good production, though, and the senior citizens in the audience were eating it up…

Finally, got to grab lunch at a wonderful new sushi place that opened up around the corner from where I work (the Delta Chelsea), on Elm Street – Izakaya.  Has taken over from a previous sushi tenant, and though I cried when that closed, Izakaya is quickly winning me over.  Incredible menu with GREAT prices…and the sushi gets better every time I go.

So that’s it for 2010, my friends…and I am now going to break my resolution, as I am heading off NOW to sunnier climes myself…back in a couple weeks.  A wonderful, happy and healthy New Year to you and your loved ones.

Mr. Toronto