Eating Hearty at Piola

The truth behind the age-old question of why good Italian cooking is so deeply, endlessly satisfying is an elusive one. One hungry afternoon, a few days ago, we dropped in to Piola, a new Italian Restaurant (it opened last December…

Art We Love: Sacred and Profane Love (Self-Portrait II) by Harold Klunder

Harold Klunder is everywhere regarded as one of Canada’s most powerful painters.  His latest exhibition, Black Sun, now at the Clint Roenisch Gallery is a remarkable experience, both for the majestic trio of paintings making up the Black Sun…

Design We Love: Black Cat Lamp

We were both attracted and, at first, a bit put off by the funky directness of this little lamp. Its tasteful black shade is profoundly belied by the body of the map—which is a feral-looking black cat-made of fired clay!…

Design We Love: Buddha Machines

Maybe there ought to be a column in this blog called Design That Simply Catches Our Fancy—a place to explore objects that, while they may not kick the history of design ahead by much, are, nevertheless, attractive and pleasing.

Like…

Photos by Arthur Condo

We found Arthur Condo at the Art Condos site last week, staring raptly, in apparent admiration, at the rising building.  “I love watching it go up,” he told us.  “It feels so powerful.”

Design We Love: the Duke Lamp

This guileless-looking but somehow cheerfully forceful lamp–the Duke table lamp by Salgado Saucier of Milford, Pennsylvania–is made of resin with a silk shade. According to Hanson Tan of Industrial Storm you can have the lamp “in any colour…

Photos by Arthur Condo

Arthur’s photos of the Art Condos building were almost always taken from odd angles and always offered unusual views of the project. “I like this one,” Arthur told us, “because of the little patch of  blue sky at the top. …

Green Thumb: The Pencil Cactus

We mention to Rebecca MacLachlin of Poppies that we’re looking for houseplants that are easily grown in condos and she leads us, enthusiastically, to a great, towering, spiky-green, indoor jungle of a plant called A Pencil Cactus. We…

Photos by Arthur Condo

Arthur Condo strolled by the Art Condos site again last week.
“You’re getting to be a fixture here,” we told him.  “Same name,” he explained, taking a couple more photographs.
“What do you like about the one…

Nunu Ketgela of Nunu Fine Ethiopian

Ethiopian food gets under your skin, so to speak, and when you want it, you really really want it. When we really want it, we go to Nunu Fine Ethiopian on Queen Street West, just a few blocks from the…