Thursday’s meeting of the Toronto Preservation Board will consider a recommendation from the Chief Planner, Jennifer Keesmaat, to include as many as 258 low-rise commercial buildings on Bayview Ave., Mt. Pleasant Rd, Eglinton Ave and Yonge Street in what is known as the Toronto Heritage Register. This status provides a measure of protection from demolition. The list of frequently anonymous-looking, but occasionally more distinguished buildings, dates from the 1920s and 30s when the streets north of St. Clair Ave. were being developed. On Bayview, the buildings on the list range from the Subway Sandwich shop at 1489 (and others nearby) to a building at 1575 which houses Must Boutique to 1588 Bayview, a former bank building which for many years housed Elegant Garage Sale. The recommendation is the subject of a release by Ward 22 Councillor Josh Matlow who also provides a link to the agenda for Thursday’s board meeting.

The Toronto Star reports Thursday that Hemant Bhagwani, creator of Amaya Express, Indian Street Food and other Indian themed restaurants has sold all his businesses and retired, at least for now, from the local food scene. Bhagwani has opened 34 restaurants since 2002.  “I probably sponsored 40 cooks from Dubai and India, so there’s probably a guy who previously worked at an Amaya in most of the Indian restaurants in the City. But I stopped enjoying it, so it’s time to step back,” the paper quotes Bhagwani.

NEW OWNER AT INDIAN STREET FOOD

He assures everyone he is leaving Indian Street Food Co in capable hands. The staff remains on along with the new owner Vahid Hoseyni. “The future for Indian Street Food Co remains bright,” he adds. The Indian Street Food Co restaurant is at 1701 Bayview Ave. between Dolly Jewellers and the Academy of Culinary Arts.

1701 Bayview Ave.

Toronto Police are warning east end homeowners of a roofing and chimney repair fraud that has appeared at least five times since March. Most recently, the perpetrators, a man and woman appeared Tuesday but failed to persuade a homeowner on Coleman Ave. fix a vent cap on her chimney. She had been alerted to a scam by a neighbour. The couple take money and disappear. This has occurred in various forms on Cedarcrest Blvd., Sibley Ave. (twice) and on Meighen Ave. On one occasion the two used a debit machine to obtain a PIN number and also stole a debit card, quickly withdrawing $800 from the account. The man and woman are described variously as aged 25 to 30, or 30 to 40. He sometimes wears a baseball cap and her hair, which is black, is in a bun. They have been seen on a white scooter.

Sorry about this ma’am

Western humour

The arrest of both the bride and groom at their wedding party in Edmonton last Saturday really does seem to be one for the books. It is tweeted that the bride was jailed for the night while the groom was bailed. Yikes. Police are saying little and it is safe to assume that the CTV reporter who begged the still unnamed couple to come forward “if you want to talk about it” has been disappointed with the radio silence. Happily there are no reports of injuries.

Iris in charge

Discussion goes on with mom

Desks are for climbing

Iris Wronka, 2, found things quite to her liking at the Sky News studio in London where her mom and younger brother were discussing new guidelines for detecting cow’s milk allergies. For sure. Very funny.

Open tryouts for the Rep and Select teams of Leaside Baseball (ages 6 thru to 14) are coming the first week of… https://t.co/Q2kXJZCjwE

— Leaside Baseball (@TalbotPark) August 23, 2017

Important enough to be omn post cards

Now called unsafe

Flashed sinking to the world

The Nova Scotia cable station that relayed first word of the sinking of the Titanic to a shocked world will be demolished, according to the Nova Scotia village of Hazel Hill where it is located. The historic 1888 monument to modern communication was built by the Commercial Cable Company and handled more than 3,000 messages a day in the early years of the last century, including profound events of WWI. The station was once famous enough to grace post cards (above). Commercial Cable created Hazel Hill, about 100 km east of Halifax, as a white-collar enclave for the modern industry it ran. It built its employees “new and stylish homes” with such added amenities as a tennis court, cricket field, curling rink and a manager’s home complete with a ballroom. Hazel Hill has dwindled to merely 500 souls and the shuttered station, out of business since 1962, has defied efforts to somehow save it. The community has been told it is unsafe but that must surely be just about the cost of making it safe. It appears a rare piece of Canadian history is about to flattened for lack of money and, at the federal level, not much interest.

Scott Waldron of Gravitate Travel is talking about a winter 2018 vacation that offers a nice promotional bonus for pre-booking by October 31 of this year. Normally if a family books a vacation with Gravitate at a Hard Rock Resort Hotel in the Caribbean or Mexico on these terms and pays for it, the resort will give the family a Limitless Resort Credit based on the number of nights they have booked for. For a stay of 5 nights, for example, they would get a USD 1,500 credit and for 7 nights they get a USD 1,800 credit on their room account. However with the promotion currently running, a 5-night stay gets USD 3,000 and a 7-night stay gets USD 3,600 credit on their room account if booked by October 31, 2017. When they arrive at the property they can review all the Spa treatments and Tour options offered by the hotel and use their resort credit towards those services. It seems to mean no more lifting of the wallet for tours and spa appointments people normally pay extra for at other resorts. An amazing value for couples, girlfriend getaways and families alike. The only thing paid is a 20 per cent resort fee on any amount of the resort credit they use. So, if they only use USD 300 of the resort credit, they pay 20% of the USD 300 so USD 60. Gravitate Travel is an advertiser in the Bulldog and this post has the quality of an ad. See their site at Gravitate

Job Fair

Interior work

87 Laird Drive in Leaside Village

Amsterdam Brewery has announced a job fair to hire employees for the Amsterdam Barrel House now nearing completion at 87 Laird Drive in the Leaside Village. The restaurant and on-site brewery location will specialize in handcrafted food and beer and is set to open at a date yet to be announced. But soon.

A Mainstreet/Postmedia poll of 2,050 people nationally has found that 52 per cent think Toronto is “unsafe” even though, person for person, it is the safest City in the country. The easy response is to suggest people are mistaken to be concerned. But in fairness to those who think this way, it remains true that Torontonias at least live in closer proximity to more criminal incidents simply because there are more people here. Take it for what it’s worth. We’re guessing people in South Bayview, where there’s very little crime, are uneasy about shootings in other parts of Toronto. It’s too close. Add that to the excited presentation of news with music and sound effects, and yes, maybe we feel unsafe now and then. Read the conventional view from the pollster of this phenomenon who may think we’re silly. CP24

Elegant Garage Sale sign lowerd to sidewalk

Little fuss

New tenant coming

The Elegant Garage Sale sign was taken down Tuesday night. It has hung over the door of the old bank building at 1588 Bayview Ave. for nearly four decades. With this movement, the many reports that the location has been leased seem correct. Elegant Garage closed last September, somewhat more than a year after the death in 2015 of founder and abiding presence Lynn Albert.