cities

Downtown Toronto’s new five-star hotel is just a short walk from the financial district and already a favoured haunt for pre-work meetings. Proteins include an English-style fry-up or truffled eggs Benedict; maple duck sausages should not be missed. Or stay lean with a smoothie. The ’90s power breakfast is back.

Three storeys up in the portrait-hung neo-Gothic clerestory above Hart House’s Great Hall, chef Suzanne Baby offers one of Toronto’s most delectable lunches of clever local-seasonal dishes. Civil servants and MPPs are frequently lured there from nearby Queen’s Park (Tories and NDPs outnumbering Liberals, for some reason) to hobnob with academics by the fire in the bar. Open September through June.

The mauve-furnished room is delightfully calm and civilized with well-spaced tables for discreet conversation and a courtyard for outdoor lunching in the summer. Deft servers can be relied upon for great wine recommendations, and Chef Lorenzo Loseto’s food is the real deal – suave, detailed, not too heavy but packed with flavour and righteous local ingredients. A short tasting menu may be the best way to go.

It’s rare that the top restaurant for a business rendezvous is also one of a city’s gastronomic superstars – thank chef Anthony Walsh’s suave, edgy Canadian cuisine. A recent reno has polished the look of the place to a luxe, modern sheen. The view from the 54th floor encompasses Niagara at lunchtime, equally stunning with a lobster sandwich in the long bar or from the room’s power table (number six, in the corner). By night the mood is more mellow. Closed weekends.

The soaring space looks like a posh boardroom – low ambient noise for conversation, tables set far apart; it’s classy but half the price of Canoe or Bymark. And the food is persuasively good – high-end modern Italian, elegantly presented – but you won’t leave hungry. Great veal carpaccio, risotto, scallops, duck breast with rapini and gnocchi… Pricey wines are expertly chosen. The bar area is a smart rendezvous in its own right.

Chef Mark McEwan’s glamorous restaurant and bar, tucked under The Hazelton Hotel, spills out onto a sidewalk patio in the summer months, building social momentum to a September climax during the Toronto International Film Festival. Indoors, the bar has its own Manhattan-style intensity, but there are quiet corners for conversation, cocktails for connoisseurs (a fine lime-muddled gin and tonic) and a wine list full of rare temptations.

It looks like a glass box left on the lawn of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s TD Centre, containing plush leather sofas and a decor of dramatic woods. The blackBerry brigade crowd in after work, then spill out onto the courtyard during the summer. Classic cocktails and a bar menu from the restaurant beneath til 2:00a.m.

After years off the radar, the midtown palazzo has roared back this summer, mostly thanks to new chef Jason Carter who brings wonderful intensity and creativity to a clean-cut, contemporary menu. The recent reno lends a masculine simplicity to the soaring space while various private rooms suit business gatherings. Grand cru wines, spectacular digestivi and flawless service complete the evening.

Enter through the night club then ride the freight elevator five floors to owner Libell Geddes’s witty, sophisticated restaurant loft. There’s a fire in the hearth and sofas beside it, a piano player, tables draped in heavy linen, caviar and chateaubriand. The rooftop terrace, sealed from the elements most of the year, feels like a chic Caribbean cabana.

Sit at the bar if you feel like conversation, up in the main dining room if you prefer your own company. Chef David Lee and his partners have judged the mood of the room perfectly – smart but not fussy, modern but comfortable. The menu is seasonal, reasonably priced and many dishes benefit from an Asian nuance or two to take everything out of the ordinary. Great charcuterie; awesome burgers.

Pull up a stool to the raw bar of world-champion oyster shucker Patrick McMurray: the genial banter’s almost as good as the superb Canadian (and sometimes U.S. and European) oysters. The kitchen has a fine way with seafood of all kinds and the casual but sophisticated company’s a rich mix of CEOs, off-duty chefs, artists and gourmets. House oyster stout must be tried.

One storey up, this large, sumptuously decorated French bistro opened last summer and was instantly adopted by Toronto’s elite. An eye-catching tower of seafood from the raw bar is the must-have appetizer; a table on the terrace allows for unbeatable people-watching.

Off the lobby of the new, five-star Ritz Carlton hotel (and below its namesake restaurant on the mezzanine) the bar is the domain of master mixologist Moses McIntee – an exploration of his unique cocktails can occupy an evening. An ice mountain beds fresh raw and cooked seafood. Music is laid-back enough for conversation.

In the vibrant new neighbourhood beside the Air Canada Centre, Le Germain’s latest boutique hotel is the model of modern elegance and discreet luxury. Rooms have extensive work areas (rooms 732 and 832 also each have a circular bed with a ninefoot diameter), iPod docking and many environmentally conscious details. Staying here is also a way to get tickets for the Leafs or Raptors games next door, and a guaranteed post-game reservation at Real Sports Bar.

Downtown’s brand-new boutique hotel is a five-minute cab ride from the island airport. Modern and luxurious, it has many amenities including a skating rink (in season), a great gym and a 16th-floor rooftop lounge with outdoor infinity pool. New York chef Scott Conant has opened a branch of his star-studded Scarpetta restaurant in the lobby.  A 24-hour diner offers food in a more casual idiom.

People often choose their dry cleaners on the basis of convenience, but there is a hierarchy of quality in terms of the way garments are treated. A well-made garment that is cared for in a careful and professional way will last longer and feel  and look better. We believe it is worth going a few extra blocks to find a dry cleaner that is better equipped to deal with top-quality garments.

We also recommend that you dry-clean your garments infrequently (usually once a season); spot-clean and press if dry-cleaning isn’t required. To better care for your clothes, hang them properly between wearings, using broad-winged hangers. Don’t wear a garment two days in a row: giving it a day off allows natural fibres to hang out properly, restoring shape. Ask for no starch when you launder your shirts, to prolong their life. A properly made dress shirt allows for slight shrinkage over a number of launderings. Usually an extra half inch is added to the neck and sleeve length of a shirt to allow for this shrinkage.
 
If you are a Canadian dry cleaner operating in this market and feel that you should be included in this list, please contact us and give us an opportunity to test you out.

Ask your hotel concierge for the nearest ravine or head down to the lake where the Martin Goodman trail runs mainly along the shore of Lake Ontario.