The Toronto International Film Festival 2008, which takes place here in Accordion City and runs from September 4th through 13th, has released their full schedule of films. Over its 10 days, they will show 312 films on 36 screens throughout the city; the films will hail from 64 countries (this is fewer films than last year, but more screens).
If you want to see the full schedule, it’s here.
The Festival’s New Home: Yonge-Dundas Square
I’ve got to hand it to Sam Javanrouh, who took this picture. He pulled off a minor miracle, making Yonge-Dundas Square look like some place you might actually want to visit.
Click the photo to see the original.
The new hub of the festival will be Yonge-Dundas Square, which should prove to be an interesting change. The old location, Yorkville, was a pretty nice strolling neighbourhood, while Yonge-Dundas square is closer in spirit to crass main drags like Times Square, after which it seems to have been modelled. This is smack dab in the seething pit of Yonge Street, is dominated by cheap-bordering-on-disposable club clothes, grey market electronics, porn shops and peeler bars, pizza, pizza, pizza.
It seems to be a bit short on Festival-grade restaurants, with plebian chain establishments like The Pickle Barrel, Baton Rouge and the Hard Rock Cafe being the most visible choices. There are some bright spots, though: the Senator and Salad King are nearby, and if you feel like paying top dollar to feed your socially acceptable eating disorders (vegetarianism and veganism), there’s Le Commensal. Maybe the fancy-pants crowd will head for Lai Wah Heen in the Metropolitan Hotel or Barberian’s for steak.
The bar pickings in the neighbourhood, if I recall correctly, are even slimmer. The last time I drank in this neighbourhood, I was underage. Are there any watering holes in the area worth a visit? Let me know in the comments.
9 replies on “Toronto Film Festival ’08: Schedule and New Location”
Bangkok Garden on Elm Street serves upscale, traditional Thai food – for a price, but it’s mindblowing. The restaurant is very close to Yonge-Dundas Square.
@Jayme: I’d forgotten about Bangkok Garden! That was one of my parents’ favourite places. I loved that they had a guy whose job was to go from table to table and serve you more rice.
Hey Joey:
Pubs :
Duke of Richmond (20 Queen St. West) – just on the other side of the Eaton centre. It isn’t bad and has the usual Duke of X pub fare.
Library Pub and Tavern – interesting old school bar near Ryerson, just east of the Square. It gets a mix of older timers and ryerson students.
Devils Advocate – Elm and Bay; haven’t been there in a while but it wasn’t a bad spot.
I would recommend, walk two blocks south to King and yonge and go to BeerBistro. It has great food and an awesome selection of beer.
sio.
i work around y&d and our pub of choice is the dirty ol’d imperial tavern (the upstairs – what’s known as “the library”).
http://www.imperialpub.com/
If TIFF snobs take over the library, I’m going to blow a gasket.
@siobhan and coronah: I’d also forgotten about the Imperial!
Thanks to my documenting it in this blog, I can tell you when I was last there: March 14, 2003.
@Pete Forde: If they do, it’ll be for two weeks at the very most.
Rest assured, that such a takeover would be completely different from us nerds taking over the Drake Hotel lounge during RubyFringe’s Saturday night festivities. During that event, the snobs were us and not some scumbags whose preference and talents lie in making film rather than software. Of all the nerve!
@siobhan
I tried going to the Devil’s Advocate last Friday and it was closed. It’s being renovated, and will have a new name (Duke of “Something” I can’t remember which). Doubt it’ll be open by TIFF
@joeyThe significant other has been recommending Salad King for over a year, but every time we walk by, there’s a line-up outside the door. It can only be a nightmare at TIFF-time, which coincides with the new school year (seems to attract a LOT of the Ryerson gang). We always skip it and go somewhere else. We recently tried Jack Astor’s and if the decor doesn’t make you sick with it’s trailer-trash taste, the food will.
Avoid Spring Rolls too. Wretched Asian-style food at ridiculously inflated prices. Best to check out the Thai restaurant we discovered across the street from the old Maple Leaf Gardens.
You forgot about Red Lobster, hahaha. There’s also a Firking something on Edward street.
Yeah King and Yonge is not bad, except it’s like 5 blocks south:
Shuter
Queen
Richmond
Adelaide
and finally King.