Stroll down Queen St. West

One of our favourite past-times is to stroll leisuring up and down an interesting street or neighbourhood, browsing in the store windows, checking out small art galleries, and getting the occasional snack or drink. We traverse our own neighbourhood of Yonge Street from St. Clair to Bloor probably several times a month, and also enjoy Yorkville, Leslieville, Eglinton West, just to name a few.

Last week we returned to one of our favourite haunts which is Queen St West between Bathurst and Dufferin. This stretch has so far avoided becoming gentrified and infiltrated by the chains like Starbucks and The Gap that now reside east of Bathurst. For now, you can still find fun and quirkly little boutiques and restaurants with cool names like "Pho Pa" and "Done Right Inn".

On this trip, we went explicitly to see the Toronto photography exhibit at the Stephen Bulgar Gallery (1026 Queen St. W.) which featured both historic and current views of our beloved city. Some photos of note included slice of life shots including one of a crowd at the former Woodbine Race Track. The point of view is fascinating since you don't see the race, but can tell the story by the expressions and intensity of the spectators.

Another group of photos that caught my eye were by a photographer named Volker Seding who shot a series of pictures of Toronto buildings that were the unusual size of 31x20 inches. The result was a set of long and narrow images that highlighted the beauty of the buildings from a very interesting perspective which is not usually seen. I passed by this Cameron House building and wondered where he took the picture from to get that particular angle. I was also amazed to hear that he accomplished the size of the photo not through digital cropping but rather by using special film and camera techniques.

Also on display were photographs by French artist Gilbert Garcin whose black and white images feature himself, dressed in a nondescript trench coat, in whimsically staged and sometimes ridiculous looking situations. Occasionally he is joined by an equally anonymous woman (possibly his wife?). The surrealistic look and feel of the photographs remind me of French movies such as Amelie or Micmacs which have a similar tone. I was surprised to read that Garcin only took up photography after retiring at the age of 65.

Works of art in other galleries caught my eye as we continued our walk. There were the stylized celebrity paintings at the Sunny Choi Gallery (1046 Queen St. W.), highlighted by a sweetly innocent rendering of Marilyn Monroe in the window. It was refreshing to see Marilyn depicted in this way. Too bad the gallery was closed (unexplicably for a Saturday afternoon), but peeking inside you could also see images of Blondie, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and other iconic beauties.

In another gallery was a quirky painting that juxtapositioned serene Group of Seven-esque mountain scenery with one of the most archtypical symbols of commercialism and consumerism - the Golden Arches of McDonalds. The shock factor of this interesting combination is both humourous and thought provoking.

We had lunch in the Nadege Patisserie (780 Queen St. W.) which Rich had read about in Toroto Life Magazine, and somehow spotted with his eagle eye from the streetcar as we went whizzing by. The display of sandwiches and pastries were visually stunning, especially the multi-coloured macarons and artistically decorated mini cakes. We each had a hearty and flavourful bowl of chicken cauliflower chowder and shared a tomato and buffalo mozzerella sandwich followed by a chocolate almond croissant and a couple of macarons - one had orange flavoured meringue with chocolate filling, and the second was cappuccino.

There is a store called The Knit Cafe (1050 Queen St. W.) that I've often wished was in my neighbourhood. In addition to selling yarn and other knitting supplies, it offers lessons and acts as a social gathering place with events like "Stitch and Bitch" and "High Tea". What a lovely idea to gather with fellow knitters to work on our projects, have cookies and tea, share patterns and ideas. For Nuit Blanche one year, The Knit Cafe displayed knitted representations of Toronto landmarks such as the CN Tower, Honest Eds and the Gladstone Hotel.

Kol Kid(674 Queen St. W.) is a toy store which has the most amazing "designer" doll house on display in its window. It even has a name - Emerson House and is described as a 2-storied, 6 room open floor plan home with floor-to-ceiling windows, two fireplaces, sliding glass doors, solar panels, recessed LED lights. The rooms were filled with designer furnishings including a flat screen TV and Barcelona loungers.

There is a great bookstore named Type Books (883 Queen St W.) that features very interesting books on their tables. One was "Historical Tweets: The Completely Unabridged and Ridiculously Brief History of the World", with Twitter messages like "Having a hard time explaining to my wife why the maid's breasts are suddenly solid gold" from @TheTouch (King Midas).

Another was a deliciously cute little book called "Ten Little Zombies - A Love Story" that is not quite for young children. It spoofs the traditional Ten Little Indians poem, instead having ten zombies chase a boy named Kevin and his girlfriend. Cleverly they foil and kill the zombies one by one in various unique ways, depicted by graphic cartoon drawings - "Four little zombies chasing after me .. Fired up the Chainsaw, Now there are three." The surprise ending shows the power of love, and that there are worse things than becoming a zombie.

On our next visit, we need to check out one of our favourite boutiques, The Magic Pony which sells quirky and creative nicknacks and artworks. It was unfortunately closed for renovations this time. We've also been wanting to have "High Tea" at The Red Teabox but are never there at the right time. There is so much to do and see at Queen West that we've resolved to devote an entire day to it next time.