Le Pain Quotidien - just opened in Sept.
finn - love the light fixture
Y5 - I wouldn't wear it but it looks interesting in this light
Y5 - this jacket has a unique front
Yorkville Fire Hall - they make for noisey neighbours
Lovecraft - selling dildos in Yorkville since 1972
Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences - slated for completion by 2011
Pusateri's - high-end gourmet foods store & cafe
The Regency Yorkville - this soon-to-be-completed building has condos priced $2.5 to 6 mil
The Regency Yorkville - the foyer
True - new resto (opened this summer) aims to be all-organic
True - all-white interior looks great from the outside
80 Yorkville - part of a new luxury retail & residential complex
80 Yorkville
100 Yorkville - the historical facade belongs to the old Mount Sinai Hospital
Dolce - enquired about a leather jacket here which was $800 & kinda tacky up close
Gabbana - chandelier makes a great focal point
Gabbana
Muti & Company - they sell colourful Italian ceramics
Muti & Company
Impressions Art Gallery
Vivian Shyu
Betsey Johnson
Betsey Johnson
Hollander York Gallery
Ima Gallery
Flow Restaurant & LoungeHAZELTON AVE.
The Hazelton Hotel - just opened Sept.07
The Hazelton Hotel - is it the most expensive hotel in Toronto?
HazelThe Hazelton Hotel
5 Hazelton Men
5 Hazelton Men
5 Hazelton Men
Hazelton Ave. boutiques
Gallery Gevik
Miriam Shiell Fine Art - cool inflatable horse attached to air vent
Miriam Shiell Fine Art
Miriam Shiell Fine Art
Bra Bar Boutique
Hugo
Loch Gallery
Loch Gallery
George C - favoured by fashionistas
George C - what's with the shag carpeting as outerwear?
White - a bridal boutiqueHAZELTON LANES
Teatro Verde - my favourite store in the whole wide world
Teatro Verde - smells like flowers in there (they do arrangements too)
Teatro Verde - if I could own/work in a store, this would be it
Teatro Verde - gorgeous!
TNT - stands for "The New Trend"
TNT
TNT - love the sequin detail on this dress
Love & Money - blouse ruffles are in this fall season
Whole Foods - decorated for the Summer Olympics
Whole Foods - plastic-wrapped tangerines???
Whole Foods - cute label ;pCUMBERLAND ST.
Silverbridge
Corbo Studio
Avec Plaisir
Boss Woman
Amarynth
AmarynthAhh...Yorkville.
Luxury has found a permanent home in this nabe, which was a village in the 1800s, an epicentre of hippie culture in the 60s and now currently transforming itself into a prime destination for the world's moneyed minority. Who's buying all those newly-built condos? According to a Toronto Life article I read recently, a lot of the square footage is being snapped up by Iranians, Russians, South Koreans & Brits. Go figure. As to who has bought/will buy Canada's most expensive condo offered by The Four Seasons Private Residences for $30 mil (@9000 sq ft) - well, your guess is as good as mine.
Of course, as the economy reels & roils under years of bad spending & lending, I wonder if that'll slow down Toronto's construction boom at all, particularly in this "mini Monaco" (I just coined that phrase, unless someone's beat me to it). Only time will tell, I suppose.
I pass through Yorkville at least twice a week on my way to Whole Foods, my one-stop grocery store. They've everything I need & the staff is friendly & unpretentious - exactly the opposite of what you might expect in this neighbourhood. Yes, some of their stuff is overpriced & the veggies & fruit aren't always the best (is it too much to ask that the cilantro not be waterlogged & rotting away?) but at least you won't find an ingredient list with the word "artificial" in it.
I don't shop anywhere else in Yorkville for obvious reasons. Hello, I'm not rich but I wish I had the monetary means to pick up a lovely painting or frequent the beautiful, eclectic Teatro Verde if I wanted to. In there they've wonderful coffeetable books, soaps, planters, travel guides, room sprays, cushions, furniture, humourous conversation pieces etc. etc. And it's all so damn expensive. Makes me weep (on the inside). Did I also mention it smells like heaven? Well it does.
I just remembered, I also occasionally stop by Pure + simple on Bellair St., just off of Yorkville Ave. for moisturizer & lipstick. This location has a teeny-tiny storefront where they sell their mostly all-natural beauty products & a spa in the back. It also smells really nice in there.
Hey business owners, here's a tip: Don't underestimate the power of a nice-smelling establishment. There's nothing worse than a funky-smelling store, am I right? It doesn't encourage lingering & the merch gets tainted with the funk too. I speak from experience.
The other day, I had the Beef Carpaccio (takeout) from True. It was ok - nothing spectacular. I should be grateful that it was fresh & didn't make me sick, considering it's raw meat, which I didn't realize until it arrived on my doorstep. No wonder it took only 20 min. to deliver! I couldn't finish it due to plain, unbridled fear but the little bit I did eat did wonders for my vitamin B12 & iron deficiencies, by-products of 6 months of vegan dieting.
I've been to Flow once. It was nice, in a cool ice-blue, futuristic-looking sort of way. At least the lower lounge space was, where I shared a drink with an acquaintance. We didn't stay long because he started to hyperventilate over some misplaced files. I don't miss him.
As for Pusateri's, yeah I've been a few times to this crowded little enclave of morbidly expensive imported gourmet food stuff. Never again will I pay $3.71 for a miniscule 40g bag of Tyrell's root chips. No junk food habit is worth that kind of fix, although I really want to try their large bag of parsnip chips. What could that possibly cost? $7??? Might as well buy the raw parsnips for a couple of bucks & do it myself. But I don't want to. So I'll wait until having those chips is worth more to me than paying my rent. It's about priorities, yes?
This concludes my take on the soon-to-be-richer-than-God neighbourhood of Yorkville. It's an exciting & demented age we live in & no doubt Yorkville will reflect this over the years to come. But I'll be honest: I want a piece of the Yorkville pie. I don't know how to get it or if it's even remotely possible, however I can't stop thinking about it. Is it straight-up, raw materialism running through my veins? No, there's more to me than that. I just don't feel like the big leagues can count me out of the running yet. I mean, who knows where I'm headed? I sure as hell don't.
For now though, it's all a pipe dream & The Regency will have to wait.
LINKS
Wikipedia's Yorkville
boldts.net's Yorkville
From Hippies to Highrises
$30 Million Penthouse
Groundbreaking Ceremony
Impressions Art Gallery
Hollander York Gallery
Ima Gallery
Gallery Gevik
Miriam Shiell Fine Art
Loch Gallery
Mira Godard Gallery
George C
Corbo Studio
Amarynth
More Yorkville-related LINKS >>>
