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Homage to Toronto's Yorkville Landmarks the Coffee Mill and Le Trou Normand

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Homage to Toronto's Yorkville Landmarks the Coffee Mill  and  Le Trou Normand U p until just a few months ago, Le Trou Normand remained the oldest operating fine dining restaurant in Yorkville. Coincidentally, The Coffee Mill a venerated European-style cafe which recently celebrated 51 years in business closed earlier this month. Martha von Heczey’s Coffee Mill opened in May, 1963, in the now-demolished Lothian Mews, on Bloor Street. In 1973 , von Herczey  moved two blocks north to a mini-mall with Yorkville Avenue on one side, Cumberland Street on the other. There was a secluded terrace with an expandable awning in the event of rain. The Coffee Mill was practically right across the street from Le Trou Normand and it was one of my Yorkville haunts for over 30 years. Ms. von Heczey’s late husband Laci, a well-known wrestling champion, liked to wander around Yorkville with a tame cheetah on a leash.    Interestingly, in 19...
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LOLA'S LOUNGE IN SARNIA

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Whatever Lola Wants… Tania Auger’s Lola’s Lounge in Sarnia By Cecilia Buy and Bryan Lavery Drive down Christina Street in Sarnia, and you can’t miss it: a narrow building, with the front of its second floor covered by the outsize signage, “Lola’s Lounge” in flowing neon script, voluptuously crimson. Red is Tania Auger’s signature colour, and the owner of Lola’s has put her unmistakable stamp on every facet of her restaurant, from furnishings to food, from the window treatment to the wine list. The bones of the old building show through. Operating continuously since the thirties, the shade of the former diner lingers. The swivel stools at the counter have been replaced with metal-framed barstools, but the curved bulkhead above the liquor shelves remains, now backlit with red neon that casts a speakeasy glow over the bottles and Tania’s collection of vintage Canadian and Italian art glass. Down one side of the room are the original booths, seats now reupholstered, each booth with its ...
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Remembering Ann McColl's Kitchen Shop

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Ann McColl Lindsay and David Lindsay: A Brief History of a Road Less Traveled Hospitality and the culinary arts have always gone hand in hand. In London, Ontario, we have a history of exceptional restaurateurs, chefs and culinary retailers. Among the latter are Ann McColl Lindsay and David Lindsay, the former proprietors of the legendary Ann McColl’s Kitchen Shop, one of Canada’s finest cookware shops. Ann and David met, married and taught school in Windsor, Ontario from 1961 to 1968. They resigned their positions, sold their red brick bungalow, and embarked on a year-long food pilgrimage across Europe while camping in a Volkswagen van. Travelling in the van with a gas burner allowed them to truly enjoy the local terroir. The first six months of their trip , which ended at the French border, is described in Ann’s memoir Hungry Hearts – A Food Odyssey across Britain and Spain . The second volume, Hearts Forever Young, includes their travels in France, Italy, Austria...
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