banzai! team rethinks sushi

Volume 21
Winter 2005
Liberty Village • King West • King West Central • Entertainment District • St. Lawrence Market Area • Queen Richmond East
4
Find a Fitness Club
6
Mobilia
Furniture
7
Cool Space at Publicis
3
BANZAI! TEAM
RETHINKS SUSHI
8
Hernando’s Mexi-Cali Mix
PLUS: Brack Electronics, Toronto
Operas, Totum Tips and Incoming
Touchscreen menus and digital art
create high tech Peter Street dining
St. Lawrence Market Area
St. Lawrence Market Area
Brack Electronics Under Sound New Management
W
ith music and movies
commanding more of
our time and money, it’s
hardly surprising to find high end home
entertainment boutiques such as Brack
Electronics carving a niche for themselves
as the best place to learn about getting
the most out of your media.
Oakville Audio, also specialists in
the field since 1988, and offering
similar products to Brack, has recently
completed the purchase of Brack’s assets
to effect a form of merger. Oakville
Audio president Christian Royes says
his company brings complementary
expertise to the Brack store located
at 44 Wellington Street East.
40 Years in Service
Brack has catered to Toronto
music lovers for almost four decades
and its three-level Wellington Street
East store features six different
rooms, some wired for home theatre
and others for sound, but all are
loaded with quality components.
And it’s this attention to high end
that makes the merger a good fit,
says Royes.
“We have similar business
models,” he explains, “and what
we’re bringing to this merger is
a focus on home automation and
custom installation.”
www.oakvilleaudio.com
Siegfried and La Bohème Start this Winter’s
Operas at the Hummingbird
T
he Canadian Opera Company
continues its 2004/05 season at
the Hummingbird Centre for
the Performing Arts with perhaps the
world’s most famous opera, Puccini’s
La Bohème. Puccini’s glorious music
sets the stage for this quintessential tale
of young love and heartbreaking loss.
La Bohème runs intermittently with
Wagner’s Siegfried, part of the largest
work in the history of Western music.
Second part of “the Everest
of opera”
Siegfried is the second installment in
the Canadian Opera Company’s (COC)
journey to presenting Wagner’s complete
and monumental Ring Cycle in the
company’s new home, the Four Seasons
Centre for the Performing Arts in 2006.
Described as “the Everest of opera,”
Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen
(The Ring of the Nibelung) is the
largest work in the history of Western
music.
Siegfried runs January 27, 30 (2 p.m.),
February 2, 5, 8 and 11, 2005. With
the exception of the January 30 matinee,
all performances begin at 6:30 p.m.
Siegfried is sung in German with
English SURTITLES .
TM
“Classic tale of heartbreak”
sold out in 2000
La Bohème is set in the raucous streets
of Paris’ Latin Quarter in the 1830s,
and it is a celebration of the strength of
friendship and the power of love.
La Bohème runs at the Hummingbird
Centre, January 23 at 2 p.m., 26 at
7:30 p.m., 29 at 7:30 p.m.,
February 1 at 7:30 p.m.,
4 at 7:30 p.m., 6 at
2 p.m., 10 at 7:30 p.m.
and 12 at 7:30 p.m.
La Bohème is sung in Italian with
English SURTITLES .
www.coc.ca
TM
2
Community Chronicle • Winter 2005
Photo: Michael Cooper
West Central
King WastKing
Central
BANZAI! UPDATES JAPANESE
RESTAURANT CONCEPT
booth space (inspired by original
Tatami booths) in the back for larger
groups and longer meals.
LED Bar Display
Designed by Toronto’s Precipice
Studios, the space’s highlights include
a 100-foot long mural “tattoo” by
local artist Duro the Third and an
LED wall display behind the bar
whose clear liquid jars glow alternately
red, green, blue or yellow.
A plasma screen in the middle of
the restaurant features digital art
pieces, courtesy of an arrangement
with Pixel Gallery, giving the space
a steady influx of new visuals to
entertain patrons.
Inc
N
ikolai Miljevic doesn’t think
sushi is exotic anymore.
He’s probably right, given
its place as a quick, downtown lunch
staple. So why maintain the illusion
of an ancient, far-away place when
serving this Japanese standard? Why
not just open a restaurant that looks
like a restaurant in contemporary
Japan?
“In other words,” he explains, “no
bamboo, no false traditional décor to
make the place look like something
people think a Japanese restaurant
should look like.”
Miljevic, along with business
partner Vincent Ventura, has opened
Banzai!, a shiny day-glo example
of modern Japanese dining that
draws on themes of sophistication,
technology and play to create a
high tech dining experience.
The neo-contemporary look of
the space blends wood tones with a
60s palate of white and bright orange
to create a cool, clean and well-lit
lunch space for fast mid-day dining
at the front and a cozy wood-clad
Importing the talents of Chef
Shinichiro Aoyama, Banzai’s menu
mixes much loved Japanese and
western ingredients to create dishes
like Maple Tamari Tuna, Wasabi
Wings and Avocado Twist.
ing!..
m
.
o
Touchscreen Entertainment
And if you see anything you like,
you can access the art collection via
touchscreen menus on the periphery
and booth tables (there is a total of
16 screens throughout the restaurant),
which also allow customers to scroll
through the menu, learn about sushi
(chopstick etiquette is one topic),
and text message with other tables.
Flagship Restaurant
Miljevic and Ventura are both
veterans of the restaurant and nightclub industries, originally in Montreal
and later in Toronto (Miljevic opened
Hotel at King Street West and Peter
Street and has been here for five
years), and began thinking about a
sushi venue two years ago.
They started with the notion of
bringing a large Japanese or British
sushi chain to Toronto, but after six
months of negotiations, says Miljevic,
the terms were not agreeable.
“We decided to start our own
chain and this is the flagship,” he
says, explaining that future Banzai!
restaurants won’t necessarily look
like this one, but that this is where
the brand is being established.
www.banzaisushi.ca
Community Chronicle • Winter 2005
3
Queen Richmond East
Queen Richmond East
4
FINDING FITNESS... FROM EAST TO WEST
Diesel Fitness • 99 Spadina Ave.
www.dieselfitness.ca
Verity • 111 Queen Street East
www.verity.ca
While Verity’s focus is on community and on building
an environment where women can relax with a number
of spa services, fitness figures prominently in the business
club’s list of strengths. And as the only downtown club
with a pool, Verity is showing its commitment to fitness
in no uncertain terms.
“When word got out that we had a pool, we had a
number of people applying to be Aquafit instructors,”
says Verity’s director of fitness Catherine Parkinson. She
senses the Aquafit program, which involves using the
water’s resistance to run and exercise, will become a
popular activity at the Queen-Richmond club.
Still, with one of Canada’s top Pilates instructors,
Sagrario Castilla (known as the grandmother of Pilates
in Canada) offering her expertise to members, Verity
endeavours to develop expertise in more than just aquatics.
The club’s poolside studios provide a calm space to
indulge in some new programs such as Yoga in the
Deep Winter, a six-week program designed to rejuvenate
and revitalize.
Located at 111 Queen Street East, Verity’s spa amenities
include massages, facials and aromatherapy, and as a
business centre, the club can accommodate off-site
meetings and catered events.
Community Chronicle • Winter 2005
Diesel Fitness has fast built for itself a reputation as
Toronto’s go-to gym for yoga. Not surprisingly, co-owner
Josh Feuer attributes much of this success to the high
caliber of the instructors.
“A yoga program is usually an afterthought at a lot of
gyms,” he says, “but we built a lot of our business around it
and our instructors are as good as in any studio in the city.”
He cites the popularity of Diesel’s unlimited yoga and
Pilates plans - where patrons pay a fixed monthly or yearly
rate - as another factor contributing to the success of the
facility’s fitness courses.
With some 200 classes per month, Diesel teaches
everything from spin, Pilates, dance and kickboxing to
several types of yoga and has added boxing conditioning
to the roster (four new heavy bags were installed this past
fall, the result of Diesel being used as a movie set for the
upcoming Farrelly brothers comedy, Fever Pitch).
Given its commitment to yoga, Diesel has developed a
new form of the ancient exercise called Heavy Metal Yoga,
which incorporates the use of freeweights into the postures.
“So you’re building muscles as well as flexibility,”
explains Feuer.
Other updates to the club include a new clothing
boutique called Suite 99 that features exclusive fitness
wear labels, and an expanded lunchtime menu thanks
to an arrangement with Fusaro’s (just up the street
on Spadina).
5 STEPS TO GET YOUR NEW
YEAR’S FITNESS RESOLUTION
BACK ON TRACK
By Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, M.Sc. and Men’s
Fitness Training Adviser
Already putting off your promise to keep fit through to 2006?
If you’ve fallen off the fitness wagon, here are a few tips to get
you back on track. After all, winter will soon be over (honestly!)
and you’ll be ready to hit the beach. And you want to be ready
for that, don’t you? Here are my five simple steps to help you
lose fat and get lean.
1. Find a source of social support. It can be a friend, spouse or
co-worker, but research from Stanford University shows the
ideal social support is a professional that you feel obligated
to report to on a consistent basis.
1
Totum Life Science • 445 King Street West
www.totum.ca
One of the largest personal training company in metro
Toronto, Totum Life Science has some 80 fitness and health
care professionals in its employ and has garnered a much
deserved reputation as the place to connect with highly
educated fitness experts.
Working individually with trainers, clients range from
beginners just starting out on an exercise program, to elite
and professional athletes looking for more advanced program
techniques. Despite the one-on-one relationship with their
trainers, Totum clients still have access to an entire team
of experts.
“If something comes up that I don’t have expertise in,”
says Irvine, who holds a Masters in Science and is a personal
trainer himself, “I either connect the client with another
member of our team or get that information for you.”
Unlike many other fitness facilities where trainers work as
freelancers in a gym, Totum’s staff operates like a medical
clinic using the in-house expertise to solve fitness problems.
The King Street West facility employs four chiropractors
(three of which are also personal trainers), 45 personal trainers,
12 rehabilitation practitioners, as well as a number of class
instructors, Pilates teachers (two of which are instructor trainers), and world-class Thai boxing champion, Clifton Brown.
Other in-house experts include Totum co-owner Dr. Stacey
Irvine, a chiropractor and strength and conditioning expert,
who has worked as a sessional lecturer and research assistant
at U of T and the University of Saskatchewan and has made
several television appearances imparting fitness advice.
2
2. Eat six small, balanced snacks and meals per day,
rather than two or three large meals.
3. Commit to eating whole, natural foods such as fruits,
vegetables, and lean protein sources, rather than
processed foods like muffins, fast food, and sugary snacks.
(Try www.fitday.com to monitor your food intake.)
3
Kingcentral
West Central
King West
TOTUM TIPS
4. If you want to lose fat, start by reducing your caloric
intake by 200 calories per day. One easy way to do this is
to replace sweetened beverages with water or Green Tea.
4
5. To get lean, you’ll need to include some form of strength
training and cardiovascular training. If you haven’t worked
out in years, start conservatively and get professional advice
on how to structure your workouts in the safest and most
efficient and effective manner possible.
5
The good news is that
you don’t have to spend
hour after hour in the
gym to get great results.
A good program should
have you in and out
of the gym (shower
included) in only an hour.
Pretty small investment
for such a great
return, isn’t it?
Community Chronicle • Winter 2005
5
St. Lawrence Market Area
St. Lawrence Market Area
Front Street Furniture Retailer Mobilia:
Sofa, So Good.
M
aybe it’s the black-and-white
Holstein-patterned Corbusier
lounge chair in the window,
or maybe it’s just the location, but
there’s something about Mobilia’s
Front Street East store that exudes a
hip confidence.
It could also be the fact that behind
that pane of glass lies a 20,000-squarefoot showroom, one of the largest
downtown furniture stores, that is
loaded with a bold selection of Europeanstyled contemporary furniture concepts.
Despite its expansive showroom,
this is one of the smallest of Mobilia’s
17 stores (a typical company retail space
weighs in at 40,000 square feet) but size
isn’t the only difference between this
St. Lawrence Market area store and the
company’s other locations throughout
the country.
Urban Clientele
Some pieces are sold only here
because it serves an urban clientele –
a lot of condo dwellers. So red leather
sofas and industrially-inspired table
lamps have a home here more than in
Mobilia’s suburban stores. For the most
part, though, the company’s showrooms
all stock essentially the same product.
Mobilia prides itself on matching
high-end, contemporary furniture
with modest prices, and thanks to the
company’s buying power, prices are
indeed competitive.
Functional Furniture
If one had to choose a theme for
Mobilia’s collection, it would have to be
adaptability. Think of 700 square feet of
open condo space that must be a dining
room, lounge, bedroom and breakfast
nook. Anything that goes there has to
perform more than one function and a
lot of Mobilia furniture does double duty.
Tables hide leaf inserts, armchairs
hide single beds, coffee tables convert to
backgammon boards and there’s even a
quick change sofa, the Chameleon,
whose moveable back cushions and
armrests allow it to be reconfigured in
any number of ways.
Think of 700 square feet of open condo space that must be a dining room,
lounge, bedroom and breakfast nook. Anything that goes there has to perform
more than one function and a lot of Mobilia furniture does double duty.
6
Community Chronicle • Winter 2005
Italian Leather Leader
Though a Canadian company,
Mobilia has its roots in Germany where
founder Hans Kau was born. In 1959,
this airline employee was posted to
Canada and found his new country
lacked the stylish furniture of his
homeland. Kau began importing items
for himself and, on occasion, selling to
friends. He soon found enough of a
demand to open a small boutique above
a grocery store in Montreal.
Today, Mobilia is the largest independent retailer of Italian leather
upholstery in eastern Canada. And this
quiet, comfortable Front Street East
space, lit brightly by banks of halogen
lights and made warm with an earthy
palette of beige broadloom and brown
exposed ceiling, stands as a stylish
backdrop for a large collection of the
company’s innovative furnishings.
www.mobilia.ca
QUEEN-RICHMOND CENTRE ENHANCES
ADVERTISING FIRM’S STREET CRED
Connecting in Toronto
Despite a merger in 2002 that
positioned Publicis as the fifth largest
communications group in the world
(18,000 employees and 130 offices
throughout the globe), it is apparent
from its Toronto location strategy
that it is never too big to stay
connected to the local consumer.
It’s a strength Publicis has leveraged
for such clients as CIBC, Hewlett
Packard, allStream, Kia, Nestle,
Priszm Brands (Taco Bell and KFC)
and Hitachi.
Lindsey Ash, director of administration for Publicis’ Toronto office
in the Queen-Richmond Centre
says things can change on an almost
hourly basis in the communications
industry and that having street
smarts helps to read the trends.
“In order to do our best work with
our clients, we need to know who
their customers are and what strategy
will best reach them. And to do that,
we need to know what’s happening
on the street. All of that revolves
around being involved with the city
and not being in a sealed building
where your only information comes
from a news outlet,” says Ash.
A Brick and Beam Culture
Taking 48,000 square feet of space
at 111 Queen Street East just over
four years ago was indeed a question
staking out its own space in the city.
In 1999, Publicis had decided to
open a Toronto branch and hired
55 people to start the business.
(A mostly administrative office
remains in Montreal.)
Inc
C
onnecting with your client’s
client is the essential goal of
any advertising firm. Publicis
calls this street-smart thinking, and to
this end, the international advertising
giant has kept offices above a retail
concept space it has owned on Paris’
Champs Elyssées since 1958.
culture. It’s not how we saw ourselves
in five years.”
Publicis Toronto’s general manager,
Andrew Bruce liked the street-smart
attitude of the new location, slightly
off the beaten path but close enough
to Bay Street, and work began on the
open concept space.
Clubhouse and Deck
Spanning the second and third
floors of the Queen Richmond
Centre, Publicis’s offices have an
administrative area with clusters of
workspaces (ten-by-ten-foot work
areas for everyone from the president
to assistants), some 15 different
meetings rooms of various sizes, a
large boardroom, a separate creative
department (adjustable lighting and
double workstations for teaming), the
“clubhouse” (a cafeteria/casual work
space) and a 2,000-square-foot deck.
Well known in the European
marketplace, the Publicis logo’s lion
head is likely to gain prominence as
the firm nurtures its brand awareness
by hosting a number of client parties
and even offering its space to clients
for use as an off-site retreat. The
exterior is also scheduled to go to
work for the agency as the Richmond
Street fascia will soon bear the
Publicis letters and logo.
www.publicis.ca
ing!..
m
.
o
“We looked at some bank
towers,” recalls Ash, “but it
didn’t fit our culture. It’s
not how we saw ourselves
in five years.”
Lindsey Ash, Publicis
In less than a year, the team had
landed Microsoft Canada and CIBC
as clients, two wins that would
drive the growing agency out of its
Sherbourne Avenue and Bloor Street
East diggs to unfinished brick and
beam space at 111 Queen Street East.
“We looked at some bank towers,”
recalls Ash, “but it didn’t fit our
Community Chronicle • Winter 2005
Queen Richmond
EastEast
Queen Richmond
Above: The Clubhouse is a casual meeting
place that doubles as an event room.
Right: The open concept gives everyone,
including the president and GM a cubicle.
Upper right: The suspended stairwell
hangs by a single steel stringer.
Far Right: Publicis‚ lion head logo.
7
Incoming
Red Bull Establishes a
Downtown Presence
Kids Publisher Plans Summer
Move to King West Central
"We felt that this area matches up with Red Bull,"
says Jim Bailey, the drink’s
Canadian vice president of
marketing, discussing the
February move to King
West Central. With space
in Vancouver, the 5,300
square feet it will occupy
at 445 King Street West
is its second office in
Canada. It is also currently
looking for office space
in Montreal.
For nearly half a
century Scholastic
Canada has introduced
young people to the joys of reading, taught young
minds about Canada and the world and run its
operations from Markham. But the latter is about
to change as Scholastic moves into 602-604 King
Street West this summer. Taking up some 3,500 sq.
feet will be Scholastic Canada‚s marketing, sales
and editorial departments, leaving the administrative
and warehousing functions in the 905.
“We wanted to be closer to the city. That’s
where a lot of marketing, publishing and editorial
offices are located. We wanted to be closer to that
community,” says Scholastic Canada co-president
Iole Lucchese, explaining that 90% of the staff
relocating to King West already live in the city.
www.redbull.com
www.scholastic.ca
The Community Chronicle is
published four times a year by:
Allied Properties REIT
469 King Street West
Fourth Floor
Toronto, ON
M5V 1K4
Editor:
Yvan Marston
yvan@gravitydesigninc.com
Design/Layout:
Gravity Design Inc.
scott@gravitydesigninc.com
Festive California-Mex Fare at
St. Lawrence area Hernando’s Hideaway
W
ith festive yellow lights
strung casually about its
space, paper mache Gekkos
clinging to the wall behind the bar,
Agave cacti cut-outs and Dos Equis on
tap, there’s little mistaking Hernando’s
Hideaway for anything but a
Mexican restaurant. Still,
owner Helen Mark says what
most people commonly refer
to as Mexican food is actually
Tex Mex. And Hernando’s, she
explains, is California-Mex.
“We do more sauces and
we don’t do the rib and steak
thing,” says Mark of the difference between the two styles.
She says the sauces also tend
to be fresher and that the
emphasis here is on Enchilladas,
Quesadillas and Nachos, rather
than heavy meat dishes.
8
Community Chronicle • Winter 2005
Some Tasty Favourites
“People love our Fajitas and our
Guacamole is really tasty,” says Mark
pointing out a few of the Wellington
Street East dining room’s customer
favourites. In fact, she says the
vegetarian fare has a particularly good
reputation adding that, “most people
don’t know they’re eating veg.”
It’s often communal snack fare that
gets ordered here as patrons pile in
before or after a show at CanStage
and the Hummingbird Centre. “And if
hockey ever starts up again, we’ll get a
bit of the ACC crowds,” says Mark.
Cheese Covered Nachos
Nachos, while always a pub crowd
pleaser, have the distinction here
of being evenly covered in cheese.
Not piled high with dry ones in the
middle, says Mark.
As we scan the menu, Mark confesses
that although there are a number of
popular foods, one of Hernando’s
great strengths is its Margueritas.
www.hernandoshideaway.com
www.alliedpropertiesreit.com