Coming and goings in the Beach
[attach]2124[/attach]Keep in mind I’m a supplanted Ottawa gal who’s been in the Big Smoke for only five years.
Still can’t believe it took me this long to get to the Beaches Jazz Fest. I checked it out on the opening Thursday, a day I hear locals call family night. The weather was good, the bands were groovin’, and the streets weren’t too jam-packed.
Actually, people traffic on the Queen East strip was fluid enough for me and my pal to walk the entire length in just a few hours.
Listening to good tunes and visiting with peeps I meet along the way, all against a backdrop of night-time summer sky and shimmering lights, was a new and entirely enjoyable way to get a handle on what’s happening in the ’hood biz-wise.
Bling-a-ding-ding
I learn the Vernissage Jewellery space at 2211 Queen St. East is empty and that the business is no more. But good news for those of you who haven’t heard: Julie Fernandez and her dad, Pepe, have re-jigged and relocated their bling biz to an area just on the cusp of Leslieville, renaming it Atelier Jewellery Boutique when they opened there in mid-May.
The pair continues to offer custom jewellery design and can even refashion your old pieces that need a facelift.
I haven’t yet made into the new space at Queen East and Coxwell, but I know it’s in the quaint storefront that was previously occupied by Kakayo Chocolate Company. Julie tells me the look inside is less formal than the old space, definitely more French “Shabby Chic” than upper-scale jeweler.
She and her pa are still selling their designs in store (they also carry the ELLE jewellery line, a personal fave), but there have been changes too. Pepe, a jeweller by trade who works in gold, silver and platinum, is still doing his stuff but you’ll find more affordable sterling pieces in the cases.
Meanwhile Julie, an expert pearl stringer, has expanded her pearl collection. Pricing is also more diversified so you can find earrings for $25 all the way to $100.
And if you want to get the gals together for some vino and a gab, Julie is now doing home parties where she’ll bring along a table of sparkly wares for your wallets to feast on.
1584 Queen St. East, 416-693-1141 [url]www.atelierjewellery.com[/url]
Len’s the word
Back to the fest: in front of the recently opened Lens Factory, a funky jazzy band is playing.
Inside we meet owner Len van Bruggen and his father, Leonardus van Bruggen. Both are photographers and in honour of Jazz Fest the gallery was presenting a jazz photographic collection featuring the works of van Bruggen senior, festival artistic director Bill King, and Claude Miles.
Neat bit of history here: van Bruggen senior used to play drums for a band called The Downtowners and performed at this very festival years ago. His photos, from 1950s Amsterdam and 1970s Toronto, record all the jazz greats in action. I dig the one of Ella Fitzgerald in 1975 at Ontario Place.
Len moved his gallery from Queen West to East a few months ago and offers photography classes in addition to some neat services for the pro and amateur shutterbug, including turning existing photos into art by digitally enhancing them and printing them on canvas — they can even coat it in epoxy resin.
They also do large format architectural printing known as Giclee.
1040 Queen St. East 416-988-0929 [url]www.lensfactory.net[/url]
Chocolate on the mind
I love hearing it when longtime businesses come back. Well, in a way Sharon Shoot of the new Chocolate by Wickerhead shop never left.
The Beach resident has had her biz, Wickerhead, for years in the Beach, first starting as a gourmet food shop and then morphing into a gift basket biz and eventually into a café.
About three years ago she started with the Belgian chocolate side of things working from her home, and since then has been supplying mainly corporate clients with her popcorn that’s been hand-dipped Belgian chocolate — which is the stuff of legend, story goes.
Sharon proved herself to be a business-savvy woman by opening her chocolate shop the first night of the Jazz Fest. The darling old-fashioned space looks like something out of Harry Potter, replete with leaded windows and — what else? — chocolate-hued walls.
The goodies are made on the premises and since opening, Sharon tells me she’s gone out on the edge with flavours. The whipped pineapple covered in dark chocolate sounds dreamy beyond belief, and I’ll so be going back to buy some Earl Grey chocolate (made with tea from the Tea Emporium) for my British sweetie.
The name Wickerhead comes from Edwardian England, when aristocratic folk would pack up food in wicker baskets to go to the country. It means you’re someone who appreciates delectable goodies.
2375 Queen St East 647-344-9060 [url]www.wickerhead.com[/url]