TORONTO : The unknown city. by Howard Alker & Sarah B.Hood . Book 2

Chapter 14 One of a kind

Floor Show

On a summer Saturday afternoon, it's fun to sit on the sidewalk and watch the crowd go by. At Louie's Coffee Stop in the heart of Kensington (235 Augusta Ave., 416-593-9717 you can literally sit on the sidewalk (with a stool, of course) as you sip cappuccino or latte and munch biscotti, edging over occasionally to let a bicycle or bundle buggy pass by.

Shore Dinner

There's only one good place to eat on the Toronto Islands, and that's The Rectory Café (416-203-2152, torontoisland.org/ rectory). A year-round sanctuary of calm - if it's not between owners - it generally offers excellent coffees, fresh baking, ample breakfasts, and delicious hot meals, all a few minutes' walk west of the Ward's Island ferry docks. Lovely in the summer, it's also haunting on a softly sunny January afternoon when the lake is frozen, the trees are skeletal, and the fireplace is roaring. (For ferry service information, call 416-392-8193.)

Just Watch Out for Falling O's

Who would have thought when they built the new graduate student residence at the University of Toronto that it would include a restaurant with interesting architectural detailing (like the wooden-bowl sinks) and a fresh, light menu? SpaHa (66 Harbord St., 416-260-6133) is named

for the intersection it sits on,

Spadina at Harbord.

Painting and poetry and performance on the streets and in the storefronts, on balconies and buses, in the parks and the pubs, and drilled into the very pavement. You can't get away from it: this city's all about the arts.

Hippie Lit

Senator David A. Croll Apartments, the staid seniors' residence at the corner of Bloor and Huron Streets, has a slightly more notorious past. From 1968 to 1975, this was the home of Rochdale College, an experiment in alternative education and communal living. A failed experiment, actually, since Rochdale quickly fell victim to ad hoc anarchy and a regime of drug deals and overdoses, three of them fatal. But out of this tumult came one of our most venerable publishing houses.

Coach House Press, the baby of Stan Bevington, started at 317 Bathurst Street. When the area was slated for slum clearance in 1968, the press moved right in behind Rochdale, at the rear of 401 Huron Street. Bevington even lived in the college, and the new neighbours mixed quite nicely, with a free flow of writers and artists moving from one establishment to the other. Over the years, the press has published early works by Canlit superstars Michael Ondaatje and Margaret Atwood. After a brief demise, it was renamed Coach House Books in 1996.

Storied Street

Everyone lives on Brunswick Avenue sooner or later. This was the first line in Katherine Govier's short story collection Fables of Brunswick Avenue. And she should know, having lived at house number 411 while writing some of those stories. Brunswick has been home to a surprising number of writers. Dennis Lee wrote Civil Elegies and Other Poems at 474, and Marian Engel penned Bear at 338. Morley Callaghan lived at 456 when he knocked off two novels: They Shall Inherit the Earth and More Joy in Heaven.

EATING IN But maybe you don't have the energy to venture out for your next meal after all. Used to be that delivery choices were mainly limited to pizza, chicken, and Chinese. Now you can order out for oysters, sushi, Cajun, Caribbean, or whatever else your tummy desires. Two different outlets have assembled a stable of excellent restaurants and will pick up an order for a modest fee: SuperWaiter (416-782-7877, superwaiter.ca) handles such spots as Aida's Falafel, St. Louis Bar and Grill, Bacchus Roti, Rancho Relaxo, and Shopsy's. The slightly more upscale Restaurants on the Go (416- 932-3999, restaurantsonthego.com) delivers Whistling Oyster, Mövenpick, Masquerade, Il Fornello, and dozens of others. In both cases you can place an order either by phone or online.