The Curbed Cup, our award to the Toronto neighbourhood of the year, is kicking off with 16 'hoods vying for the prestigious fake trophy. This week we'll have two matchups per day, and all the results and the full tourney bracket will be reviewed shortly. Voting for each pairing ends 24 hours after it begins. Let the eliminations commence!
Annex: The Annex saw much excitement this year with the sale of Mirvish Village and Honest Ed's to Vancouver developer Westbank Properties. While it remains unknown what will happen to the area, the rumoured price tag is a cool $100 million. Across the street, the B.Streets Condos are under construction, expected to make their nine-storey debut in 2014. The area is always happening with the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, formerly the Bloor Cinema, and restaurants like Guu SakaBar and the new the Harvest Kitchen (formerly Tati Bistro) bringing its club sandwich eats to the neighbourhood. Sonic Boom Record Store moved one block west inside Honest Ed's leaving space for a Dollarama where you can't actually get much for a buck. The area is home to plenty of cheap sushi joints, coffee shops and more recently, frozen yogurt by the pound.
Cabbagetown: Cabbagetown is one of the city's oldest neighbourhoods with some of the best persevered heritage architecture. The victorian-style homes and their well-manicured gardens leave other neighbourhoods drooling. This year a few notable restaurants emerged on the scene like Kingyo Toronto for Japanese and Fare Game on Carlton replaced the cozy Jam Café. How many neighbourhoods can say it has a free zoo? The Riverdale Farm opened in 1978 and on any given day, visitors can check out some goats, sheep, pigs, donkeys, and horses.
· Curbed Cup 2013 Archives [Curbed Toronto]