LUNA’S NEW LEASE ON LIFE

STORY BY Michael Barclay
ILLUSTRATION BY Frank Fiorentino

Priced out of its long-time home at Dovercourt and Argyle, the popular café is moving on.

Bernie Matos has been operating the Luna Café, at the corner of Argyle and Dovercourt, for the past 21 years. The cozy daytime restaurant has been an affordable neighbourhood brunch spot and frequent film set, sandwiched between the gentrifying Ossington and the West Queen West of the post–Drake Hotel era. And in all that time, she’s never had a lease – by choice, not being happy with any presented to her by her landlord. A tenuous existence turned into a 21-year stay. This week, she’s out.

BECAUSE IT’S 2019

SUPPORT LOCAL WRITERS, ILLUSTRATORS, AND PHOTOGRAPHERS PRODUCING IMPORTANT WORK ABOUT TORONTO’S WEST END.

On Wednesday, January 17th, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau visited the West End Phoenix at our home in the Gladstone Hotel. We talked newspapers and art and life and the importance of conversation in our time. Two writers/photographers-- Melissa Vincent and Alex Jacobs-Bloom-- spoke about their work; we joked with Canada's head of state about the beauty and peril of home delivery; and we talked about what we are all trying hard to do, and will keep on doing for as long as we can.

FROM DECEMBER 2018 ISSUE OF WEST END PHOENIX

GEORGIA HARMER’S TOUR DIARY

STORY & PHOTOS BY Georgia Harmer

FROM DECEMBER 2018 ISSUE OF WEST END PHOENIX

Georgia Harmer is seeing the world from a remarkable spot: behind the microphone, singing backup on Alessia Cara’s European tour. In this WEP exclusive, the 19-year-old Harmer, who won the spot over hundreds of other musicians, shares her first glimpse of life on the road and describes what it’s like to find your voice while singing someone else’s songs.

 

IN LYNETTE’S KITCHEN

STORY BY Ivy Knight
PHOTOS BY Gillian Mapp

Today’s special: Nova Scotian baked beans

Growing up in Fairview, outside of Halifax, Lynette Gillis’s big sister Darlene taught her how to rock – feeding her a diet of heavy metal from the age of 11. When Darlene died suddenly in an accident, Lynette wrote an album to carry herself through the darkness.

 

THE SHAPE I’M IN

STORY BY Roddy Doyle

“They were the dangerous, legendary uncles who’d been far away for a long time, who’d seen and done things that could only be captured in song.”

Roddy Doyle remembers the musicians who showed him what kind of man he wanted to be.

 
FOR THOSE BEYOND THE WEST END, THE WEST END PHOENIX DELIVERS ACROSS TORONTO AND WE ALSO MAIL TO ANYWHERE IN CANADA IN THE WORLD! IF YOU’RE OUTSIDE OF THE CATCHMENT, SEND US A NOTE AT HELLO@WESTENDPHOENIX.COM TO SEE IF YOU’RE ON A DELIVERY ROUTE!

FOR THOSE BEYOND THE WEST END, THE WEST END PHOENIX DELIVERS ACROSS TORONTO AND WE ALSO MAIL TO ANYWHERE IN CANADA IN THE WORLD!

IF YOU’RE OUTSIDE OF THE CATCHMENT, SEND US A NOTE AT HELLO@WESTENDPHOENIX.COM TO SEE IF YOU’RE ON A DELIVERY ROUTE!

THANK YOU!!

WEP_Slide_THANKYOU.png

OUR LIVE SUBSCRIPTION TELETHON WAS A HUGE SUCCESS !!! 

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make it happen, came to the Gladstone, watched online, called in to Subscribe. We had over 100 subscriptions and raised almost $25k in donations!! Wow.

/// WATCH IT HERE ///

 

You can support the paper and the writers, illustrators and photographers in the catchment a fair and equitable rate, an essential part of the West End Phoenix plan to sustain the voices of artists in our neighbourhoods.

We are a non-profit, patron-supported, ad-free publication supported by the wild minds of devoted readers. Subscribe and receive a year’s worth of West End Phoenix delivered to your door.

 

Click on Dave for a listen to the West End Phoenix song written, performed and recorded by the amazing Don Kerr.

'YOU'RE CRAZY,
BUT GOOD LUCK'

Slow print, small run, mighty and true, the non-profit West End Phoenix is a community newspaper dreamed up by writer and Rheostatic Dave Bidini, giving voice to the swirl of neighbourhoods that make up one of North America’s fastest evolving catchments. 

Patron-supported and ad-free — and devoted to the magic and power of print — the Phoenix invites you to join the chorus of readers around the city as well as Canada’s best writers, photographers and illustrators as we produce a new monthly broadsheet for our times.

 
 
 
The Prime Minister of Canada came to the Gladstone Hotel to visit the staff and writers and photographers-- a few of them anyway-- of West End Phoenix and to recognize and celebrate the importance of independent journalism. It was a banner day and we hope it convinces everyone to subscribe and keep the voices of our cities and neighbourhoods alive.
The Prime Minister of Canada came to the Gladstone Hotel to visit the staff and writers and photographers-- a few of them anyway-- of West End Phoenix and to recognize and celebrate the importance of independent journalism. It was a banner day and we hope it convinces everyone to subscribe and keep the voices of our cities and neighbourhoods alive.
 
 
“Thou shalt not PDF”
— John Moran, West End Offset
 


Join the movement.

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We are a non-profit, patron-supported, ad-free publication supported by the wild minds of devoted readers, and we are asking you to help carry the dream across the summer to our first issue in October. To receive a year’s worth of West End Phoenixes, click below.

Become a patron

Beyond subscription, we are asking readers to support the paper in our attempt to pay writers, illustrators and photographers in the catchment a fair and equitable rate, an essential part of the West End Phoenix plan to sustain the voices of artists in our neighbourhoods.