Stout Irish Pub
Saturday is Beer Lovers Meet-up starting at 8 pm at Stout (221 Carlton).  Erin will open a specialty cask for the night.  And she has three new beers available in the bottle – Shipyard Smashed Blueberry from Portland Maine, Hophead Black IPA and Raspberry Porter, both from Kelowna’s Tree Brewing. If you love beer, then Saturday is the night for you at Stout.  

Summer in St James Town
Saturday, July 7 from noon to 4 pm, in the grassy square on Ontario St north of Wellesley.  Here’s a chance to get outdoors, meet your neighbours and enjoy the summer.  The day includes a workshop on container gardening (you can take home your own plant).  There’ll be lots of kids’ activities as well as face painting, henna art, live music, and drawing.  Green Thumbs Growing Kids, Toronto Art Foundation and St James Town Artists Network will all have tables.  It’s a free event – be sure to bring your whole family.

Winchester Square Gardens
Local residents from Aberdeen Avenue and the Bleecker Street Co-op have planted flowers in the boxes in Winchester Square.  It’s a great start.  Central Neighbourhood House (349 Ontario St) have teamed up with them to build the gardens and get them launched.  An official opening ceremony will happen on Saturday July 7 starting at 2:30 pm – there’ll be music, face painters, eco games and more for your whole family. 

Summerlicious
Summerlicious, the city-wide food festival, starts on July 6 and runs to July 22.  Four nearby restaurants are offering Summerlicious menus.  Stonegrill in Cabbagetown and Archeo, Boiler House and Pure Spirits Oyster House & Grill in the Distillery.  Click on each name for links to make reservations, to look at their menus and to find contact info.

Absolute’s new restaurant 
Congratulations to Raj and Nages for the successful launch of their third Toronto location.  They’ve opened a new restaurant at 55 St Clair West and it joins their other one at 2100 Queen East in the Beach.  Of course, we enjoy their Cabbagetown bakery location at 589 Parliament just south of Wellesley.  Check out their menu here.
Marilyn’s Pawdicures
On Saturday, Marilyn will be at Pet Valu (240 Carlton) from 10 am to 4 pm for her monthly visit.  She’ll be trimming nails and providing manicures for your cats, dogs and other pets.  Appointments are not needed. $10.

Advance notice
Saturday July 21, 1:30 pm.  The Cabbagetown Preservation Association is hosting a walking tour of St James Cemetery.  Opened in 1844, it’s Toronto’s oldest working cemetery and it’s home to a beautiful chapel and the gravesites of many of our leading citizens.  The tour starts inside the front gates, on the east side of Parliament north of Wellesley.

Lookin’ good
Charlotte knows all about our House on Parliament (454  Parliament).  Her mom and dad own it.  She’s now visiting Ottawa with Tania and seeing the other House for herself.  By the way, the HOP has a great Facebook page where you can find announcements about their specials and menus and, most important, their people.   They have a good website here and you can click through to Facebook from that site.