Posted by Greg Clow in magazines, news and media on August 17, 2008 at 3:59 pm

Zine Scene is Taste T.O.'s new magazine column, featuring a monthly summary of the latest issues of local food and drink magazines such as Edible Toronto, City Bites and TAPS, as well as the food and drink articles from Toronto Life. Here's what's on the racks this month:

In the September, 2008 issue of Toronto Life, James Chatto goes back to school this month with a feature article on the many improvements being made to the food and hospitality program at George Brown College. The most visible change to the general public will be the new restaurant, The Chefs' House, which will feature a unique bank of TV screens in the window showing passers-by the action in the kitchen, and where students will be often joined by well-known guest chefs. Expect it to be a popular spot to gawk and dine when it opens in October.

Also in this issue: Sasha Chapman profiles Chris McDonald's hot new sweet shop Xococava; David Lawrason thinks that it's Portugal's time to shine in the wine world; James Chatto checks out some fancy knife work from the chefs at Hashimoto, Dessert Trends and EDO; Ivy Knight calls on the kids of some of her chef buddies to put the cookies at Chez Victor to a taste test; Eric Vellend hunts for the city's best charcuterie; and Courtney Shea declares the long-delayed watering hole The Ossington to be this month's it-spot.

Speaking of Ossington - a new addition to the Toronto Life website is a blog called "Opening Soon", written by chef Teo Paul who will be opening his new restaurant, Union, on the Ossington strip next month. All of the posts so far have been fairly introductory in nature, but here's hoping that some behind-the-scenes dirt will be dished soon.

Also relatively new on the shelves is the Summer, 2008 edition of TAPS, Canada's only beer magazine. In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I'm a regular contributor to TAPS, with this issue featuring my introduction to the classic German wheat beer style Hefeweizen, as well as my review of the Brewers Plate Toronto benefit event last April, and a pair of book reviews.

But my ramblings only take up a few of the magazine's well-packed pages, with other features including: profiles of craft breweries Paddock Wood (Saskatchewan), Hopfenstark (Quebec), and Yukon Brewing; reports on the beer and pub scenes in Nashville, Copenhagen, and London; coverage of the annual Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego; and a whole lot more. If you have any interest in beer beyond Blue and Bud, TAPS is an essential quarterly read.