Drink Up at the Drinks Show
Posted by Rebecca Zamon in beverages, cocktails, events, events upcoming, spirits on July 18, 2008 at 2:59 pm
It took a while in coming, but you know summer has arrived when the urge to consume prettily coloured drinks in scarcely used glasses overtakes cravings for the staid go-to’s of less sunny months. But what to indulge in when the cupboard’s shelves only offer a bottle of Absolut? For inspiration, look to the Drinks Show, now its in fifth year of celebrating all things shaken and stirred, at the Exhibition Place’s Queen Elizabeth Building tonight and tomorrow. Put on by the Martini Club, Toronto’s cocktail institution, the Show is a lesson in drinking by the numbers—50 booths with 65 brands offering samples of 100 handcrafted cocktails at $2 a pop, plus $20 admission. From my experience the past two years, this results in a three-hour trip down alcohol memory lane, where the flavours and styles from my own personal drinking history mix with the next big thing, and introduce people to about 8,000 of their new best friends doing the exact same thing.
“Cocktails are all about sophistication, style, fashion and sex,” says Michelle Hunt, co-founder of the Martini Club. “On the entertainment side, cocktails step up to the plate. And it’s no longer about quantity versus quality—people really want to know what’s inside their drinks.”
Weekends in Toronto are always full of community and cultural festivals, but this weekend is especially jam-packed with events celebrating 
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Thanks to the heaping piles of bureaucratic bullcrap that seem to fill every nook and cranny at City Hall, 
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In a city touted for its multiculturalism by every tourism campaign and boasting citizen abroad, calling yourself the most multi-culturally based area in all of Canada is a tall order. But that’s the word from the Wexford Heights Business Improvement Area, who is gearing up for this weekend’s 5th annual 
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Last year, local food writer and radio/TV host 
There’s a classic SCTV sketch where Rick Moranis, imitating George Carlin, wonders why green grapes don’t produce green wine. Well, some 20+ years later, there’s now plenty of green wine around, although it’s “green” in the environmental sense of the word rather than the colour itself.
