Island Cafe

As soon as the weather permits the café will be open on weekends (April/May).  We will be open 7 days a week starting May 24^th long weekend.  Things to look forward to this season include:

-       The Island Café is now licensed to serve beer and wine!!! We are in the process of sourcing beer and wine from local Toronto breweries and Ontario Wineries.  Come and sample creative cocktails on our beautiful garden patio!

-       We are thrilled that our island’s own Jana Roerick, baker extraordinaire, will be our staff baker this summer.  Jana owned and operated Jana’s Bake Shop on Salt Spring Island for many years and is the author of Flour Power.

-       The always effervescent Ivy Mairi is busy planning a concert and cultural program for this season!  Stay tuned for announcements about our Friday night concert series, Salons and much more.  You can check out Ivy Mairi’s music on her MySpace page.

See you soon!

After an amazing spring and summer, we’ve finally reached the time for the final concert of the 2011 season. On Friday Sept 30th, we’ll go out with a bang at our End-of-Season Celebration which will feature the incredible musical stylings of the Lemon Bucket Orkestra – Toronto’s only Balkan-Klezmer-Gypsy-Party-Punk Super-Band!

LEMON BUCKET ORKESTRA at Island cafe

Friday Sept 30th

Note the earlier start time, due to earlier sunset – Music begins at 6pm!

Take the 4:45, 5:30, or 6:15 ferries to Ward’s Island

We will have lots of special appetizers and goodies to thank our wonderful regulars, friends, neighbours, and supporters for such a great season.

As always, our special dinner menu starts at 5:30, and this show is pay-what-you-can!

Come celebrate the end of the season with food, music, and friends. See you there!

What a great season of music it’s been!

As we gear up for our final concert of the 2011 season this week, we wanted to share some great pictures and videos from two of our August events.
The wonderful Jared Rosenbaum took some great photos of the Treasures when they performed on Labour Day weekend….

And our (unofficial) resident videographer Tyler Hnatuk took some beautiful footage of the Kitgut Stringband on August 26th……

CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT OUR FINAL EVENT BRINGS!

COME OUT TO OUR ANNUAL ALL AGES CHESS TOURNAMENT

THIS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24TH, 2011

sign up at 12:45pm

games start at 1:00pm

prizes for kids and adults

~please bring a chess board if you have one~

SPECIAL NOW ON AT THE CAFÉ:

EVERY DAY!

Free coffee with a breakfast burrito or a bowl of granola.

*ALSO*

New fall hours:

Mon-Thursday 9am-6:30pm

Fri, Sat, Sun 9am-7:30pm

Come out to our end of season concert with the Lemon Bucket Orchestra

on September 30^th @ 7pm

Special menu to be announced

SEPTEMBER 16th

Michael Jones and Andrew Hild

~two of our favourite Island rockers bring us a special intimate set as a duo~

Dinner starts at 5:30pm, show starts at 7pm and it’s pay-what-you-can.  Take the boat to Ward’s Island at 5:30, 6:15 or 7:15

Concert Menu:

Special Spicy Popcorn

Grilled vegetable and sausage kebabs served with peach salsa

Mixed greens salad with roasted eggplant, goats cheese and black berries

Chili con carne

Vegetarian Chili

served with cornmeal foccacia made with onion and thyme leaves, or a cornmeal muffin

Chili dogs for kids

Bourbon cake with praline icing

Chocolate layer cake

We’ve got two great events happening at the Island Cafe this Labour Day weekend!

On Friday night (that’s tomorrow!), we’ll host the last of the summer-portion of our concert series (we’ve still got two more coming up this fall). This week’s show will feature the country-Americana harmonies of young Toronto up-and-comers the Treasures. This band is freshly returned from recording their debut record down in Nashville! To hear music and more check them out at: treasuresband.com.

Check out Friday’s special menu:

Pulled Pork with corn&potato gratin with thyme and sage, and sweet potato biscuits
Stuffed Bell Peppers with green salad
Hand-cut fries with herbed mayonnaise
Garlic-Cilantro shrimp
Special desserts!

Dinner starts at 5:30, show at 7pm, and it’s pay-what-you-can!
Take the 5:30, 6:15, or 7pm ferries to the Ward’s Island.

On Sunday Morning we’re proud to be hosting a fundraising brunch as part of Amnesty International’s Taste for Justice campaign. From 8am-12pm we’ll be serving up a special Labour Day brunch menu and donating half of all sales to Amnesty’s work in women’s human rights. Come enjoy a deleicious long weekend brunch while supporting the fight for justice and human rights around the world. For more info on the Taste for Justice program, visit: tasteforjustice.ca

It’s going to be a great weekend. We hope to see you there!

Any questions? Email ivymairi@gmail.com

Our summer concerts have been going so well! What we originally planned as a set of low-key dinner concerts have quickly evolved into so much more! At each concert we’ve seen our appreciative audiences spill over from our full patio to sit festival-style on the lawn – the whole scene complete with dancing kids, tree-climbers,  and hoola hoopers! Each band has had a great time playing in the sun, and made lots of new friends and fans. And certainly it’s been a treat for us to serve up everything from slow-roasted ribs to beef boboti, and to watch the audiences linger after the music is finished, making new friends as they polish off their Ontario strawberry shortcake.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out one of our concerts yet, you must! The vibe has been amazing, and the series has made the summer very special for us. There are still more concerts to come, including some new September dates added due to popular demand!

Friday August 26th – Kitgut Stringband (Toronto’s finest old-time band complete with family harmonies)

Friday Sept 2nd – The Treasures (Heart-breaking country/Americana)

Friday Sept 16th – Michael Jones and Andrew Hild (two of our favourite Island rockers bring us a special intimate set as a duo)

Friday Sept 30th – Our series end and Harvest Celebration featuring a very special guest to be announced soon!!

Check out a great picture from our most recent concert featuring the Five Aces, taken by Sheila Murray, and an awesome video of the Sandbar Sisters’ “Erie Canal” shot by Tyler Hnatuk!

Five Aces on our custom-built stage!

Hi everyone,

We over here at the Island Cafe are eagerly anticipating the third installment of our Summer Concert Series this Friday, which features the Island’s own Sandbar Sisters!

As always, the show is pay-what-you-can admission, is family-friendly, and will feature a special menu which will be announced later this week!

Sandbar Sisters at the Island Cafe
Friday July 8th
Concert starts at 7pm
Dinner begins at 5:30pm
pay-what-you-can

City Folk should take the 5:30, 6:15,or 7pm ferries to Ward’s Island.

The Sandbar Sisters – Cindy Jones, Joanna Kidd and Kathleen McDonnell – make music together on the sandbar known as Toronto Island, and occasionally at city-side venues.  Their 3-part harmony vocals are at the heart of their music, with songs that run the gamut from to old-time hymns and murder ballads to contemporary songwriters like Gram Parsons and Neil Young. They accompany themselves on the instruments you’d expect – guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, autoharp, mountain dulcimer – and some you wouldn’t – washboard necktie, pastry brush, and Weissenborn lap guitar. This summer they’re determined to finally get around to recording their first CD.
Check out their myspace here: http://www.myspace.com/sandbarsisters

 
See you there!

For more info email ivymairi@gmail.com

Important note: We are sorry to announce that we have had to postpone Pete Inskip’s comedy night (which was scheduled for July 15th) until further notice. Stay tuned for a new date!

Canada day is next week, and we’ve got a special menu for the occasion! 

Be on the lookout for such fine treats as:

Barb’s Chelsea Buns

Red & White Breakfast – Homemade Scones with Strawberry Jam

Sausage Tacos

Quinoa Salad

“Grown-up” Grilled Cheese

Thai Pasta Salad

Homemade Pizza

Meatball Sandwiches

AND MORE!

SEE YOU ON JULY 1ST!