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Caroline Aksich

Caroline Aksich, a National Magazine Award recipient, is an ex-Montrealer who writes about Toronto’s ever-evolving food scene, real estate and culture for Toronto Life, Fodor’s, Designlines, Canadian Business, Glory Media and Post City. Her work ranges from features on octopus-hunting in the Adriatic to celebrity profiles.

Latest from Caroline Aksich

We stopped by for a sneak peek of Bestellen, the College Street work-in-progress of Top Chef Canada runner-up Rob Rossi

We stopped by for a sneak peek of Bestellen, the College Street work-in-progress of Top Chef Canada runner-up Rob Rossi

When Top Chef Canada contestant Rob Rossi quit his job as Mercatto’ s head chef for “new and exciting adventures,” many...

At last weekend’s Toronto Underground Market, 25 food vendors got creative with the rules

At last weekend’s Toronto Underground Market, 25 food vendors got creative with the rules

After much anticipation, 1,500 of Toronto’s keenest foodies filled the Evergreen Brick Works this Saturday for the inaugural...

Introducing: Hey Meatball!, Rodney Bowers’s new Little Italy mix ’n’ match meatball joint

Introducing: Hey Meatball!, Rodney Bowers’s new Little Italy mix ’n’ match meatball joint

On a wall in Rodney Bowers’s new College Street venture Hey Meatball! , there’s a photo of a bandana-clad Bowers holding up a...

Kid Culture, a cute-as-a-button, schoolhouse-themed shop for tots in the Junction

Kid Culture, a cute-as-a-button, schoolhouse-themed shop for tots in the Junction

The Place: Kids (and even their parents) are romanced by this whimsical children’s boutique from owner Clare Raman, who is still...

Introducing: Urban Eatery, the Eaton Centre’s new, disconcertingly Danish food court

Introducing: Urban Eatery, the Eaton Centre’s new, disconcertingly Danish food court

The food court experience is a notoriously horrible one. The ambiance is nonexistent, the options are limited to the typical...

Toronto Underground Market a smash hit before it even starts: all 1,200 tickets already sold out

Toronto Underground Market a smash hit before it even starts: all 1,200 tickets already sold out

Earlier this spring we despaired that Toronto might be too straitlaced to join the underground market fad (all-night foodie raves...

Introducing: Blackbird Vintage, a treasure trove of conversation pieces in the Distillery District

Introducing: Blackbird Vintage, a treasure trove of conversation pieces in the Distillery District

Paula DiRenzo never planned on opening a boutique in the Distillery District; after shuttering her Bedford Park store, Fleur de...

Introducing: Thundering Thelma, Zane Caplansky’s first food truck

Introducing: Thundering Thelma, Zane Caplansky’s first food truck

Nearly two months past her original launch date, Zane Caplansky ’s new food truck—named Thundering Thelma — has come roaring...

Introducing: Locomotive, a new café and sandwich shop in the Junction

Introducing: Locomotive, a new café and sandwich shop in the Junction

Childhood friends Vito Carnovale and Paul Araujo have been conspiring to open their take on the perfect café for the past...

Introducing: Mia Boutique, a perfectly curated one-room shop with one-offs in the Junction

Introducing: Mia Boutique, a perfectly curated one-room shop with one-offs in the Junction

The place: On the westernmost end of Dundas Street West, past the chocolatiers, art galleries and cafés, a new clothing outpost...

Rob Rossi announces he’s leaving Mercatto for “new and exciting ventures”

Rob Rossi announces he’s leaving Mercatto for “new and exciting ventures”

News broke on Twitter this morning that Top Chef Canada finalist Rob Rossi will be leaving the Mercatto group of restaurants. For...

The Polaris Music Prize long list was announced yesterday at The Drake, and it contains 30 per cent Toronto bands

The Polaris Music Prize long list was announced yesterday at The Drake, and it contains 30 per cent Toronto bands

Yesterday at the Drake Hotel’s Sky Yard, the long list for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize was announced. The list, compiled by a...

Shield your ears, Canada: CBC is launching a new reality TV show with Canadians singing Canadian songs

A singing-focused reality TV show not called Canadian Idol is slated to hit the CBC airwaves this fall, and, well, it’s the...

Two Steeltown food trucks set to show Toronto the Slow how it’s done

Two Steeltown food trucks set to show Toronto the Slow how it’s done

Torontonians have, by and large, gotten used to being behind the times when it comes to street food. But we didn’t expect...

The Flying Dragon Bookshop bites the dust

The Flying Dragon Bookshop bites the dust

It’s no secret that the last few years haven’t been kind to the local ink-and-paper publishing industry. We’ve said goodbye...

Could a Toronto underground street food market force us to eat our words? We sure hope so

Could a Toronto underground street food market force us to eat our words? We sure hope so

A couple weeks back, we told you about the San Francisco Underground Market, an all-night street food bacchanalia that we...

All-night foodie raves are the latest street food trend unlikely to appear in Toronto

All-night foodie raves are the latest street food trend unlikely to appear in Toronto

It’s no secret that when it comes to street food, Torontonians are a little behind the curve. So when a new curbside craze...

Gwyneth Paltrow and Ruth Reichl rumoured to be heading up new food mag and Web site (respectively)

Gwyneth Paltrow and Ruth Reichl rumoured to be heading up new food mag and Web site (respectively)

Foodies woke up yesterday to the prospect of a pair of big new culinary publications headed by two very familiar names: Gwyneth...

Summer Camp Guide

Summer Camp Directory 2026

Summer Camp Directory 2026

Discover our top-rated summer camps for kids of all ages

Wines of the World

Wines of the World: Rediscover your favourites from Toronto Life’s Best Restaurants

Wines of the World: Rediscover your favourites from Toronto Life’s Best Restaurants

From cabernet and merlot to icewine and chardonnay, these wines are primed to pair and delight

Big Stories

Charm Offensive: The cottage country mortgage broker who lost $101 million of his clients’ money

Charm Offensive: The cottage country mortgage broker who lost $101 million of his clients’ money

Sandy Sussman spent decades wooing the upper echelons of Toronto society, becoming their go-to investment guy. He took their money and made a huge bet on cottage country. When the market tanked, he lost it all. Then he did everything in his power to cover it up

The Monster Cottages vs. the Resistance: Inside the ruthless battle for the future of Muskoka

The Monster Cottages vs. the Resistance: Inside the ruthless battle for the future of Muskoka

From Gravenhurst to Port Cockburn, the uber rich and powerful are buying up shoreline for private island compounds and sprawling mega-resorts, radically changing the face of Muskoka and infuriating environmentalists, locals and long-time cottagers

Dead Reckoning: The executor of their estate was supposed to divide it among their friends and family. Instead, he bankrupted it

Dead Reckoning: The executor of their estate was supposed to divide it among their friends and family. Instead, he bankrupted it

When Sami and June Suomalainen died, it fell to the executor of their wills, a lawyer they hardly knew, to sell their million-dollar midtown home and split the proceeds among their inheritors. Seven years and six lawsuits later, the beneficiaries haven’t seen a cent

These are Toronto’s best new restaurants of 2026

These are Toronto’s best new restaurants of 2026

This year’s list includes a 150-square-foot omakase counter, a Parisian brasserie in the Annex, Korean comfort food, Filipino karaoke and a Summerhill seafood spot that’s reinventing the raw bar

Hoop Dreams: Inside the making of the Toronto Tempo, the city’s newly assembled WNBA team

Hoop Dreams: Inside the making of the Toronto Tempo, the city’s newly assembled WNBA team

After years of false starts, months of nail-biting negotiations between the league and the players’ union, and an 11th-hour scramble to build a roster, Toronto finally has its own major-league women’s basketball team. Now it just has to live up to the hype

Live From New York: Inside the slay-or-be-slayed world of Studio 8H with SNL rookie Veronika Slowikowska

Live From New York: Inside the slay-or-be-slayed world of Studio 8H with SNL rookie Veronika Slowikowska

Slowikowska is the first Canadian to join the cast of Saturday Night Live in more than 25 years. She’s also this season’s breakout star. Now all she has to do is keep crushing it

Better Call Deepak: Meet drug lord Ryan Wedding’s self-styled cocaine lawyer

Better Call Deepak: Meet drug lord Ryan Wedding’s self-styled cocaine lawyer

The man who represented the infamous drug lord is unapologetically flashy—he has a Lamborghini and two Maseratis and wears $1,200 Louboutins. But did he become an accomplice to his client’s crimes? Deepak Paradkar says he was just doing his job. The FBI says he crossed a line

The Redemption Tour: The Blue Jays are back. Can they finish what they started?

The Redemption Tour: The Blue Jays are back. Can they finish what they started?

We’re not over it, but they are. Six months after that devastating defeat, the Jays take the field once more, bent more than ever on winning the World Series. Dispatches from the dugout

My Life as a True Crime Spectacle: My father’s crimes fractured our family. Then came the press

My Life as a True Crime Spectacle: My father’s crimes fractured our family. Then came the press

My dad was the infamous Rolex Killer. The news of his crimes nearly broke me. And ever since, my family has been hounded by reporters, podcasters and true crime fanatics—a whole new circle of hell

Robby on the Line: Out and about with Robby Hoffman, comedy’s equal opportunity assassin

Robby on the Line: Out and about with Robby Hoffman, comedy’s equal opportunity assassin

Larry David is the indisputable king of brutal honesty. But if anyone comes close, it’s Robby Hoffman, the suddenly everywhere comic from whom no group is safe

Notes on an Academic Scandal: Why did TMU demote a leading advocate of DEI?

Notes on an Academic Scandal: Why did TMU demote a leading advocate of DEI?

Pamela Sugiman, a former arts dean at Toronto Metropolitan University, was a key player in the school’s push for diversity, equity and inclusion. When the backlash against DEI arrived, she was demoted. The school says it was a coincidence. She disagrees

City of Renters: The dream of home ownership isn’t dead. Maybe it should be?

City of Renters: The dream of home ownership isn’t dead. Maybe it should be?

Scenes from the rent-for-life revolution

This generation was pummelled by Covid high school. Now the job market wants to replace them with AI

This generation was pummelled by Covid high school. Now the job market wants to replace them with AI

It’s hard out here for a 20-something

The High Price of Hope: Inside Toronto’s white-hot fertility market

The High Price of Hope: Inside Toronto’s white-hot fertility market

Desperate wannabe parents are betting their life savings on unproven treatments and false promises

Man vs. Machine: ChatGPT caused him to spiral into delusion. Now he’s suing OpenAI

Man vs. Machine: ChatGPT caused him to spiral into delusion. Now he’s suing OpenAI

Last spring, a chatbot convinced Allan Brooks that he had discovered a revolutionary mathematical theory. He says it nearly destroyed him

Smart City: 20 mind-blowing Toronto inventions that are changing the world

Smart City: 20 mind-blowing Toronto inventions that are changing the world

Homegrown innovations that will transform lives for the better

293 Days Without My Son: I gave up everything to rescue my kidnapped child from my abusive husband

293 Days Without My Son: I gave up everything to rescue my kidnapped child from my abusive husband

When Valentino was abducted, I knew three things: he’d been taken by his father, he was somewhere in India and I would not rest until I found him

Just Listed

For Sale: 99 Lake Promenade

For Sale: 99 Lake Promenade

This classic Hamptons-style home by Chatsworth Fine Homes offers an exciting opportunity to customize a new dream home and build instant value - without the long wait of new construction

For Sale: 92 Arjay Crescent

For Sale: 92 Arjay Crescent

As luxury buyers become increasingly focused on wellness, privacy, and long-term livability, a new generation of custom homes is emerging – one defined less by excess and more by thoughtful design

For Sale: 171 Durant Ave

For Sale: 171 Durant Ave

This rare property features 2 houses on 1 lot

For Sale: 50 First Avenue

For Sale: 50 First Avenue

A testament to time presiding over one of Uxbridge's most storied streetscapes, this magnificently preserved circa 1880 residence commands its prominent corner lot with the quiet confidence of a true architectural landmark

For Sale: 7 Bentley Drive

For Sale: 7 Bentley Drive

A commanding architectural statement in prestigious Stonegate–Queensway, this newly completed custom residence by Bali Homes Group presents a refined interpretation of contemporary luxury living