Think of it as a place where modern-day geeks collide with a retro kind of stylishness.

That’s what you get at A Nerd’s World, a fun and funky storefront-looking office on Bathurst Street that doesn’t sell products per se, but plenty of creative business services that range from website and logo design to branding, SEO strategies, copywriting and even photography.

“We’re very passionate about our business,” says owner Grace Hughes. “We’re nerdy in a way of wanting to create a brand not just for ourselves but for everyone else. We try to make sure everything comes together, not just in a cookie cutter fashion but in a way that is very unique.”

While A Nerd’s World has existed since 2006, Chris and Grace Hughes, the married owners of the business, decided to house their offices in a storefront space so they selected the Bathurst location two years ago. The two-level shop provides office space for about ten web designers, some of whom work full-time and some on an as-needed basis.

Don’t let all the retro cameras fool you, though. The owners happily enjoy showing off their impressive 300-plus camera collection that includes a World War One stereoscopic camera that has received a fair share of international press. Because of the number of cameras, the models, some of which are a hundred years old, are rotated for display in the office. The store’s walls also boast a photo gallery of the community it serves.

While it’s obvious that art and business are near and dear to the owners’ hearts, a lesser known facet of A Nerd’s World is its philanthropy. Chris, 36, travels once a month to Cuba, donating medical supplies, clothing, school supplies and toiletries to the poor. Wife Grace, 27, tends to the office and their three children during Chris’ humanitarian visits.

Chris initially visited the country on a photography trip and that’s when he discovered the profound poverty among some of its citizens. Heartbroken by the depth of despair he witnessed, Chris phoned Grace back home in Canada and asked her to wire him $5,000. With that, Chris’ mission to heal, feed and care for those in need began in earnest.

“He considers everybody there his family,” says wife Grace. “He wants to help the people there and that’s why he brings humanitarian donations.”

Thanks to social media, word on Chris’ efforts has spread and donations to his cause come in from all corners of the world. But the couple is always looking for assistance. Donations are welcome and can be dropped off at 986 Bathurst St.

Just as the name suggests, Insomnia is the kind of restaurant you can lose yourself in day or night, no matter what your appetite or state of being.

If you’re more of an early bird, you’re sure to love the seven varieties of eggs benny, including pulled pork or perhaps you’d prefer the waffles or the pancakes? The 17-year-old restaurant has had plenty of time to perfect its cuisine and brunch seems to be a big hit with locals. Just witness the line-ups to get in. In fact, NOW magazine readers named it the city’s best brunch in a 2014 poll.

Located at 563 Bloor West, Insomnia is the kind of restaurant that is perfect day or night for family get togethers, intimate conversations or business pow wows. The beauty of the space is that it’s not overly loud so guests can easily hear each other and engage in conversation that is all manner of silly, strange and serious.

The 96-seat restaurant offers patrons a wide selection of gluten-free dining in addition to accommodating numerous allergies.
“Our brunch is executed very well,” says Insomnia general manager Ainsley Sinclair. “We produce things fast so people aren’t left waiting around forever. There is a lot of choice and customization on our
menu.”

Insomnia started out in the late ‘90s as a cyber café. Thanks to its loyal following, staff have witnessed customers grow up over the years and are now watching one-time children and teens coming into the restaurant with their own families in tow.

If you’re more of a night owl, Insomnia also has you covered.  Its wide-ranging dinner menu will take you late into the night with international comfort foods that are sure to satisfy any palate. Start your visit off with a selection of the establishment’s seasonal and classic cocktails or an imported or domestic beer. If vino is more your taste, the restaurant offers a nice choice of reds and whites. The full menu is available until 2 a.m. seven days a week.

Here’s a glowing endorsement on Yelp from one very happy customer:

“Why I love this place – they put cucumber in their water overnight, they make their delicious drip coffee with cinnamon, wait staff have always been rock stars. This place is a lean mean brunch making
machine.”

Visit the website at insomniacafe.com.

Toronto might be the city of neighbourhoods, but in October that all changes as the city makes way for  the walking dead, ghouls, witches, monsters and a startling cast of very scary characters.

If you’re aching for some macabre fun this Halloween, you’re sure to find it just around the corner this year as Toronto salutes its dark side.  Here’s a look:

In its tenth year, this Toronto fan favourite, kicks off at 3 p.m. from Nathan Phillips Square on October 25. The Toronto Zombie Walk, which saw 6,000 undead stagger and lurch their way along city streets last year, includes a parade, a zombie photo booth and a stall that lets you slather on blood to better your look. Best of all, the event is free and open to everyone.

Halloween with a healthy twist is offered up thanks to the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation, which hosts Monster Dash Toronto, a night run in which participants get to don costumes and raise funds for a good cause. The event, which is for all ages, takes place on October 26.

Speaking of films, how about the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, which runs at the Scotiabank Theatre from October 16 to 24. Celluloid thrill-seekers can get their adrenaline rush thanks to this line-up of international horror, sci-fi, fantasy and shorts.

Here’s wishing you a fiendishly ghoulish Halloween.

The fact that Alessandro Tarallo recognized a little slice of his native Naples on the west side of Bathurst between Dupont and Follis speaks to that quintessential neighbourhood feeling that residents in and around the area hold so dear.

A block south of Freeman Real Estate, Napoli Centrale Pizzeria at 964 Bathurst is one of the new kids on the block. A full-service, licensed pizzeria since last December, Alessandro decided to open his own 75-seat pie place largely because he couldn’t find Neopolitan pizza like they make back home.

That’s not to say he didn’t try. Neopolitans or Napolitans, as Italians say it, are big pizza gourmands so Alessandro and his wife began their search in earnest a few years back when Alessandro first visited Toronto chasing love after meeting his then girlfriend, a Toronto resident, while vacationing in Cuba. While he found some very good dining spots, the pizza was not as authentic as he would have liked.

“Some pizzerias use the word Neopolitan and sometimes they’ve never even been there,” says the 35-year-old. “It’s like advertising authentic sushi made by an Italian.”

While he thought Toronto was short on authentic Naples-style pizza, he credits Romolo Salvati, the owner of two Via Mercanti pizzerias in the city, as a sort of mentor. Of his location Alessandro says: “I prefer more to be in a neighbourhood than on big busy main street. When I found this old property it reminded me of my city. Naples is very old and this area on Bathurst made me feel comfortable.”

The Neopolitan pizza tradition is an ancient one in Napoli, which holds unique characteristics.

For example, when people from Naples order pizza in a restaurant they never order it to share.

It’s typically one pie per person.

The dough is also quite different, light and fluffy, and made from the highest quality, additive-free flour. Alessandro likes to use flour from the Caputo flour mill in Naples. Founded in 1924 and now run by the family’s third generation, Caputo is committed to the long-held
milling traditions of Naples and is the leading brand of the special type “00′′ fine flour used for pizza making. It’s known as The Flour of Naples.

Alessandro’s family owns supermarkets in Naples so his love of food is a natural evolution. He and his wife are the proud parents of a brand new baby boy, Andrea. Now that he’s a father, it makes him more open to the appetites of the children who visit his restaurant.

“I love it when I see kids eating our pizza,” he says. “A lot of parents bring their kids here and I think once they try our pizza, they won’t go back to eating the other stuff. We make quality, we use fresh products and ingredients. It’s handmade with love.”

For more information or to read the menu visitwww.napolicentralepizzeria.com.

With the spectre of Halloween hanging over our heads, we thought, what better time than now

to discuss the prospect of buying a home that was the scene of a grisly murder, horrific suicide

or the site of some other unsavoury incident or activity.

The first question you need to ask yourself is do you care if the previous owner was found

hanging from the rafters or that the house was a drug den for meth heads. If not, go on your

merry way. But if learning that a tragic murder occurred within its walls bothers you perhaps

you’re best to ask a few questions first.

Realtors are obligated to disclose information about homes that are stigmatized – the term

used for a property that buyers avoid for reasons that have nothing to do with its physical

condition. But if an agent doesn’t know the house’s history, then there is nothing that holds the

realtor culpable.

Unfortunately, in Ontario a seller is not legally obligated to disclose any information about

murders, suicides, or any other gruesome fact that might have happened in the home. There

have already been many calls for clearer legislation, but this area of the housing market

remains rather grey. Drawing a clear line between important and unimportant information can

be difficult. For example, if neighbours believe a house accommodated an illegal marijuana

grow op, though never proven in court, does that make the house stigmatized?

It’s thought that stigmatized properties or houses widely believed to be haunted thanks to a

murder or suicide typically drops in value. A Realtor.com survey from October 2012 showed a

surprising 29 per cent of consumers would consider buying a haunted home on one condition

– that the home was substantially discounted at 20 per cent or more off an otherwise similar

home.

According to Toronto real estate lawyer Mark Weisleder, in the city’s red-hot real estate

market, an Ossington Ave. house took 16 months and several listing agents before selling in

2013 for $73,000 below the asking price of $973,000. The reason? The single-family house was

the scene of a murder in 2011.

Interest in stigmatized properties has prompted the start up of several websites such as

www.DiedinHouse.com, a U.S.-based site founded in 2013 that claims to instantly search over

118 million death records. There is a fee involved and currently the site is not set up to search

properties outside of the U.S.

The scary side of real estate is well documented by Silicon Valley realtor Mary Pope-Handy in

her Haunted Real Estate blog, which offers scads of info on eerie properties, spirits and the

supernatural, properties that would be deemed stigmatized.

Housecreep.com is a crime discovery website developed by Toronto brothers Robert and

Albert Armieri. Visitors can submit an address and see whether a crime was committed on the

property. The site currently has over 24,000 addresses entered and about the same number of

events listed.

Weisleder says it’s not a bad idea for sellers to sign a clause saying that they are not aware of

issues relating to murder, suicide and grow ops. You can also scour the internet for info about

a property’s past. But your best line of defense involves shoe leather. Speak to neighbours in

the area of the house. They’re likely to tell you if those walls witnessed more than their share of

criminal or objectionable activity.

The FreemanTeam®, Kate Hobson and Alex Beauregard sponsored awesome Pony Ride events. Kate Hobson’s event was held at Shaw Street PS and Alex Beauregard’s event was held at Palmerston PS.

Even if contemporary art isn’t your thing, you’re sure to have fun joining in with the regulars who attend this annual all-night celebration of art.

Expect about a million of them.

In its ninth year, this very popular, free art exhibit known as Scotiabank Nuit Blanche is produced by the City of Toronto in collaboration with the city’s art community. But artists naturally come from far and wide with about 400 mounting art installations and projects throughout the city. Starting on October 4, from sundown Saturday to sunset Sunday morning, the city comes to life during a 12-hour window in which throngs come to view more than 120 art exhibits scattered throughout Toronto.

Montreal’s Chelanie Beaudin-Quintin offers up a rather unusual inspiration in Screaming Booth, a private booth that lets you scream your fool head off in anger, frustration, happiness – whatever emotion strikes you. Festival goers are encouraged to let it rip inside the bright yellow booth, which will be located at Dundas and Spadina.  The artist came up with the idea for the screaming booth because she noticed a lack of spaces within urban settings in which people are free to express emotions.

Independent Toronto curator Magda Gonzalez-Mora has created Before Day Break, which includes 12 projects located in and around historic Fort York.  The exhibition examines the intricacy of everyday life and the perception of reality. Through these works, the artists reflect on different conditions that impact our ability to understand the world.

The Night Circus, which takes place at Roundhouse Park and Bremner Road, features 10 projects curated by Denise Markonish, curator at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass. Inspired by Erin Morgenstern’s book of the same title, the exhibition offers the spectacle of magic with an aura of darkness bubbling underneath. Artists astonish and entertain during this night circus that vanishes with the break of dawn

Heather Pesanti, senior curator at the Contemporary Austin in Austin, offers an exclusive performance-based exhibition for the first time ever at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche called Performance Anxiety. Curated in the spirit of symphony, events will take place throughout the night at Toronto City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square. Pesanti’s exhibition reflects the sensation and emotion an individual feels when facing the public.

For more detail on each artist and each exhibit go to www1.toronto.ca and search Nuit Blanche.

If David Fogel had the floor in a room full of wannabe home buyers he’d ask them to step back, take a breather and consider the lot size.

Too many buyers get caught up in the details of countertops, windows and floors, all items that depreciate in value over time. Instead purchasers should consider their lot. It’s the lot that is the driver of rising house prices.

“The home investment has two components, the house and the lot” says the 58-year-old realtor and construction professional. “One is depreciating and the other is appreciating. The house might be depreciating at a snail’s pace but it’s still depreciating.”

Fogel, who has spent the last 30 years working in the construction industry, thinks purchasers would be wise to consider their lot size, especially the lot width, when buying. Call him, he’ll explain why. As an agent for Freeman Real Estate for almost 15 years, Fogel’s work focuses solely on buyers. His years of experience building and renovating means his clients have a builder with them at every home they consider, offering valuable information early in the process.

In a city like Toronto, renovations and additions to homes are common thanks in large part to the fact that the homes are getting up there in age with many over 100 years old.

“I’ve spent a good part of my real estate career helping people buy homes,” says the Toronto native. “Because of my combined experience, working for 30 years in both real estate sales and construction, I’m well equipped to help buyers evaluate a home, or estimate renovation costs or warn of potential hidden problems.”

David ran his own construction company for over 20 years. Today, his time is split between real estate sales and as a construction consultant at Altius Architecture, a large architectural firm that designs and builds modern homes.  This year Altius won an ARIDO interior design award for a home in Etobicoke.

A stickler for detail, David rarely has more than one or two clients at a time. And often, it takes viewings of more than 20 houses before his clients find the right one.

“To avoid any conflict of interests, I don’t work for two purchasers looking in the same area for same type of home” he says, “and I never sell, I simply answer questions, and I try to point out what may not be apparent to the untrained eye.”

Freeman Real Estate is happy to once again host one of its most popular community events, an Historic Walk of Seaton Village led by local historian and retired school teacher Marilyn Spearin.

The walk begins at 1 p.m. on September 28. Participants are asked to meet outside of Freeman Real Estate at 988 Bathurst St. just before that time. It runs about 1 ½ to two hours and explores the area between Bloor Street West to Dupont and Christie Street to Bathurst.

The tour will focus on the neighbourhood’s settlement period, which took place between the 1860s and 1920, and Marilyn will point out important buildings and homes and give the history of street names and other visual clues that tell the tale of the area’s past.

New to this year’s tour will be historical accounts of the names of various lanes. The naming of Seaton Village lanes is a fairly recent occurrence that was set in motion thanks to the Seaton Village Residents’ Association, which also worked at selecting those people and institutions worthy of merit.

Participants can expect to learn about Deborah Brown for whom a lane to the east of Markham Street has been named. Also known as Mammy Brown, Deborah was likely the first black resident of Seaton Village as a runaway slave from Maryland. In the 1860s the population of blacks in the neighbourhood was relatively large with about 50 people, many of whom had been born in the U.S. and escaped slavery by seeking refuge in Canada.

Another lane, the Mission House Lane is named after the Anglican Sisters of St. John the Divine. They ran a mission that provided basic food, clothing and medical aid for the indigent from 1890 to 1912.

On a personal note, we, Dan and Elden Freeman, are proud of the lane named in honour of our grandfather, Max Hartstone, who with our grandmother Sarah Hartstone, opened Steven’s Milk in 1958 on the corner of Bathurst and Olive. Max and his oldest son Marvin ran the store until Max’s death in 1982. The store was closed in 1998 when Marvin suffered a major heart attack. Today, the store is owned and operated by Helen and Steve Moon as Steven’s Groceries. But our family enjoyed a good run there for 40 years.

Marilyn is a member of the Community History Project, a non-profit citizens’ group of people interested in local history. The group runs the Tollkeeper’s Cottage, a museum at Davenport and Bathurst. Marilyn also edited a 40-plus-page booklet detailing the area’s history that is sold at the museum for $15.

In case of rain, the walk will take place at the same time on the following Sunday, October 5.

Calling all Humewood Community School alumni: your alma mater wants you.

Humewood is marking its 100^th year anniversary on October 18 from 1pm – 4pm and the school is looking for alumni to spread the word and to help out.

Organizers of the celebration are asking former students to search the recesses of their minds for memories of their time at Humewood. Here is what they want you to think about:

What is your favourite memory of Humewood?

How did you get to school? What did you do during recess?

What did you do after school?

How was school life different from today? Anything else you would like to share?

Organizers plan to put together poster boards with the answers. Feel free to send in photos as well. Please send your replies to Julia Lalande at humewoodcentenary@gmail.com. You can also contact Humewood’s new principal Julie Whitfield at Julie.Whitfield@tdsb.on.ca. Julie would also like to hear from you if you are interested in getting involved on the actual day.

One of six public schools built in 1914, Humewood originally had 11 rooms including three classrooms, each with seats for 48 students. The building also contained an office, a teachers’ lounge, and an inspection room. The 240- x 568-feet lot was valued at $45,440, the building at $90,000 and the furniture, $1,000.

The school’s name came from Humewood Ave., the street that bounded its eastern side, which was named for the Honorable William Hume Blake, the Vice-Chancellor of Upper Canada. His 50-acre estate, built in the 1850s, was named after his ancestral home in Ireland.

In its early days, Humewood’s classrooms were kept at a chilly 50 degrees Fahrenheit. But the building was magnificent with large windows, high ceilings and wide staircases. The classrooms also had high ceilings and rooms were airy and bright.

Over the years, various improvements and changes were made to the school including the addition of services, a gymnasium, a library, a medical health service and outdoor playing fields. At one time the school served its residents as an informal community centre for various organizations and interests. Thanks to the community’s fantastic growth, a brand new school was built in the early ‘70s to meet the needs of this ethnically diverse community.

On a few occasions, Humewood has been threatened with closure but thanks to its devoted school community, supporters have managed to watch its much-loved school grow and prosper.

In 2011, the Toronto District School Board committed millions toward retrofitting Humewood and the school underwent significant renovations that included eliminating the open plan design, new French immersion and specialized classrooms, lockers, smart boards and Wi-Fi.