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Guest
Kelly McGregor
http://twitter.com/kamcgregor

Quick review of the year, thank people who have helped us
Kevin
Bill Deys
Unlab
all of our previous guests.

LondLicious

By John Matisz METRO

The addition of a chain restaurant to Londonlicious has led one independent local eatery to withdraw from the annual food festival.
Kantina Restaurant, a downtown spot serving mostly eastern European dishes, has pulled out of the food festival because its owner feels the event’s core vision has been tarnished.
The festival, which runs from Jan. 17 to Feb. 3, has traditionally been promoted as a hyper-local experience. However, upon hearing it added Moxie’s — a bar and grill founded in Calgary and prominent across Canada — to its restaurant list, Kantina quit, saying Londonlicious was headed in the wrong direction.
Throughout the winter culinary event approximately 35 locally owned and managed restaurants — ranging from cultural hub Budapest to upscale Crave — offer the public the opportunity to dine at local restaurants featuring fixed price menus. This allows restaurant-goers to enjoy a three-course meal for $20 to $30, while also celebrating the local culinary scene.
Two of Moxie’s 63 Canadian restaurants are located in Forest City and because it employs several Londoners, Londonlicious organizer Andy Wilson says, the casual restaurant meets the event’s entrance criteria.
“Moxie’s contacted me, and they had a great argument,” Wilson said. “And I told them it would be a trial run. I told them, ‘We’ll see how the community reacts, how the other restaurants react to it.’”
There was a lengthy message posted on Kantina’s Facebook page on Monday. It outlines the rationale behind the withdrawal, and says Londonlicious is “selling out.”
“While we understand this is only one restaurant, it sets precedent with which we are not at all comfortable,” reads the post. Wilson, who admits he weighed the pros and cons of the situation before ultimately coming to a decision, argues the inclusion of Moxie’s is an experiment. Nothing is set in stone for next year’s lineup.
“I really don’t see the addition of Moxie’s taking away from the other restaurants,” he added.

College and university building projects
PAT MALONEY FREE PRESS

Politicians gave an A+ Tuesday to a pair of separate, student-focused residential high rises planned near London’s post-secondary pillars, Western University and Fanshawe College.
Council’s planning committee unanimously endorsed the two major projects — 19 stories near Western; 15 stories near Fanshawe — that’ll house some 430 separate rental units.
“This is exactly what we want near our universities, near our colleges,” Mayor Joe Fontana said as politicians recommended the projects’ site plans.
The Western-area project will be on the west side of Richmond St. N., north of the university gates. Five houses will be levelled to make way for the 19-storey structure, home to more than 300 two-bedroom units.
The project near Fanshawe, to be built at the southwest corner of the Oxford-First streets intersection, will offer 126 three- four- and five-bedroom units. It’s drawn the college’s enthusiastic support, city staff say.
It also grabbed the attention of Peter White, head of the London Economic Development Corp.
White says the builder, Adamas Group, plans to make the building a supportive place for much-coveted foreign students. If, for example, enough Chinese students move in, they’ll hire an interpreter to ease their transition to Canada, he said.
“This is going to be a very groundbreaking development for us,