Material Archive

Electric Mud in Parkdale

As someone that lives in Parkdale, I was very sad to see my go-to burger joint Stampede sold off. Luckily, it went to the owners of Grand Electric, who've done a reasonably good job of turning it into a fun, 80's memorabilia glad barbeque smoke house.

We ordered:

• Shrimp and Grits : My fav - great flavour but a bit stingy on the grits and slightly too saucy. More of an app size than a main.

• Roasted Cauliflower: Good sized portion and lots of nice little ingredient details with nuts and raisins that added texture.

• Hot Links: sausages: Way too juicy and spicy with not enough smoke - we didn't even finish the dish, which speaks volumes for people that love meat.

• Pickles: Meh, nothing special at all - skip 'em.

• Collard Greens: Ok - good flavour. Nothing more elevated than one might make at home though.

• Crack Rolls: Freshly baked buns with butter that had pan scrappings in it: Any food name that has "crack" as a descriptor should have a melt-your brain addictive quality - these did not. We used the bread to soak up the saucy grits instead.

• Banana Cream Pie in a jar: Good but not exceptional. The whole dessert in a jar trend is a bit annoying as the portions tend to be smaller (yes - I am a total pig).

• Soft Serve tea flavoured ice-cream: Surpisingly, this was one of my favourite items. The flavour was so subtle and light - it was delicious!

• Watermelon Porch Crawler Cocktail: I loved this drink, it was so light and refreshing and the flavour was delightful. Very pretty colour too.

Overall, the experience was really fun, (good service, fun decor, cool vibe), while the food itself (in total) was just ok.
 

That all said, we'll be back to try all the other items on the menu we missed this first round and see if they've worked out the kinks.

 

Anthony Bourdain shares several must eats in Toronto: 30 Hours in Toronto

Dinner at The Grove

The Parsley root soup with snails, bacon & fried bread is awesome. Also, loooved the Pork Pie - it had great flavour. The Cod with smoked potato & bacon was good too. The fancy orange chocolate marshmallow "Viva Puff" for dessert was charming and fun. Go try.

Dinner at Sushi Kaji

 

It's truly hard to find anything negative to say about the food at Sushi Kaji. It really is exceptional in terms of freshness and flavour. The fatty tuna was easily the best I have ever had.

And yet, even after watching Jiro: Dreams of Sushi, that shows the world's best sushi master modestly situated in the basement of corporate building next to a subway, I was still bothered by the lacklustre airport lounge decor and location in an Etobicoke strip mall.

I know these things are not supposed to matter so much when you are in the presence of greatness. I also know that I forgive shabby locations all the time when certain other types of amazing street foods are involved.

But yet, I was bothered the entire time throughout the meal by the space design, like a little fly buzzing around my head. I just kept saying to myself, why must this place be so ugly? It felt unnecessary, distracting, inconsistent with the food, and worst of all – cheap.

Dinner at Chantecler

When I told people I was moving to Parkdale two years ago, I got a lot of sideways glances that irked me. Happy to say, as I predicted when I moved to Queen West 10 years before, the hood is awesome. Every week, some fabulous new place opens that reaffirms it.

This past Friday, @itbitme and I had dinner at newly opened Chantecler and are excited to report that it was really great.

We tried 6 different items from the menu and not only were they all good, but refreshingly different from anything else we had seen recently.

The potato gnocchi made with a creamy potato sauce accented with cured cod roe and dusted with seaweed powder was delicious and very comforting.

The pork neck, lightly dusted with white tumeric and served with braised lettuce and poached oysters and topped off with a house-made xo sauce, was very tasty and @itbitme's fav. He also really liked a torched mackerel dish served with slaw and toasts.

I loved the melt-in-your-mouth braised beef cheek served on a bed of parsley root and marrow mash, with sweet beet sauce.

The cocktails were also something quite special. We sat at the bar and watched them being made and they were as delicious as they were complex! An old-fashioned was finished with lavender smoke and the ice-cubes were like long sticks of butter.

I already know we're going to be fixtures here. And yes, thankfully they will be taking reservations!

Evergreen Brickworks Picnic

You'd think the rain would keep people away from the annual Evergreen Brickwork Picnic – but not hard core foodies – oh no! :) My gang and I arrived early and there were already throngs of people lined up to get in at noon. Luckily, being friends with a sponsor got us to the front of the line and in no time we were gobbling up everything in sight from Ontario's best restaurants and merchants.

Almost everything was wonderful, but, of particular note, was Auberge du Pommier's cassoulet topped with foie gras! It was very rich & perfect for a cold rainy day.

This year was my first and I can safely say I will not miss it again going forward – very worth it and totally fun.

Mercy's GASPARD Opens

The store's fitting rooms are lined in Liberty prints

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While walking home from work yesterday, I came across a lovely new boutique called Gaspard. The moment I entered, I realized it belonged to my former Portrait clients, Richard and Jennifer from Mercy. Their signature use of Liberty prints tipped me off instantly and then I recalled bumping into Richard and chatting about their upcoming venture a few months ago.

After over 15 years as Mercy, the duo have finally expanded to offer their amazing line in their own store – complete with several other clothing, shoe and jewelry lines to compliment theirs. The result is a very tightly curated vision. So happy for them.

The CNE: A yearly tradition of pigging out

We ate: corn dogs, crisps, deep fried Twinkie, funnel cake with ice-cream, deep fried butter, lemonade, poutine and spaghetti. I am not kidding when I say I actually had a food hangover the next day – was slated to leave for an early morning roadtrip to Picton and I couldn't negotiate being vertical for several hours! Sugar is a killer!

J.Crew opens in Toronto: leaves all the interesting merch in the US

The recent pricing controversy didn't keep my curiosity at bay and so I went shopping with list in hand (after doing a pre-shop online) and ventured out to the burbs to see the new outpost of American retailer J.Crew at Yorkdale mall.

Someone must have sent Jenna a memo outlining Canadians' supposed predilection for boring basics because I wasn't able to find one thing on my list in stock. The most interesting shoes, blazers and dresses were left south of the border for their more "fashion forward" customers. Deep sigh.

Canadians love J.Crew because of it's sunny and distinctly American outlook. Having Canadian buyers curate the collection (the sales staff confirmed this) removes what makes the brand interesting to us to begin with. So thanks for your efforts Mr. Drexler but I'll stick to my online / catalog shopping for now.

Photo from the Grid

High Tea at the Windsor Arms

Last weekend, a group of friends and I enjoyed High Tea at the Windsor Arms.

The Red Room we started out in was charming as all hell but very hot, so we had to move to a cooler area. Once re-seated, our tea arrived quickly and we were grateful! The rose tea we had was wonderful, as were the scones and Devon clotted cream. The sushi style rolled sandwiches were not remarkable though – a bit dry and flavourless. The petit fours were also not terribly inspired either, although pretty to look at. I would advise skipping those courses and simply focus your attention on what they do best – scones & tea!

Overall, a nice experience, with attentive service.

Next up for High Tea – MoRoCo & The Four Seasons!


P.S. There was a wealth of great art all around too – many great Charlie Pachters throughout the space.

 

Hanging with the Abstract Expressionists (& General Idea) at the AGO

Spent a fun afternoon puttering around the Abstract Expressionist exhibit at the AGO today. Took in a little General Idea too.

Today I bought: Ports 1961 Perf Suede Booties

Saw these in the window at Ports 1961 on Bloor Street and decided I had to give them a good home...

My Custom Wildhagen Hat

I was out shopping one day 2 weeks ago when I saw a girl wearing the most charming hat. Usually, when I approach another woman about an article of clothing she's wearing, she'll tell me she bought it in Paris two seasons ago or at an antique market – leaving me with no chance of finding one for myself. Luckily, this particular girl, named Jade, proudly told me that she had made the hat herself and directed me to Wildhagen.

Already familiar with the brand after buying several hats from the Canadian company over the years, I beelined over and ordered a custom "Miniçoise" from Cheri Wildhagen herself. I chose the hat material and grosgrain ribbon and presto, a week and a half later, I picked up a made-to-measure (for my larger than average melon) lovely chapeau! A fun experience that I would recommend to all.

Barque has bite

I've been to Barque Smokehouse twice, once for brunch and once for dinner and here's what I have to say:

• Call ahead – it's always packed
• Be warned, the cocktails are strong – the mint julep I had was so potent I couldn't finish it
• If you must choose between going for brunch or dinner, choose dinner as they do not serve the BBQ sampler at brunch
• Order the babyback ribs – after having the sampler with chicken and brisket, which was all good, they were still easily the best item on the menu

Enjoy!

Bobbette & Belle: Go for the Whoppie Pie, Stay for Everything Else.

As mentioned in a previous post, Jules and I, (that's her in the first photo), popped into Bobbette & Belle last weekend to sample their macaroons, whoppie pies and raspberry lemonade – all of which were delicious! Toronto Life actually named their whoppie pies the best in the city – so I would recommend skipping the Starbucks versions and try a red velvet pie like the one I had above.

The shop's size and space is quite impressive and the decor is really beautiful – perfectly suited to hosting private parties, or having a gab fest with a friend.

Mini Mac at 416 Snack Bar

Ok – so I was sad when I arrived at 416 Snack Bar tonight and saw that the Ribwich was off the new menu – but faith was restored after I ordered the Mini Mac! A tiny, and significantly less harmful version of the original Mickey Dee's variety, the Mini Mac is a new fav. Go try it! Order 2, because you'll want another immediately after.

Bakerbots opens in Bloordale

 

Julie and I had a busy day – we went to Bonjour Brioche for brunch, Bobbette & Belle for dessert, furniture shopping on Queen East, antiquing at the St Lawrence North Market and finally, ended up at Bakerbots for ice-cream sandwiches.

Rosanne, who has been creating custom cakes for the last two years as part of her Bakerbots catering business, decided to open a retail outpost recently so that the public could sample her marvellous cookies, croissant, macaroons and cupcakes as they puttered around Bloordale.

The place is utterly charming and the food is scrumptious. In addition to the delicious ice-cream sandwich I had made with the "everything cookie" and "sweet cream" ice-cream, I went home with a care package of cookies and cream cheese carrot cupcakes – which already have a substantial dent in them – they will not last!

 

Lost Toronto

 

I accidently stumbled across a really cool blog called Lost Toronto on the weekend that compares present day Toronto architecture to what existed in the late 1800s – early 1900s. I haven't shown any of the "afters" here in my post as I wanted to simply recreate my morning commute to work starting from Parkdale to Yonge Street and beyond with "befores".  Have a look at the site – if you love this sort of thing, you will get lost in it for hours.

 

Looking east on Queen towards the Dufferin underpass

The Gladstone looking east

 

North side of Queen just east of the Gladstone, 1931

 Queen & Lisgar

Queen West just east of Ossington c1919 – north side. Black Dog Video is here now.

 

Trinity College, 1913. The buildings, all except for St. Hilda's, were demolished in 1956.

 

 Queen & Manning

 
 

Queen & Bathurst, 1935

 

Queen & Bathurst (There's a Starbucks on that corner now)

 

South east corner of Queen & Bathurst where the Big Bop was.

 

Queen & Portland, 1958 – the Epicure Cafe is here now.

 

Queen & Spadina, 1910 - south east corner

 

Queen & Spadina – before the streetcar median was here, there were public bathrooms

 

 

North side of Queen east of Spadina – Le Chateau, the Rivoli and David's Tea are here now

 

Queen and Peter looking east

 

Looking south onto Peter from the north side of Queen. You can see "Peter Pan Lunch" to the left, which is still there today.

To the right under that hoarding, you can now find a GAP.

The CityTV building, which was originally constructed for the Methodist Church of Canada in 1913, was bought by CHUM in 1985.

 

Looking north on Beverly from Queen

 

 

University Ave looking south

 

University Ave looking north towards the Canada Life building.

 

Bay & Adelaide

Queen & Yonge

Yonge & Shuter – to the right is Eaton's

The first Loblaws in 1919

Yonge & Dundas 1922

Yonge & Dundas

Yonge & Dundas 1952

 

 Toronto Street & Adelaide

Dundas & Victoria Street 1923. That building is still there as "Hakim Optical".

 


This charming young butcher was photographed in front of his shop at Bloor & Brunswick in 1921.

Here's the link again: Lost Toronto

Enjoy!

 

Distillery Food Truck Festival

 

I'm sure you could glean from my many posts and tweets that I had high hopes for the Food Truck festival at the Distillery.

Well... they obviously had good intentions but no idea how many people would actually show up or how to accommodate them. There were 2 hour wait lines for each truck – major turn off.

The above is evidence of the one concession stand I had the patience to stand in line for – which all told, was pretty good but rather expensive at $10 for 6 smoked chicken croquettes.

Our group quickly abandoned ship and decided to go to Burger's Priest – which was a brilliant idea courtesy of @itbitme. Post on that coming up!

Wvrst: A Sausage Hall

My friend LadyB took me to her friend's restaurant Wvrst tonight. Described as a "sausage hall", the space and food were simple, comfortable and charming. I ordered a traditional Sicilian pork sausage with fennel which was served on a bun. MissB got a Kranjska sausage with sweet peppers which is what we were raised on as kids and so I was immediately reminded of home the second I bit in to it. In addition, they have a pretty varied game sausage selection – like guinea fowl, pheasant, venison, rabbit, bison, wild boar and even kangaroo.

We both also got the duck fat fries – which had great flavour, but were a bit too thick and not crispy enough for my liking. They did have a very robust selection of flavoured mayos as dipping sauces though – which helped. We shared a bottle of Plowman's to wash it down and felt perfectly content after.

We'll definitely be back. I can already tell this is a place that is going to get very loud quickly.

Courage My Love

After going for dim sum at Rol San this aft, we strolled through Kensington Market to pick up some fresh fruit. Naturally I jumped at the chance to pop into Courage My Love – a store I have literally been going to for all manner of vintage baubles and beads since I was 11 years old. Above is today's loot – charming vintage brooches that I'll convert to pendants.

Back to Ruby Watch Co.

When I like something, I can go back to it again and again with no delay.

Last night, a group of friends and myself enjoyed another super cozy and delicious dinner at Ruby Watch Co.

Everything was great but the steak and mushrooms were especially good, as was the sweet and sour cherry tomatoes with the cheese course. The portions are very generous, so leaving with To-go containers at the end of the night are a guarantee.


We gobbled up:

RUBY’S SHRIMP COCKTAIL SALAD

Romaine Hearts, Avocado, Garden Radishes, A.F.G’s Cucumbers,

Marie Rose Dressing

 

MUSTARD MARINATED TRI TIP STEAK WITH TOMATO & RED ONION RELISH

Charred Ontario Ramp & 10 yr Old Cheddar Pasta Salad,

Grilled Norfolk Asparagus with Black Pepper Lemon Crumb,

Balsamic Roasted Button Mushrooms

 

LE CENDRE DES PRES BY FROMAGERIE DOMAINE FEODAL

Sweet & Sour Cherry Tomatoes, Grilled Country Bread

 

VANILLA PANNA COTTA

Honey & Ginger Rhubarb Sauce

 

The cocktails were also quite fun –

I finally made it out to Ruby Watch Co.

 

WHERE: Ruby Watch Co.  730 Queen East – east of Broadview

MOOD: Sophisticated, Hip

PRICE: Prix Fixe  $$ / $$$

WHEN: A Tuesday night after work

WHAT: Everything on the menu above

TRY: Whatever they put in front of you – it's all delicious and served family style (which I love!)

SKIP: If I must complain about one thing – there was a redundant salad course

SERVICE: Lovely

REPEAT?: Absolutely! Very comfortable atmosphere with excellent quality food & service

MOST NOTABLE: The veal tenderloin & sweet breads

416 Snack Bar

 

 

WHERE: 416 Snack Bar: 181 Bathurst just north of Queen on the East side

MOOD: Hip, Casual

PRICE: Cheap & Cheerful  $ / $$$

WHEN: A Wednesday night after work

WHAT: Highlighted items on the menu above

TRY: Everything. It's a small, inexpensive menu of tapas sized servings – get one of each.

SKIP: I live for corn dogs but the meat sort of just fell apart.

SERVICE: Decent, pleasant, relatively attentive

REPEAT?: Yes. Super cute place and the gimmicky comfort food is really fun.

MOST NOTABLE: The Ribwich. I ordered two (see above). YUM.

 

 

Arepa Café

Just picked up a grilled corn bread chicken sandwich (La Catira) from Arepa Café and all I can say is wow! Sooooo delicious. This is going to be a new lunch time favourite.

Today I bought: Hoi Bo

I've been eyeing the larger grey version of this same waxed cotton bag for over a year now and today when I saw the khaki colour with gold hardware at Delphic, I didn't hesitate. Handmade in Toronto, in the Distillery District, Hoi Bo is fast becoming a personal favourite.

 

Commute Home

 




 

Some of my favourite pieces at home are from Commute and so I must confess that I'm a little sad that they've moved away from my hood in Queen West – they are now at a bigger space at Bathurst & Dupont. They've also updated their website to showcase some really beautiful custom installation work – have a look.

Ork does Toronto's 178 neighbourhoods

  


 


Yay! How wonderful that the lovely and talented Jenny Beorkrem has designed one of her fabulous Ork posters for and of Toronto.

After placing my order for a hard copy to frame, I took the liberty of highlighting all of the areas I've called home over the years – it's kind of neat to see it all mapped out like this.

Below is my favourite Ork overall simply for it's great composition.