Month: February 2017

Viewpoint estate

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Things haven’t really slowed down after that epic long weekend. On top of a busy week at work, the eating and drinking has still come thick and fast.

Tuesday: I finished my last meeting of the day at Sin & Redemption,with a Rodenbach, a Duchesse de Bourgogne, and a few Erdinger dunkels.

 

Wednesday: after a work event I stopped in at Richmond Station for a beautiful little glass of Pearce Predhomme Pinot Noir, then met Lindsay and some friends at Batch.

 

Thursday: we met Lindsay’s friends for dinner at Museum Tavern (duck buns, seared tuna sandwich, lamb shoulder), but first stopped for drinks and pizza at Buca Yorkville.

 

Friday: we split a bottle of wine of Rioja (the Olabarri Reserva 2008) with a friend at Cava, then went big: dinner at Jacobs & Co. It was Lindsay’s first time there, and I think it lived up to all my hype. Here’s what we ate:

  • the usual white cheddar popovers | Perrier Jouet Champagne
  • Jacobs Caesar salad | Verum Chardonnay, Domaine d’Albas Viognier/Vermentino
  • a 28oz USDA swinging ribeye from Kansas aged 35 days + a 4oz california cut striploin A5 Black Tajima Wagyu from Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan + sides (sauteed rapini, duck fat french fried potatoes, king oyster mushrooms) | Achaval Ferrer “Finca Mirador” Malbec 2011, from Mendoza Argentina
  • creme brûlée, espresso, petit fours

 

Saturday: a much-needed lie-in, then the market for supplies, coffee at XO Bisous, late lunch at The County General, a very cool exhibit at Inter/Access called Bread and Circuses, and a stroll around The Artist Project.

 

Sunday: we finished watching Dope (imdb | rotten tomatoes) after falling asleep partway through the night before. Excellent movie, by the way – killer soundtrack too. Then, after finishing the last of the leftover Jacobs steak and banging out some work (over a few bottles of craft beer) we got some killer tacos at La Carnita, explored the Aquarium for the very first time, and then made an amazing batch of pasta at home before completely crashing out, exhausted from the weekend. Phew!

I need a busy week just to recover.

More like this, please

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Uh, that was a ridiculously great long weekend.

Friday: we saw an amazing Japandroids concert (seriously, one of the best value-for-money shows I’ve ever seen) and had a late dinner at The Auld Spot.

Saturday: we drove to Beamsville in the beautiful sunny weather to sample wine and eat raclette at Hidden Bench, then do more tastings at Foreign Affair and Megalomaniac before heading home and getting fancy for dinner at The Chase. We had Perrier-Jouet Champagne and buratta, and scallops + pork belly with Chardonnay and Nebbiolo, and duck (me) and lobster cavatelli (Lindsay) with a fantastic bottle of Sangiovese. Dessert was a slightly disappointing (for me, anyway) honey pastry, but I came home and had some 1986 Don P.X. to make up for it.

Sunday: we were a little slow-moving, honestly, so not much happened until we had a halfway-decent-for-us lunch at b.good and a pint at Beerbistro before going home to watch Going Clear (imdb | rotten tomatoes). Unfortunately we ended the day with a somewhat gross AYCE sushi dinner that night at Fushimi.

Monday: we hung out in my (almost) new hood, hitting Boxcar Social for beers, L’il Baci for brunch (spicy pork balls, turducken balls, cocktails), Ed’s Real Scoop for ice cream, and Mercury for cortados. That night we made pasta we’d picked up at the market, and it was freaking delicious.

Whadda weekend.

 

 

On y va

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Two weeks ago I mentioned that I was staging this condo for sale.

It listed last Wednesday. There were 34 viewings by Sunday.

Monday there were half a dozen offers. Now someone else owns it. Or will, in a few months.

Most sane humans would sell first, then buy. Or buy first, then rent. I, naturally, chose to parallel-track these things, and bought a new place on Wednesday. So in April, I’ll live somewhere else for the first time in ten years.

0 for 3

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My superb weekends in Montreal are becoming too numerous to count. Here’s the really, really short version.

  • Thursday: an easy taxi / flight / taxi combo had me from door to door in 3.5 hours; late-night Pizza Hut (the BEST)
  • Friday: a little leftover pizza to tide us over; shrimp pizza and beet salad at Café Parvis; an exhibition at the Musée d’art contemporain; beers at the Benelux Brasserie; a game of chess; our usual stellar meal at Maison Publique (albacore tuna crudo, calamari in its own ink and aioli, TH Wines Viognier, Garganelli pasta with pesto and walnuts, duck breast, Burrowing Owl Cabernet Franc, pôt de crème, butterscotch cake) with some extra drama thrown in when some dude passed out during dinner and had to be taken away by ambulance.
  • Saturday: sausage rolls and almond croissants; a few hours of work; an attempted visit to supposedly-top beer joint Vices & Versa waved off due to how crowded it was; a visit to Birra instead, which was outstanding; an espresso stop at Caffe San Simeon; dinner at Hostaria (burrata, gnocchi, strigoli pasta with duck ragu, some kind of rolled veal+spinach+mozzarella covered in prosciutto and mushroom sauce, and an absolutely stellar bottle of Cavaliere Michele Satta 2011 Sangiovese)
  • Sunday: brunch at Mamm Bolduc; Canadiens vs. Oilers at the Bell Centre (another loss; that makes three games I’ve seen in Montreal, all of them losses); lunch at Brutopia; TV and cheesies; a messed-up trip to the airport (Uber doesn’t know where the Montreal airport is, apparently) and a snowy flight home.

À la prochaine, Montréal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cover photo by b-l-k, used under Creative Commons license

The old pine canoe

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On Monday night I met up with T-Bone (finally!) for a dinner at Canoe, put on by Le Vieux Pin, one of my favourite BC wineries. It was…okay. I liked the wine (T-Bone didn’t as much) but the dinner didn’t blow either of us away. My beef was cooked to medium; my dessert was unremarkable. Quite odd, for Canoe. Luckily, I get another crack at it next week for work.

.:.

Cover photo by b-l-k, used under Creative Commons license