Month: February 2025

Carismaro

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I’ve eaten well the past week. Maybe a tiny bit too well.

First, for v-day, we made a return to Carisma. It was, as usual, superb. Wonderful food, and Adriano picked us out a winning bottle as usual.

  • Burratina Salad
    • glasses of Falanghina, Negroni
  • Penne w/ Pancetta & Fresh Summer Peas
  • some agnolotti special I don’t quite remember at this point
  • 32oz Grilled Bistecca Fiorentina Per Due
  • Sauteed Mushrooms
    • bottle of Brunello
  • Warm Molten Tortino Al Cioccolato w/ House-Made Chocolate Gelato
    • glasses of Vin Santo / Recioto

Then, just this past Wednesday, I met a work colleague at Ricky + Olivia. Yes, I selfishly wanted to go there for both the food and the proximity. We shared:

  • big mac steak tartare
  • r+o burger (actually my first time having it, and wow was it good)
  • turnip cakes
  • french fries
  • garlicky steak special
    • both reds on their BTG list and the two Pearl Morissette red specials

Fantastic, as always. Well worth hurdling a bunch of snowbanks.

The east-za end

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One thing I take for granted is how much incredible pizza exists close to where I live, in the east end of Toronto.

Danforth Pizza House may be in Greektown, but it is in my opinion (and many others) the best in the city. It’s classic, delicious, and I never feel gross after eating it.

Of all the Detroit style Pizza I’ve tried, Descendant is by a country mile the best — and most interesting. The flavours, the consistency…all top-notch. The fact that Slowhand, an excellent nearby shop in its own right, sits #2 in my mind, says a lot about Descendant.

I’m alone on this in my household, but I think Blondies kicks ass.

There’s even a Maker, which I find too greasy, but which scratches the itch sometimes. Especially when it’s one of the few places in Toronto that even makes an attempt at garlic fingers.

What a time to be alive.

The bird is dead

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I deleted my Twitter account a couple weeks ago. I hadn’t really used it for a few years and let it go fallow, but the Nazi salute was the reminder I needed to delete that shit.

I opened my account in March 2007 (during, apparently, the “first wave of people to join“) and was a heavy user for years. The bigger my job got, the more my usage dwindled, to the point where post-2020 I was barely tweeting. Then Dipshit bought the site and I all but petered out. Of course, I stopped using my Facebook account more than five years ago, and my life has been noticeably better since.

I used to be such a believe in the power of social media. Long before Twitter or Facebook existed, I read The Cluetrain Manifesto and thought it meant the end of marketing lies and political falsehoods as we knew them. I’m not sure I’ve ever been more wrong about anything. For some reason deleting my Twitter account seemed like the last nail in admitting that. Maybe that’s why I haven’t switched to BlueSky. It’s not that I need to do this somewhere else. It’s that there is no “this” anymore.

Ace object bureau

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Last January I visited Winnipeg and Saskatoon for work, in the middle of a severe cold snap. It was my first time participating in what’s become an annual work trip; this year I was on the roster for visits to Edmonton and Calgary. Luckily the weather worked in our favour this time: in spite of some bouts of snowy weather, it was above freezing pretty much the whole time.

It was my first time in Edmonton. In between all the work stuff I had some bites at the bar at the JW Marriott and coffee at Coffee Bureau, Obj3cts, and ACE. There was also a fairly random lunch at a place called Continental Treat Fine Bistro (one of our party is gluten-free and we somehow ended up a completely gluten-free Eastern European diner) and a team event at Ashford House Pub. There was trivia. My team won.

The next day we drove down to Red Deer (hitting terrible weather, and very nearly going off the road multiple times) and then on to Calgary. Only one coffee stop this time: a Monogram location.

With business concluded, we all left early the next morning. I flew Porter both ways, and my experience was great. Definitely becoming my preferred method of flying west.