Author: Dan Dickinson

Signature Blackbush

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After going 45ish years between my first and second visits to PEI, I returned this past week, not ten months later.

After landing on the new Porter route that flies directly to Charlottetown, I was met by colleagues and had dinner downtown on the waterfront at Salt and Sol. Then we were off to Blackbush Resort where we’d hold our meetings for the following few days. Over that time we had ice cream from Harry’s Dairy Bar, wore PEI dirt shirts, ate a delicious meal catered by The Old General Catering House, sat around a fire pit, happily accepted coffee picked up by colleagues at Receiver, biked to Dalvay By The Sea for a big group dinner (in which I ate the biggest pork chop I’ve ever seen — and one of the best too), and walked along a classic sandy PEI beach. Oh, and got eaten alive by mosquitos.

We all left Thursday morning, after getting to see some more PEI countryside and scarfing down some breakfast at Budley’s in the Charlottetown airport. Less than 72 hours there, and nearly all of that focused on work, but we managed to pack in quite a bit of fun too.

Sicily & Bulgaria

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A week of tiny firsts.

I had a work-related dinner at Bar ARDO (Ardo’s trendier sister spot, presumably?) for the first time earlier this week. Food (Mediterranean grilled octopus w/ cucumber, cannellini beans puree, mint; Golden beets w/ red endive, baked ricotta, dates, pumpkin seeds, micro cilantro, Ardo’s vinaigrette; Sua Maesta’ Rigatoni w/ brasato sugo, Sicilian pecorino, parmigiano; Branzino w/ chimichurri sauce) was pretty good, and the BTG wine list was pretty solid.

Then, later in the week, I met a friend at East End Vine where we sat in the window and availed ourselves of their funky list. I had a nice Melon, an excellent Sylvaner (which my friend liked so much she doubled-down on), an Italian rosé, and a Bulgarian cabernet (which the owner dubbed the “party wine”). As far as I can recall, it’s my first time trying wine of any kind from Bulgaria.

Alobooooooooo

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Much like we did three years ago, we used a freebie from my Hyatt loyalty account on a tiny staycation night at The Anndore House in midtown. It feels good to be back in my old neighbourhood, even if it has changed a lot. To wit: when we left the hotel for dinner, walking up Yonge Street in front of the Charles Street McDonald’s, some dude was smoking crack and we got a great big face full of it.

The afore-mentioned dinner was our first visit to Alobar Yorkville. In short: hugely disappointing. Before I get into why, here’s what we ate:

  • Starters
    • cocktails
    • torched hamachi w/ asian pear, miso, ginger
    • white asparagus w/ pommery mustard, ricotta salata
    • foie gras parfait w/ rhubarb, pistachio, lemon balm
  • Mains (we got a lot; we wanted to try a few things)
    • red snapper w/ coriander, anaheim chili, pine nut
    • grilled sea bream w/ piquillo pepper, caper, olive
    • cacio e pepe canestri pasta w/ pecorino, Ibérico lardo, black pepper
    • sides: broccolini, pain au lait
    • bottle of Matthiasson “Linda Vista” Chardonnay 2022
    • glasses of some Niagara sparkling

I do have to start off by saying that they were nice about us being fifteen minutes late (our hotel door wouldn’t lock, so we got delayed dealing with that), but as soon as we walked in I was taken aback by the vibe. I guess I was expecting Alo junior, but I should have known that in Yorkville things are different. We were definitely surrounded by couples more interesting in Instagramming the food (and themselves) than in eating.

Meanwhile, the food was almost aggressively mediocre. Take away the wine and you would have had to divide the price by three to make it feel like good value for money. Galaxies away from what I expected out of something with the Alo name. I have no idea how that place won a Michelin star two years in a row. (Though, not last year, apparently.)

A note on that wine: normally I wouldn’t order American in our current climate, but given our dishes we figured we’d need a good Chard to match, but every Chardonnay on the list save one was from the US. I’d been wanting to try Matthiasson wines for a while, so: fine. But what a bizarre situation.

The service was okay, not great. Hard to get their attention when you needed it, but pleasant enough. We did get kind of annoyed when they asked to clear room for the mains when we were still trying to finish our starters. We didn’t really understand why until we were about 80% finished the mains, and the manager came over to let us know they needed the table in five minutes. Uhh…what? We realized we must have missed a note in the reservation email that there’s a time limit per table (there was: two hours) so that’s on us. But, to be honest, those time limits often go out the window when you’ve ordered as much food and wine as we had. Not that we were counting on that — we didn’t even know there was a time limit — but it felt off-piste from other truly high-end restaurants. Anyway, we threw the last bites of food down our necks, chugged half-full glasses of blanc de blancs, paid the bill, and left.

We were craving dessert, so we decided to stop at a neighbourhood institution: 7 West. A piece of Dad’s chocolate cake and some boozy coffee later, we finally felt satisfied. A good recovery.

A nice lie-in later we grabbed some brunch in our hotel, at Constantine. Once again, we were disappointed — less with the food (my duck confit hash was good, Lindsay’s shakshuka was fine, and the scone was fresh…though only one arrived when the menu said “scones”) than with the service which was weirdly incessant from the moment we sat down. Granted, it was empty in there, but…we gave our brunch cocktail order, and before he’d even bothered to bring them to us he was back asking about our main food order. Then we had our mains before I had the cappuccino I’d ordered when we sat down. The only time he wasn’t around was when we wanted to leave. Anyway, it was on-theme for the weekend: expensive and disappointing.

Something else that was expensive, but not disappointing, was a trip to the Rimowa store. We already have two of their carry-ons, but our old Samsonite full-size has just about had it, so it was time for new blood. We brought home a beaut. Now we just need a trip to break it in.

Eighty-two

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Earlier this week I flew east for work, but before that I tacked on a day or two to spend at the family farm to help celebrate my dad’s 82nd birthday. We had dinner in Amherst the night before, then a drink next door at brother #2’s, and then watched as the Maple Leafs folded like an old tent. Not much of a birthday present for my poor dad, but I was fine with it.

Monday morning four of us (Dad, myself, brother #1 and his progeny) drove just to the other side of Parrsboro to see Hidden Falls. They must be aptly named, because neither my dad nor I had ever been there. Anyway, it was <10 minutes from the road, and quite lovely.

Hidden Falls, just outside Parrsboro NS

Better still, the rain that had been coming down the whole drive there let up just as we began the hike to the falls, and started again shortly after we began driving home. The birthday gods were smiling on us, it seemed.

Back at the farm, Mom had made soup and sandwiches and a truly great marble/chocolate cake. That, plus a whole pile of crib, seemed to make the old fella happy. Brother #1 and I departed around the same time, he back home and I to Moncton. No new restaurants attempted this time, alas — I wasn’t there long, and the weather (both in Moncton and Toronto) has remained steadfastly un-spring-like.

Happy birthday, dad.

Wading through Bay Street douches instead of King Street douches

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For years anytime someone has asked me what the best steakhouse in Toronto is, my answer has been Jacobs. I like Barberian’s too, but Jacobs is it for me.

So, while I acknowledge that lists don’t mean all that much, it did feel gratifying that Jacobs was named one of the 101 best steakhouses in the world. #76, to be exact. Well-deserved, says I, though I admit I’ve only been to two other restaurants of the 101 so I’m not exactly an expert.

To coincide (roughly) with this announcement, Jacobs has a fancy new home. I’m pretty psyched about trying it.

Oyster Notebook Cortado

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Yesterday we enjoyed some nice weather and spent the afternoon in the Distillery District.

First, a little brunch at Cluny (oysters to start; smoked salmon hashbrown w/ poached egg, horseradish crème fraîche, radish, cucumber, dill, and pickled pearl onion for me; sourdough croque madame w/ ham, gruyère, dijon aioli, pickled shallots, mornay sauce, frites, and fried egg for Lindsay; a bottle of Piper Heidsieck for us both).

Next up: a stop at the Toronto Pen Shoppe, which we just happened past, after which we left with several pens and notebooks, as is our wont.

We wrapped up with a quick coffee on the patio at Arvo.

Later in the year it’ll be so busy we won’t want to go, but for a spring afternoon, it was pretty great.

Stretch

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The last time I had dinner in person with T-Bone it didn’t get much of a write-up because of how busy the week was. If I’d known it would be the last time we’d see each other in person for nearly eight years, I’d have elaborated.

It used to be nothing for us to share a meal — we had breakfast together every Friday when we worked a desk or two apart — but kids and job changes and a pandemic and just life have made it tricky. To wit: we’ve been trying to schedule this since our birthdays last July.

This week, though, we managed to keep the date firm, and T-Bone booked Nobu. It was my first time there; it was her fourth. We had:

  • Cocktails
  • Yellowtail Jalapeño
  • Crispy Rice with Spicy Tuna
  • Salmon wrapped in some kind of pear (special)
  • Black Cod Miso
  • Lobster Tempura with Tamari Honey (half order)
  • A5 Wagyu Dumplings with Spicy Ponzu
    • CB Champagne, Grand Cru, Blanc de Blancs, NV
  • Buttermilk Donuts
    • glasses of Laurent-Perrier Champagne & Suntory whiskey

All of it was good, but the lobster and yellowtail were the stars of the show in my opinion.

Mostly, it was just good to see my friend and catch up.

Contention window

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Earlier this week the Montreal Canadiens were knocked out of their first round playoff series by Washington, in five games. Years ago this would have felt like a dismal failure. This year, it felt like progress.

Since a disastrous season following their Cinderella run to the cup final in 2021, the Habs have been in a rebuild. Their objective to start the year was to be playing competitive games in March and April. Before the season began The Athletic gave them a 4% chance of making the playoffs; that prediction fell to 1% as late as Feb 10th. After the break, though, Montreal stormed back up the rankings, clinching the last playoff spot in the East in their final game of the season.

Gone are the days where any team can contend year in and year out — this is the new reality. You take some bad years, build through the draft and smart trades, and hope to get to a contention window for a few years. Now, a few years in, there’s a solid core in place (Lane Hutson is likely to win the Calder trophy; if he does, he’ll be the first Habs rookie to do it since Ken Dryden in 1972), with lots of upside still left to be realized. A playoff series like this against one of the best teams in the league is invaluable experience. They’ll be an exciting team to watch for a while, assuming they can avoid a Buffalo/Detroit-style backslide.

Can’t wait for September.

Revisiting a prediction

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Nearly five months ago, when Chrystia Freeland suddenly resigned her cabinet post, I guessed that this was actually a bit of Liberal party strategy. I guessed a few things would happen:

  1. PM Justin Trudeau would resign in the coming weeks. Trudeau resigned twenty days after I wrote this (and exactly three weeks after Freeland’s announcement.)
  2. Chrystia Freeland would win the Liberal party nomination. I was wrong about this. Carney ran as well, and won handily on the first ballot. I forgot about misogyny.
  3. Mark Carney would run in Sean Fraser’s just-vacated riding. He didn’t; he’s running in Nepean. It was a bit silly for me to think he’d run in a NS riding anyway. I got caught up in my own conspiracy theory.
  4. Mark Carney would be appointed Finance Minister. See above: he aimed higher. As an aside, good luck to whoever gets to keep the Finance file (I assume Champagne has the job temporarily, but maybe I’m wrong) under a guy who’s managed two central banks.
  5. With the Trudeau boogeyman gone, the Conservative platform would founder and polls would swing in the Liberals’ favour. Uh, have they ever:
Source: https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/poll-tracker/canada/

When I wrote that post in mid-December it seemed like a long shot that the Liberals might win the election, let alone take a majority of seats. But that now appears to be a real possibility.

I guess we’ll know in ~36 hours.