Two new, but very different, dining experiences this week.
First, earlier this week I had dinner at Toronto Hunt Club. I know someone who’s a member and he’s been trying to get me there forever. Stunning view at that place for sure, good food (we had lamb and oxtail) and a decent wine list (we had a bottle of Australian Cab/Shiraz) but…manoman, am I ever not a private club guy. Pick any of your standard reasons why. But also, I saw an older couple there who sat side by side through dinner and as far as I could tell didn’t utter a single consonant to either other for two-ish hours and MY GOD is that ever my nightmare. Anyway. Seems like a gorgeous spot, and the food wasn’t bad, but…yeah.
Then today, whilst out for a walk, I found myself walking by Maha’s Egyptian Brunch and there was no line (!) so I just ducked in and ate some breakfast: a delicious Egyptian omelette and glass of beet juice. It got me one step closer to a personal 2024 objective: to try all the Michelin-recognized (at least, according to last year’s list) restaurants east of Yonge before the end of the year. More on those objectives in my year-end roundup…which, I guess, I’ll be writing about eleven weeks from now.
We flew Porter out of Pearson for first time, on one of their jets they use to fly to western North America. We found a Vino Volo near what we thought was our gate, but didn’t have time for more than a quick glass of wine. We began walking to our gate, realized it was very far away, and hustled a bit. We got to our gate just in time to find out our flight was delayed, so we walked back to the Vino Volo so we could eat. A flatbread later, we were ready for our flight.
The flight itself was pretty good: economy, but roomy and no middle seats, and free wi-fi. We landed in Calgary and picked up our car — upgrade to a VW Tiguan! — and drove to the Kensington neighbourhood, where our friend Kirsten had kindly let us use her condo. We got in, relaxed a bit, and enjoyed a view of the sunset over the hills west of the city.
We walked to Niko’s Bistro for dinner, had a surprise run-in with our recently-transplanted-to-Calgary Stevie & Sarah, and sat down at our table. We had:
Starters
Caprese salad w/ organic spring mix, bocconcini cheese, tomatoes, XV olive oil, balsamic reduction
Risotto con fungi w/ mushrooms, porcini mushrooms, truffle oil
Agnello Brasato w/ lamb shank, braised vegetables, XV olive oil, tomatoes, served with parmesan risotto
bottle of Collazzi Liberta Toscana IGT
Shortly after our apps, Lindsay started feeling gross, so the staff very kindly offered to pack our mains to go, and corked our remaining wine. I ate my lamb at home (the risotto was excellent) while Lindsay slept it off.
Sunday
We obviously rested as much as possible the next morning; I went to COBS for breakfast and The Roasterie for coffee. We were packing to leave for the mountains shortly, so with that done Lindsay reheated her risotto while I grabbed a (MUCH too large) burger from Flipp’n Burgers.
After a quick stop to see Stevie & Sarah’s new place (and give some love to Ivy and Pluto) we drove west to Banff. I always love driving into the mountains; Lindsay was a little underwhelmed given all the hyping I/we’d done.
We checked in at the Rimrock resort hotel, threw our stuff in our room, and I registered for my two-day conference. We turned right back around the drove down the hill to the town of Banff, where we met up with Stevie & Sarah again. They were psyched about fondue at The Grizzly House, which was quite an adventure. Vegetables boiled in buttery broth, a bunch of meat, and chocolate fondue for dinner. We left full, but also smelling vaguely of smoke, and drove back up the hill to the hotel.
Monday
Not much to report: a full day of conference-going for me, a day of work for Lindsay. But when the conference is in a locale like this, it’s pretty easy to take:
I skipped the conference dinner, and had a drink at the bar with Lindsay instead.
We had dinner at Primrose; I’d wanted to try Eden because of their wine list, but it was closed. Lindsay still wasn’t feeling great, so we kept the order tight:
Salt Baked Beets w/ Whipped Ricotta, Salted Pistachio, Focaccia, Mint
Chocolate Cremeux of Dark Chocolate, Malt Ganache, Almond Crunch
Tuesday
Day two of the conference, so once again not much to report. We did drive down into the town centre for lunch. On a recommendation we tried Block, but it was full and had a long wait list. We instead went to PARK distillery. Our server was nice; the table next to us featured a kid absolutely blasting French cartoons on a parent’s phone. Food was pretty good too:
corn bread w/ maple whisky butter
drunken shrimp w/ park alpine dry gin, tomato, herbs, spices
rotisserie chicken caesar salad w/ wood-fired pulled chicken, grana padano, bacon, focaccia croutons
rotisserie chicken s’wich w/ pulled rotisserie chicken, park maple rye bbq sauce, cheddar, slaw, bacon, ranch, brioche bun, hickory fries + smoked tomato chili vodka soup
It was time to check in at our second Banff hotel: the Fairmont Banff Springs. We got another upgrade — a suite in the Gatehouse — but our room wasn’t quite ready, so we had excellent cocktails in the famous Rundle Bar.
Mid-cocktail we got a text that our room was ready, so we walked over, dumped our bags, chilled for a while, and admired yet another classic view.
Our dinner that night was a big one: 1888 Chop House, the hotel’s steakhouse. Our host was from New Brunswick, which was a nice surprise, and also a deviation from what we’d observed so far in Banff — that every service person there was from Australia or New Zealand (or possibly the UK). Our server’s Aussie accent quickly corrected the deviation.
It was an epic meal for sure:
Cocktails
glasses of Piper Heidsieck NV Champagne
Appetizers
1888 House Bread w/ everything seasoning, nasturtium butter
Local Gems w/marcona almonds, toasted grains, radicchio, citrus
Luckily the walk home was a short one, ’cause we conked right out.
Wednesday
Unfortunately it was hard to stay conked — the room mechanicals made weird noises all night, and at 7am the pipes/ducts/whatever starting rattling and whining like a jet engine was starting in the room. Not good since we were trying to rest up for a day of hiking. We got up, and noticed that the overnight rain for us had been snow higher up, so the highest mountain peaks were covered in snow. You can see it on the mountains in the distance below.
Lindsay had booked us on a bus that would us to both Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. I was very excited — I hadn’t seen either lake since 2006, and had spent only minutes at Lake Louise. We had breakfast in Vermillion Room, got ready, and drove up the highway. Now Lindsay was impressed — bigger mountains, amazing views, and snowcaps just make mountains look more mountain-like. We parked at the foot of Lake Louise ski resort, got on our bus, and headed over to Lake Louise first. We spent an hour there, avoiding tourists, but enjoying the views as we walked around the lake shore.
Pretty quickly we were back on the bus and off to Moraine Lake. It really blew Lindsay away, and really took me back. 18 years later it was just as breathtaking.
Because we only had a couple hours we only did the lakeshore trail. It was slushy, but manageable, even though we didn’t have proper gear. We could walk it all the way to to the end where we didn’t see another hiker for a good 20 minutes.
Back at the lodge, we did the Rockpile hike just before the bus came back, for the “$20 view”, so named because it used to be the vista pictured on the old Canadian $20 bill. It was getting quite cold now, but it was so worth it. On our way down a tourist couple asked if it was safe to hike to the top without bear spray; I assured them the only wildlife they’d encounter would be hungry hikers.
A little pooped, we were bussed back across the valley, and then drove home along the Bow Valley Parkway. Our only wildlife sighting was a small herd of deer, but the drive was so gorgeous we didn’t care. We arrived back at the hotel, dropped the car, turned on our heels, and went right to dinner at The Waldhaus pub down the hill from the hotel. It was exactly what we needed: a quiet, relaxed environment. Had it been lighter out, it would have been a gorgeous view of the Bow River. We treated our bellies instead of our eyes:
After all that, we somehow pushed our tired legs back up the 93 stairs to the hotel, and collapsed in our bed.
Thursday
It was time to leave Banff, so we ordered room service, packed, drove to the town centre, parked, and went for a walk along the Bow River. Not all the way to the falls, just to a bench with a great view.
After a few panicked moments when Lindsay realized she’d forgotten her phone on the bench (we ran back; it was still there) we were back in town and decided to re-try our luck with Block. Luckily, we got right in. Nice vibe in there.
Zero-proof balsamic gin & tonic: Seedlip Garden 108, Spiced Orange & Balsamic NA Gin, Wildlife Tonic Syrup, Soda (somebody had to drive)
Dessert
matcha cheese cake w/ ginger chocolate sauce
We stopped for cappuccinos at Mountain Folk Coffee Co, which were pretty meh despite being $8 a pop. Grumble. We drove off toward Calgary, and saw a high speed chase (!) on the highway on an otherwise uneventful drive back to Kirsten’s condo. We ordered some pizzas from Pulcinella and drank a bottle of her wine.
A delicious, lazy morning that didn’t get off to much of a start until I went to COBS for breakfast and Aggudo for coffee. We made a lunch plan and later walked, crossing the Bow once more, to lunch at Bridgette Bar. It was largely positive: I really liked the vibe and decor, the wine list was excellent with lots of obscure stuff, and the food was extremely tasty. My only complaint was that our server promised to “course out” our five snacks/starters, but instead it all showed up at once, swamping the table and overwhelming us.
white peach Negroni (gin, peach liqueur, blanc aperitif, Campari)
We walked back and met Stevie & Sarah & Ivy for a park hang before walking down to Pages Books. There we spent some time (and money) and petted the resident cat, Kilgore Trout.
While Lindsay finished up there I shopped down the street at Vine Styles, a truly excellent wine shop. I bought bottles to replenish Kirsten’s supply, and to go with the fancy-ass peanut butter sandwiches we got from PB and J YYC. I grabbed an exceptional bottle of Cru Beaujolais too.
A purely mechanical morning: we woke up, showered, packed, cleaned up, and drove to the airport. Thanks Alberta; you served up a great first experience for Lindsay and a wonderful return visit for me, especially in the Rockies. I forgot how much I missed them; luckily Lindsay was asking to go back before we’d even left Banff. Until next time!
Last weekend we strolled up to Crow’s to see our third Ibsen play in the last 18 months: Rosmersholm. Like A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler, the set was stark (though I don’t know if any set will ever be as stark as Doll’s House), the dialogue brilliant, and the messages timeless. It was all the more remarkable because one of the actors was filling in at the absolute last minute — stepping in earlier that day for the primary actor who’d had a death in the family.
Last week, when I was sitting down to dinner, I read the news about James Earl Jones passing. An absolute icon from my childhood on, even though it was years before I knew anything other than his voice. Darth Vader is truly one of the all-time great movie characters, and embodied by Jones’ voice as much as — perhaps even more than — David Prowse’s physical acting.
Only when I thought back through his filmography, though, did I realize how many more of James’ roles were meaningful to me over the years: The Hunt For Red October (and the other Jack Ryan films), Field of Dreams, Dr. Strangelove, even Conan. Plus a small but very hilarious part in Sneakers. There were also dozens of noteworthy film performances before I was old enough to know them, not to mention Broadway acclaim. And I was too old to have childhood memories of The Lion King, but chalk up another iconic voice performance.
Earlier this week I tried The Rosebud for the first time. The food was quite good (deli plate; beets w/ grapes, hazelnuts, and marjoram vinaigrette; confit duck leg + seared duck breast w/ sour cherry, olive, and pistachio pistou) but the real standout was the wine selection. Lots of stuff by the glass I’m just not accustomed to seeing, like Picpoul, Pinot Nero (done as a white wine; so little skin contact it practically looked like water), and Semillon. I finished with a bit of Chinon for the duck.
At the very end of the week, I received some welcome news. As I’ve written about here before, I spent much of the spring and summer studying for the WSET level 3 award in wines. I wrote the exam on July 4th, and learned later that it takes ten weeks to get your results. At ten weeks + one day, I received an email telling me I’d passed the theory portion with distinction, and the tasting portion with merit (so, a little less strong than the theory). I was frankly much more worried about the theory bit, partly because that’s what most people fail, and partly because in my practice exams leading up to the final exam I’d not done very well. But some excellent coaching by the course instructor got me across the goal line.
I took a special bottle out of the cellar to celebrate. We had it last night with Lindsay’s little brother, after dinner at Avling and some Ed’s ice cream on the way home. Felt fitting for us three to celebrate with an award-winning Nova Scotian sparkling.
Not all weekends feel rejuvenating — especially as summer is now most definitely turning into autumn — but this one did.
On Friday Laura came over after work. No occasion other than a catchup, and an excuse to pull some fun bottles out of the cellar. We started with a 2015 Bethel Heights Chardonnay from the Willamette Valley, which was underwhelming. I’ll say it before and I’ll say it again: I’ve been spoiled by Ontario chard. Anyway, then we ordered some pizza and did a side-by-side of two 2014 Syrahs: the 2014 Le Vieux Pin Équinoxe from the Okanagan, and the 2014 Esk Valley Winemaker’s Reserve from the Gimblett Gravels in Hawke’s Bay. It was the eldest vintage of my remaining Equinoxe Syrahs vs. a formative wine for Laura. I preferred the Le Vieux Pin; she preferred the Esk Valley. Lindsay kept shtum. Now that the WSET trauma has worn off (I still don’t know the exam result, by the way) it feels good to explore wine for enjoyment more than education.
Yesterday, feeling slightly worse for wear, I met up with my old friend Jenna at Ladybug. Apart from a brief hello at a random Fran’s diner, I hadn’t seen her in eight years — she was just always closer to Nellie than to me, and divorces have a way of cleaving friend groups. In any case, an Instagram comment led to us making a brunch plan, and it was lovely. I mean, the food was good and everything (my pancakes were covered in so much whipped cream I scaled the dish as much as ate it) but the real treat was just reconnecting with her. Hearing about her and the changes in her life, and seeing how well she’s doing. She was always one of the warmest and most genuinely charming people I’d ever met, and that hadn’t changed. We said our goodbyes for now, with hopes for another meetup soon. I got kind of emotional on my walk home — a little sad, but mostly grateful.
If I’m heading downtown for work, I try to pack in multiple work/colleague visits to make it worthwhile. Such was the case this past Thursday when I was able to reconnect with a former financial challenger compatriot at the Spadina outpost of Neo, stop by the newest location of Fahrenheit (so yes, I was well-caffeinated), work for a bit on the patio at Gusto 501, and finally try out Ladybug with Dan B once the work laptop was shut for the day. I even squeezed in a quick stop at Chez Nous on the way home. (So yes, I was well-wined too.)
I liked Ladybug a lot. Nice patio (the weather is finally good for that), fun & interesting wine selection, tasty food (Dan and I split olives, shrimp, meatballs, and the short rib), and lovely staff. I’m keen to sit inside next time; I remember liking the decor from back when it was Odin.
Earlier this week I visited Prince Edward Island for the first time in (*checks with his mother*) about 45 years. I don’t know why that is — we lived an hour away, but never went. I guess it was just more of the same thing we grew up with in NS, except with a ferry ride (or, after 1997, an expensive bridge toll) thrown in.
To be more specific, I really only spent time in Charlottetown, for a couple of days of work. We did manage to sneak in a tasty meal and cocktails at Slaymaker & Nichols, excellent coffee from Receiver, a lobster roll from Salt & Sol, and a cruise around the harbour. We were lucky; the weather was 98% beautiful (no sign of the after-affects of a recent hurricane off the coast), the water was calm, and we even spotted a few seals. It felt good to be back on salt water.
After the harbour cruise, we all made an obligatory visit to Cows. A thoughtful co-worker even bought us all t-shirts from Cows; a few days later, the security personnel at the Moncton airport would be big fans of my Scoop Dogg shirt.
Yes, Moncton. After the meetings in Charlottetown ended I hitched a ride with a colleague back across the bridge (my first time traversing it, obviously) to Moncton where I worked for a few days. Not much of note in that short visit, except that I finally visited CoPain, an artisanal bakery. I’ll be back, on the strength of that croissant alone.
We spent last weekend in Stratford. We packed a lot into 48 hours.
Friday
After a long drive out of Toronto (is there any other kind?) and a brutal rainstorm, we arrived in Stratford and checked into the Bradshaw Lofts before checking out the wine bar downstairs, Brch & Wyn. We had:
stone fruit w/ fresh mozzarella, walnuts, basil, peach romesco
chicken nuggies w/ brch dry rub, spicy mayo, lime
massaman flatbread w/ beer coconut curry, cashew, chili crisp, pickled chili
some very tasty & well-curated wines: I remember there being a local orange wine, a Gewurz, a Sonoma Chard, and two local Cab Francs
We threw it all down our necks quickly; we had a play to get to — Cymbeline (link). My haiku review:
A twist on Shakespeare Casts Cymbeline as queen; pretty good but kinda long
By long I mean: 90 minutes into the play the lights went dark, which we figured was a shockingly abrupt end, but it turns out ’twas only the intermission and there was another 90 minutes to go. We made it, though. We all made it.
Saturday
Luckily Brch & Wyn is also an excellent coffee shop, so I grabbed us caffeine and breakfast downstairs. We watched some Netflix in the room (I’ve been forced to watch Love Island once again, so that betting may ensue), we made an unscheduled run to Wal-Mart (don’t ask), and then went out in search of lunch. After bumping into a few non-starters — NB: Stratford runs on a schedule, and the 2pm plays drive a lot of people into a noon lunch — we braved the lineup at Features, a Stratford institution. We banked on their ability to turn tables quickly, and it paid off: we had a table right away, with plenty of time to make it to our next play. I even had time to stop at The Ashborne Café for an espresso.
Our second play was the Ibsen classic Hedda Gabler (link). My haiku review:
Stellar work all ’round “People don’t do such things!” No, But our Hedda does
After a quick walk home and more bingeing, we were off to dinner at Lovage. It really feels like a home away from home now (to wit: earlier in the day, while walking around town, we were recognized by our favourite host Abra!) and on this occasion it didn’t disappoint. Here’s what we had:
Lobster salad
Marinated peppers
glasses of Ontario orange and Portuguese white
Fried squid w/ shishito peppers
glasses of Chablis and Sicilian white
Short rib special (described to us as “pastrami-adjacent”) w/ white kimchi
a half-bottle of Tondonia Rioja
Crème-frâiche ice cream + blueberry sorbet
glasses of Port and Madeira
Sunday
Once again: caffeine and breakfast from Brch + Wyn woke us up. We had to check out by 11, but our brunch reso wasn’t until 12, so we killed time sitting in a park on a summer day. Just as we were leaving I saw a hawk fly full-speed into the top of a tree, followed by the screaming chatter of a squirrel(?), then the hawk falling out of the bottom of the tree and flying away. Couldn’t tell if it was a successful hunting expedition or not.
As noon approached we walked to Revival House for brunch. Just as we were about to be seated Lindsay realized I didn’t have my umbrella. It’s the best umbrella I’ve ever owned so I didn’t want to lose it. We walked back to the park, relieved to find it there, and returned to Revival. It’s a converted church (with some stunning gardens out front) that feels quite cozy inside. We had cocktails, a fried chicken sandwich (me) and eggs bennie (Lindsay), followed by an almond coffee cake and some coffees, and then were off to the Studio theatre, just kitty-corner from the restaurant, for our final play.
The Edward Albee play The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia? (link) has been much celebrated since it was first performed in 2002. All four members of the cast had been in Cymbeline Friday night, and one — Rick Roberts — was someone I watched many years ago on Traders. My haiku review:
Dark, hard, weird viewing This animal collective Comes wholly undone
It was a good thing we’d gone back to get that umbrella, because our walk home was through pouring rain. As was our drive home, pretty much the whole way. And that wasn’t the half of it: we knew there’s been weather warnings all over southern Ontario the past few days (including a tornado that touched down in nearby Ayr) but driving home and seeing cars submerged on flooded highways really brought it home. (Also, different kind of danger, but we also saw Batman.)
So, a successful 48 hours overall. Not sure we’ll return to Stratford next year for plays (we might go just to eat at Lovage, and maybe try cocktails at Elizabeth which we missed this time) but I feel like we did it right this time.
My 49th birthday was earlier this week. No big celebrations; we were still recovering from the cold we both caught at the tail end of our India trip. I skipped some work things earlier in the week, and yesterday was the first day I even started to feel normal.
Today was nicer. I went for a walk, bought a book at Queen Books, bought us lunch and a Deep ‘n Nostalgic chocolate cake from hot new bakery Alice Marie, picked up some meat at Butchers of Distinction, and bought some mini doughnuts at COPS. I watched some Olympics. I snuggled with Pluto, who we’re cat-sitting for a week. There might be some Pandemic later. There will definitely be wine.
It’s taken some time to recover from this one, but sometime yesterday I became desperate to plan more trips. Not that there’s a single red penny left in the vacation fund, but that hasn’t stopped me. I want mountains. I want an AirBnB with a pool. I want a cool city with parks and wine bars. I want Nova Scotia at a time that isn’t Christmas. I want wineries. I want a language gap.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 