Category: Food / drink

Xmas 2025

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Fri Dec 19

One very bumpy flight (due to a windstorm which knocked out power all over the province) later, we were on the ground in Halifax. The 20-minute drive to Bedford through rain and wind was even worse than the flight, but we made it. We tried to sleep, but a disruptive cat made it difficult.

Sat Dec 20 – Mon Dec 22

After a bit of shopping we drove to the farm, arriving just minutes after brother #1 and his progeny. Brother #2 was laid up in hospital, but sister-in-law #1 and their kids came over for a big feed. The next day brother #1, my dad, and I drove to the hospital visit the missing brother, then got home for lunch just in time for brother #1 to head back to Halifax. After that, many games of crib ensued. On Monday brother #2 was being discharged so I picked him up and drove him home; afterwards, there was more crib and a movie (Secondhand Lions). A typical quiet time at the farm, less the nightly visits next door to sip some wine.

Tue Dec 23 – Thu Dec 25

On Tuesday we drove back to Bedford, stopping at Truro along the way, which included lunch at the Nook & Cranny, coffee at NovelTea, and a lot of one-way street confusion. A few more errands along the way and we were back in Bedford, eating dinner, drinking eggnog, and listening to East Coast Christmas.

We spent the 24th (mostly) chilling, eating lobster rolls with grandparents, drinking wine, and watching Die Hard.

Then: Christmas! Which looked a lot like Christmas Eve, TBH: eating, drinking, grandparents, games, silliness.

Fri Dec 26

Moving day. I got up and went to a light version of the Dickinson family reunion, this time hosted by brother #1 at his new place. It was fun to see some family, even if illnesses and travel meant the crowd was diminished. Someone even brought a rare curiosity: Cumberland (County) Trivia!

From there I drove down to St. Margaret’s Bay to meet Lindsay and her brothers at their dad’s. Seafood chowder, Dubai chocolate, lots of animal interactions, and a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck.

From there, the brothers went back to Bedford while we drove to downtown Halifax, checking in to our Halifax home: The Muir.

Sat Dec 27

God, we missed a king bed. Best sleep in a while. We eventually headed downstairs to Drift for breakfast, ran out to do a couple errands (nearly freezing to death while doing so), had a coffee at Café Lunette, and went back to the room to relax. I watched the three Stranger Things episodes that came out Christmas Day; Lindsay Stardew’d.

The only solid plan we had in Halifax before we arrived was a dinner reservation at Mystic, recently named the best new restaurant in Canada by En Route. We arrived for our reservation, and things started off a little shaky — our cocktails (Yellow-Eyed Grass for Lindsay, Silverweed for me) took a weirdly long time to arrive, but they were taken off the bill. Once the food started, though, we quickly realized why it’s garnered so many accolades.

Fauna (Lindsay)

  • Snacks (cheese gougère, cheese and zucchini tart, corn crema)
    • 2017 Lightfoot & Wolfville Brut
  • Acadian caviar w/ smoked egg yolk, wild sea flora sea mustard
    • 2023 Seguin-Manuel Aligoté
  • pasta w/ lobster raviolo, lobster cream, NS saffron chanterelles, seaweed brioche
    • 2022 Gachot-Monot Pinot Noir, Hautes-Côtes-de-Beaune
  • tart w/ foie gras, cherry, black apple chutney cured duck salad
    • 2015 Domaine Bott-Geyl Pinot Gris, Furstentum Grand Cru
  • wolf eel fish w/ brioche, scallop, crab, sea asparagus crab hollandaise
    • 2023 JM Boillot 1er Cru Chardonnay, Montagny 
  • [some kind of sunchoke dessert that isn’t on their online menu]
    • 2019 Grüber Roschitz Beerenauslese Chardonnay, Niederösterreich

Biota (Dan)

  • Snacks
    • 2017 Lightfoot & Wolfville Brut
  • Acadian caviar w/ smoked egg yolk, wild sea flora sea mustard
    • 2023 Seguin-Manuel Aligoté
  • tartar of tuna & veal w/ crispy toro horseradish meringue, Jonori flatbread
    • 2024 Le Morette Bardolino Chiaretto Classico
  • arctic char w/ sea asparagus scallop, koji turnip friske, juniper yogurt, ponzu butter
    • 2023 Lucien Crochet Sancerre
  • ribeye w/ beef tongue potato, maitake, kale kombu, tamarack vinegar jus
    • 2020 Osoyoos Larose Le Grand Vin
  • chocolate w/ koji caramel, ganache, pineapple weed cremeux miso, black honey ice cream
    • 20 Year Old Taylor Fladgate Tawny Port

Honestly, every course was amazing. Incredible flavours, perfect balance, strikingly presented. Lovely staff, especially the sommelier, who we ended up chatting with quite a bit (we knew some people in common). I even bumped into a colleague there. Anyway: one of the best meals we’ve had all year, for sure. Maybe the best.

Sun Dec 28

We didn’t stay in bed too long before ordering breakfast up to the room. After a while we struck out to meet up with Patrick for a quick (and awful) coffee at Cafe du Port, then collected their mom and walked back down the hill to Darya for brunch. We all had their buffet, and left stuffed to the gills with delicious food. Those two left to go about their days; Lindsay and I crawled back to the room and had naps.

Dinner that night was at Peacock Wine Bar, and it was basically a reunion of five of the six people who had assembled Friday night…just with different drivers. Here’s what we had:

  • Shared plates (everyone):
    • Focaccia w/ fermented chili butter
    • Burrata w/ lavender, sichuan, plum, black sesame toasts
    • Local vegetables w/ yogurt herb dip
    • Chicken fried halibut cheek w/ scallion gribiche, pickled cauliflower
  • Mains (just Lindsay and I):
    • Dan: Braised pork belly w/ leek, fingerling, mustard cream, plum
    • Lindsay: Tagliatelle w/ wild mushroom, sage, pine nut
  • Drinks (just Lindsay and I):
    • Dan: 22 Rustenberg Chardonnay, Stellenbosch / 24 Gérard Bertrand Gris Blanc Rosé, Languedoc-Roussillon / 24 Tenute Rade Barbera La Pruma, Piedmont / Madeira
    • Lindsay: NV Blomidon, Crémant, NS / 20 Gérard Bertrand, Genora, Vin Orange, Languedoc-Roussillon / 21 Chateau Escalette, Cote de Bourg, Bordeaux

Mon Dec 29

Got up (not easily), packed (not carefully), ate some breakfast (not bad), checked out (not a hassle), had a quick coffee date with friends and their new baby (too cute), picked up Lindsay’s mom nearby (too easy), saw Lindsay’s grandma (too briefly), drove to Bedford (too fast), ate a donair (too messy), re-packed (too painful), and then waited to find out how long we’d be delayed due to weather (too stressful).

VERY frustratingly, Porter was playing like everything was okay, so we made the very treacherous drive to the airport thinking we were only 40 minutes delayed. Just as we checked in, they closed the runways at the airport, but they wouldn’t officially cancel our flight. Everyone knew the flight wasn’t going to leave, but they wouldn’t formally cancel it, so we couldn’t rebook or get our bags back. A plane full of people sat in the airport for hours, with no information, no updates….just a bunch of meaningless “your flight has been delayed by 15 minutes” emails, stating to times that had no basis in reality. I know the weather was the root cause of this situation, but Porter fell down INCREDIBLY hard on the job when it came to looking after its passengers.

Finally, around 8:30pm, they officially cancelled our flight. The email confirming this wouldn’t arrive until 1am, but right away I could see that we’d been rebooked on a flight the next morning. We walked down to get our bags, which came out at about 9:55pm. Then it took us forever to get an Uber in a brutal windstorm. The driver got us back to Lindsay’s mom just as her power came back on from a 2-hour outage. We crawled into the house, weary, but glad we had a booked flight and a place to sleep. Other people were being booked for flights several days from now, and every hotel around the airport was totally booked.

Tue Dec 30

Woke up to emails saying our flight was already delayed from 9:15 to 10:00 — not exactly surprising, since there’d be such a backlog of flights trying to get out. But then it kept going: 11:40, 12:30, 1:00, 1:30. We got nervous. But eventually the delay notifications stopped, so we went to the airport, and finally got on. Glory be.

2025 wasn’t done with us yet though. Our flight was another half hour delayed, ans then — after a landing almost as bumpy as the one in Halifax that started this trip — we, along with about a dozen other people on the plane, realized our bags never showed up. Most of the passengers got theirs. Us lot didn’t. The Porter baggage desk was uniformly unhelpful — they just told us all to scan a QR code which led to a third party app.

So we’re home. But our luggage isn’t. Bianca’s happy though, and that’s all that matters.

UPDATE 1: bag #1 arrived around 5pm on Jan 1. No sign of bag #2.

UPDATE 2: bag #2 arrived around 5pm on Jan 2. Much to our relief, the bottle of Lightfoot & Wolfville 2017 Brut sparkling inside had not broken or exploded.

The curse lives on

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I followed up a trip to Moncton last week (trying two new places during my visit: Taverna and Bâton Rouge; the former is pretty good, but the latter was as meh as I expected and twice as weird) with a one-night trip to Montreal. I had a plan to see my fifth-ever Canadiens game in Montreal in 2025, and just snuck it in before the end of the year.

After a couple nice days back home in Toronto, I headed back to Billy Bishop airport. It was snowing in Toronto, but my flight hit the goodness trifecta: left on time, arrived without incident, and the seat next to me was empty. Can’t ask for more. (Also, the flight attendant on this flight gave me a whole can of pop, while the flight attendant on my Moncton->Toronto flight two days ago gave me a heavy pour of red wine and offered me a second class. I guess I look thirsty.)

I landed at YUL to find a new Uber setup, which I think every airport should copy. On the drive into downtown, I saw some “FUCK ICE” graffiti, which obviously speaks to our political moment in North America, but is probably also an annual sentiment in Montreal.

I arrived at the Centre Sheraton, a location chosen only because I had enough Bonvoy points for a free night, and because it’s about as close as you can get to the Bell Centre, otherwise it would not be on my list. But it was fine for a night, even if the elevators made constant noise.

In search of coffee and tide-over snacks, I popped around the corner to Melk for a cortado and a scone. I finished the book I’ve been reading (Terror from the Air by Peter Sloterdijk), bought some beans to bring home, and walked back to the hotel.

After a couple of relaxing hours I went for an early dinner at Bar Edicola, not far from the hotel. (Thank goodness; it was a full-fledged winter storm now.) It’s essentially a long counter, but the vibes were pretty great. I had a glass of some weird Italian Pinot variant, some heavy soft warm oily bread, a glass of Trebbiano, a plate of ricotta agnolotti, a glass of Nebbiolo, and espresso. Solid meal all around, and perfect for a snowy night.

It was almost time for the game, so I stopped back at the hotel to change into my Montreal jersey and add some extra layers. A short (but cold & snowy) walk later I was settled in, watching the Canadiens take on St. Louis. Now, the curse of my presence at a Montreal home game — once at the old Forum, three times at the Bell Centre — is well documented, so I was a little nervous to go. Sadly, I was right to be nervous: they lost 4-3 to the middling Blues. Apart from a 65-second span to start the second period the Habs outplayed and out-chanced them, but that brief lapse was enough to give away the game. Dejected, I walked home through the snow with the crowds. At least I got to have a Bell Centre hot dog.

The next morning I woke up and had some pretty friggin’ delicious pain perdu downstairs at Stanley. (I’d thought about venturing out for some breakfast, but it was -25° with the windchill.) Some showering, packing, and relaxing later and I was on my way to the airport for my flight home. Not so lucky with the flight this time — it was on time and relatively uneventful, but someone sat next to me, and a lady right in front of me just opened up a can of flaky salmon and ate it with a fork like as if she hadn’t set up a stink bomb in the pressured tube of an airplane. Stunk harder than the Habs at the start of period two last night. (Hey-o.)

I’m glad I’ve gotten to see the Canadiens beat the Leafs here in Toronto a few times, because I’m starting to think I’ll never get to see it happen in Montreal. Frankly, I kind want to give up trying — not because I believe I’m actually unlucky for them, but because it’s kind of a bummer to keep experiencing losses and never get the win.

Ah, who am I kidding? I’ll be back next year.

Wood Owl

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Last night, with Patrick & Maeve in town, we finally visited a place that’s been on my list forever: The Wood Owl.

First, the decor: really beautiful inside. Luxurious wood. Heavy drapery. Indie concert posters and old wine bottles on the wall. Basically, how my basement looks in my dreams.

Anyway: the food. To sum up: absolutely fantastic. We had:

  • shared appetizers
    • crispy potato rosti & manchego w/ guindilla aioli, mojo rojo, green onion
    • fried brassicas w/ whipped tahini, pumpkin seed dukkah, mexican chili oil, charred jalapeno pesto, pickled onion
    • yellowfin tuna w/ aji amarillo, cara cara orange, cucumber, lime leaf oil, thai basil, red chili
      • a bottle of Baia’s Wine 2023 Krakhuna, Imereti, Georgia
  • mains
    • cavatelli w/ smoked parsnip, butterkin & kouginut squash, leek top cream, king oyster mushrooms, watercress
    • seared rainbow trout w/ leek soubise & wasabina, butterball potato, horseradish salsa verde, dill oil, hakurel turnip (x2)
    • grilled pork chop w/ five spice glazed apple, shaved fennel, chicories, orange sesame vinaigrette
      • a bottle of Domaine Baud ‘Rouge Ancestral’ 2022 Côtes du Jura AOC
  • dessert
    • plum & cardamom cake in custard
      • glasses of Jurançon and Sauternes dessert wine

Side note: this dinner completed the little mini-resolution I gave myself this year, which was to have visited at least once all the Michelin-recognized (at the time) spots east of Yonge. The most recent edition added some new restaurants to the list, so I think I already know what next year’s plan will be.

A well-lubricated machine

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Three years ago I had a wine cabinet built in the basement. It took me another year or two to fill it with truly age-worthy wine, and now we find ourselves in a pretty luxurious position: wine is aging out of the cabinet as fast as it’s going in. I don’t even have to work that hard to fill it: my subscriptions and regular annual purchases more or less keep us in equilibrium. Here’s what that roster looks like:

(An aside: I’ve stopped purchasing from the LCBO Vintages releases every month as they massively overprice those wines, but I do add the odd bottle here or there.)

For those doing the math, that’s 204 incoming bottles per year. My best guess is that ~150 of those are age-worthy, which means ~150 older wines will come out of the cabinet to make room. Which means that each week we need to (ha ha, need to) consume three bottles which have aged out of the cabinet, plus one new ready-to-drink bottle that came in the same shipments, to maintain equilibrium. And yeah, four bottles is pretty much our week.

It has for sure ruined us for mediocre wine though. Just look at what’s on the ‘drink soon’ rack, next to the cabinet — I won’t list all 68 bottles, but just look at the Pinot Noir section:

  • 2022 SpearHead
  • 2021 Le Clos Jordanne Claystone Terrace
  • 2019 Le Clos Jordanne Le Grand Clos
  • 2020 Domaine d’Ardhuy Bourgogne Côte d’Or Les Chagniots
  • 2018 Five Rows
  • 2018 Hidden Bench Locust Lane Vineyard x2
  • 2019 Domaine Queylus Réserve du Domaine x2
  • 2018 Bachelder Lowrey Vineyards 1984 Plantation x2

Now, as you can tell by both this list and my subscriptions above, this is a very Canada-heavy — and specifically Ontario-heavy — collection. But guys, we love Chardonnay and Pinot and Cabernet Franc and Sparkling, all things at which Ontario excels. Plus, I’ll take the red blends from Hidden Bench and Leaning Post and Queylus over their doubly-expensive global alternatives all day. I don’t think I’m the only one whose collection would reflect their proximity to a world-class wine region; I just think many people don’t consider Ontario world-class, which is insane to me.

Not that we only drink Canadian, of course. 42% of what I have aging is from, in descending order, France, Italy, USA, Spain, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, Portugal, Austria, Greece, Lebanon, New Zealand, Germany, and Hungary. I pick up bottles here and there when they sound interesting.

But my heart, and most of my dollars, are with the farmers and artists just across & up Lake Ontario.

Elevated

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We were so enamored of the fall colours on our Ottawa trip a few weeks ago that we decided another weekend in the Ottawa countryside was in order. And so it was that we booked a couple nights at Langdon Hall, just outside Cambridge. I’d been there a few times for work functions, but never as a regular guest. Lindsay had never been there at all. So Friday afternoon we packed up the car and drove there.

Friday

After quite an easy drive, we checked in. Our room had a fireplace, which we were pretty excited about, cause fall had definitely arrived outside. Unfortunately the wood in the fireplace had been there a while, with the flue open, so we couldn’t get it to light properly. We gave up, as we had to be downstairs for an early dinner.

We started early because we’d booked something called the Grand Tasting Menu, a 9-course “specially curated selection of dishes you won’t find on [their] à la carte menu. In honour of his 10th anniversary at Langdon Hall, The Grand Tasting Menu is Executive Chef Jason Bangerter’s most elevated and exciting menu.” Elevated is a word we heard a lot that night; the server used it at least three times per course.

Overall, I’d say it was an exceptional meal. Maybe not the most innovative tasting menu we’d ever had, but remarkable in its precision, presentation, and local flavours. The lobster dish and pasta course were exceptional, and foie gras amuse-bouche was one of the best things I’ve eaten all year.

  • Cocktails
    • Hauntwood (wild apples from the Langdon Hall property, quince, Boulard Calvados, Island Diaz spiced rum, Astoria)
    • Closing Remarks (flavors and aromas of the surrounding forest, Reid’s Gin, Vermouth de Forcalquier, Luxardo Del Santo, lime)
  • Grand Tasting Menu
    • snacks: sunchoke and winter truffle; foie gras & grapes
    • greenhouse citrus: buttermilk panna cotta, all the LH citrus plants
    • caviar + onion: blanc de blanc bubbles, onion crème fraîche
    • taste the ocean: golden king crab, scallop, urchin
    • juniper smoked trout: crispy skin, rillettes, cured roe
    • lobster: sweet corn, LH fungi, crustacean velouté
    • Stracciatella Casoncelli: winter truffle, madeira beurre blanc
    • Waygu beef: celery root, brussels, chardonnay vinegar
    • raspberry + rose: heritage rose jelly, berry crémeux
    • pear + hazelnut: poached pear, ginger leaf nage
    • petit fours
      • wine pairings (I did not, unfortunately, write them down)

It’s a good thing we started at 6:00, because we didn’t wrap up until after 10:00, which meant I barely made it back to the room in time to see the Jays lose game six, and then we crashed.

Saturday

Okay, so it’s possible we overindulged the night before. Oy vey.

We got ourselves downstairs for breakfast, ate a lot of it, and then took advantage of their walking trails. We covered pretty much the entire grounds, soaking in the quiet, the scenery, the bird-watching, and the dogs out on the trail. As much as the rest of the grounds are probably better in the summer, I think the trails are perfect in the fall.

On the way back we made a quick stop at their wine shoppe, picking up three bottles to bring home, then went back to the room and ordered room service. While Lindsay showered I figured out a fire strategy and, by the time she emerged, I had it crackling away.

That afternoon we’d booked one activity: a wine tasting. There were supposed to be ten of us; two people showed up, but one person did who wasn’t meant to, so nine it was. It wasn’t exactly a somm exam, so all three wines were pretty easy to guess (Cava, Riesling, Cab Franc), but it’s always fun to taste with nice people. We ended up figuring out that the couple next to us (a) live quite close to us in Toronto, and (b) know some people I worked with at Arterra — in fact, someone that used to work for me now works for her. And there was another guy in the tasting who looked very much like him! Weird, weird coincidence.

We made our way from there another early dinner — this time in the bar instead of the restaurant. We got a simpler meal, but splashed out a bit on the wine. (A small aside: the server sent the somm to talk to us, but she looked at the couple next to us and decided that surely they were the ones looking for a sommelier’s expertise, not us two ruffians. By the time our server tracked the somm back down and sent her round to find us, our apps had arrived. By the time she came back with our bottle, the apps were gone.) Anyway, here’s what we ate:

  • Cocktails
    • Rabbit Season (carrot, macadamia, pecan, cardamom, nutmeg, Redbreast 12 year, Carpano Antica, González Byass, Angostura)
    • Amoxicillin (citrus, honey, lapsang souchong, Espolòn Añejo tequila, Cointreau)
  • Appetizers
    • dressed beets w/ crème fraîche, shallot pickle, greenhouse herbs
    • baby gem leaves w/ creamy garlic dressing, nutritional yeast, toasted sourdough crumb
  • Mains
    • beer battered cod w/ egg gribiche, chubby chips, watercress
    • red wine marinated chicken w/ creamy polenta, sauce coq au vin
      • bottle of 2011 Pommard, 1er Cru, Clos Orgelot, Clos du Moulin aux Moines
  • Dessert
    • sticky toffee date pudding w/ soft caramel, rum raisin ice cream
    • gourmand cookie w/ all the chocolate, fudgy ganache center (which we took to the room)

This time we got back to the room plenty early enough to build another beauty fire and watch nearly all of game seven, which of course ended up in a heart-breaking loss for the Jays. I’ll have more to say about that later, once the sadness wears off.

Sunday

We woke feeling a little extra-refreshed, which I realized later was because of daylight savings time. (The good one.) We grabbed a lighter breakfast, packed up, and drove home.

Pretty sweet country weekend getaway, all in all.

Tipsy

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Last night four east enders — me, Lindsay, Ricky, and Olivia — ventured west. Given all the hype (top bar in Canada on one list; rated one of the best in North America, and the world, on others) we were all excited to try Bar Pompette. Well…excited, but also wary. With those kinds of accolades the potential for douchebaggery was high.

Luckily, it was fantastic. Impeccable vibes. Immaculate cocktails. Even their ice cube game is world class. I had two cocktails, but their menu isn’t online so I can’t really remember them, but one tasted like chicory coffee and the other tasted like a cinnamon roll. Everyone else enjoyed theirs as well, including the two special cocktails that were meant to pair with the jazz trio in the corner. Seriously, cocktails and jazz — Lindsay was beside herself. We had just enough snacks to tide us over, then went out in search of proper dinner.

We thought we could walk into Dailo, but it was full, so we just reversed around the corner to Martine’s. Only when Olivia mentioned that it used to be Woodlot did I remember (I think?) that I’d been there once. Anyway, we had a wonderful meal:

  • Food
    • mortadella butter & anchovy on toast
    • steak tartare, button mushroom, fennel hot sauce
    • smoked mackerel Welsh rarebit
    • cavatelli, fennel sausage, rapini, pecorino
    • roasted eggplant, ezme, red pepper
    • wood fired whole chicken & fries
  • Drinks
    • Fülöp The Phenomenon Dry Tokaji
    • Bodegas Sentencia El Indulto La Fuente Bobal
    • Digestifs: glasses of Madeira, PX sherry, and Vermouth

I know some people (*cough cough Lindsay cough*) think it’s boring to order chicken, but goddamn it was good. I mean, everything was.

A lot of food, a lot of drinks, a lot of good laughs. The kind of night that rejuvenates the soul, even if I am a it too old for it. 😐

Duck duck duck cow

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We just spent a long weekend in Ottawa. It got built around a single concert, but we ended up packing in a wonderful few days.

Friday

What a beautiful drive. There was no traffic to speak of getting out of Toronto, and we had smooth sailing – not to mention some beautiful fall colors – the whole way. Google Maps suggested we take a different route into the city, so we got to drive up the Colonel By and explore a little on the way to meet Lindsay’s brother Patrick.

After a slight detour, we parked and met him at Black Squirrel Books. I left with one book (a novel by Kevin Patterson, whose book The Water In Between was important to me when I read it 25 years ago) while Lindsay left with…well, many. I had a cortado, too, which was served in the right glassware, but fell prey to the same pitfall that most coffee shops do: they made it too hot.

We left there and drove to our hotel, The Metcalfe. A new boutique hotel downtown, I’d never stayed there…except, once I stepped in, I realized I had stayed there. Sixteen years ago, when it was the Indigo. Anyway, it’s much nicer now.

We needed food, so we turned on our heels and went straight to Raphaël, which Patrick picked. We had no reservation but they plopped us at the bar. It was really delicious too:

  • Amuse bouche of some kind of fish consommé with ají limo tiger’s milk
  • Pulpo al Olivo: Pacific Octopus Carpaccio, Botija Olive Sauce, Chimichurri, Capers, Tapioca Crackers
  • Causa Vegetariana: Beets, Peas, Carrots, Avocado Mousse, Ají Amarillo Potato Terrine, Botija Olive Sauce, Ají Amarillo Aioli, Crispy Plantain
  • Tamalito De Pato: Sous Vide Duck Thigh, Mote Corn Tamal, Salsa Criolla, Ají Drizzle
  • Anticuchos: Ají Panca Flank Steak Skewers, Mini Potatoes,
  • Brussels Sprouts, Chimichurri, Rocoto Sauce
  • Dessert: petit fours of some kind of tiny cookie and Peruvian flan

It was all excellent. Nice Ontario-forward wine list too.

Afterward Lindsay and Patrick went to a concert at the NAC; I fell into a protest march up Elgin for a while before wandering back to the hotel and catching the end of the Jays game.

Saturday

Boy, did we have a lazy morning. The room was too big and comfy not to. Eventually I went out for coffee, but found that the local Morning Owl is closed on Saturdays, so I got coffees from the lobby cafe instead, and regretted it almost immediately.

Eventually we walked down Elgin to The Manx for brunch. I had fond memories of it when I used to visit in the…mid-to-late-90s, I guess? It hasn’t changed much, which I loved. I had the banana bread French toast; Lindsay had the eggs benny. We both had a Caesar and a beer.

We walked back along the canal on a perfect fall day, and relaxed in the room for a bit before walking back down Elgin for an early dinner with Patrick & Maeve at TOWN. It was fantastic:

  • Apps
    • house focaccia w/ whipped brown butter
    • butterbean, date and apple salad w/ arugula, toasted walnuts, dried cranberries, herbed goat feta, Greek yogurt dressing, wheatberry
    • glass of Rosehall Run Chardonnay for me, and a cocktail for Lindsay
  • Mains
    • Dan: cumin-honey glazed and grilled pork chop w/ confit carrot and roasted pepper purée, polenta batonettes, shishito peppers, chai pickled peach, charred corn salsa
    • Lindsay: house-made cavatelli w/ saffron, corn and miso cacio e pepe, cornbread pangrattato, pickled jalapeños, pecorino, chives, ½ tare glazed duck breast
    • two glasses of Saumur Cabernet Franc
  • Dessert
    • tiramisu
    • glasses of Frankovic Luna Blanca for Patrick and I

Then, the reason we were in Ottawa: to see a symphony playing music from Stardew Valley, aka Lindsay’s favourite game. I’ve heard her playing the game enough that I recognized some of the music, but wasn’t as in on the jokes as everyone else. But she loved it, and that’s what matters.

Sunday

Up quite a bit earlier, as we were meeting CBGB for brunch. I pre-gamed with cappuccinos from Ministry Of Coffee. Side note: early Sunday morning in downtown Ottawa is an unexpected mix of dead quiet and aggressively weird.

When they texted that they were en route we drove out to Hintonburg and met them at a Bridgehead nearby. After chatting and catching up we walked to Chesterfields. Lindsay had a jerk chicken benny; I had a classic breakfast. Mostly we were just there to catch up with friends, who I miss so much. After brunch we went for a group stroll, then said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel.

We weren’t there long, though – we had stacked some plans. We walked to Majors Hill Park to meet Patrick and Maeve again, on what had turned into a very sunny and warm late-October day. We had plans to spend it inside though, at the National Gallery of Canada. We NAGged it up for a few hours.

After that we spilled down Sussex to the market and found a table at Beyond The Pale. P+M ate lunch; we snacked on duck drummies and beers and many bottles of water. After sitting and laughing for quite a while we parted ways; Lindsay and I walked back to the hotel, stopping along the way at Little Victories for some fuel to get through the evening.

A teeny rest in the hotel room later and we were ready for our dinner at Arlo, which ended up being fantastic.

  • Starters:
    • Tomatoes + rosamarina w/ fresh coriander, capers
    • Scallop tartare w/ black garlic, kohlrabi, cilantro, mushroom vinegar
    • Dan drank: Crémant de Loire (Les Athletes du Vin “Gardien des Bulles” NV) and Garganega (La Biancara “Masieri Bianco” ’23)
    • Lindsay drank: House Martini (gin, apple eau de vie, dry vermouth, manzanilla sherry) and a Gruner Veltliner that isn’t on their online menu so I can’t remember what it was
  • Main:
    • Porcini Crusted Ribeye For Two w/ frites, marrow, chimichurri-stuffed portobello, arugula
    • a bottle of Sangiovese (Pacina Donesco Toscana Rosso 2020)
  • Dessert:
    • Lemon Posset
    • A glass of not-quite-Tokaji Hungarian Furmint for me

The steak was cooked perfectly, tip to tail. The scallop tartare might have been one of the best things I ate all year. The wines were all delicious. The vibe was loud at first, but pretty great. In a weekend full of outstanding meals, this might have taken the prize.

Monday

Clearly we used up a lot of our driving luck on Friday. After packing and scarfing down some room service breakfast we drove back to Toronto, and the rain started almost immediately. Several times it escalated to the point where we could barely see the car in front of us, which made for some pretty tense driving. Luckily it cleared up around Gananoque, and we had clear weather all the way into Toronto. We arrived home to find a very happy cat.

All in all: pretty awesome weekend. Perfect weather. Time spent with family and old friends. Incredible food. Memorable experiences. Good birthday trip all around!

Thanksgiving25

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

After recent friend hangs with Mike & Heather (at Godspeed) and Upasana (at ours) I was off to Moncton for some work time. No new spots visited as I was too busy, but I did manage a quiet beer on the Happy patio and a few coffees from Brix.

After work wrapped up for the week I drove to the farm for plentiful turkey, family, and dog time. The leaves have most definitely changed here.

We even drove to Gilbert Mountain where our maple trees are, drove up some roads I’d never been up before, and saw some of the reddest blueberry fields we’ve ever seen.

I didn’t get pictures, but when we drove up even higher we could see clear across the bay of Chignecto to New Brunswick.

B(r)unch

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I was thinking today, as we tried Amber Kitchen + Coffee for the first time (it was pretty good — we shared the Merguez skillet and the burrata salad) that most of the places opening near us are breakast-minded. Masa has been an incredible neighbourhood option for breakfast sammies. La Bamboche was once brunch fav Lil’ Baci, and has returned to its breakfast-y roots. Leslieville Pumps (RIP) is apparently being replaced by Ramona’s Kitchen, which seems to have a brunch focus.

Luckily, if we need a serious dinner, we have Ricky + Olivia, which was just honored with a Michelin Bib Gourmand designation.

u and me not at home

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Part of Lindsay’s birthday present to me this year was tickets to see Wet Leg at History last night.

First, though: something to eat. We tried Rorschach, but the wait was far too long, so we just started walking. We ended up walking all the way to Godspeed, put ourselves on the waitlist, and finally got seated around 8. We knew we’d miss the opening act, and at this point knew we had to hustle to get there before Wet Leg went on. We had a pretzel and some sausages and duck fat fries and a couple beers (not warm, or in a pack) and made our way down Coxwell. We got there just in time to find a couple spots at…well, at the back.

All in all: great show. I like their albums, but the songs were almost all better live. They played 19 of ’em (which is ~80% of their entire catalogue) but bookended the biggest bangers: crazy strobes and “catch these fists” to open, and then “Chaise Longue”, “mangetout”, and “CPR” to finish. Rhian Teasdale had everyone eating out of her hand all night — that line in the chorus of “mangetout” seems like less a boast and more like an acknowledgment of fact — while Hester Chambers just exuded cool from the back of the stage.

No encore, which I love and respect. Just that big 1-2-3 combination, and they disappeared into a blanket of white light. Primo show.