I spent about 36 hours in Miami this week. After kind of not wanting to go back to Florida ever, I’m going twice in two weeks, which is weird. But this quick there-and-back for work was pretty fun.
First of all, neither I nor the conference organizers knew it was spring break season, and the hotel closest to the South Beach conference venue was a short walk from the beach. As a result it seemed the entire guest roster of the hotel was drunk, loud, and scantily clad. The walls of that hotel are also paper-thin, so when the room next to mine became a nightclub around 2am, I was off the sleep.
Anyway, the event went well and the venue was very cool. It was chilly (by Miami standards; I was still in a t-shirt) on Wednesday when I arrived, but the day of the event it got up to 28º and I was more than happy to be walking around outside. I got a coffee at this cute place on Española Way called Papo, and had plans in the afternoon to go back to what seemed to be a nice little French café called A La Folie, but there was a blaring alarm going off across the street which would have killed the vibe.
After the work event we had a few drinks (sadly, Blue Moon was the best beer on offer) and I did a bit of work before heading to dinner. I crossed the bridge into downtown Miami for drinks at Area 31 (where I had some kind of ridiculously delicious sweet & smokey cocktail) and dinner at Zuma, both at the Kimpton EPIC hotel. Zuma was an excellent spot, and I was yapping a bit too much to get much of the food, but what I had was stellar. So was the wine. The hosts let me order a bottle, which was a big mistake on their part.
Anyway, as much as I still get the heebiejeebies going to a state like Florida, I will admit that Miami has some charms.
Last Saturday, while in Montreal, I went to Toqué with Lindsay. I was excited to do a proper tasting menu again after a bit of a hiatus, and at the #2-rated restaurant in Canada no less. I’ve posted a scan of the menu, but suffice it to say it was one of the best tasting menus I’ve ever experienced. Impeccable from start to finish, and the drink pairings were inspired.
A few notes on the below:
We led off with oysters, and two glasses of Champagne each: a blanc de blancs and a blanc de noirs. Lovely both, though I (not surprisingly) favoured the blanc de blancs. One (I can’t remember which) was by Benoit Lahaye; I don’t remember the other.
The wine pairing for the fish course (Lindsay had the foie gras and, therefore, the Xeres) was an adventure:
The wine with the halibut was not the Lighthall Chardonnay as shown below, but in fact a Bachelder Wismer Vineyard chard.
However, since the Sommelier and I were bonding over the evening’s wine, he brought out a blind taster for us to try. We didn’t have the printed menu yet, so I didn’t know it was the Lighthall. The crispness and lack of oak made me think of Chablis, but it had an unmistakable Ontario character. I just couldn’t get my mind to it though, and when he produced the bottle I sighed, “Oh, Glenn made that!”
Finally: because we were chatting so much about Lindsay’s Xeres he accidentally poured me a glass as well. Sweet.
Every course was stunning, but the venison, halibut, cheese, and dessert were really special, and Lindsay’s foie knocked her out.
The drink pairings were so fun and out there — the somm actually sounded apologetic when he explained that they went with a straightforward pairing for the venison — with a French table beer, a Portuguese wine made up of just about every grape there is, and what was essentially a German pet-nat made from Müller-Thurgau. Stop it. Just stop.
A few key translations: bar = bass; l’oursin = sea urchin; flétan = halibut (from Nova Scotia no less!); cerf = deer; and L’Adoray is a local cheese.
For the first time in quite a while, I spent this weekend in Montreal visiting Lindsay. I missed it. Also: we appear to have saved up our appetites until now.
I landed Friday and dropped my bags at Lindsay’s, and after scratching Roscoe hello on his stupid little dingus head we shot downtown. We grabbed lunch and a (tasty, but too hot) cortado at Kafein, and spent the afternoon at an event.
After that we hit N Sur Mackay for cocktails; I had the special (which was Laphroaig and red wine and something else but mostly tasted like Laphroaig) and a Lemon Tartlette.
Tartlets? Tartlets?
We were all hungry, and this trend of pouring cocktails into empty stomachs seemed dangerous, so we walked to Café Parvis. Lindsay and I had been there for brunch before (though she didn’t remember) but it was much better for dinner. We all shared a big cucumber salad, then Lindsay and I split a white margherita pizza — basically a caprese salad on a thin crust — and it was fantastic.
After dinner four of us walked a few more blocks to the Benelux on Sherbrooke and fought for some seats long enough to have one last beer. For me it was one of their house beers, the Captaine Ganache imperial porter.
Man. Busy day. The weekend was just getting started though.
On Saturday, after we dragged our tired asses out of bed, we did a bit of work and then got ourselves some brunch. We walked to Maison Publique, a frequent dinner destination, but not somewhere I’d had brunch before. While they have a varied menu, I went pretty straight down the middle re: brunch: pancakes + bacon. But wow, it was good. I wolfed it all down along with a Caesar. Lindsay had some kind of sausage + mushroom dish, with a bunch of Tawse sparkling.
After brunch I was on the verge of a pancake coma, so we stopped at Cardynal on the way home. Nice shop. Nice cortado.
After picking up a few supplies and heading home to pack, we Uber’d downtown to the Hotel Nelligan, where we’d stay the next few nights. It was a lovely, classic Old Montreal hotel, with exposed brick and such. We did some more work in our room, then did away with most of the supplies we’d brought while the snow whitened the outside.
That night we had dinner at Toqué, which…I mean, I’m going need some time & space to describe. There’s a reason it was ranked the #2 restaurant in Canada last year — it was the best meal I’ve had in Canada since the last time I ate at Alo (which was #1). I’ll write about that later in the week.
On Sunday we slept in a bit, but got up with the intention of heading downstairs for the last 30 minutes or so of breakfast…and then realized that daylight savings happened overnight, and the clock by the bed was wrong, so we’d missed breakfast. Dagnabbit. We came up with a plan B: Brasserie 701. As many times as I’ve stayed at the Place d’Armes, I’ve never eaten brunch there. We hit it pretty hard, starting with the bottomless mimosas (!) and going from there. My burger was one of the best I’ve had in ages, but I left in some full-stomach agony.
We grabbed a coffee on the way home from Crew Collective & Café, and just did more work back in the room.
It was a cozy room to work in too, I can tell you. We hung out there until it was time for dinner, which we’d arranged down the street at Bocata, a place we visited our first time together in Montreal. We had a few oysters to start, then Lindsay had the lobster carbonara tagliatelle and I had the sea bass. We paired this with a California white which, while predominantly Chardonnay, had a bunch of Rhone varietals in there as well, and it knocked us out. Terrific stuff. We had a cheese board for dessert with the last of our wine, then got some sweet Quebec wine and cider for a last taste. Well, almost: our server brought us a few shots of Sortilège. Ouf. We rolled home for more work.
This morning we got up early, ate some overpriced room service, and went to a thing for Lindsay. I got some work done back at a nearby cafê (Kafein again), then rejoined her for the rest of the day.
We had a little time at the end of the day before I had to leave for my flight, so we went to Dieu du Ciel for some beers (a Nativité blonde, a Résurrection porter, a Déesse Nocturne stout, and — praise be — a Péché Mortel) and very-late lunch before I hopped in a cab.
I got home a few hours ago, and I’m not happy about it. That was honestly one of the best weekends of my life, and it hurt to leave Lindsay, even if I’ll see her again in a few days. We’ll be talking about this weekend for years, though.
Earlier this week I met up with my friend Sue at the new Bar Hop on the Danforth. I’m confused about what they’re calling it…Bar Hop III? Bar Hop Session?
They’re still getting their head around the decor a little bit, I think (we sat in a weird alcove that used to be where darts were played) but the fundamentals are there: same great tap list and bottle fridges. I had a Left Field Squeeze Play, a Tooth & Nail Fortitude, two Blood Brothers Unify or Die, and some Dunham grisette that I can’t remember.
There’s also a pretty welcome difference in crowd/vibe than the two downtown Bar Hop locations. It’s pretty chill; feels more like a neighbourhood local. Not that I don’t like the downtown spots, but this place just feels more east end. Pretty excited it’s there.
I love having east end friends. They don’t ask me to travel all the way across the city for dinner on a Friday night. They’re totally into amazing places in, say, Leslieville
So, last night I met my friend Andrea at Skin + Bones. We shared house-cured charcuterie with pickles, dijon, and crostini. We split two specials, the duck breast and the short rib. We drank Pearce Predhomme Chenin Blanc and Meldville Chardonnay, and Cave Spring Pinot Noir, and big glasses of Touriga Nacional and Corvina. Our server treated us to glasses of Jurançon. We laughed a lot and I said something terribly douchey about Tannat. Great dinner.
On the way home I stopped in at Chez Nous for one last glass, a big-ass Marechal Foch amidst a very busy crowded joint. I didn’t stay for a second; I was knackered.
It’s Lindsay’s last weekend in TO for a while, and we had a minor celebration to mark, so last night we grabbed a table at Jacobs & Co. and had a predictably phenomenal meal.
We started with half a dozen oysters, their house white cheddar popovers, and the classic Caesar’s salad. All of this went with a bottle of Taittinger Prelude we’d brought back from Champagne with us.
For our mains we took our usual tack, splitting a large steak — a bone-in Striploin from Guelph, aged 45 days — and a 4oz A5 Black Tajima Wagyu California cut striploin. This we had with onions braised in Armagnac and butter, rapini in anchovy butter and chili flakes, and a 2008 Catena Zapata Nicolas Bordeaux blend I’ve been saving for a while.
Finally, for dessert, the last splurge: cheese (Chateau de Bourgogne; Mimolette; Lindsay cloth bound goat cheddar; Porto Blue), a 1973 Madeira for Lindsay, and a 1929 (!) Don PX for me. UN. REAL.
Lindsay got home very late the night before, so we slept in a bit. Eventually we got up and had brunch at Lil’ Baci. It was Baci’s last day of operation (in its current form, anyway) and it’d been kind of an important place for us. It’s the first place we ate brunch together, and yesterday we actually happened to sit at the same table. It was also our regular brunch spot when we eventually moved into the neighbourhood. Bye, Baci.
After lunch we were sleepy and needed a nap and discovered that Google Home can play ambient sounds like waves crashing and we had the nicest little power nap.
Eventually we needed some more food, so to power up and get in the Olympic spirit, we picked up a little Kaboom Korean fried chicken and kimchi fries.
In the evening we joined our friends Mike and Heather for a concert, preceded by a visit to Birreria Volo. The second incarnation of my old favourite beer spot Bar Volo, I’d somehow never been to this new one. Well, actually, it wasn’t that much of a mystery: I basically never find myself on College west. Anyway, maybe I should — the beer selection was predictably excellent (I had a Collective Arts dry hop sour, a Shacklands/Volo Mezza Note espresso milk stout, and a Rouge River Never Say Never Russian Imperial stout aged in Jack Daniels barrels) and so was the vibe.
Anyway, the concert: we were in that neighbourhood to see Frightened Rabbit. Mike and Heather have seen them many times; I hadn’t seem them since 2009, when they were touring their breakout album The Midnight Organ Fight. That same album is what brought us out last night — they’re playing the whole thing. After a few other songs they launched into it, and it holds up so well, especially live. Unfortunately the Mod Club was a sweaty box of hot, and there were so many rude assholes around us…some woman was practically standing on Lindsay, and some drunk couple behind me spent the last half half a dozen songs slow dancing / grinding / falling over on me. It kind of took me out of the moment for songs like “Keep Yourself Warm”, “Poke”, and “Floating In The Forth”. We left Mike and Heather to enjoy the encore, and found cool air = our sanity outdoors.
It’s been a weird week. I was so sick that I didn’t go to work Monday. I probably shouldn’t have gone Tuesday either but I had a pile of meetings, and I really wanted to see Lindsay speak at an Akimbo event at 401 Richmond that night. I’m so glad I did — her presentation was so on, and it was really interesting to learn more about digital curation — but that plus dinner pretty much did me in.
Dinner, our last together for a week and a half, was at Byblos, which we loved our last time out, though it might have been a bit rich for 10pm:
Lamb Ribs w/ dukkah + buttermilk sauce + carob molasses + red chili schug
By the time I got home I was almost comatose, and my body regressed into a state of uberSick. I spent Wednesday in bed, and most of Thursday as well. Then Friday morning, as I was feeling better and getting ready for work, I pulled a muscle in my back. I sometimes strain my back when I stay in bed too long — like, say, when I’m sick — but it’s pretty rare that I actually hurt it like this. I spent Friday hobbling around work like an old man and then came home.
My back’s slowly getting better, as I’ve been trying to mix in some relaxation with intense work catch-up. During my downtime I’ve been watching the winter Olympics and catching up on TV shows and movies I know Lindsay wouldn’t care to see.
I knew Fargo: Season 2 (imdb | rotten tomatoes) featured completely different actors from season 1, but I didn’t know the thread of connection among two of the characters. Just as quirky and violent (moreso, probably) as the first season. Season 3: get in my Netflix queue!
I’d been told Thor: Ragnarok (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was a ton of fun, but from the trailers I couldn’t figure out what it was. It seemed to be about arena fighting but, y’know…Ragnarok. Norse Armageddon. Did not compute. Anyway, it makes sense now, and I laughed all the way through it. Thor’s such an absurd character that full-on humour was a great way to take things.
Speaking of Armageddon, I felt like I had a pretty good handle on what Brawl In Cell Block 99 (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was going to be: pretty much what it said on the tin. I just didn’t expect…that. So much dry savagery. I really wish I’d seen it with a Midnight Madness audience at TIFF. That would have been something.
Another superhero movie that took a new tack, one I also liked, was Spider-Man: Homecoming (imdb | rotten tomatoes). A reboot of the reboot of the…original reboot, I guess, this one played for a generation that knew the Marvel movies, not the comics, and it worked nicely. Different pace, and much funnier than the Andrew Garfield version. (Also: no sooner do I finish watching Fargo than Mike Milligan shows up in Spider-Man.)
Between all of this, and a lot of work, I finished reading my uncle Jim’s book A Short History of the American Revolution (amazon). Back in November when I was in Philadelphia for work, I had a chance to tour the new Museum of the American Revolution. I was speaking there that night (on a totally unrelated topic…we just happened to be using the venue) and did a little research about my family’s history to share during my speech. I’d forgotten about this since I first read it years ago, but Jim summarized it himself in the book:
Today farmers who wrestle a living from the thin soil of Cumberland County in Nova Scotia trace their ancestors to New York State and the exodus when the British finally left the United States.
Of course, ancestry.ca didn’t exist when Jim wrote this book, so I was able to dig a little deeper into history. That digging, and hearing the museum’s director speak about misconceptions and hard truths about the revolution, sparked an interest to re-read Jim’s book, and re-educate myself about the war. There’s so much myth and legend built up around the revolution — being at the museum and re-reading the book reminded me how different the reality was. Also interesting: I’d never connected the dots before between the Cornwallis who famously surrendered at Yorktown to the Cornwallis famous — and more recently, infamous — in Halifax. The former was, I believe, the latter’s nephew.
I still have crazy amounts of work to do today, and my back’s definitely not back to normal yet, so the weekend continues to be weird. Seriously, all I want is a quiet week.
.:.
Cover photo by j.s. clark, used under Creative Commons license
On Thursday I showed no signs of catching what had laid half my office low, so we visited Chez Nous for a Cabernet Franc flight (attention proprietors: if you ever want to entice me to visit your establishment, put on a Cab Franc flight) and a cheese board and more wine, and then went to La Carnita for tacos and beer.
On Friday I started to feel sickness looming, but managed to catch up over beers with my friend Bina at the new-ish Craft Beer Market downtown. It’s a huge place, with a distinctly less douche-y vibe than King Taps. Our snacks were tasty, and while there wasn’t an enormous amount of stuff I wanted to try among their vast tap list, they did have the Calabogie Brown Cow Milk Stout, which is freaking outstanding.
Side note: I also got the Dieu du Ciel Aphrodite there, and for the second time in a row (my recent visit to Wvrst being the other) it tasted off. Not the perfect beer I’ve loved for so long, but really bitter and astringent. At Wvrst I chalked it up to a bad batch, but two glasses two weeks apart? Also, there’s all kinds of speculation that Craft can’t possibly keep all those draft lines clean, but Wvrst cleans theirs religiously, so…not sure what’s going on, but I’m really hoping it’s a temporary issue.
Anyway, Saturday didn’t amount to much as I felt like ass. We just sipped coffee and started watching Altered Carbon (and cursed our luck that season 2 of The Good Place isn’t on Netflix yet) and got groceries and finally ordered food. Lindsay drank wine while I watched, hence my choice of bottles.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 