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.
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.
A few days ago Streets Of Toronto (which is, I guess, part of Postmedia?) released their 25 best new restaurants in Toronto list. If we exclude the three geographical outliers (North York, Vaughan, and Etobicoke) and focus on the 22 in the downtown core, it re-awakened an old annoyance for me: no one thinks any restaurants exist east of Jarvis.
News flash, reviewers: we also eat east of St. Lawrence Market.
Last night we finally made it to Restaurant 20 Victoria, the only downtown Michelin-starred restaurant east of Yonge. It was an outstanding meal: the food which was excellent from start to end, the wine pairings which were consistently intriguing, the service which was timely but never obtrusive, and even the atmosphere which was busy and buzzy but intimate and not too loud.
Sunchoke & apple ladyfinger-ish (Finca San Blas Vino Dulce)
Every course was excellent, and if you had told me that the wine pairing for lamb would be a dry Slovenian furmint, I never would have believed you, but it worked somehow (probably the clam sauce). If I had to pick favourites, I guess it would be the crab & citrus salad, and the lamb, but there were no weak points.
Another point in their favour: we left feeling full, but not too full. Unlike some other Michelin joints I didn’t need a slice of pizza on the way home, but nor was I in pain. That’s a wonderful balance.
All in all, one of the best meals we’ve had out in quite a while.
Just back from a week out east. A few days at the farm (where I got to meet brother #2’s newest dog, Yuki…timid chap), then back to Moncton for the work week. A company party, a few team meals. Three different seasons, seemingly: snowbanks –> rainy & warm –> freezing cold. Only one new restaurant excursion, a newish south Indian place called Darbar which satisfied my chicken 65 and parotta cravings.
Last Monday we returned to old favourite Richmond Station, along with a new-ish friend permutation: Laura from Chez Nous and Ricky + Olivia from…well, Ricky + Olivia. After a quick drink + Cosmo cuddle at Laura’s we walked over to Richmond Station and took our table. As usual, everything was excellent, and as five reasonably adventurous eaters we could cover a lot of ground:
I spent most of this week on the road. I was in Ottawa for ~24 hours for a conference, but I also squeezed in coffee at Little Victories on Elgin and a quick dinner at Riviera: my grilled octopus w/ green olive pesto, potato & guanciale was good (but a little oily) while the smoked duck breast & heart w/ cherries, yellow beans & pistachio was fantastic. Monday night I flew to Moncton, with a quick stop at the Ottawa airport Vino Volo.
The weather in Moncton the rest of the week was garbage so I didn’t get much of anywhere, but I did attend a Beaujolais Nouveau charity fundraiser!
Over the past week I’ve done some fun stuff. The kind of stuff that reminds me why I like, or liked, Toronto.
Friday
Lindsay, Kirsten, and I finally tried Tiflisi, a Georgian restaurant in the Beach which made Michelin’s Bib Gourmand list the past two years. We had:
Assorted phkali (vegetable spreads with walnut sauce) + shoti-puri (traditional Georgian bread)
Lamb khinkali (traditional Georgian soup dumplings w/ lamb)
Kebab platter (w/ chicken, pork, lamb)
Bottles of Rkatsiteli and Saperavi wine, both aged in Qvevri
It was goddamned delicious. Even the vegetable spreads were seriously good, but the dumplings…holy crap.
Sunday
In the morning, we went for a walk / wee hike in Crothers Woods. We probably missed the height of the fall colors the previous weekend, but it was still pretty nice. At the entrance to the park we started chatting with another erstwhile hiker (and her beautiful black lab Grayson) and just began walking together. We had a nice little stroll, enjoyed the weather, and Grayson found a tennis ball that we used to play catch.
Wednesday
Early in the workday I received word that I had somehow lucked into an invite to the Bruce Springsteen concert at the Scotiabank Centre that night. I’m probably not the biggest Bruce fan but I know his live shows are legendary, so I went.
Long Walk Home (introduced as a fighting prayer for his country)
Land of Hope and Dreams
Lonesome Day
Candy’s Room
Adam Raised a Cain
Hungry Heart
Better Days
Letter to You
The Promised Land
Waitin’ on a Sunny Day
Reason to Believe
Darkness on the Edge of Town
The E Street Shuffle
Nightshift (Commodores cover)
Last Man Standing (acoustic)
Backstreets
Because the Night (Patti Smith Group cover)
She’s the One
Wrecking Ball
The Rising
Badlands
Thunder Road
Encore 1:
Born to Run
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Glory Days
Dancing in the Dark
Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Encore 2:
I’ll See You in My Dreams (solo acoustic)
Thoughts:
(I only really knew 10 of the 29 songs he played last night, and 3 of those 10 were covers…including “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town“, bizarrely enough, when a fan handed him a Santa hat)
My favourite song of the night was a hard-chugging blues version of “Reason to Believe”, the only song he played from Nebraska. Close seconds were “Adam Raised A Cain” and the Patti Smith cover.
The man is 75 and he played at high energy for three hours. Three fucking hours.
The E-Street Band is huge (I counted 16 members, including Bruce) but so tight. Nils Lofgren and Little Steven are icons, but seeing Max Weinberg power through that 3-hour set without so much as a few seconds’ break was incredible. And there’s some magic to a band whose core has been playing together for fifty years.
Most of the fans there were older than I was, and knew every word to every song, but I could see people in their twenties around me singing along too.
They were late going on — 8:45 instead of 7:30 — so the show wrapped up at 11:45. I left, tired but pretty blown away.
We spent last weekend in Kingston, building a trip around a visit to a friend’s art exhibition…which was closed, unexpectedly for the day. And the gallery wasn’t open the next two days. So we missed the main reason for being there…but the food, to our great surprise, made up for it.
First, we stayed at the Frontenac Club, a new conversion of an old building, and our room was lovely: exposed brick, big windows, stained glass, huge bathroom, etc.
Next up was to get some warm coffee on a cold day, so we walked down the street to SENS cafe for some capps, which we took with us down to the waterfront to enjoy the view and the sunshine. On the walk back to the hotel we stopped at Bobbi Pecorino’s to rescue something from their bottle shop.
We had dinner booked that night at The Everly, which started a little funny but ended up very solid indeed:
Cocktails
Appetizers
East Coast Oysters w/ fresh horseradish & lemon
Kale Salad (Salt of the Earth Farms kale, cashew ‘cheese’, breadcrumbs, roasted cashews, lemon & olive oil dressing, Parmesan)
We wanted the salt cod fritters but they were out. The kitchen staff felt bad so as a consolation they brought us a 1/4 order of the polenta fries (Crispy polenta, pomodoro, basil, garlic, Parmesan) and an order of the roast pumpkin (Salt of the Earth Farm roast pumpkin, butter fried sage, lemon & parsley sauce, pumpkin seeds)
Glasses of Soave (Tessari Grisela DOC Classico, IT, ’22) and Chenin Blanc (Pearce Predhomme Stellenbosch Old Vine, SA, ’22)
Mains
Lindsay had the Butternut Squash Agnolotti (ricotta & squash stuffed pasta, brown butter, Ontario hazelnuts, sage, Parmesan)
I wanted the braised pork belly but they were out, so I ended up getting the Pork Sausage pasta (rigatoni, fennel and chili pork sausage, garlic, broccolini, fried breadcrumbs, Pecorino)
Bottle of Cabernet Franc (Stanners Vineyard, PEC, ’21)
The next morning we slept in and missed the hotel’s breakfast. Instead we walked slowly over to Kingston institution Chez Piggy for some comfort brunch: Chilaquiles con Carne (tortilla chips, salsa verde, black bean, bell pepper, avocado, grilled steak, sunny eggs, feta, jalapeño, coriander, scallion) for me, and Çilbir (garlic yogurt, poached eggs chili, garlic butter, mint, dill, cilantro, parsley, pan chancho za’atar pita) for Lindsay. Both were extremely delicious. The place looks like it hasn’t changed inside in fifty years, but who cares?
Back in the room we relaxed. Lindsay boiled herself in the tub while I finished the book I was reading (But What If We’re Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman) and then we want back out for dinner. We picked Wooden Heads because we felt like a chill pizza experience, but it ended up being extremely good as well, splitting an excellent pizza and Sicilia pizza. My glass of Tempranillo was good; Lindsay’s Sangiovese was not. But we muddled through.
We woke up early Monday as it was a work day for us both. After eating a very nice breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant The Bank Gastropub, Lindsay walked to a medical archive for some research while I posted up in the restaurant (they were empty but for us) and got a ton of work done. Once we wrapped up we grabbed a late lunch — fish and chips, both — at Dianne’s and bolted for home before the Toronto traffic got too bad. We had a pretty seamless drive, frankly, and were grateful to be home.
So yeah, after the bitter disappointment immediately after arriving, Kingston redeemed itself on the strength of its food.
I didn’t have time to write it up before going to Moncton, but we did a pretty special meal out for Lindsay’s birthday: Yannick Bigourdan’s new place on Yonge Street, Lucie. It’s brand new, but was recognized in the latest Michelin list for Toronto. Hard to get a handle on the vibe — it seemed like a mix of foodies but also rich tourists who just wandered down from the Eaton Centre with their piles of shopping bags — but the staff was very lovely and the service was good. We got the tasting menu with the “Collection” wine pairing option, which actually cost more than the food. But there were some stunners in there.
Here’s what we ate:
Le Mahi Mahi Cevice, Finger Lime, Bell Pepper Squid & Prawn Creamy Sauce Didier Dagueneau, “Blanc etc…”, Vin de France, 2020
Le Caviar Oscietre Agatha Potato, Smoked Eel, Ossetra Caviar & Poultry Jus Dom Pérignon, Brut Rosé, Epernay, Champagne, 2006
La Gamberoni Slightly Seared Gamberoni / Eggplant, Sardine & Mint Sauce Mongeard-Mugneret, Fixin, 2020
Le Bison Dry Aged Ontario Bison, Cocoa, Coffee & Ginger Butter / Butternut Squash & Dark Chocolate Jus Château Gloria, Saint-Julien, 2010
Le Pamplemousse Grapefruit Sorbet, White Tea Emulsion Lychee Jelly
La Banane Green Banana, Valrhona White Chocolate Ganache Vanilla & Ossetra Caviar Château d’Yquem, 1er Cru Supérieur, Sauternes, 2017 Domaine Huet, “Clos du Bourg”, Vouvray Moelleux, 2005
Highlights: the Mahi Mahi and bison were both superb. The Fixin was the wine of night, right up until I splurged on a glass of Château d’Yquem.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 