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:
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.
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. 😐
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
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.
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!
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.
I was hoping for a quiet couple of weeks following my return from Europe, but that it not what I got. There’s been stuff keeping me busy (in a good way, like a conference or lunch with a friend or visits from family) but also distracting me (a cold, everything in the house breaking at once).
Right after I got back I had a couple days’ work sprint and then went right into a conference — here in Toronto, so no travel, but it definitely consumed all of my intention for 2+ days. Always good to meet new people and re-gain some perspective (and have a nice dinner at Cafe Boulud), but the re-upping of the work to-do pile really made it feel as if I’d never even gotten back from vacation. I did wrap up the week over lunch with Matt at d|bar though, which was great.
Another consequence of that conference is that I developed a cold, my first in over a year as far as I can remember. It laid me low Monday through most of Wednesday. Fortunately it had mostly faded by the time brother #2 and sister-in-law #1 arrived. They were here for a visit, partially with us, partially with their daughter who lives just east of Toronto. On Friday they retrieved said daughter and we all had dinner at La Paella…
Medjool dates wrapped in bacon, stuffed with goat cheese, glazed with a guindilla sherry reduction
Croquetas
Tiger shrimps, garlic, guindillas, olive oil and sweet sherry wine
Artisan Sourdough Bread from Petit Thuet
a Paella which is not on their menu but which contained an extravagant amount of pork (ribs, pork belly, chorizo) along with red peppers, green beans, and butter beans
…followed by heaping bowls of ice cream procured from Craig’s Cookies, of all places.
Yesterday the three of them went to OssFest, then we played a game of Pandemic before they drove my niece home. We were all a bit tired, and the weather had turned to rain, so we just ordered some pizza and drank some wine and had a quiet final night together. This morning Bianca finally decided they were worth hanging out with, just as they were about to leave.
I could do without the cold or the work backlog, but I’ll take a nice family visit anytime. See you next year, guys!
It’s been a week of slight nostalgia, restaurant-wise.
A few days ago Lindsay had to go to the U of T library, so I tagged along and we went to Bar Volo for dinner. Or, rather, we tried to — it was much too full when we arrived. We figured we’d eat somewhere else and come back, but quickly remembered that stretch of Yonge is populated by nothing but cheap noodle and bubble tea shops. Out of a tiny bit of desperation we ended up at 7 West for cocktails and a few snacks. Both places (well, the original Volo, anyway; I’d only been once since it relocated) used to be regular haunts for me when I loved around Yonge & Bloor.
We tried our luck at Volo again, and this time got stools at a barrel-top. We sampled beers off the menu (I forgot how much easier it is ordering by letter) and sharing a mortadella pizza.
Then, yesterday, we met our friend Kirsten for lunch at Chula Taberna on Gerrard. We’d been ordering from this place for years but had never gone in — who knew they had such a great back patio? Not this guy. Anyway, I smashed some chilaquiles.
Afterward we went to Home Depot and bought a temporary fridge. More on that in a future post.
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.
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.
The last week’s been pretty social: two days of work meetings downtown which included a Blue Jays win over the Atlanta Braves, coffee from three good spots: the Spadina Neo, the University Fahrenheit, and the Union Pilot, and drinks at The Chase to close it all off.
Friday was a holiday. We basically just binged Squid Game, which we somehow avoided when it came out.
Saturday our friend Upasana made us a delicious dinner, and we had such a lovely time chatting we barely noticed it was midnight. We left feeling fat and happy, as they say.
Sunday night we were the hosts, as Ricky and Olivia came over for dinner. We provided salad and a cheese board; they brought delicious Filipino comfort food. We poured a bunch of fun wine, and served ice cream.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 