Earlier this week we did a thing. And then I did two things.
Tuesday
We went for an early dinner at The Wren (pro tip: if you don’t get there by 5:15pm, you won’t get a table, even on a Tuesday), ate delicious food — a fried chicken sando and their take on a crunchwrap supreme — and some killer beer.
After dinner, we subway-ed down the Danforth and walked to the Comedy Bar to see Jacqueline Novak. We saw her on her Fall On Your Knees tour four years ago, but tonight was a different show type. She was doing three nights at this venue; we were clearly catching her on night one, as she tried stuff out, looked stuff up on a laptop at the edge of the stage, refamiliarized herself with standup timing, etc. Still very funny, I thought, and a good venue apart from the air conditioning condensation that kept dripping on me.
Wednesday
I was invited to a wine tasting — the first tasting for Common Ground Wines, a new wine import agency co-founded by a friend of mine. Well, a friend who hasn’t really spoken to me in ten years, it should be said. I was glad she invited me, even if it was hard to shake off the weirdness. Anyway, Laura came with me, and we eventually found the venue inside a pen store. Another long-ago friend who was helping pour made sure our glasses stayed full, but we didn’t get to try most of the portfolio. Still, a few from Savoie enchanted me, so I’ll probably buy some.
I left there and took a streetcar over to Blue Jays Way, where I had a chance to watch a Jays game. I was hoping and they wouldn’t get blown out for a third straight night, and they didn’t — but they still lost thanks to Jeff Hoffman. Gone is the magic of last November.
Right after I got back from Halifax we had some special house guests: Tess & Aravind (och barnet) visiting from Sweden, by way of Halifax.
We hosted them here for four nights, and it was great fun. We caught up and cooed at the baby. We got coffee and bought gifts. We ate dinner in our backyard and at a few restaurants (Avling, White Lily). We watched the World Cup and had a picnic in Riverdale East Park. The visiting baby delighted in Bianca; the visiting adults did not care for her. The baby also took bites out of some cork coasters and gnawed marks into our coffee table. It was good for our souls to have them here, and we’re hoping to see them again when we visit in July.
Shortly after leaving Frank we turned north and began the long, boring drive up to Calgary. There was plenty more snow, and a few more deer.
Driving into Calgary was kind of annoying. Lots of bad drivers on the highways. Still ice in the underpasses. Knuckleheads cutting me off and forcing me to miss turns — which, in a city with as many one-way streets as Calgary, is a serious pain. Parking lot full of slush. And then we couldn’t get into our friend’s condo, as someone had…glued her lockbox shut. What the hell is wrong with people? And why did Calgary hate us so much? Anyway, we spent about 15 minutes trying to scrape the glue out of the lockbox before giving up and checking into the Calgary Le Germain.
We didn’t have long to shake that whole encounter off, though, as we were meeting our friends Stevie & Sarah at PARK by Sidewalk Citizen. Sarah had booked it, and what a find she made — food is listed below, but the decor, the vibes, the staff were all terrific.
Three Cuts of Beeswax Dry-Aged Lamb (12-day dry-aged sirloin, 12-day dry-aged ribs, 21-day dry-aged leg) w/ house garlic fries, garlic toum, red pepper jam
Dessert
Daily Donut (strawberry + almond)
“Turtles” Ice Cream
Chocolate Hazelnut Layer Cake
Drinks
Various beer, wine, cocktails…at this point of the trip I wasn’t keeping track
I’ve never heard of dry-aging lamb in beeswax, but my god…it was incredible.
We walked home, chatting, and then Lindsay and I staved off crashing long enough to drink some Burrowing Owl “Athene” (which was tremendous) and change our flight.
Sat Apr 18
After two weeks in the west, in which we’d encountered every type of weather possible, it was time to go home. We showered, packed, and scooted over to Kensington. Our plan had been to leave the wine we’d accumulated along the way at our friend’s condo as a means of payment, but since that plan fell through and we hadn’t the spare kilos in our luggage to bring them home with us, we gifted them to Sarah & Stevie along with some treats from COBS. But really, it was just an excuse to see them again and play with their level-10 adorable dog.
We left them, drove to the airport, dropped the rental car, checked into our flight, and had an easy flight home. There we found one very happy, snuggly cat.
.:.
And so: thank you, BC. Despite nearly killing me in a mountain pass, you remain my second-favourite province.
Earlier this week I had dinner with T-Bone at aKin, a Michelin-starred restaurant we’d both been meaning to try. It had been a year since our last dinner, which was similarly extravagant.
We ordered cocktails, and were told about the menu. It’s ten courses, and rotates every few months. When we went it was the Lunar New Year menu, described thus on their website:
This Lunar New Year menu at aKin is shaped by Chinese cultural traditions, where food is chosen not only for flavour, but for the meaning it carries. Each course is guided by ingredients traditionally associated with intention, prosperity, balance, and reunion, creating a thoughtful progression through the meal. The menu reflects Lunar New Year as a season rather than a single day of celebration. Familiar ingredients and ideas are presented in new forms, honouring tradition while allowing it to evolve through aKin’s perspective. Course titles reflect the values they represent, offering a dining experience that is both considered and expressive.
Our server, who was peak enthusiastic, also let us know there were two optional courses: a Wagyu dish, and a dan tat. I’m sorry, said we, a what? A dan tat: a Hong Kong-style egg tart. We explained that since my name is Dan and her name is Tat, we kind of had to order that. I honestly can’t remember when in the menu those things came; the night was a blur of food, Champagne, and emotions. Anyway, here’s the menu according to the card they gave us when we left:
AUSPICIOUS VEGETABLES
intelligence: scallion, potato, mascarpone
endurance: leek, onion, black truffle
diligence: celery, celtuce, preserved plum
optimism: heirloom carrot, taro, curry
prosperity: fat choy, watercress, coconut
WEALTH: new brunswick oyster, jellyfish, kaviari kristal caviar
TREASURE: buddha jumps over the wall, abalone, sea cucumber
ABUNDANCE: madai, mala spices, sauerkraut
LONGEVITY: nova scotia lobster, tajarin, stracciatella
JOY: zabuton, yellow chicken, sambal, purple bok choy
FULFILLMENT: foie gras, périgord black truffle, wagyu, glutinous rice
HARMONY: kumquat, winter melon, ron goddess lea, chinese almond
RADIANCE: black sesame, peanut, mochi, rice wine
GOOD “FOUR” TUNES
niangao: canelé, brown sugar, chantilly
yuanbao: pâte de fruits, mandarin, gold
tanghulu: macaron, hawtharn, sesame
red bean: bon bon, valrhona opalys, adzuki
DRINKS
bottle of Appalonis Champagne
glasses of red wine: Carinena for T-Bone, Barbera for me (there were also glasses of red wine with the beef, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was)
dessert-ish: tea for T-Bone, 1983 Grenache Blanc for me
Was it good? Yes. Was it great? Not really. A couple of courses were excellent, but almost as many were left half-eaten on the plate. And considering the cost, suffice it to say this one would be near the bottom of my value-for-money scale. Still, an adventure, and a reason to see an old & dear friend who, it should be said, was soldiering through something quite awful and yet somehow her effervescent self.
A few hugs later we were playing Uber roulette, wondering why nothing at all was coming (I blamed the Leafs, as is my wont) until I snuck in for the win. Getting up at 6 the next morning to drive to the office wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.
Earlier this week I was lucky enough to have dinner with old friends CBGB, here in town for the week. They were even kind enough to book JZ2 too; I hadn’t seen them in 10+ years.
We met for dinner at Adrak, and the consensus was that the food was freaking great. Fantastic cocktails, a familiar favourite Indian wine, and incredible food. We didn’t even order; we kind of just let our host pick everything, and he nailed it.
cocktails
Papad Ki Tokri (papadams, assorted chutneys & salsa)
On Wednesday, after meeting an old friend for a drink at the Library Bar in the Royal York, I met Dan & Abtin for our annual steak dinner tradition. This time we tried Sammarco; Dan’s second time, my and Abtin’s first. An overdue catchup, and a wonderful time as always.
Here’s what we ate & drank:
Cocktails
Il Capo (Sammarco rye whiskey blend, Turbinado & aromatic bitters) for me
Two gin martinis for the boys, despite a few gin inventory (ginventory?) issues
After the holidays, most people pull back on how much they’re eating and drinking. This past week, I went the other way.
On Sunday we had dinner with Ricky & Olivia at DaiLo. Being out with friends who have their own Michelin-recognized restaurant changes the experience somewhat, as other chefs want to share their top stuff (and maybe show off a bit) with respected peers, so Lindsay and I benefitted from that. As a result, I can’t remember everything we ate — a lot of courses came out unbidden — but do remember these ones, and recall that everything was fantastic.
Hakka Brown Wontons (pork & shrimp) w/ toasted sesame oil, house xo sauce, almond crumble
Smoked Duck Bokkeum w/ kimchi pickled spring vegetables, gochugaru onion jam, miso blue potato salad, crispy wild rice
90 Day Dry Aged Butcher Shoppe Rib Eye w/ Asian bordelaise sauce, braised shiitake, truffle pomme puree
Desserts
A bottle of Beaujolais (Clos de la Roilette Fleurie Cuvée Tardive)
On Tuesday I had dinner booked with Shannon, which we’d been trying to set up for a while. I chose Wood Owl, and while it wasn’t quite as tasty as our first time there late last year, it was still pretty great.
apps
yellowfin tuna, aji amarillo & Cara Cara orange w/ cucumber, lime leaf oil, Thai basil, red chili
braised short rib, celeriac & Gruyere puree w/ caramelized onion & red wine sauce, escarole, crunchy dijon vinaigrette (Shannon)
steak frites, Café de Paris butter, fries, aioli (me)
I had glasses of Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc / Weissburgunder, and Sangiovese. Shannon was on dry January.
On Thursday I had a work dinner at DaNico. It was a more intimate affair than usual with just a handful of attendees. One of those was an old employee of mine, so that was an unexpected treat. Also a treat: these dinners don’t usually happen at Michelin-starred restaurants.
canapé selection (all five of which were exceptional)
seared Ontario venison w/ organic chestnut purée, red beets, port jus
Spaghettoni pasta from Gragnano boiled in an extraction of organic Ontario mushrooms w/ Parmigiano Reggiano aged 24 months, fresh Italian black truffle
Chilean sea bass steamed and deglazed with miso w/ radicchio tardivo all’ agro, Oscetra sturgeon caviar, white vermouth sauce
After opening a bottle of Bollinger (!) for the aperitivo, they let me pick the wine. I decided to champion Ontario wine, ordering bottles of Bachelder “Les Villages” Pinot Noir and Hidden Bench “Tête de Cuvée” Chardonnay. Even snuck in an Amaro at the end.
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.
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)
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
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.
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. 😐
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 