Category: Toronto

"Bad taste is not illegal." Dammit.

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From Spacing we find this brilliant description of The Docks, the recently liquor-less nightclub on the Toronto waterfront:

“Certainly the Docks is a site of unspeakable acts against Toronto civilization — it’s the wet t-shirt of Clubland; the vomit machine on the edge of town; the place where girls who drive Pontiac Sunfire’s try ecstasy for the first time and dance to Nickleback with their arms in the air…”

This reminded me of my friend Benum explaining his theory about Sunfires being “fat chick cars” to a girl who happened to drive a Sunfire. Good times.

Anyway, like Spacing (and Eye Weekly, who the article refers to) I’m not happy that residents of the Toronto Islands managed to effectively shut down a bar because they make too much noise a kilometre away, but if something had to get shut down at least it’s the loud, drunken, frat boy of a bar.
[tags]toronto islands, the docks, pontiac sunfire[/tags]

Finally, it has happened to me, right in front of my face, my feelings can't describe it

Dan Dickinson

In amongst working, running and studying today I forgot to blog about last night’s Canoe experience. I shall start from the beginning. Well, not really; the beginning would be three years of frustration and missed opportunities to dine there, which have been well documented here.

T-Bone decided not to come with, so at the last minute we called around to see who’d be interested. In the end our friend MS came with us and we all arrived around 8. The view from the restaurant is a large part of the reputation, and it didn’t disappoint; we sat at the bar for a few minutes and took in the view of the lake and the islands. The restaurant itself is just as nice.

The food was as good as promised: my salad was very good, my pork tenderloin with apple bacon dressing was superb, and my molten chocolate cake with pistachio ice cream and spicy chocolate sauce from Soma friggin’ near made me cry. For drinks we asked the waiter to recommend a wine; he came back with a rosé and, given the look of shock on my face, had to explain rather quickly. He claimed it went well with both my pork and the pasta the ladies had ordered, so we have him the benefit of the doubt. It did, in fact, go reasonably well with the wine, and though I still would’ve rather gotten a lighter red, it made for an interesting story. I went to Canoe and had me some rosé.

Overall, the meal was amazing, the view is spectacular, and the service (except for some slight comic relief whenever the serving staff appeared) was extremely good. Our server — Mark, if I remember correctly — handled our meal and our questions perfectly, even giving us the restaurant’s number and telling us to call him in case we ever wanted advice about wine, even for a meal at home. This, of course, was just manouevering for a tip, but it was well played.

We’ll be going back, unliciously. Mission accomplished, Canoe.
[tags]canoe restaurant, summerlicious, did i really use a ce ce peniston lyric in the title?[/tags]

"I'm glad he's not in a position anymore to be whipped by his enemy"

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From this StatsCan study about average commute time for Canadians, we’re told that “Torontonians spent the longest time in transit in 2005, spending an average of 79 minutes per round trip.” This is hardly a surprise. There’s also a misleading statement about public transit:

The study also revealed that despite the widespread problem of traffic congestion, it is much faster to travel by car than by public transportation. On average, Canadians in cars spent between 51 and 59 minutes on the road, while public transit users endured average travel time of 94 to 106 minutes.

It seems like they’re comparing apples to oranges here. Shouldn’t they also have included the average distance car drivers live from work vs. public transit? I mean, if the average transit user lives twice as far away from work as the average car driver, then their commute time would actually be better, no? I’m not saying that’s the case; I’m just saying this article makes a misleading statement. Maybe the StatsCan report clears it up…if only I had the time to read it…

.:.

In what might be the dumbest comparison of the last…I don’t know, EVER, the reverend presiding over Ken Lay’s funeral likened him to both Martin Luther King and Jesus Christ.

[tags]statscan, commute, transit, ken lay[/tags]

Man, that would be the easiest lawn in the world to mow…

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Via Yes But No But Yes: the British (actors who starred in The Office) are coming (to the US version…for an episode…some time next season).

.:.

I find this guy in a lawn-filled wheel both amusing and nostalgic (as you can see straight down Spring Garden Road in Halifax in the picture). Cool social commentary, and a shout-out (yeah, I said “shout-out”) to my alma mater too.

.:.

Finally, Toronto Life has RSS feeds (most importantly for their food and wine blogs). I bitched about the lack of feeds back in May, but someone from TL informed me via the comments section that the feeds would soon appear…et voila, here they are.

[tags]the office, grass-lined wheel, dalhousie, halifax, toronto life[/tags]

"Jim Henson knew his place"

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For the sake of my waistline, I really need my family to stop visiting Toronto. Last night we took another brother and his wife to Fieramosca — our second visit in as many Saturdays — and left the place stuffed, as always. The staff actually ribbed us a bit, saying “OK, see you tomorrow night!” as we left. Smartasses. I had the salsiccia e quaglia alla griglia, a sausage & quail plate that TimmyD got last week (which I just had to try), my brother had the linguine di mama ninetta (a favourite of T-Bone’s), and the ladies shared the seafood pasta for 2. The hostess Mani (sp?) gave us some Tiramisu to keep us busy while the ladies had their after-dinner glass of Amarone. 3.5 hours later, we managed to waddle home. Oy.

Sadly, we didn’t get to spend much more time than that with them. They arrived mid-afternoon, after trying to deal with some lost luggage, and after we got some food into them the ladies went shopping while my brother and I sat and Starbucks and caught up on things. Then we popped down to Henry’s to find them a new digital camera (and may have found one ourselves: the Canon S3 IS), swung by the condo to have a look, strolled down to Front Street and then came back up on the subway (fighting for seats with Indy fans) to relax before dinner. While relaxing we put it on Just For Laughs — there was really nothing else on — and saw a very bizarre, very funny ventriloquist act by Nina Conti…it was weird to see this beautiful woman do a surrealist comedy act with a smarmy monkey. Anyway. Good fun, but it’s too bad they could only stick around for half a day.

Now then…to find a salad…

[tags]fieramosca, henry’s, nina conti, molson indy[/tags]

Stars, deaths & disasters

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Dang. Last weekend we saw a pink-topped hearse driving around, promoting the new Andy Warhol exhibit at the AGO (curated by David Cronenberg); we’d have stopped him if we knew we’d get free tickets.

.:.

My brother and his wife should be arriving soon (the other one, not the one who just left on Tuesday). They picked a great weekend to visit: great weather and tons of festivals going on.

[tags]andy warhol, david cronenberg, ago, family visits[/tags]

"And like that…[they're] gone"

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The Brits have been seen off back to London. We dropped them at the airport this afternoon after spending the day enjoying Ontario. We wandered around Elora for a while, checking out the gorge and a few shops (including Stÿll, which I think is worth making the trip back for) before jumping in the car and heading to a nearby lake. It wasn’t as impressive as we’d hoped; we just drove along it until we found a spot where we could walk down to the shore. It wasn’t the nicest lake, so we just jumped back in the car (but not before I snagged a chocolate milkshake from a walk-up snack bar) and made for a town. We passed through a little rain — as it turned out, the only rain we encountered; pretty lucky as the forecast had been calling for storms — before reaching Orangeville. We poked our heads into an art gallery, a chocolate shop and a restaurant for lunch (it used to be a pub, or so my pub guide said, but it had been replaced by a restaurant…which I think may have made me sick…anyhoo) before getting back in the car and heading south. We arrived at Pearson in good time, got our guests checked in and on their way, looking for a pub on which to watch the footie match (which Germany lost after Italy scored very late in extra time).

We jumped back into the car once more (after I searched frantically for my Blackberry, which I — whew! — found on the floor) and I fought back post-lunch nausea long enough to return the car to a downtown Hertz, squish onto a subway and get home in time for some prime-time chilling. By the way, I like Toronto a lot less when I have to drive in it.

TimmyD blogged the whole affair on The Plummet Onions. It was great to have them here, great to show them a little more of Toronto, and great to know that it wouldn’t be too much longer before we see them again.

.:.

Recent tidbits:

.:.

Finally, I’m sad to say that Ash, the tiny-but-fierce cat and companion to our friends CBGB passed away this weekend. She was ancient and storied, like all great legends. I’ll miss her padding around CBGB’s place, I’ll always smile when I think about how she fell asleep on my lap on the way to Collingwood, and I’ll always laugh when I think about poor Ed having to pick her up with hockey gloves. Hopefully the smiles & laughter will come as easily to CBGB as missing her will.

R.I.P., Ash.

[tags]elora, styll, orangeville, indietits, philosopher’s walk. polaris prize, tornado, ash cat[/tags]

Karate Snoopy

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

OK, where to begin…just after I wrote that last post England lost to Portugal on penalties. Needless to say, the crowd at the Duke of York was mightily pissed. Still, we soldiered on, determined to enjoy Canada Day. However, our nation’s birthday isn’t quite the event that my brother experienced in Ottawa, so there wasn’t really much to do festivities-wise…we walked down St. George, cut through the U of T campus, walked along College and then down University, had a gawk at the new opera house, walked across Queen to city hall, stopped in the weird little waterfall park off of Richmond, walked across to the condo site, and then strolled down to C’est What for a cold beer and the first half of the France/Brazil match. During halftime we made it back up to our apartment, settled in and watched the second half while Nellie had a nap on the floor.

That night, after a few hours of downtime, we all went to Fieramosca. As usual, it was too much great food; we were all stuffed by the time we left. I had a relatively simple penne with chicken, sundried tomato, zucchini, and asparagus; Nellie had gnocchi and TimmyD has a plate of sausage (which I had a bit of; daaaaaaaaamn) and quail. After much limoncello with the hostess, we walked home.

This morning: no rest for the wicked. We all met at half-ten (that’s what the frickin’ British call 10:30) and hit Eggstacy for some breakfast; we left, more than a little bit stuffed but ready for some shopping. Some shoes, some clothes and some books* later and we’d had about enough of Bloor Street.

After all the shopping we spent a few hours on the patio at the Bishop & Belcher, then collected ourselves at our place before heading out to the Auld Spot for dinner. Once again, I was more than impressed with the food (Nellie liked hers a great deal this time). We left, getting home in time for me to write this, check some feeds and pack for tomorrow.

That’s right, I said pack; we’ve decided to spend a night out of the city. We’re visiting our uncle & aunt near Guelph, and from there we’re going up to Elora for the night. It’ll be nice to see…you know, trees. Etc. I’ll post again when we’re back on Tuesday, at which point our visitors should be jetting back to old blighty.

* TimmyD pointed out a book, based on this website, which is quite possibly the most hilarious thing I have ever seen. We laughing hysterically in the stacks at Indigo, and at home I was actually on the floor laughing as I read it. There are pictures. Nellie says she’s never heard (or seen) me laugh that hard. I understand that some people won’t find it that funny. If you don’t find it funny at all, then I can’t be friends with you anymore.

[tags]england, portugal, u of t, toronto opera house, c’est what, fieramosca, eggstacy, bishop & belcher, auld spot, elora, mnftiu[/tags]