“Almost reckless, really.”

May 30, 2018May 31, 2018 Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Zoinks, kids. WHAT a week in Dublin. We went because I had a work reason to be there, but — like Lisbon last year — we ended up having a whale of a time.

MONDAY

My bid for a business class upgrade worked perfectly, so we had a pretty posh flight to Dublin. I finished watching Darkest Hour and a few episodes of Game of Thrones and got a few hours of sleep.

TUESDAY

We arrived in Dublin and got a cab to the Spencer Hotel, after a brief ATM hiccup. We slept a few hours, and then decided to walk around Dublin. We checked out the #1-rated beer place in Dublin — Brew Dock — for some lunch and very tasty brews.

We enjoyed the shockingly warm weather and walked back through the CHQ (Customs House Quay) building before crossing the Liffey and strolled along that side. So many big corporations, startups, and cafes have moved into old dock buildings. I loved it. We got back to the hotel before a visit to Bear Market coffee and then Lindsay and I met a few colleagues for drinks at Ely wine bar.

I had a bit of work stuff to deal with, including a trip to the Guinness Storehouse and the Gravity Bar, which was at least a little bit cool.

After that took a cab back across the Liffey where Lindsay had walked to meet me, and we had dinner at Bar Italia. It was in kind of a touristy part of town (Temple Bar, with which we’d become very familiar) but it felt pretty legit. We shared Burren cold-smoked organic Irish salmon marinated with orange and pink peppercorn, and a killer burrata. For mains I had chargrilled lamb rack in a crust of pistachio-nut on a bed of roasted rosemary potatoes; Lindsay had fresh Gran tortellini filled with wild mushrooms in a porcini and parmigiano DOP fonduta cream, finished with white truffle oil. We walked home, overly full and pretty sleepy, but enjoying the lovely views. So we had the traditional Dublin Italian meal under our belts, I guess? 😐

WEDNESDAY

I spent the day at a work thing; Lindsay made her way around the city finding writing venues. That evening we took our first true foray into the Temple Bar neighbourhood for a drink at Fallon & Byrne, which is this really cool grocer with a cozy wine bar in the basement. We didn’t stay long — we had reservations elsewhere — but we loved our quick visit. We decided we’d come back.

We walked down the street a few metres for our reservation at Taste At Rustic. I don’t quite know how it ended up on my map — a Japanese fusion place wouldn’t normally be at the top of my list — but I’m glad it did. We had a SERIOUS meal:

Open maki dish of tuna & salmon (kyoto-style) with sushi rice, radish, turnip, fried egg, roasted nori & avocado
Broccoli tempura with kimchi mayonnaise, aged parmesan & roasted turnip stock
Tuna akami marinated in soya sauce with a touch of wasabi
Chicken karage with burnt lemon and miso mayonnaise
Grade 9 wagyu beef brushed with sweet miso and sesame powder served with rice chips
Glazed sticky pork brushed with japanese tare, fresh lime, japanese yuzu and kimchi
Mango and passion fruit mochi (japanese-style served with the aromas of their flesh and juice)
Green tea brûlée with pistachio, yogurt mousse, white chocolate and yuzu ice cream
A mixture of delicious wines and cocktails, including something called a Three Beauties, which I ordered twice

THURSDAY

Day two of the conference had me running around and introvert-exhausted, so I took off immediately after. We had plans that night and wanted to get a bite beforehand, but Dublin rush hour traffic worked against us — what should have taken 15 minutes took closer to 45, and we had to eat in a rush. We tucked in at Piglet wine bar, and they turned us around faaaast. We ate jumbo prawns and beef tartare and orecchiette w/ pork ragú, smoked paprika and parmesan, and took off for our play.

The play, at the Project Arts Centre, was called My Son My Son. I won’t try to write a proper summary, but seeing a play written by a woman featuring an all-female cast and dealing with so many feminist issues, on the eve of the Irish referendum to decide whether to repeal the ban on abortion, was pretty powerful. The result is now known, but the night before we saw many ‘YES’ or ‘REPEAL’ shirts in the audience, just as we’d seen around the city all week, and as of that night the outcome was far from certain.

After dinner we made our way back to Fallon & Byrne for a bit more wine, and some charcuterie, including some cheese called Durrus (made near Cork) which Lindsay declared to be her all-time favourite. We ended with a few glasses off the Coravin list, which had a little more cork in it than we would have liked. Afterward we had a final nip in the hotel bar. I chose a lovely 21 year old Redbreast Irish whiskey.

FRIDAY

With the conference now done, we had the days to ourselves. We used the day to do what we do best: eat, and visit museums.

First up was the EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum, just down the street from us in the CHQ building. Pretty new, it seems, and with a great use of technology (HD projectors, motion/gesture detection, etc.), sound, sculpture, and other visuals, it helped weave a compelling story of Ireland as told by the people who’ve left it.

After that we hopped in a cab and traveled north to see the Dublin City Gallery / Hugh Lane. But first: lunch at Chapter One. It’s a Michelin-starred restaurant in the basement of a writer’s museum. We took a chance that they’d have a table for lunch Friday, and we lucked out. We took our seats and proceeded to have one of the best meals of our lives. I’ll describe the food below, but the service was just…impeccable. Perfectly attentive, utterly charming, and at times hilarious. In the throes of feeling oh-so-decadent, like “who are we kidding, eating like this?!” about this meal, one of the staff joked along with us, saying “It’s almost reckless, really!” and it was perfect. Maybe you had to be there? Anyway, the food:

Champagne:
- Laurent Perrier Brut Champagne NV x2
Starters:
- Lindsay: beef cheek, wild garlic, mushroom ravioli, parmesan (Givry 1er Cru ‘Champ Nalot’ Domaine Parize 2016)
- Dan: jumbo green asparagus, guanciale, sheep’s cheese, pickled red dulse (Heinz W ‘Joseph’ Gruner Veltliner, Kamptal 2016)
Mains:
- Lindsay: braised neck fillet of Spring lamb, herb potato and lamb kromeski, violet artichoke, caper flower (Bodegas Rodero, Carmelo Reserva, Ribera del Duero 2012)
- Dan: salt marsh duck, tart of braeburn apple, smoked bacon, fennel pollen, pickled walnuts (Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru ‘Champs Perdrix’ Domaine Alain Michelot 2009)
Dessert:
- Lindsay: flavours and textures of Irish milk and honey (Chateau Laville Sauternes, 2013)
- Dan: warm 68% chocolate mousse with flavours of Guinness (Fonseca, Guimareans 1996)

I mean…

After that we stumbled outside and enjoyed the sunshine — did I mention it was brilliantly warm & sunny our whole week in Dublin, and didn’t really rain until the moment we left? — for a few minutes before heading into The Hugh Lane. We saw the main collection and the Amanda Dunsmore exhibition “Keeper” and the recreated Francis Bacon studio. After that we took a quick stroll the Garden of Remembrance, then cabbed back to our hotel. We grabbed our bags and switched to our home for the back third of our trip: Stauntons On The Green. Our room was a little disappointing — cute and all, but being on the ground floor the view was entirely blocked by the hoarding outside the hotel, so we couldn’t see St. Stephen’s Green at all. They promised to move us to another room the next night, and we passed out on our temporary bed.

Somehow, that night, we had another grand meal planned. Dax was billed as maybe the best non-Michelin-starred restaurant in Dublin. We were worried the near-miraculous lunch we’d been fed would ruin all meals to come, and certainly all to come THAT DAY, but Dax held up just fine, thank you very much. To wit, the tasting menu (as best I can remember it):

Salmon amuse bouche
Roast Dinish Island scallops, sweet pea sauce
Roast Atlantic cod fillet, Cévenne onion, heirloom carrots, fresh peas, lobster sauce
Salt cured foie gras, preserved and fresh spring vegetables, chardonnay vinegar
Homemade brioche
Fillet of Kildare beef, braised short-rib, celeriac, diane sauce
Whipped natural buttermilk, popcorn, pineapple, madagascar vanilla
Sheridan’s cheese selection with condiments (with Durrus!)

Luckily our walk home was a short one, because we could barely move. We got back to the hotel, saw the news that exit polls were predicting a landslide for the ‘Yes’ vote, and passed out.

SATURDAY

We decided to have breakfast at the hotel, both of us opting for the smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. That was the fuel for our walk around the Irish Museum of Modern Art, or IMMA. It was an outstanding visit in an old military hospital, introducing me to Brian O’Doherty, feeding Lindsay new relevant-to-school material, and treating us to a wonderful Lucian Freud exhibit. There was a gorgeous garden and, somewhat randomly, an informal singing to sick children. It was all a bit much, really.

We had an absolutely smashing Uber driver from the IMMA to our lunch spot. He pulled up to the curb and yelled “Dan, how the hell are ya?” as we got in. Brilliant. We talked beer, tourist sites, Dublin and Irish history, viking timelines, and a host of other topics in our short time together, but he made us want to revisit Dublin. Like, RIGHT NOW. I would’ve gladly spent more time with him, but he dropped us at Against The Grain and we were thirsty.

Owned by the same people as Brew Dock, Against The Grain enticed us right away. Chill vibe, top beer, good food. I had a Wild Beer Trepache sour, a Boyne raspberry sour, a Thornbridge Cocoa Wonderland chocolate coffee porter, and a tshirt. All supoib.

After lunch we slid over to the afore-mentioned St. Stephen’s Green, and strolled through a bit of bucolic loveliness in the middle of Dublin. We lay in the grass and kissed and laughed at kids and dogs and it was pretty alright. After a spell we walked out of the park to our hotel, where we found our lovely new room with a view of the very park we’d just enjoyed.

We napped an showered and changed and set out for Temple Bar. Mind you, this was our first foray into Temple Bar on a weekend, and…oof. What a busy mess. We had to dodge through there to visit Jam Art Factory, where we bought some prints, and to have a glass of wine at La Caverna before dinner. Unfortunately they were packed, so we went around the corner to Port House instead. We got a glass of wine and an espresso in us before an unbearable crowd formed and we beat a hasty retreat across the Liffey.

Our final dinner in Dublin was at a classic: The Winding Stair. It’s a cozy room atop a bookstore, with an open kitchen and a view (if you’re lucky) of the river and the Ha’penny Bridge. We ate and drank very well, to the point where we had to tell the server to take’er easy after our starters, lest our mains cause a wafer-thin-mint moment. We ate:

Starters:
- Toons Bridge Dairy stracciatella with ruby and golden beets, capers, sorrel, and beetroot crisps
- Burren smokery, Terry Butterly and Stephen Kavanagh’s smoked fish plate with our Dillisk bread, crème fraîche, pickled cucumbers and caper-berries
Mains:
- Lindsay: Niall Sabongi grey mullet with Connemara clams, Gubbeen chorizo, asparagus and wild garlic champ
- Dan: Skeaghanore cider-braised duck leg with grilled baby gem, crispy bacon, pickled walnut, apple, smoked duck fat roasties and cider gravy
Dessert:
- Chateau Partarrieu Sauternes

We enjoyed the whole meal with an outstanding bottle of Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er ‘Aux Vergelesses’ Simon Bize 2011 Chardonnay. Later I realized that I recognized the name — we had a bottle of their Pinot last fall in Paris, at Fish La Boissonerie. For dessert we just ordered glasses of Sauternes, but our server (pressed into bartending duty at the end of the night) didn’t understand a typcial Sauternes pour and ended up pouring us a normal 5oz glass. So we got right lit up, we did.

SUNDAY

Not much left to do on our final morning but eat some breakfast, so we made it a good one, walking a few minutes to Meet Me In The Morning. We weren’t sure what to expect, but it turned out to be one of the most delicious breakfasts EVER.

I had the hash (McNally potato and beet, a poached egg, beet sour cream, greens and Toonsbridge halloumi with Gubbeen chorizo) while Lindsay had the eggs & greens (McNally kales, garlic yoghurt, paprika oil, curly parsley, two poached eggs, rustic loaf, and halloumi). After finishing we were patient (not really) and waited for the homemade doughnuts to come out, one rhubarb cheesecake and the other vanilla creme. Oh, and some dude came in carrying the cutest puppy either of us had ever seen and we all (us, the server, the other patrons) melted. Puppies and doughnuts. Jaysus. What a send off, Dublin.

After a hasty re-pack back in the room we checked out. The rain started just as we left, which left me convinced that the Irish don’t really have bad weather, they just tell us they do to keep us away. Our Uber driver, Sean, was an utter treat. He dropped us at DUB, we checked in, we hung out in the lounge, we debated buying the last piece of Durrus cheese in the Dublin airport, and we boarded to come home. The flight was easy-peasy; arriving at Terminal 3 was a goddamn gong-show. But we made it.

AFTERWORD

We need to go back to Dublin, and to see the rest of Ireland. That is all.

A relatively fun weekend

May 28, 2018May 28, 2018 Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

We just got back from Dublin yesterday, which will be a whole other blog post. In the meantime here’s a quick recap of the whirlwind trip we took to Nova Scotia the weekend before.

We flew Air Canada instead of Porter, so from Pearson instead of Billy Bishop, so it was a scramble to get out of work on time and make our flight. We hopped into Moncton, jumped in our rather gigantic vehicle, and drove to the farm, stopping for a treat along the way. We basically just rolled into Andrew + Denise’s and crashed.

The next morning they filled us up with bacon + eggs before we wandered next door to mom + dad’s house. The royal wedding was on so I escaped and read, then started setting up for a gathering. The rest of the Dickinsons were coming that day to intern and remember my aunt Anne, who passed away a few months ago (and who was the inspiration for my travel bug) and also celebrate my dad’s birthday. We gave him a book about Bob Dylan and a card with Albert Einstein’s picture that said “Have a relatively happy birthday!” and he seemed pretty happy about that.

That afternoon we buried Anne’s ashes down the road in the local cemetery, then hosted family and friends back at mom + dad’s house. It quickly transitioned into a birthday celebration for my dad, featuring a cake that was far bigger than the one my mom ordered. Lucky for all of us.

That night, after the crowds died down, we went next door to celebrate one more thing: brother #2 a) finishing his MBA and b) moving with his family to Cairo. (!) We had a drink or two, including the treat we picked up the night before: a bottle of 2006 Dom Pérignon.

The next morning the entire clan stuffed themselves into cars and drove to Parrsboro for breakfast at The Sunshine Inn. I think we exceeded their kitchen capacity / timing as things came out all helter-skelter and one order got missed entirely, but we all got fed in the end. At one point someone local walked in and said “The Catholics are coming!” but no one (at least, no mob of overt Catholics?) arrived. Maybe we ate all the bread.

Late in the afternoon, to accommodate our schedule, brother #1 barbecued up a truly prodigious amount of meat. We scarfed a bunch down and then drove back to Moncton to do laundry, sleep, re-pack, and fly to Dublin.

So: Congratulations Andrew.

Happy birthday dad.

And Anne: we miss you.

Montreal, mozzarella, and a near miss

April 9, 2018April 9, 2018 Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I was back in Montreal this weekend for more fun and relaxation and Roscoe-visits. Once again we spent some time at Lindsay’s, and some time downtown in Old Montreal.

I arrived after work on Thursday, and between being tired and Lindsay being sick we didn’t have much in us other than to order some Uniburgers (which were damned good) and drink some of the Péché Day 4-pack that she bought for me at the Metro a few weeks ago.

The next morning I got up and let Lindsay sleep while I walked to Maamm Bolduc for breakfast with Mark. We scarfed sausages & eggs & fruit & potatoes & coffee and felt we had the energy to get into the day. We walked home and I found Lindsay feeling a little better, but we still took it pretty easy on the day: we watched a bunch of Fargo and ate some snacks and had a little nap, all in service of conserving her energy for dinner. We had plans to take Sara and Mark to Maison Publique to celebrate Mark’s birthday.

The dinner was, as always, outstanding. We had Quebec sparkling, fennel salad, Domaine Queylus Pinot Noir, deer tartare, duck sausage, this outstanding ‘nduja sausage ravioli in brown butter sauce, Frogpond Cabernet Franc, pork belly, halibut, a couple of pôts de crème, and some kind of fortified barrel-aged maple syrup. It was all incredible. Our night wasn’t quite done though — we decided to have a few beers at Pub Pit Caribou. It was a later night than someone just getting over a cold should have done, but Lindsay held up like a trooper, and I was really excited to get back to Pit Caribou for a second time.

The next morning was a little rough, so we all dragged our asses down to Maamm Bolduc again, and had pretty much the same breakfast (with some Caesars). That helped. After that, Lindsay and I said our goodbyes to Sara and Mark and zipped downtown to our hotel for the night: the Auberge du Vieux Port. Our room wasn’t quite ready so we ran out to Pub Brewskey for a beer and a bite. We split the same bottle of A La Fût Flanders Red that I drank myself (!) while here last fall.

We hung out back in the room for a few hours, then walked to dinner at Les 400 Coups, a joint recommended to Lindsay a while back. It was quiet when we got there (8pm is early for dinner in Montreal, I guess) but soon picked up. The service experience was slightly uneven, but the food – New Brunswick oysters; oxtail dumplings w/ wild bay leaf, and shiitake mushrooms; red chicory salad w/ pear, maple, and sunchoke; beef tartare w/ bone marrow, crispy shallots, espelette, and wild rice; scallops w/ glazed pork belly, sweet potato, and oyster mushrooms – was excellent. The drinks were great too: we had a lovely Blanc de Noirs when we sat down, took sommelier Jonathan’s excellent recommendation (2015 Allegracore Etna Rosso Doc) to have with our meal, including some stellar cheese for first dessert. Then second dessert – a crazily rich chocolate moelleux with dulce de leche – was paired with something I’ve never seen before: a Tannat dessert wine. When remarking to the sommelier that this was a strange new find for us, he recognized that we were a worthy audience for some other treats stashed behind the bar: a prune eau de vie, some kind of beautiful tomato (!) liqueur, and a craft elderflower liqueur that makes me never ever want to see St Germain again. What a lovely experience.

Sunday morning I checked out Café Olimpico, which had good Americanos and superb croissants, and we chilled in the room for the morning before checking out. We grabbed lunch at the hotel’s restaurant, Taverne Gaspar (surprisingly good mussels and fish + chips, actually) then posted up at Olimpico to do some work and drink some cortados.

We decided to grab some early dinner at Mangiafoco before my flight. Last time I came to Montreal we stayed right across the street from it, but hadn’t noticed. Turns out it has very good pizza, and amazing cheese. (It actually bills itself as a “Mozzarella Bar,” bless its heart.) We had burrata with tomatoes and some salumi, and a sausage pizza, and a very nice bottle of Pinot Nero from Piemonte, and a nice apple-y dessert. While we were sitting there my flight got delayed, and delayed again (turns out a small airplane had broken down on the Toronto Island runway, wreaking havoc on all flights for the rest of the day) so we ended up going next door to Philemon Wine Bar for one last one: Franciacorta for Lindsay, and orange wine (again, from Piemonte) for me.

Finally I jumped into an Uber, which turned out to be an ordeal: one highway closure and this guy was utterly lost. After going in a circle and threatening to do it again I had to direct him out of downtown and to the airport, all while nearly missing a number of exits. I arrived at the airport to find out that if my flight was delayed so much as five minutes we risked being redirected to Pearson, or even Hamilton, but Porter came through and got us off the ground in record time. We landed with thirteen minutes to spare.

Cover photo by Kay Gaensler, used under Creative Commons license

Miami

March 17, 2018March 18, 2018 Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

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.

.:.

Cover photo by Kay Gaensler, used under Creative Commons license

Boozi

March 12, 2018March 13, 2018 Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

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.

.:.

Cover photo from the Brasserie 701 site

Cover photo by Alexey Kljatov, used under Creative Commons license

The quiet, delicious death rattle of 2017

January 2, 2018January 6, 2018 Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

We’ve just gotten back from two weeks in Nova Scotia, celebrating Christmas and New Year’s with our families. Since we’re still recovering (my kingdom for a salad!) I’ll keep this brief.

Wed 20th

We flew to Halifax after enduring a kooky passenger in the Porter lounge who mercifully got on an Ottawa-bound flight before we left. We landed, grabbed a car, and got to Lindsay’s dad’s place in time for her brothers to show up with pizza and garlic fingers.

Thu 21st

Lindsay and I had shopping to do, so we zipped into the Hydrostone, bought some stuff, had sushi at Hamachi Kita, and bumped into the aforementioned kooky passenger from the Porter Lounge. Small world. We dashed around the corner to grab coffee from Java Blend and beer from Unfiltered and Good Robot. Good Robot was a fun vibe, and their beer — especially the Yas Queen chocolate porter — was outstanding. Unfiltered, on the other hand, was a gauntlet of douchbaggery: the employee wore Aviators (inside on a cloudy day) and shouted to us over the AC/DC blasting on 10 that we probably wouldn’t like any of the beers because they were too hoppy. Turns out we didn’t like the ones (the flat black jesus stout and double orange ale DIPA) because they were shitty beer, and ended up dumping most of it down the sink. I get that being assholes is sort of their brand, but your beer needs to back it up. Anyway, that night we had dinner at Lindsay’s mom’s place.

Fri 22nd

Somebody (cough cough Lindsay cough) still had shopping to do, so we drove around Bedford to get it done. Luckily our errands took us a past Off Track, a new craft brewery which opened that day (!) so we stopped in. We sampled a few and decided to buy grunters of their Good Grief Charlie Brown ale and Damn Skippy Peanut Butter stout, which ended up taking half an hour because of problems with their lines. By the time we left the line was out the door…not bad for a place that had only been open 90 minutes! Anyway, we took all that to Lindsay’s dad’s place, where we watched Die Hard (yas!) and Office Christmas Party.

Sat 23rd

I left Bedford to drive to my family’s farm, and arrived by mid-afternoon. I found my mom baking cookies, which is about as Christmas as it gets. I sniffed the tree, drove to Parrsboro to pick up my niece and the Mexican exchange student who lives with them, and got my butt back to the farm to just relax. That’s what I was there for. That night brother #2 shared a bunch of local beer he’d picked up for me, including a killer dry-hopped sour from Tatamagouche Brewing.

Sun 24th

Apart from wrap gifts, play crib with my dad, and help peel/core/slice apples for my mom’s apple pie, I can’t think of a single thing I did that day. Which means I nailed my target.

Mon 25th

Christmas! A lazy morning opening a few gifts with my parents, then a big lunch next door at brother #2’s house, then being lazy for most of the day. That night the Mexican exchange student and I beat the family at Trivial Pursuit.

Tue 26th

Boxing Day is always my dad’s family’s reunion, but the reunion is more of a 2-hour pot luck lunch. We drove there through a snow squall, met up with Lindsay who got to meet the family all at once, then drove back to the farm with brother #1 in tow. We all settled into farm relaxation mode. That night Lindsay and I beat my brothers and their wives at Trivial Pursuit.

Wed 27th

A quick jaunt into Amherst where I bought some Blundstones at Mansour’s, then back to the farm for more downtime. Trivial Pursuit on this night went less well, as my sisters-in-law and I lost to Lindsay and my two brothers.

Thu 28th

Again, not much happening (success!) but I did watch Hidden Figures (imdb | rotten tomatoes) with Lindsay and a room full of Dickinson women, which was pretty nice. My mom had made maple glazed ribs, and we destroyed them. That night, over at brother #2’s house, we switched it up and played Cards Against Humanity. I think brother #2 won, which surprised everyone, because we know brother #1 is the most depraved.

Fri 29th

Brother #1 left that morning and, after a little lunch, so did we. We were back in Bedford in time to watch the Canada/USA World Juniors game (shootout loss boo) and eat like starving animals for hours. We ended up watching Inglourious Basterds and I crashed out just before the tavern scene.

Sat 30th

Lindsay and I took a day for ourselves in Halifax, checking in to the Prince George Hotel, grabbing some exceptional beers at Stillwell, then heading to dinner at The Press Gang. We shared oysters, and loved them so much we got another half dozen. Lindsay had lobster gnocchi; I had a terrific duck. The wine list was mediocre, but the food made up for it. Not the best Halifax meal we’d ever had, and not where we’d intended to go (our reservation at Lot Six was cancelled at the last minute, and Highwayman looked too full), but I’m glad we finally tried The Press Gang.

Sun 31st

After grabbing breakfast at the hotel we ran out for a quick coffee at Weird Harbour, then drove to Dartmouth to meet up with brother #1 at Battery Park, North Brewing’s gastropub. We had lunch there (pig mac burger for Lindsay, fried chicken sandwich for me) and sampled some of their beer before buying more from the bottle shop. We drove back to Bedford, went to a group dinner with a bunch of Lindsay’s uncles and aunts, then came back to her mom’s place to ring in the new year over Benjamin Bridge sparkling and party games. Happy 2018 everyone!

Mon 1st

Moooooooostly nothing, except over-eating. Croissant eggs benny in the morning. Grazing all day. Lasagna for dinner. Oh, and we watched an episode of the new season of Black Mirror.

Tue 2nd

Got up, said our goodbyes, packed, drove to the airport, had a little wine at the new Vino Volo, few home to Toronto, got some Korean fried chicken and kimchi cheesy fries for a late lunch, and are now relaxing.

.:.

Cover photo by Alexey Kljatov, used under Creative Commons license

Capital Tabule Blood

December 3, 2017November 18, 2019 Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I really thought things would slow down as November turned into December. I was incorrect.

Last Monday I had a work gala thing at the Carlu, which was pretty unpleasant. Wednesday morning I flew to Ottawa and, between meetings, managed to get in some good coffee at Morning Owl and some excellent beer at Brothers. Cool hotel too.

When I flew back to Toronto on Thursday night (I sat right behind Chrystia Freeland on the plane) we had a quick dinner at Aft. On Friday, after I made it through the work day, we had a drink at Chez Nous, a fantastic dinner at Tabule, and a final drink back at Chez Nous.

Saturday was all full of errands, but then involved seeing the lovely The More I Look at These Images at 8eleven, then drinking at Blood Brothers. The change in weather has me wanting naught but brown ales, porters, and stouts, and Blood Brothers had plenty: a white chocolate white stout which knocked me out, a variant of the same with raspberries added, and a stout with coffee and cinnamon. We took a few bottles to go to drink elsewhere, and then somehow ended up at the Fox & Fiddle on Bloor for karaoke. Don’t ask; it was for a friend’s birthday. It pierced my soul with fiery pain, but some dude totally nailed “Zombie” by The Cranberries so it balanced out. We cabbed home, threw pizza down our necks, and crashed. I’m too old for that now. To be clear, I’ve always been too old for that.

Sunday was a slow morning, obviously, but we managed to get ourselves to Eastbound for some brunch before settling into weekend work.

Get here soon, Christmas vacation. SOON.

I did NOT run up the Rocky steps

November 18, 2017November 20, 2017 Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

For the past three days I’ve been in Philadelphia at a work conference. It was a really interesting one, put on (in part) by Wharton business school. Refreshingly, instead of trapping us in a great hideous ballroom for the whole time, they conducted four sessions in stunning, mostly historic, venues: the Franklin Institute, the College of Physicians, the brand new Museum of the American Revolution, and the Wharton school itself.

Because of my flight timing, and the prime location of our hotel (the stunning Ritz-Carlton) I managed to squeeze in some great spots.

Zavino, a casual pizza (and pasta) and wine bar, fed me a terrific gnudi special, an enormous beet salad, and some Sangiovese.

After caffeine-ing up at La Colombe and doing a little work I decided to try out Monk’s Cafe. The front bar was busy but I snuck into the back bar, and had a great time. It was quiet back there so the bartender (John, I think?) and I got to chatting, and he pulled some killer beers for me: a Russian River Consecration sour and an Almanac blackberry gose.

Since I was now on my way to the conference I decided I’d better get some more coffee in me, and stopped at Elixr on the way back to the hotel. Straight up one of the best espresso shots I’ve ever had.

During the evening’s sessions, where they fed us dinner, I had an obligatory Yuengling. After, once the evening had wrapped up, I tried Brü, a craft beer + wurst place I’d walked by earlier in the day. It was…super-loud and full of drunk dickbags, but I found a seat at the bar where I could watch hockey (WPG vs. PHI) and drink beer. I fended off bros while drinking an Avery Raspberry sour, a Rodenbach Alexander, and Half Acre Chub Step coffee porter.

On Friday we were in sessions from 7:30 to 9:30, so I did exactly nothing fun.

This morning I got up extra-early so I could return to Elixr before the conference re-started, and the cappuccino lived up to the standard the espresso had set earlier in the week. Absolutely top-notch.

Today, when my session ended I had a bit of time before my flight, so I grabbed lunch at a classic (kind of touristy, but still classic) local spot: McGillin’s. It’s an old tavern dating back to 1860 which is found down an alley. Sweet. I had a philly cheese steak and cole slaw and a pickle and a bag of chips, and a Lancaster milk stout, and it cost me $12 with tax.

Despite a bit of schlepping around back streets due to the marathon today, I got to the airport in pretty good time. Then I saved even more time because I have PreCheck, so I had two hours to kill before my flight. Luckily as soon as I walked through security I saw a Vino Volo. I had a Mencia and a Sangiovese, and I’m drinking a California Cab as I finish writing this.

Pretty solid trip, all in all, and it made me REALLY want to come back to Philly some day.

[UPDATE: I left Vino Volo as soon as I saw my plane pull in. As soon as I got to the gate I got called to the desk, and found out I’d been upgraded. Wasn’t expecting that. Smooth, comfy flight, followed by probably my all-time fastest exit from Pearson. Travel score!]

France 2017

October 27, 2017November 10, 2017 Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

We recently spent a week in France. Well, mostly — we spent five days in Paris, and took a few side trips to Reims in Champagne and Liège in Belgium. Usually what happens when I get back from a big trip is I write a quick, factual summary of what happened — where we went, what we ate, things we saw, etc. This time I wanted to do something a little different, so: here’s everything we did, ranked.

Top (All) 5 Hotels

Les Crayères (Reims) can barely even be described as a hotel. It’s a chateau, an estate, a getaway, an experience, a splurge. It’s class and luxury, top to bottom. With rooms.
Le Grand Pigalle (Paris 9e) was a pleasant surprise — a cool, fun hotel in the neon chaos that is Pigalle.
Hotel Caron (Paris 4e) was a win because of its simplicity: no restaurants, no grand lobby, no frills…just a nice Parisian hotel room, a friendly front-desk employee, and a great location.
Hotel Mademoiselle (Paris 10e) was a stopover as we transitioned from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de l’Est. Big room, but weird style. Cute breakfast area though.
The Street Lodge (Liège) was one we picked because of proximity to Liege’s train station, and island park. Not terribly fancy or stylish, but functional and roomy.

Top 5 Breakfasts

Les Crayères wasn’t just the best breakfast of the trip. It might have been the best breakfast I’ve ever had, and it was basically a continental breakfast. No meat, no eggs, no veg. Just pastries, yogurts, honeys, jams, fancy nutella, fruit, cheese, juice, and coffee, but all of it absolutely outstanding. All in a gorgeous room which houses their Michelin-starred restaurant. Will probably be on my top meals of the year. Oh, and we’re like 65% sure Jeff Bezos was there.
The Street Lodge Liège BnB breakfast was a surprise. Our host Sabine made wonderful eggs to go with the usual French breakfast (ham, fruit, pastries, jams, etc.)
La Terrasse Saint Catherine was a lucky find. We were up early and stumbled in since it was near our hotel, and fell into a simple but delicious breakfast: I had scrambled eggs with bacon inside the eggs; Lindsay had a meat & cheese plate and a croissant. It was simple, but perfect. The fact we were a little hungover probably had something to do with how delicious we found it.
La Grand Pigalle was our first real French breakfast: fruit, yogurt, pastries, etc. Excellent coffee drinks, but marked down for the truffled ham. Ugh.
Hotel Mademoiselle had a cute spot in which to eat breakfast, but it wasn’t really noteworthy.

Le Parc, where we ate breakfast at Les Crayères

Top 5 Lunches

Les Enfants Perdus came up in a quick Google search during our train ride back from Liège, and it turned out a champ. We shared an outstanding burrata, and had dorado (Dan) and toulouse sausage (Lindsay) for mains (paired with a terrific bottle of Burgundy). I had a trio — vanilla, pistachio, and praline — of crème brûlée (Dan) for dessert, but for the life of me can’t remember what Lindsay had.
Mamagoto happened to be right next door to Hotel Mademoiselle, otherwise we’d have never known about it. I forgot to write down what we ate, but it was Japanese/French fusion, so…yeah. Top stuff.
Le Relais Gascon was a place in the 18e recommended by our friend Genna for their giant salads. I had the salade du béarnais; Lindsay had the salade roquefort. We drank a bottle of rosé, chatted with the couple next to us who turned out to also be from Toronto, and almost got a sunburn. In October.
Tavern Aigle d’Or was the most promising beer place in Liège, and we spent a whole afternoon there. First we stuffed ourselves stupid on boulets (giant fried balls of seasons pork + beef) and then drank bottles of La Trappe, Rodenbach Grand Cru, Rulle Brun, and Cuvée De Ranke. It wasn’t always easy either — this was the only place we encountered where they spoke zero English.
Les BS Bistro & KB Coffee Roasters were our first stops after getting off the plane. Nothing terribly remarkable on the bistro front — just a simple brunch — but my espresso from KB was pretty tasty. And much-needed.

22496046_10155557747685673_862534419130518071_o — Our first meal in Paris

Top 5 Dinners

Buvette was the first dinner we ate in France, and I remember telling Lindsay that I wasn’t sure we’d beat it during the whole week. It wasn’t recommended; it just happened to be around the corner from our first hotel. It was a tiny place, and dimly lit, and so full we had to sit at the bar — classic Paris, in other words. And the food was stellar: chevre covered in honey and hazelnuts, beets covered in crème fraîche, a huge pile of smoked trout and lentils, steak tartare, a lovely bottle of cab franc, and a piece of brillat-savarin cheese with a glass of Graves. Incroyable.
Le Jardin Brasserie was the second, non-Michelin starred restaurant at Les Crayères, but it was still spectacular. We shared a bottle of Champagne from a small local producer to go with our starters (lobster salad, a “cappuccino” of Ardennes mushrooms + ham), and with our mains (lamb and veal) we took a bottle of Bordeaux. We had a quick cheese course, then two desserts: a hazelnut “island” floating in custard, and some kind of compote if memory serves. Actually, I guess we had three desserts: our server gave us an unexpected crème brûlée! I’m not sure how we made it back up the hill to the main building.
Our most anticipated dinner was Friday night, at a place in Saint Germain called Le Germain. It was another recommendation from Genna, who’d earned our trust thus far by recommending Le Relais Gascon and the baguette at Le Grenier A Pain and for, you know, being a Paris-trained pastry chef. Anyway, we got there, and we knew right away something was up. It just felt…weird in there. Like, clubby. I mean, it turns into a full-on club at 11pm, but even at 8pm it felt off. The service was poor. The apps were poor. There was none of the life-changing butter we were told lived there. We really didn’t want to stay, so we resolved to leave after the apps and find a new restaurant. I pulled up my old Paris custom map and realized one of my very favourite restaurants from my visit 8 years ago — Fish La Boissonnerie — was just seconds away. We loved it there immediately — so much more the vibe we were looking for than Le Germain. We shared this amazing soup; I had a delicious bit of pork, while Lindsay had pasta, and we shared a killer bottle of Burgundy. So glad we bailed out.
We weren’t sure what to do for our last meal in Paris until the last moment, when we opted to visit the Palais de Tokyo at 10pm on Saturday. We ate a quick but impressive dinner at the bar at Les Grandes Verres: coquilles St-Jacques, a shared dish where you made pork belly tacos out of pancakes, and cocktails. If we’d been in less of a rush I would have raided the wine list, where they had several people curate personalized lists & pages.
Since we have their poster on our wall, I suggested we have a late dinner at Willi’s Wine Bar after visiting the Louvre. We shared prawns and both got the steak frites, and drank a shockingly good bottle of Pomerol.

Honourable mention: L’Antidote in Liège.

Top 5 Bottles of Wine

Chateau Bellegrave 2008 Pomerol, at Willi’s Wine Bar. I’m not normally much of a Pomerol fan, but this went so brilliantly with our steak frites that I might just change my mind about Merlot.
Leclaire-Thiefaine Sainte Apolline Champagne, at Les Crayères’ Le Jardin Brasserie. We asked for a bottle of blanc de blancs from a small producer, and this one was perfect.
Simon Bize & Fils 2014 Aloxe-Corton “Le Suchot”, at Fish La Boissonerie. The staff held this one in such reverence that when a clumsy stranger knocked my mostly-empty glass off the table to be smashed on the floor, our server yelled “Oh no, Le Suchot!”
Domaine Joseph Roty 2014 Gevrey-Chambertin, at Les Enfants Perdus. This might have been a rather fancy bottle for lunch, but it was our favourite lunch of the whole trip, so.
Amirault St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil 2014 “Les Quarterons”, at Buvette. We asked for a versatile bottle to go with four different dishes. Luckily for me they fired this cab franc our way.

Honourable mention: the Château Toumalin Canon-Fronsac 2010 “L’Aurea” we had with our mains at Le Jardin.

Top 5 Art Experiences

In my two previous visits to Paris I’d never been to the Centre Pompidou. It’s not only a stunning collection of modern and contemporary art, it’s also an intriguing building. The view from the top floor must be one of the best in Paris. But the real jewel is the collection. We spent nearly six hours there over two visits, and still only saw 1.5 floors.
Similarly, I’d not been to the Musée de l’Orangerie, but it was a heavy hitter in terms of name-recognition of the artists inside. Even leaving aside Monet’s water lilies (probably the main draw) the collection downstairs — Cezanne, Picasso, Derain, Gauguin, Matisse, Modigliani, Renoir, Sisley — is something to see.
One of the main reasons we were in France and Belgium was to see the work on Nicolas Schöffer, and my favourite was the cybernetic tower which still stands, more than 50 years later, in Liège. It’s beautiful on its own, but also reacts to the external environment and would even change colour when I asked it to on Twitter. We stood on the footbridge to the island in the Meuse and interacted with this tower for half an hour after dinner. It was beautiful.
I’d never even heard of the Palais de Tokyo in my previous visits to Paris, but of course Lindsay knew about it. When we were there the exhibition was Days Are Dogs by Camille Henrot, which we didn’t have time to fully see, but which blew us both away.
We weren’t expecting much from La Bovarie, next door to the cybernetic tower in Liège, but both the temporary Young Artists exhibition and the permanent collection were pretty great. Our plan to stroll through the gardens after was thwarted when we got trapped in a terrace outside the museum with no one to let us back in, so we had to ninja our way out of the garden by walking on top of a wall and jumping back down, but that aside, it was a solid visit.

Honourable mention: slightly new experiences at The Louvre and the Musée Rodin, and a visit to a certain special atelier.

Top 5 Ways To Get Around

I’m telling you, I could take the TGV from Paris to Reims and back every day and probably not mind. 150km in 40 minutes, hitting 300 km/h along the way, was pretty sweet.
It’s touristy, but I stand by the fact that the Batobus is a pretty good way to get around and see the major sites of Paris. We sailed past the Eiffel Tower, the Musée D’Orsay, Notre Dame and more, eventually jumping off at the Louvre.
We must’ve taken 20 Uber trips. At this point Uber probably thinks I’ve moved to Paris.
The train to Liège wasn’t quite as slick as the TGV to Reims (and the Gare du Nord is not as nice as the Gare de l’Est) but it did pass through beautiful countryside, and passed within a few kilometeres of both Beaumont-Hamel and Vimy.
We only used the Paris Metro a couple of times, but we got to share a laugh with the locals about these really aggressive tourists who were literally crawling into seats before the previous occupants had even fully left them.

The Seine at sunset, seen from the Batobus

Top 5 Other Things We Saw

The tour and tasting at Taittinger in Reims was, happily, a little different than my tour at Moët et Chandon years ago. It’s a less fancy house, but the caves were more impressive. There were beautiful carvings, remnants of the old basilica which stood on the site before the revolution, and even ancient Roman crayères — chalk pits from the 4th century where the Romans had extracted limestone for building. A beautiful space, and a nice tasting. We bought two bottles: the 2012 Millésimé and the Prélude Grand Crus.
We didn’t expect much from it, but the whole city of Liège was a pleasant surprise. From the time we arrived to see the stunning train station, to the island park, to the walk along the Meuse river, to the old historic area, it was really a pleasant find.
The Tuileries Garden. Always the Tuileries Garden.
I’d never seen the Place Vendôme, the Opera, or the Montmartre Cemetery before, and we did them all (and then some) in one day.
I also hadn’t really spent any time in the Place de la Concorde, and for whatever reason we walked or drove into it several times on this trip. It’s the kind of huge public square that just exemplifies Paris.

Top 5 Things I Watched On The Plane

The Big Sick
The first three episodes of Fargo (the TV series, not the movie, obviously)
Baby Driver
Zodiac (which I’ve seen a million times but will always watch because David Fincher is a damn genius)
The Social Network (see above)

There were a hundred little moments not captured here, but all of which went into this being one of my all-time favourite trips. At some point Lindsay may weigh in with bonus commentary too, so stay tuned. Until then: a la prochâine, Paris.

Rips Van Winkelle

October 23, 2017October 25, 2017 Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

We got back yesterday from a week in France. We landed early-afternoon, got reamed by customs, took a looooong cab ride home thanks to the Scotiabank marathon, and had lunch and a few beers at Eastbound. We came home with a plan to nap for an hour or so, then get up to unpack, do laundry, eat dinner, etc.

What actually happened is that we woke up 12 hours later and went straight to work, which looks to be a maelstrom this week.

Much more to come, as soon as I can find the time. In the meantime I’ll just keep missing this sort of thing terribly:

.:.

Cover photo from Sandaya