The bitter drink

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Another weekend. Another epic weekend.

Friday

Christ, it was impossible to get out of Toronto. I’ve never seen Billy Bishop airport like that. A lot of commuter fliers + a few canceled flights = chaos on the island. My flight was an hour late leaving, and sat on the Montreal tarmac for fifteen minutes while we waited for an open slot. I didn’t have much in me but to get in a cab, drop my bags, listen to music, play some poker, and drink some beer.

Saturday

I had a plan. A plan for beer. After driving in a delicious breakfast sandwich it was off to Le Saint Bock — tremendous beer, and tasty frites, but a weird vibe…I’m not used to craft beer places also being sports bars. Anyway, after pints of Hefeweizen and Saison, this was the sample lineup:

  • Malédiction Milk Stout
  • King Kunta Shiraz Saison Noire Impériale Vieillit en Fût de Shiraz
  • Pénitente Blanche Épicée
  • Harvest Ghosts American Brown Ale au Piment Bhut Jolokia
  • Jésus Chéri Ale Brune Impériale Aux Cerises
  • Black IPA (Brasserie Dunham)
  • L’ambiguë Rousse Bitter (La Voie Maltée)
  • Cidre à la Cerise (Vergers de la Colline)

Next up was L’Amère a Boire, just up the street. While the beer here was less impressive (the stout and red were fine, but…just fine) the food was very tasty. Rabbit dumplings? Lamb spring rolls? Yes please. Also: hot butch servers. Anyway.

A delicious, colourful stop at G&G Patisserie and a much-needed americano at Café Sfouf later and then it was time for Station Ho.st, the home bar for Hopfenstark.

It was fricking rammed with beer nerds and stressed servers, so it started off rocky, but got a little better — especially when the flammekueche w/ crème fraiche, oignon, lardon, and emmental cheese showed up. The beer was almost too nerdy, if you know what I mean.

  • 7 Sisters: Mérope Belgian Pale Ale
  • Baltic Porter de L’Ancrier Baltic Porter
  • Saison Station 55 Saison amère
  • Berlin AlexanderPlatz Berliner Weisse

Clearly that wasn’t quite enough booze and food, so after a brief respite it was off to Pullman wine bar for some late-night charcuterie and fromage, and glasses of pinot noir and cab franc and more cab franc and barolo.

I barely remember getting home.

Sunday

Sfouf indeed. Pastries and coffee please. Honestly, not much happened on Sunday apart from some delicious relaxation, until it was time for dinner at Maison Publique…and mon dieu. What a dinner.

First of all, the wine list: it’s entirely Canadian, and it’s easily the best Canadian wine lineup I’ve ever seen. Not the biggest, but certainly the best-curated. When I first walked in I saw bottles on the bar from TH Wines, Tawse, Pearl-Morissette, and so on. I ordered that TH Wines Cab-Merlot by the glass to start.

And then there was the food. Gawd. It was…well:

  • octopus & lentil salad
  • beets in marjoram, aioli
  • ricotta gnocchi in duck + pork ragu
  • magret de canard
  • olive oil cake

For the main meal the sommelier suggested a bottle of 2007 Southbrook Poetica Cab Merlot, which was amazing. After dessert he recommended glasses of Closson Chase chardonnay and Southbrook Triomphe Cab Franc.

The wine, the ambience, the service…it might be my new favourite place in Montreal.

Monday

Time to head up to my work conference in Mont Tremblant. A ginormous yummy breakfast, mimosas, and a péché mortel filled me up until I made the long drive up. Mercy.

Montreal, je t’aime.

 

 

Ero

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Jeez, what a week. I’m afraid to even come near my scale.

Tuesday was a drink & bite at Richmond Station and dinner at La Bettola.

Wednesday was stellar catering from Food Dudes at an event.

Thursday was my first visit to Buca Yorkville, and holy shit. I mean, holy shit. What a meal, easily one of the best I’ve eaten this year:

  • Starter: three smoked fish from Nova Scotia, including a scallop & lobster sausage (with a glass of Franciacorta)
  • Main: calamarata alla carbonara di mare (pasta with pecorino, cured hen’s egg yolk, white fish roe, and sea urchin bottarga); ravioli di zuzza (pasta stuffed with roasted delicata squash, smoked burrata fonduta, and white truffles); and polipo e vongole (braised octopus, BC clams, veal bone marrow, carvola nero, crisp artichoke, and fregola sarda); all paired with some wine from Mt. Etna that I can’t remember now
  • Dessert: lemon tart with gelato, paired with some kind of sweet wine which also escapes me

Friday was a long day at work, a quick stop for cheese and beer and wine at Boxcar Social, and then meeting some friends for drinks and delicious pork belly steam buns at Bar Hop.

Saturday was all over the place:

  • breakfast at XO Bisous
  • an unsuccessful first visit to Greater Good (it was closed)
  • a successful first visit to Blood Brothers
  • a hurried walk to, and pint at, The Three Speed
  • some purchases at Burdock‘s bottle shop (including their new collaboration with Pearl Morissette)
  • way too much lunch at Libretto
  • a few hours of work followed by espresso back at Boxcar
  • a drink at Weslodge
  • dodging costumed drunks on King Street
  • enough junk food to kill a teenager

Somebody get me a vegetable, post haste.

 

 

Cover photo by Patrick Q, used under Creative Commons license

In which brother #2 and I eat and drink our way around Toronto

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Brother #2 arrived Friday night, hungry and thirsty after a week of local work. We fixed that.

Friday night we had beers and food at C’est What, along with a surprise Burlchester sighting, and a wee bit of bourbon at home after.

Saturday we started with coffee and scones at XO Bisous, did a little tasting at Left Field, had lunch at The Wren, had one more beer at The Only, saw Star Trek: Beyond (imdb | rotten tomatoes) which was crap, and finally had dinner at Triple A.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BL3x6TUgyCo/?taken-by=dadickin

https://www.instagram.com/p/BL31khZgrtf/?taken-by=dadickin

This morning we got extra-large coffees from Fahrenheit and then, after running a few errands, ate brunch at Batch. Then he was off, like he was never here except a few pounds heavier.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BL6RdjuAX3E/?taken-by=dadickin

Come back anytime bro.

.:.

Cover photo by Patrick Q, used under Creative Commons license

Myriad(e) delights

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Work took me to Montreal last week, and I stayed through the weekend to enjoy a city I see far too rarely. Fortunately I’ll have an excuse to see it a lot more now, so everything described below just represents a sampler of what’s to come.

Thursday

A dim sum food truck pulled up right outside my work event, so some pork buns got demolished while I talked to startups and VCs.

Dinner was at Modavie wine bar in the old city. The live music was pretty outstanding…the lady had pipes. I ate rillette de canard and crème brûlée and felt very French indeed.

Friday

First up: coffee and food from nearby Café Veritas. Pretty solid.

I kind of skipped lunch after meetings at the Montreal office, instead just heading to Café Myriade for a cappuccino and croissant.

After going back to the office for a bit it was time for a quick stop at Brutopia for a brown ale and a bowl of sausage.

After some research, Bocata was the dinner choice, and it was goddamn outstanding: unbelievably soft bread + oil; beef carpaccio; octopus a la gallega; lobster roll w/ fennel, endive, and pear salad; plenty of good wine; and a lemon tart for dessert. I still feel full thinking about it now.

Saturday

More coffee, this time from the Espace Café. The croissants here were even better.

A morning of work deserved a big-ass brunch, so Maamm Bolduc it was. My omelette was full of chorizo (yay!) and mushrooms (what?) but some careful surgery saved the day.

The day’s true objective, though, was the Dieu du Ciel! brewpub. Oh, the flights!

  1. Ultra Mosaika (pale ale w/ mosaic hops)
  2. Déesse Nocturne (dry stout)
  3. Nativité (blonde hefeweizen)
  4. Rosée d’hibiscus
  5. Résurrection (porter)
  6. Voyageur des brumes (bitter)
  7. Sul’ pouce vers une autre galaxie (IPA w/ galaxy hops)0
  8. Pionnière (imperial black IPA)
  9. Solstice d’été aux cerises (cherry sour wheat)
  10. Rigor Mortis double (abbey double)
  11. Isseki Nicho (imperial dark saison)
  12. Route des Epices (spiced ale)
  13. Tête de Corbeau (pale ale w/ denali hops)

The day’s beerventures weren’t done though, as friends were met at Brouhaha, another top-rated Montreal beer joint. I had three; I honestly can’t remember what anyone else had. I very much remember the food though: Alsacienne flatbread (lardons, caramelized onions, crème fraîche, cheese) and smoked duck wings.

  1. Charlevoix Bootlegger (brown ale)
  2. Brouehaha Saison Voatsiperifery (peppercorn saison)
  3. Charlevoix Vache Folle (imperial milk stout)

Sunday

Grey, rainy, quiet. A bunch of amazing pastries, coffees, shockingly good beer procured from a Metro grocery store (Péché Mortel! Maudite!), and not wanting to come home. Alas.

Cover photo by Chris Riebschlager, used under Creative Commons license

SweepingJay

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Last night I, and the rest of Toronto, watched the Jays beat the Texas Rangers in the bottom of the 10th inning, in just about the most dramatic and poetic way possible. That the winning run was scored on a throwing error by Rougned Odor, infamous for punching out Jose Bautista earlier this year (in retaliation for a hard slide into second, but really for the bat flip in last year’s playoffs), was just about the best possible way for the Jays to complete their first-ever series sweep.

Bring on Cleveland. Or Boston. Or whoever.

.:.

Cover photo by Chris Riebschlager, used under Creative Commons license

The Dickinson tour

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Totally forgot to talk about brother #1’s visit last Sunday. That’s been a rarity — living abroad has meant brother #1’s excursions to Toronto have been few and far between.

After picking him up at his hotel and escaping the hordes of Jays fans + World Cup of Hockey attendees, I took him on a gastro tour familiar to any Dickinson brother: Quantum for coffee, Wvrst for drinks, and Patria for some dinner. It was a beautiful fall day but did cool off a bit. Still, with Patria’s outdoor heaters it was just warm enough to sit outside, even in my t-shirt.

.:.

Cover photo by Tom Magliery, used under Creative Commons license

#TIFF16 Film 5: City of Tiny Lights

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

This year’s TIFF wrap-up was City Of Tiny Lights (imdb | rotten tomatoes | tiff), a rather disappointing closer. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t very good either. In fact, without Riz Ahmed, this would have been entirely unremarkable — except that he succeeded in making London look unlike London ever looks in films.

It didn’t help that some…off dude sitting next to us made it impossible to concentrate during the screening. Yo guy, just…just sit still.

6/10

#TIFF16 Film 4: Prevenge

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

There are times, reading through the TIFF program book, when you don’t even have to finish reading the description for a film before adding it to your shortlist. This was the first paragraph in the description of Prevenge (imdb | rotten tomatoes | tiff):

Alice Lowe (Sightseers) is a triple threat as the writer, director and star of this pitch-black comedy about a pregnant woman whose unborn child psychically spurs her on to murder.

Sold, to the man with the dark sense of humour. Sightseers was a perfectly weird black comedy, so I was excited about this one too. It didn’t disappoint: it was so funny and weird, with these bursts of horrific violence set in tacky British locales (a la Sightseers), and Alice Lowe was just so good. That she acted in and directed this nearly eight months pregnant was remarkable, and (this sounds weird to say) put to such good use. She was hilarious and sweet and weird in her Q&A after, so it’s safe to say she’s a sure bet for any of my future TIFF shortlists.

8.5/10