Over the past week I’ve done some fun stuff. The kind of stuff that reminds me why I like, or liked, Toronto.
Friday
Lindsay, Kirsten, and I finally tried Tiflisi, a Georgian restaurant in the Beach which made Michelin’s Bib Gourmand list the past two years. We had:
Assorted phkali (vegetable spreads with walnut sauce) + shoti-puri (traditional Georgian bread)
Lamb khinkali (traditional Georgian soup dumplings w/ lamb)
Kebab platter (w/ chicken, pork, lamb)
Bottles of Rkatsiteli and Saperavi wine, both aged in Qvevri
It was goddamned delicious. Even the vegetable spreads were seriously good, but the dumplings…holy crap.
Sunday
In the morning, we went for a walk / wee hike in Crothers Woods. We probably missed the height of the fall colors the previous weekend, but it was still pretty nice. At the entrance to the park we started chatting with another erstwhile hiker (and her beautiful black lab Grayson) and just began walking together. We had a nice little stroll, enjoyed the weather, and Grayson found a tennis ball that we used to play catch.
Wednesday
Early in the workday I received word that I had somehow lucked into an invite to the Bruce Springsteen concert at the Scotiabank Centre that night. I’m probably not the biggest Bruce fan but I know his live shows are legendary, so I went.
Long Walk Home (introduced as a fighting prayer for his country)
Land of Hope and Dreams
Lonesome Day
Candy’s Room
Adam Raised a Cain
Hungry Heart
Better Days
Letter to You
The Promised Land
Waitin’ on a Sunny Day
Reason to Believe
Darkness on the Edge of Town
The E Street Shuffle
Nightshift (Commodores cover)
Last Man Standing (acoustic)
Backstreets
Because the Night (Patti Smith Group cover)
She’s the One
Wrecking Ball
The Rising
Badlands
Thunder Road
Encore 1:
Born to Run
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Glory Days
Dancing in the Dark
Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Encore 2:
I’ll See You in My Dreams (solo acoustic)
Thoughts:
(I only really knew 10 of the 29 songs he played last night, and 3 of those 10 were covers…including “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town“, bizarrely enough, when a fan handed him a Santa hat)
My favourite song of the night was a hard-chugging blues version of “Reason to Believe”, the only song he played from Nebraska. Close seconds were “Adam Raised A Cain” and the Patti Smith cover.
The man is 75 and he played at high energy for three hours. Three fucking hours.
The E-Street Band is huge (I counted 16 members, including Bruce) but so tight. Nils Lofgren and Little Steven are icons, but seeing Max Weinberg power through that 3-hour set without so much as a few seconds’ break was incredible. And there’s some magic to a band whose core has been playing together for fifty years.
Most of the fans there were older than I was, and knew every word to every song, but I could see people in their twenties around me singing along too.
They were late going on — 8:45 instead of 7:30 — so the show wrapped up at 11:45. I left, tired but pretty blown away.
We spent last weekend in Kingston, building a trip around a visit to a friend’s art exhibition…which was closed, unexpectedly for the day. And the gallery wasn’t open the next two days. So we missed the main reason for being there…but the food, to our great surprise, made up for it.
First, we stayed at the Frontenac Club, a new conversion of an old building, and our room was lovely: exposed brick, big windows, stained glass, huge bathroom, etc.
Next up was to get some warm coffee on a cold day, so we walked down the street to SENS cafe for some capps, which we took with us down to the waterfront to enjoy the view and the sunshine. On the walk back to the hotel we stopped at Bobbi Pecorino’s to rescue something from their bottle shop.
We had dinner booked that night at The Everly, which started a little funny but ended up very solid indeed:
Cocktails
Appetizers
East Coast Oysters w/ fresh horseradish & lemon
Kale Salad (Salt of the Earth Farms kale, cashew ‘cheese’, breadcrumbs, roasted cashews, lemon & olive oil dressing, Parmesan)
We wanted the salt cod fritters but they were out. The kitchen staff felt bad so as a consolation they brought us a 1/4 order of the polenta fries (Crispy polenta, pomodoro, basil, garlic, Parmesan) and an order of the roast pumpkin (Salt of the Earth Farm roast pumpkin, butter fried sage, lemon & parsley sauce, pumpkin seeds)
Glasses of Soave (Tessari Grisela DOC Classico, IT, ’22) and Chenin Blanc (Pearce Predhomme Stellenbosch Old Vine, SA, ’22)
Mains
Lindsay had the Butternut Squash Agnolotti (ricotta & squash stuffed pasta, brown butter, Ontario hazelnuts, sage, Parmesan)
I wanted the braised pork belly but they were out, so I ended up getting the Pork Sausage pasta (rigatoni, fennel and chili pork sausage, garlic, broccolini, fried breadcrumbs, Pecorino)
Bottle of Cabernet Franc (Stanners Vineyard, PEC, ’21)
The next morning we slept in and missed the hotel’s breakfast. Instead we walked slowly over to Kingston institution Chez Piggy for some comfort brunch: Chilaquiles con Carne (tortilla chips, salsa verde, black bean, bell pepper, avocado, grilled steak, sunny eggs, feta, jalapeño, coriander, scallion) for me, and Çilbir (garlic yogurt, poached eggs chili, garlic butter, mint, dill, cilantro, parsley, pan chancho za’atar pita) for Lindsay. Both were extremely delicious. The place looks like it hasn’t changed inside in fifty years, but who cares?
Back in the room we relaxed. Lindsay boiled herself in the tub while I finished the book I was reading (But What If We’re Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman) and then we want back out for dinner. We picked Wooden Heads because we felt like a chill pizza experience, but it ended up being extremely good as well, splitting an excellent pizza and Sicilia pizza. My glass of Tempranillo was good; Lindsay’s Sangiovese was not. But we muddled through.
We woke up early Monday as it was a work day for us both. After eating a very nice breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant The Bank Gastropub, Lindsay walked to a medical archive for some research while I posted up in the restaurant (they were empty but for us) and got a ton of work done. Once we wrapped up we grabbed a late lunch — fish and chips, both — at Dianne’s and bolted for home before the Toronto traffic got too bad. We had a pretty seamless drive, frankly, and were grateful to be home.
So yeah, after the bitter disappointment immediately after arriving, Kingston redeemed itself on the strength of its food.
I didn’t have time to write it up before going to Moncton, but we did a pretty special meal out for Lindsay’s birthday: Yannick Bigourdan’s new place on Yonge Street, Lucie. It’s brand new, but was recognized in the latest Michelin list for Toronto. Hard to get a handle on the vibe — it seemed like a mix of foodies but also rich tourists who just wandered down from the Eaton Centre with their piles of shopping bags — but the staff was very lovely and the service was good. We got the tasting menu with the “Collection” wine pairing option, which actually cost more than the food. But there were some stunners in there.
Here’s what we ate:
Le Mahi Mahi Cevice, Finger Lime, Bell Pepper Squid & Prawn Creamy Sauce Didier Dagueneau, “Blanc etc…”, Vin de France, 2020
Le Caviar Oscietre Agatha Potato, Smoked Eel, Ossetra Caviar & Poultry Jus Dom Pérignon, Brut Rosé, Epernay, Champagne, 2006
La Gamberoni Slightly Seared Gamberoni / Eggplant, Sardine & Mint Sauce Mongeard-Mugneret, Fixin, 2020
Le Bison Dry Aged Ontario Bison, Cocoa, Coffee & Ginger Butter / Butternut Squash & Dark Chocolate Jus Château Gloria, Saint-Julien, 2010
Le Pamplemousse Grapefruit Sorbet, White Tea Emulsion Lychee Jelly
La Banane Green Banana, Valrhona White Chocolate Ganache Vanilla & Ossetra Caviar Château d’Yquem, 1er Cru Supérieur, Sauternes, 2017 Domaine Huet, “Clos du Bourg”, Vouvray Moelleux, 2005
Highlights: the Mahi Mahi and bison were both superb. The Fixin was the wine of night, right up until I splurged on a glass of Château d’Yquem.
Just got back from a work week in Moncton. While there I hit some repeat spots (including dinner with my parents, which is always great) but also tried a few new ones:
Laundromat Espresso Bar, which was fine. Kind of liked the idea of it as a bar (they also have live music sometimes) but I was there in the middle of the day, so…beer next time.
Notre Dame de Parkton, a lunch-only sandwich place famous for its high-quality bacon. I didn’t get bacon this time, but did get a smoked meat sandwich which, while small, was one of the best I’ve ever eaten. The meat melted in my mouth. The bread was soft as a cloud. Classic yellow mustard. Pickle, cole slaw, and plain chips on the side. Perfectly executed lunch. Will repeat.
Banh Mi Bready, a (you guessed it) banh mi place near my office which an employee recommended. I got the grilled pork at their suggestion, and it was solid. Good option for next time. Glad to see it was hopping too — good for them.
The new Main Street location of Red Satay. I’ve been to the St. George location a bunch.
Picked up a couple of excellent wines at that primo ANBL too:
Some nice friend check-ins this week: first we met Laura for dinner at White Lily Diner, her first time in a while and our first time in…not that long. Pastrami sandwich as per usual, but also a bottle of Closson Chase. We went back to Chez Nous afterward and had a delicious bottle of Domaine Queylus Cab Franc.
The next night I met an old friend (Shannon) at a new place (Belle Isle) where the cocktails are made by another, newer friend (James). We had a couple bites (weird) and three cocktails each. All five we tried were outstanding.
these gays are trying to kill me: guava candy tito’s, st germain, apple soju, absinthe, lemon
going home with the drummer: planteray stiggins rum, citadelle gin, tio pepe, ginger, drambuie, chili
Shannon had:
i’m not much into health food: el dorado 12, plantaray 3, amaro, pina, coco, egg white, orange blossom
young, dumb, in love, and dumb: lot 40, cynar, candied ginger, maple, akvavit, lagavulin, hickory, apple cider (ed: I kinda can’t believe I didn’t try this one)
a divorced dad dinner
It was nice to see James and sample his excellent wares, but I was a good 20 years too old to be in that place.
Two new, but very different, dining experiences this week.
First, earlier this week I had dinner at Toronto Hunt Club. I know someone who’s a member and he’s been trying to get me there forever. Stunning view at that place for sure, good food (we had lamb and oxtail) and a decent wine list (we had a bottle of Australian Cab/Shiraz) but…manoman, am I ever not a private club guy. Pick any of your standard reasons why. But also, I saw an older couple there who sat side by side through dinner and as far as I could tell didn’t utter a single consonant to either other for two-ish hours and MY GOD is that ever my nightmare. Anyway. Seems like a gorgeous spot, and the food wasn’t bad, but…yeah.
Then today, whilst out for a walk, I found myself walking by Maha’s Egyptian Brunch and there was no line (!) so I just ducked in and ate some breakfast: a delicious Egyptian omelette and glass of beet juice. It got me one step closer to a personal 2024 objective: to try all the Michelin-recognized (at least, according to last year’s list) restaurants east of Yonge before the end of the year. More on those objectives in my year-end roundup…which, I guess, I’ll be writing about eleven weeks from now.
We flew Porter out of Pearson for first time, on one of their jets they use to fly to western North America. We found a Vino Volo near what we thought was our gate, but didn’t have time for more than a quick glass of wine. We began walking to our gate, realized it was very far away, and hustled a bit. We got to our gate just in time to find out our flight was delayed, so we walked back to the Vino Volo so we could eat. A flatbread later, we were ready for our flight.
The flight itself was pretty good: economy, but roomy and no middle seats, and free wi-fi. We landed in Calgary and picked up our car — upgrade to a VW Tiguan! — and drove to the Kensington neighbourhood, where our friend Kirsten had kindly let us use her condo. We got in, relaxed a bit, and enjoyed a view of the sunset over the hills west of the city.
We walked to Niko’s Bistro for dinner, had a surprise run-in with our recently-transplanted-to-Calgary Stevie & Sarah, and sat down at our table. We had:
Starters
Caprese salad w/ organic spring mix, bocconcini cheese, tomatoes, XV olive oil, balsamic reduction
Risotto con fungi w/ mushrooms, porcini mushrooms, truffle oil
Agnello Brasato w/ lamb shank, braised vegetables, XV olive oil, tomatoes, served with parmesan risotto
bottle of Collazzi Liberta Toscana IGT
Shortly after our apps, Lindsay started feeling gross, so the staff very kindly offered to pack our mains to go, and corked our remaining wine. I ate my lamb at home (the risotto was excellent) while Lindsay slept it off.
Sunday
We obviously rested as much as possible the next morning; I went to COBS for breakfast and The Roasterie for coffee. We were packing to leave for the mountains shortly, so with that done Lindsay reheated her risotto while I grabbed a (MUCH too large) burger from Flipp’n Burgers.
After a quick stop to see Stevie & Sarah’s new place (and give some love to Ivy and Pluto) we drove west to Banff. I always love driving into the mountains; Lindsay was a little underwhelmed given all the hyping I/we’d done.
We checked in at the Rimrock resort hotel, threw our stuff in our room, and I registered for my two-day conference. We turned right back around the drove down the hill to the town of Banff, where we met up with Stevie & Sarah again. They were psyched about fondue at The Grizzly House, which was quite an adventure. Vegetables boiled in buttery broth, a bunch of meat, and chocolate fondue for dinner. We left full, but also smelling vaguely of smoke, and drove back up the hill to the hotel.
Monday
Not much to report: a full day of conference-going for me, a day of work for Lindsay. But when the conference is in a locale like this, it’s pretty easy to take:
I skipped the conference dinner, and had a drink at the bar with Lindsay instead.
We had dinner at Primrose; I’d wanted to try Eden because of their wine list, but it was closed. Lindsay still wasn’t feeling great, so we kept the order tight:
Salt Baked Beets w/ Whipped Ricotta, Salted Pistachio, Focaccia, Mint
Chocolate Cremeux of Dark Chocolate, Malt Ganache, Almond Crunch
Tuesday
Day two of the conference, so once again not much to report. We did drive down into the town centre for lunch. On a recommendation we tried Block, but it was full and had a long wait list. We instead went to PARK distillery. Our server was nice; the table next to us featured a kid absolutely blasting French cartoons on a parent’s phone. Food was pretty good too:
corn bread w/ maple whisky butter
drunken shrimp w/ park alpine dry gin, tomato, herbs, spices
rotisserie chicken caesar salad w/ wood-fired pulled chicken, grana padano, bacon, focaccia croutons
rotisserie chicken s’wich w/ pulled rotisserie chicken, park maple rye bbq sauce, cheddar, slaw, bacon, ranch, brioche bun, hickory fries + smoked tomato chili vodka soup
It was time to check in at our second Banff hotel: the Fairmont Banff Springs. We got another upgrade — a suite in the Gatehouse — but our room wasn’t quite ready, so we had excellent cocktails in the famous Rundle Bar.
Mid-cocktail we got a text that our room was ready, so we walked over, dumped our bags, chilled for a while, and admired yet another classic view.
Our dinner that night was a big one: 1888 Chop House, the hotel’s steakhouse. Our host was from New Brunswick, which was a nice surprise, and also a deviation from what we’d observed so far in Banff — that every service person there was from Australia or New Zealand (or possibly the UK). Our server’s Aussie accent quickly corrected the deviation.
It was an epic meal for sure:
Cocktails
glasses of Piper Heidsieck NV Champagne
Appetizers
1888 House Bread w/ everything seasoning, nasturtium butter
Local Gems w/marcona almonds, toasted grains, radicchio, citrus
Luckily the walk home was a short one, ’cause we conked right out.
Wednesday
Unfortunately it was hard to stay conked — the room mechanicals made weird noises all night, and at 7am the pipes/ducts/whatever starting rattling and whining like a jet engine was starting in the room. Not good since we were trying to rest up for a day of hiking. We got up, and noticed that the overnight rain for us had been snow higher up, so the highest mountain peaks were covered in snow. You can see it on the mountains in the distance below.
Lindsay had booked us on a bus that would us to both Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. I was very excited — I hadn’t seen either lake since 2006, and had spent only minutes at Lake Louise. We had breakfast in Vermillion Room, got ready, and drove up the highway. Now Lindsay was impressed — bigger mountains, amazing views, and snowcaps just make mountains look more mountain-like. We parked at the foot of Lake Louise ski resort, got on our bus, and headed over to Lake Louise first. We spent an hour there, avoiding tourists, but enjoying the views as we walked around the lake shore.
Pretty quickly we were back on the bus and off to Moraine Lake. It really blew Lindsay away, and really took me back. 18 years later it was just as breathtaking.
Because we only had a couple hours we only did the lakeshore trail. It was slushy, but manageable, even though we didn’t have proper gear. We could walk it all the way to to the end where we didn’t see another hiker for a good 20 minutes.
Back at the lodge, we did the Rockpile hike just before the bus came back, for the “$20 view”, so named because it used to be the vista pictured on the old Canadian $20 bill. It was getting quite cold now, but it was so worth it. On our way down a tourist couple asked if it was safe to hike to the top without bear spray; I assured them the only wildlife they’d encounter would be hungry hikers.
A little pooped, we were bussed back across the valley, and then drove home along the Bow Valley Parkway. Our only wildlife sighting was a small herd of deer, but the drive was so gorgeous we didn’t care. We arrived back at the hotel, dropped the car, turned on our heels, and went right to dinner at The Waldhaus pub down the hill from the hotel. It was exactly what we needed: a quiet, relaxed environment. Had it been lighter out, it would have been a gorgeous view of the Bow River. We treated our bellies instead of our eyes:
After all that, we somehow pushed our tired legs back up the 93 stairs to the hotel, and collapsed in our bed.
Thursday
It was time to leave Banff, so we ordered room service, packed, drove to the town centre, parked, and went for a walk along the Bow River. Not all the way to the falls, just to a bench with a great view.
After a few panicked moments when Lindsay realized she’d forgotten her phone on the bench (we ran back; it was still there) we were back in town and decided to re-try our luck with Block. Luckily, we got right in. Nice vibe in there.
Zero-proof balsamic gin & tonic: Seedlip Garden 108, Spiced Orange & Balsamic NA Gin, Wildlife Tonic Syrup, Soda (somebody had to drive)
Dessert
matcha cheese cake w/ ginger chocolate sauce
We stopped for cappuccinos at Mountain Folk Coffee Co, which were pretty meh despite being $8 a pop. Grumble. We drove off toward Calgary, and saw a high speed chase (!) on the highway on an otherwise uneventful drive back to Kirsten’s condo. We ordered some pizzas from Pulcinella and drank a bottle of her wine.
A delicious, lazy morning that didn’t get off to much of a start until I went to COBS for breakfast and Aggudo for coffee. We made a lunch plan and later walked, crossing the Bow once more, to lunch at Bridgette Bar. It was largely positive: I really liked the vibe and decor, the wine list was excellent with lots of obscure stuff, and the food was extremely tasty. My only complaint was that our server promised to “course out” our five snacks/starters, but instead it all showed up at once, swamping the table and overwhelming us.
white peach Negroni (gin, peach liqueur, blanc aperitif, Campari)
We walked back and met Stevie & Sarah & Ivy for a park hang before walking down to Pages Books. There we spent some time (and money) and petted the resident cat, Kilgore Trout.
While Lindsay finished up there I shopped down the street at Vine Styles, a truly excellent wine shop. I bought bottles to replenish Kirsten’s supply, and to go with the fancy-ass peanut butter sandwiches we got from PB and J YYC. I grabbed an exceptional bottle of Cru Beaujolais too.
A purely mechanical morning: we woke up, showered, packed, cleaned up, and drove to the airport. Thanks Alberta; you served up a great first experience for Lindsay and a wonderful return visit for me, especially in the Rockies. I forgot how much I missed them; luckily Lindsay was asking to go back before we’d even left Banff. Until next time!
Last weekend we strolled up to Crow’s to see our third Ibsen play in the last 18 months: Rosmersholm. Like A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler, the set was stark (though I don’t know if any set will ever be as stark as Doll’s House), the dialogue brilliant, and the messages timeless. It was all the more remarkable because one of the actors was filling in at the absolute last minute — stepping in earlier that day for the primary actor who’d had a death in the family.
Last week, when I was sitting down to dinner, I read the news about James Earl Jones passing. An absolute icon from my childhood on, even though it was years before I knew anything other than his voice. Darth Vader is truly one of the all-time great movie characters, and embodied by Jones’ voice as much as — perhaps even more than — David Prowse’s physical acting.
Only when I thought back through his filmography, though, did I realize how many more of James’ roles were meaningful to me over the years: The Hunt For Red October (and the other Jack Ryan films), Field of Dreams, Dr. Strangelove, even Conan. Plus a small but very hilarious part in Sneakers. There were also dozens of noteworthy film performances before I was old enough to know them, not to mention Broadway acclaim. And I was too old to have childhood memories of The Lion King, but chalk up another iconic voice performance.
Earlier this week I tried The Rosebud for the first time. The food was quite good (deli plate; beets w/ grapes, hazelnuts, and marjoram vinaigrette; confit duck leg + seared duck breast w/ sour cherry, olive, and pistachio pistou) but the real standout was the wine selection. Lots of stuff by the glass I’m just not accustomed to seeing, like Picpoul, Pinot Nero (done as a white wine; so little skin contact it practically looked like water), and Semillon. I finished with a bit of Chinon for the duck.
At the very end of the week, I received some welcome news. As I’ve written about here before, I spent much of the spring and summer studying for the WSET level 3 award in wines. I wrote the exam on July 4th, and learned later that it takes ten weeks to get your results. At ten weeks + one day, I received an email telling me I’d passed the theory portion with distinction, and the tasting portion with merit (so, a little less strong than the theory). I was frankly much more worried about the theory bit, partly because that’s what most people fail, and partly because in my practice exams leading up to the final exam I’d not done very well. But some excellent coaching by the course instructor got me across the goal line.
I took a special bottle out of the cellar to celebrate. We had it last night with Lindsay’s little brother, after dinner at Avling and some Ed’s ice cream on the way home. Felt fitting for us three to celebrate with an award-winning Nova Scotian sparkling.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 