Adventures with Oren and The Gladstone

This weekend our friend Oren visited from Ottawa, which meant a good excuse to get out and spend some money in our town. We covered some good ground and experienced some great little businesses. Larger versions of the photos are here.

On Friday our dinner club met up at a fabulous Greek restaurant on the Danforth called Ouzeri.

Saturday lunch at Caplanski's Delicatessen on College st. I certainly recommend the matzah ball soup and latkes.

This is James and Oren who helped us get to know some local watering holes. We also stopped off at C'est What on Front st., Pravda vodka bar on Wellington, and The Irish Embassy pub on Yonge st.

At the Gladstone Hotel on Queen, we visited the Come Up To My Room alternative design event. The artist-designed hotel rooms were open to the public for the event.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Art's Birthday at the Wychwood Barns

On January 17th, NAISA hosted a birthday celebration for art at the Artscape Wychwood Barns. We had a lot of fun, and a nice turn-out including many local families and artists. Here are a few pictures:

My Walk To/From Work

So it takes me about 30-40 minutes to walk to work, and I've tried several routes. I love the neighbourhood, and the lovely old homes (some monstrous in size). There are many more things than I can show here that are part of the trip including cute little dogs in cute little coats, an increasingly decomposing dead squirrel, many smells including the sewers, chimney smoke, exhaust, garbage, cold, trees and bushes. Don't get me wrong, there are some less than lovely things, but I love the walk. It's getting more and more frigid, but I'm having fun trying different routes, testing my speed, getting to know the streets, and listening to my CBC podcasts. Here are some photos...

That castle in our neighbourhood.

Good old CN.

Near home.

Check out the bike-lane real estate on Davenport! I'm still too chicken to ride though... maybe next year.

Chris, Front Street, and the St. Lawrence Market

Christian's mother Chris visited us for a few days, and provided a great excuse to be tourists in our city. We headed down to the St. Lawrence Market for lunch and a few hours of shopping/browsing.

Friendly Entrepreneurs

Inspired by this post on Blog TO, Christian used his Nova Scotian charm to get us an invite to a coffee cupping session at te aro in Leslieville last week. I've never been to a wine tasting myself, but this is very similar to what I'd imagine the ritual to be. A lesson on coffee history, flavours, roasting, and grinding - complete with 'Coffee Tasters Flavour Wheel' for descriptive inspiration, some bean profiles to give us hints about our samples, and a list of cupping basics.

I forgot my camera that evening, so I apologize for the poor-quality cell-phone images. I just hope that I can convey the value of this worthwhile little business, and how hard the owners are trying to reach out into the community to share their passion for coffee. Thanks very much to owners Jessie and Andy Wilkin for the experience, and for helping add to my knowledge of and interest in this place called Toronto.

te aro in its renovated garage space on Queen st.

Fuzzy view of the tasting table. I particularly loved this gorgeous salvaged wood countertop.

We had the opportunity to taste three yummy coffees, and decided to take home some beans and a grinder too. Our favourite was the Etheopian Sidamo (description: blueberry, rhubarb, lemon, lime, jammy, fruit punch, floral).

And for my mother we snapped this shot of the Swiss Made Coffee Center with her personal hero Roger Federer. More on the Federer connection here.

Murmur Street View

What better way to develop a sense of place in your city than strolling through it and listening to stories about the things around you?

I've been doing a little research on Murmur, and decided to listen to some stories while on a virtual stroll using Google Street View. The following are a few highlights from Toronto and one extra from Leith, Scotland. It's worth dialing the number's on the little green ear signs around town, or surfing the streets with the stories playing at home. See the Murmur website to find out which cities are part of the project.

Vesuvio: This sounds like a good Italian restaurant to try out in the Junction neighbourhood. Definitely on my list now. Doug Hain has a great story about eating here while he was in school in the 50's. Imagine pizza being a "foreign food".

Dooneys: This one is such a sad story. I was listening to some great memories about the community that surrounded this cafe at 511 Bloor, especially Dan Yashinsky's attempt to place a curse on anyone who would replace it with a chain store (there was a big fight to keep Starbucks out). According to Google Street View though, it's now the T Cafe so I looked it up, and sadly Dooneys was sold in 2008. Here's the story. How many times did I walk past here without a second glance, when it meant so much to the regulars?

Baldwin Steps: This is around my new neighbourhood, at the bottom of Casa Loma and Spadina House. I had no idea that this is the former edge of Lake Ontario (Lake Iroquois). Also, I was curious about the lovely lighting in this area (best taken in on a stroll after dark). Have a listen to what Brad Golden has to say about it and check out the Spadina Line project webpage.

Madison Ave: While surfing around the Baldwin Steps area, I came across this kid alone in a park sitting up on a high tree stump. Very strange, and I can't think of how he possibly got up there. Any ideas?

The Queen Alleys: Unfortunately this is as close as I could get to the alleys on Google Street View. This one is definitely worth a real life walk-through I think. Here's the story, and here are a set of pictures from inside.

Rumbletums: This is a little place in Leith, Scotland. We never made it this far out of the centre of Edinburgh when we visited, but this story brought back a nice memory of "brown sauce". Here's Linda McDonald with a cute little story in a bonny accent.

Pathway to Winston Churchill Park

Near our new home in Toronto there is an excellent pathway that leads up to the park on St. Clair. There are two tiny wetland zones and the colours at this time are perfect.

Here is the location, and here are some larger versions of the photos below.