Somebody on the site mentioned that Le Grand Comptoir
is one of the few restaurants in Montreal with friendly,
non-pretentious “single person" table service and I would
agree with them. What I mean by that is that going there by yourself doesn't necessarily present you with the typical dining-alone nuisances, like having to sit at the counter and thus forgo being able to relax in a chair, or being subjected to attitude from the host(ess) and the server. (After all, you're taking up a whole table and you'll only leave one person's tip!)
Like I said, Le Grand Comptoir
is a fortunate exception to those experiences.
You can go there alone at almost any time of day
(except the lunch hour: too busy) and find more
than a handful of individual tables to choose from...
Read the rest of: "Alone at Le Grand Comptoir"» 
In a brutal dance of acrobatics and fierce headlocks, the wrestlers tumbled and flipped each other across the ring, stopping now and then to turn to the cheering audience and flex their muscles. They ranged in age and size from youthful bodybuilders to small but quick, middle-aged firecrackers, and all wore shiny face masks and colorful spandex pants that sparkled under the outdoor lights. The commentator kept up with all the action, dramatically rattling off the moves in Spanish over blaring loudspeakers. The referee bounced around the men in the ring, fielding insults from hecklers in the audience...
This is Lucha Libre, or Mexican wrestling – a mixture of sport, drama, comedy and sheer showmanship...
Read the rest of: "¡Viva Lucha Libre!"»  When I say the words "General Store", what do you think of? I bet
it's the television show "The Waltons", isn't it? And then maybe the
image of a dusty-shelved, small-town shop with some outdated products
in faded packages and maybe one of those huge jars of pickled eggs on
the counter, surrounded by locals, gossiping and chatting. Not
exactly the kind of thing you'd think you'd ever find in downtown
Toronto. And on that count, you'd be both right and wrong...
Read the rest of: "Good Catch General Store"» 
I was always under the impression that "tapas" was a Spanish word
meaning small bites or small plates. In Spain, tapas is something you
eat after work with a drink or two before heading off to dinner,
sometime between nine or ten o'clock. Those little bits of snacks and
olives, maybe some bread, are meant to tide you over until the big meal.
Not so in Toronto, where tapas bars have morphed away from Spanish
snacks and drinks to full meals of every genre, at high-end prices.
Problem is, you've got to eat a lot of little dishes to come up with
the equivalent of a meal.
When Boom Shiva opened on the West Queen West strip last summer, they
were the hit of the season -- finally, a bar with exclusively
vegetarian food. Local critics sang the praises of the crusty old bar
revamped into a fun and funky space with live music, tasty cocktails
and a knowledgeable beer menu...
Read the rest of: "Boom Shiva"»  I've always loved the Museum of Modern Art. Even during its brief hiatus in
[ Queens]
(which is now PS 1 Contemporary Art Center). The powers that be behind MoMA have a way of presenting work in an exciting and original manner, and I mean, how many ways can you really present art in a museum context? And of course, I'm impressed again with MoMA's latest project by
Doug Aitken
Read the rest of: "Doug Aitken at MoMA - or rather ON MoMA"»  I'm a typical New Yorker. Art lover. Cultural fanatic. Subway enthusiast. Chain restaurant hater. Drag queen lover. When I visit other cities, I'm always afraid of what boring restaurants I'll have to dine in. On a recent trip to
Texas,
I realized how absolutely spoiled with culinary delights my life has been in
New York.
I was also crippled being a vegetarian...let's just say I ate a lot of baked potatoes at Texas BBQ joints.
So I went to
Denver.
Bars are plentiful, as well as bar food. Which is fine, but not exciting. Then I was taken to brunch at the Bump and Grind. A rainbowed interior filled with pop art and collectibles greeted me. How cute! - I thought...
Read the rest of: "Nothing Wrong With a Little Bump and Grind"» 
Certain restaurant reviewers in Toronto have a
longtime habit of instantly dismissing the
service at any Queen West establishment as having
too much attitude. Maybe I'm immune to it, or
maybe the black leather jacket and dark
sunglasses I've worn for decades make me
attitude-repellant, but it's a complaint I've never seen the merit of.
With one exception. I have walked out of the
Queen Mother café almost as many times as I've
eaten there, unwilling to put up with the really
crappy service. I keep coming back, though,
because the food makes it all worthwhile...
Read the rest of: "Queen Mother Café"»
 How many more blockbusters would you be willing to drop 13 bucks for? Personally, I'm done with it.
However, I love cinema and will be the first one to admit that renting movies is not the same as going to a movie theater. A movie theater gives you the atmosphere, the sound and the focus. In the coziness of your seat, you are "inside" the story unveiling on the screen. For good movies
(and I mean guaranteed good movies), you have to go to one of Montreal's répertoire (or repertory) cinemas, the best of which is Cinema du Parc.
I assumed Cinema du Parc had closed its doors a while ago, which I thought was unfortunate because it had left fewer available alternatives to watch good cinema. However, it recently reopened with a vengeance...
Read the rest of: "Cinéma du Parc"» |
