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image of a dusty-shelved, small-town shop with some outdated products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"»
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"»
Canadians have a reputation for loving their beer, but the mental
picture most often associated with your average beer drinker is not
generally a positive one. Loutish frat boys drinking cases of
mediocre mass-produced brew is an image that lovers of good beer
abhor.
One Toronto restaurant is determined to polish the reputation
of both the drink and the drinker -- their logo says it all --
changing the way people think about beer.
Read the rest of: "Changing the Way People Think About Beer"»
Say "Indian food" to just about anyone and they'll swoon over chana
masala, paneer, maybe tandoori chicken. Say the word "dosa" and their
faces will get a confused expression.
India, like many countries that are long in length and encompass a
variety of distinct geographic areas, has many different cuisines.
Most Indian restaurants concentrate on the cuisines of the northern
regions; heavy on dairy, tomatoes and meat. In the south of India and
Sri Lanka, the food is very different. Dairy is rare, the spices are
hot (deep fried chili peppers make a common and tasty snack) and the
heavier breads of the north are replaced with large, light,
crepe-like breads called dosa...
Read the rest of: "The Other Taste of India"»
You've seen it if you go to the movies. It's the backdrop for most of Chicago and parts of Cinderella Man. Walking the cobblestoned laneways of Toronto's Historic Distillery District is like a journey back in time.
Established in 1832, the Gooderham and Worts distillery grew to become the largest in the British Empire. Known as the most well-preserved collection of Victorian Industrial Architecture in North America, the Distillery District covers 13 acres and is made up of over 40 buildings...
One of the biggest complaints about the neighbourhood was the dearth of good restaurants. Balzac's coffeehouse offered sandwiches and crepes, but the other two restaurants onsite, run by the same management company that runs the entire complex, were overpriced and more than a little pretentious...
Read the rest of: "Mill Street Brew Pub"»
