"Kalendar" Restaurant on College Street

We went to this place on College Street just west of Bathurst last night. Just walking by, and looked in to find that this place is just the kind of place we like to go to....it's not huge, and has nicely-decorated exposed-brick walls with lots of different sizes and types of mirrors. Also a few old clocks and very artfully done touches throughout. Old original looking wood floors, interesting lighting and an intimate kind of feeling partially caused by the very comfy atmosphere/decor, and partly cause by the proximity to other diners...not usually a very good thing, but in this case it just added nicely to the "vibe". We weren't so close we were evesdropping, but we could have done so very comfortably if we had chosen to do so. Oh, and the food was great! Naan bread appetizers with hummus and another dip were perfect, my "scroll #3" was very nice, a kind of roti with chicken and some curry, including a very fresh organic-greens salad. Lamb chops were excellent I was told, as was the swordfish dinner and the pork medallions with apricot, etc.! Service was low-key but very attentive and friendly - just right! Desserts looked good, but we only managed to share one between four people - it was an excellent three-fudge pie. Yes, we'll be going back here soon : http://www.martiniboys.com/Toronto/Kalendar-review.html

Weather Forecasters Are #$@$%^&*(*'s

The following is a mini-rant I received today from my friend Jeremy. He's perfectly captured my long-held feelings on this topic: "What the 5-day forecasts count on is that you're not able to remember the five days. I've been watching the five-day forecast since Friday and each day there's a completely new one with completely different temps/precipitation/clouds... everything! With each passing day I'm thinking, hell its three degrees worse or now there's a little bit of precipitation that wasn't there before…each day crappier….The difference is unbelievable!!
I can't believe I fell for the Weather Forecasting Scam once again. I remember I would always say, if I want to know the goddamn weather I'll stick my f*****g head out the window, and sometimes I go with pink sky at night sailors delight (pretty reliable). But no, once again I got sucked in to actually anticipating these mother f****rs would get it right. KISS MY ASS I tell them. Don't publish that crap. I am now declaring my official ban of any weather forecasting!!!! (Except maybe for my own head out the window or a pink-sky-at-night-sailors-delight)". Right on , Jer! I couldn't have said it better.

Can't get enough of Amy Winehouse...

...but when I watch her I get a sort of melancholy and even quite sad feeling that we may be watching another of those "too-much-for-this-world" kinds of celebrities who is just so talented, but so messed up that they're just burning up incredibly brightly and beautifully, but then burning right out, and leaving us way too soon...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGKGsfxyXy8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFVM5pVTwkM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aygAu1x2uQo&mode=related&search

Love her talent. Let's enjoy her while we can.

Bonjour Brioche Restaurant, etc.

We went over to Bonjour Brioche today for a late-ish lunch (at the previous recommendations of both Lea and Mark).

It's a very cute little bakery/cafe/"French Restaurant"-type-of-place at 812 Queen Street East just east of Broadview.

Fantastic breads, soups, omelettes and pastries and desserts with great coffee!

Fran had the "rare roast beef sandwich on a baguette" with melted garlicy cheese on it, which was very tasty (though the baguette was just a bit too crunchy from toasting than we would have preferred).

I had a tortierre with organic greens, which was a "chalkboard" special. Delicious! We saw some other people's food, and particularly liked the looks of the omelette at the next table. We bought some of the restaurant's salad dressing to bring home - a very nice, subtle oil and vinegar and spice combo.

We'll try to go back again, but only if we can keep my car from stopping just west of there on Queen Street E. at Dangerous Dan's for his heart-attack hamburgers, fries and onion rings!

Then we drove over to the Danforth and bought some cheeses and some ground coffee at "Alex Farm" cheese shop, then had a coffee and a brownie at "mocha mocha" cafe/restaurant/coffee shop which also had some incredibly fresh-looking sandwich and wrap style lunches flying around to other tables. We'll have to remember this mocha-mocha place as well as the Il Fornello on the Danforth (which we walked past) which has a wonderful Monday-to-Friday buffet brunch from 11:00 to 2:00 p.m.

For more info, click on the names of the restaurants and shop I've underlined/linked above here.

Thes two places are at opposite ends of the spectrum, but we really like them both equally, but differently (much as a fella loves both of his kids equally but differently).

Bon appetit!

Aris Place Restaurant - on Roncesvalles

This place is a great find in a not-too-sketchy part of the city on 229 Roncesvalles, north of Queen. Great open kitchen serves up home-made burgers, great steak'n'eggs and all kinds of really good-looking "comfort foods". Clientele is very diverse and makes people-watching a great pass-time while waiting for your food to arrive. http://toronto.ibegin.com/restaurants/aris-place

James Hunter

We went to "the Phoenix" last night (June 20th, 2007) to see James Hunter. A great pre-show dinner at "Spadina Garden" (on Dundas, just west of Bay) with my brother and his wife, our friends Patricia & Doug, and my hockey-buddy Colin, his wife and their friend. We had tons of delectable food there, then all moved on over to the show. My impressions of James Hunter live: This guy is fantastic! He's from England, and has been on tour with Van Morrison. His voice is very rough, but pleasing nonetheless. He sounds like a softer version of John Hiatt, singing songs that could have come from the 60's by people like Sam Cooke. Close to a perfect concert with lots of energy and a very nice personality and humour coming through from the star of the show. If you like music, you really need to have his "People Gonna Talk"CD in your collection. The website gives a lot of samples of his music as well as an amusing little interview clip.
http://www.jameshuntermusic.com/base.html

(note: one of those pretty special nights when one reflects that you have lots more years behind you than ahead of you, and that this is exactly the kind of thing you should be doing more often...that is spending time with people you enjoy, having great meals at interesting places, and listening to live music in a very intimate setting like the Phoenix. you know, "plan for tomorrow, but live for today")