It’s not the greatest first impression. The door creaks open into a hall that feels like the foyer of an old apartment complex: a scattering of abandoned mail sits fanned over a white pleather sofa, the harshly lit hallway ends with some plywood and a plant shoved in the corner. An unmarked door leads to […]
Melissa Buote
Posted inFood + Drink
The Elle word
“I’m sorry, I’m scatterbrained today,” my server says after I’ve been seated for almost 10 minutes. I hadn’t gotten a menu until just a minute or two before when another server walked by and asked if I was ready to order and the lack of menu was pointed out. She swung back with the menu, […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Back in the FRED. zone
For the past few weeks, sliding and sloshing through what have become claustrophobic tunnels had slowly chipped away at my moxie, the weight of winter pressing down on my shoulders as heavily as the year’s snowfall. It reached a point where I would rather sit at home, blankly watching the fog creep up and down […]
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Eating at Eats! Urban Lunch Counter
Eats! Urban Lunch Counter doesn’t look like much more than a counter. One entire wall of the restaurant is made up of the nook where the lone server stands, part-prep station, part-display counter, part-cash station. Another wall is taken up with soda fridges and another display unit, seemingly unused. The rest of the dining room […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Flavour of love
“A lot of people don’t actually know this, but the word ‘symposium’ in ancient Greek actually means drinking party,” says Alex McLean of Zuppa Theatre Co. And it’s a party they have planned for the last two week of March. Zuppa’s Pop-Up Love Party is a contemporary interpretation of Plato’s philosophical text, Symposium, which focuses […]
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La Pitchoune’s California dreaming
Peter Joachim Nielsen was introduced to the wine industry at a young age. Once a week, his mother would watch Falcon Crest, the primetime soap opera that was to grapes, what Dallas was to oil. Nielsen is quick to point out that his winery, La Pitchoune, is nothing like Falcon Crest. Not only does the […]
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Give me all the bacon and eggs you have
Starfresh Modern Diner 20 Wright Avenue Dish: Plate Breakfast Served: Monday-Friday, 6:30-11am Price: $5.95 Medium coffee: $1.50 After years catering for TV and film, Lisa Barry knows how to keep people well-fuelled. Her little Burnside diner arrived on the scene just before Christmas, offering home-cooked eats and in-house baked goods to the hardworking business park […]
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Loong way to the top
I had a craving for Big Plate Chicken when I went to Loong 7 last week. Loong 7 opened late last year in the small space on Robie Street where the underappreciated Pars Restaurant—which, incidentally, is set to reopen in April on Barrington Street—previously sat. The menu is a mix of classic Canadian Chinese, and […]
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I Love Pho rules
It is cold. There is too much snow. The temperatures are low enough and the snow banks high enough that I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jake Gyllenhaal chased into the new library by a pack of wolves. Weather like this needs one thing: soup. I Love Pho is a pretty obvious destination for anybody […]
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Robie’s intercontinental breakfast
There’s a reason I don’t like to try a restaurant in the first few months it’s open. It’s the same reason I don’t try to eat a fried egg two seconds after it’s been dropped into a hot pan: it’s not ready yet. I had low expectations for Robie Street Station when I met Allison […]
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Count on Fresh Twenty One
My mother studied baking and pastry art at NSCC’s Akerley campus. In the late 1980s all of us kids let go of her apron strings, so she took those strings in her own hands, tied them a little tighter and set off to master croissants and cakes, tortes and tuiles. While she was attending NSCC, […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Alex Oh so good
Alex Oh Sushi & Rolls Hours: Tue-Wed, 11:30am -10pm; Thur-Sat, 11:30am -10:30pm; Sun, 12pm- 9:30pm It’s a busy Friday night at Alex Oh Sushi. The dining room is tiny, but full; the heat of the small crowd has the windows sweating against the outside cold. My friend is running late, so I sit at the […]
