Oh, hi there, welcome to another entry of my blog! I'ma talk about eating at restaurants I'm excited about, and want to love, but end up disappointed and feel required to shit all over them (i.e. said restaurants)! Sound familiar? Okay, good. Let's get 'er done.
So, I'm a bit behind the curve w/r/t Boon. I heard about its impending arrival long before the intended spring launch, and it seemed like the building had been painted and everything was ready to go for a few months before it finally opened up. The concept(*) was intriguing, and the location good, so I was interested, to say the least. Then, it opened, and the word on the street was overwhelmingly positive. One heard stories about the Boon folks running out of food on the first couple days it was open, people were flocking to it in such high numbers.
My enthusiasm was tempered somewhat by reports from the Constant Dinner Companion (who visited Boon without me!(**)), whose praise was qualified, and less than overwhelming. He still enjoyed himself overall, though, so it was with moderately high expectations that I finally made my way to Boon on a Friday evening.
The room itself is tiny, but Boon makes clever use of the space they do have by setting it up family-style. Two long tables with picnic-esque benches both maximize the available seating space and create a loose informal vibe. The down side, of course, is post-meal lingering is implicitly discouraged: done? Git ta fuck out. Anyhow, you order at the till, and are served food as it is ready. It was jam packed during our visit, and seating was at a premium. We got lucky and nabbed a seat, but it's definitely possible for your order to come up and there be nowhere for you to sit to eat.
On to the food: I'll start with the good. Actually, the GREAT. The vegan mushroom gravy Boon serves is fantastic, and not "fantastic for vegan gravy," but unqualifiedly fantastic, stack it up against any other gravy, anywhere, anytime fantastic. Rich and thick and deep in umami flavour. Yup.
The burger itself: I ordered the Boon burger--seemed the best place to start. Now, I enjoy veggie burgers, so I'm definitely not going to fault it because it fails as a hamburger, which it is not trying to be at all. And the Boon burger was not bad. It was fairly fall-apart-y (is it possible to make a vegetarian burger patty that actually holds together?) and the advertised peach chutney so scant it failed to register at all, but still fairly flavourful. The bun was quite odd--a square, almost foccia-like slab. And too big! Goddamn. Once again, the burger law: area of the burger > area of the bun. All in all, though, not bad; fresh! I also had bites of my companions' soup and salad, and both were fairly tasty.
HOWEVER.
The french fries.
Actually, the "french fries". It does say on the menu that the "fries" are baked, but you have to go looking for it, it's in the section where they tell their little stories about the food. On the menu proper, it just says "fries: sm, lg". And call me crazy, but when I read "fries", I assume there will be some frying going on.
And they do look pretty good, nicely browned and sprinkled with sesame seeds. And they may have tasted good, had they been served straight from the oven. But they were not. Oh lordy, how they certainly were not. They were stale, and dry, and chewy, and served luke-warm AT BEST. They tasted like they had been sitting under a heat lamp for three hours, because I'm pretty sure they had literally been sitting under a heat lamp for three hours. And when I say "chewy", I'm not fucking around. They were literally hard to eat.
Now, I can understand wanting to be health-conscious and all that bullshit, but come the fuck on. If you're looking for an alternative to pulling potatoes out of a frier full of hot, delicious fat and serving them immediately, let me assure you that baking them first thing in the morning then sitting them under a heat lamp all day is not it. These fries were so bad, I felt personally insulted by them. And the fact that they were dressed up in "gourmet" clothes really made them even worse. Maybe fresh from the oven, the sesame seeds pack some massive flavour punch, but in the desiccated state they were served to me the sesame seeds just seemed like misdirection, a culinary sleight of hand to distract me from the fact that I was being served sub-cafeteria-food garbage.
So, again, I have to ask myself if a single terrible dish should utterly decimate my opinion of a restaurant. In this case, it's impossible to overlook a blunder so huge. Regardless of anything else going on in that kitchen, making me pay $$$ for "french fries" that bad(***) is completely unforgivable. Sorry, Boon Burger. You fail.
Location: 79 Sherbrook St.
Price tag: Burger + fries = around 12 bux.
Website: www.boonburger.ca/
*And here I'll just take a second to bellyache about the fact that Winnipeg gets a gourmet VEGETARIAN burger restaurant BEFORE a REGULAR gourmet burger restaurant. Sheesh. Okay, I'm done.
**Fuckin' jerk.
***What I'm wondering now is, should I have said anything? I very, very rarely send food back. I can only think of a single time, at Dandelion, where I sent back roasted potatoes that were served still crunchy. (Never really had a good experience at that place, actually.) In this case, I have to doubt it would have accomplished anything. What could they have done, tossed them in the microwave?
15 September 2010
A Drink at Oui Bistro
I had initially written off Oui Bistro altogether, since it is a Wow! Hospitality venture(*). But, when a friend (and culinary arts grad) hipped me to the fact that the chef at Oui has done an apprenticeship at the French Laundry, I wrote it back on, and added Oui to my list of restaurants I should probably try, at some point. Unfortunately, its high-ish prices had thus far kept me away, not to mention the fact that when I want French bistro food, and I feel like shelling out $$$, I go to Bistro 7 1/4. And now, the Oui space is making changes, bringing in a new menu, with a new name and a new concept(**). So, when a friend suggested the Oui lounge for a drink, I thought, well, at least I'll set foot in the place before the menu changes.
The bar side of the space itself is lovely: high ceilings and lots of exposed brick; didn't make it over to the restaurant proper. We weren't dining, but decided to order a bite to share, and settled on the macaroni gratin, with chanterelle mushrooms. The chanterelles were easily the best part of the dish: flavourful and vibrantly coloured. Unfortunately, the rest of the dish was extremely lackluster, especially for such a simple, essential preparation. It was bad enough that the gratin was soupy and under-seasoned, but to make matters worse, it wasn't really a gratin. A gratin must be topped with a browned crust of SOMETHING; this is what makes a gratin a gratin. The cheese on the top of the dish was melted, but was in no way browned. Simply put: boooo.
So, Oui gets written off, once again, and just in the nick of time, before it disappears forever into the mists of the past. I have to ask myself, am I making a mistake in judging a restaurant so harshly on a single dish? Maybe. But, really, in this case, if a French bistro can't get a gratin right, what chance do they have of getting anything else right? Whatevs, it's already gone.
Location, website, etc: The past, man. In the past.
*Is this self-explanatory? Hopefully. If not: I'm of the general opinion that Wow! Hospitality's restaurants are soulless corporate bullshit. Hu's on First mini-review: middling, confused Asian-I-guess.
**Seasonal food, and Peasant, respectively. Is it just me, or does this concept (as conceptualized through the Wow! Hospitality lens) seem a bit vague and tired?
The bar side of the space itself is lovely: high ceilings and lots of exposed brick; didn't make it over to the restaurant proper. We weren't dining, but decided to order a bite to share, and settled on the macaroni gratin, with chanterelle mushrooms. The chanterelles were easily the best part of the dish: flavourful and vibrantly coloured. Unfortunately, the rest of the dish was extremely lackluster, especially for such a simple, essential preparation. It was bad enough that the gratin was soupy and under-seasoned, but to make matters worse, it wasn't really a gratin. A gratin must be topped with a browned crust of SOMETHING; this is what makes a gratin a gratin. The cheese on the top of the dish was melted, but was in no way browned. Simply put: boooo.
So, Oui gets written off, once again, and just in the nick of time, before it disappears forever into the mists of the past. I have to ask myself, am I making a mistake in judging a restaurant so harshly on a single dish? Maybe. But, really, in this case, if a French bistro can't get a gratin right, what chance do they have of getting anything else right? Whatevs, it's already gone.
Location, website, etc: The past, man. In the past.
*Is this self-explanatory? Hopefully. If not: I'm of the general opinion that Wow! Hospitality's restaurants are soulless corporate bullshit. Hu's on First mini-review: middling, confused Asian-I-guess.
**Seasonal food, and Peasant, respectively. Is it just me, or does this concept (as conceptualized through the Wow! Hospitality lens) seem a bit vague and tired?
13 September 2010
Bella Vista
Okay, so I've ragged on utility pizza before, so I'm not gonna do it again. Let's keep this brief: Bella Vista is decent utility pizza. I shared a medium three topping with a friend, and the mushrooms were fresh(*), and the crust had a nice crisp to it. Good nuff.
Location: 53 Maryland St.
Price tag: medium three topping = ~$15
*Whilst complaining about the canned mushrooms on the aforementioned Mano's Pizza, one of my friends mentioned her actual preference for canned mushrooms on pizza. At the time, I wrote her off as crazy, but then I saw this poll on Serious Eats. I think you have to register to see the results, but it ended up that 15% also preferred canned mushrooms on pizza. Colour me surprised. I still think it's crazy, though. Seriously, canned mushrooms suck.(**)
**A footnote longer than the actual post. Boo-ya.
Location: 53 Maryland St.
Price tag: medium three topping = ~$15
*Whilst complaining about the canned mushrooms on the aforementioned Mano's Pizza, one of my friends mentioned her actual preference for canned mushrooms on pizza. At the time, I wrote her off as crazy, but then I saw this poll on Serious Eats. I think you have to register to see the results, but it ended up that 15% also preferred canned mushrooms on pizza. Colour me surprised. I still think it's crazy, though. Seriously, canned mushrooms suck.(**)
**A footnote longer than the actual post. Boo-ya.
The Grove
Tubby's, at the corner of Grosvenor and Stafford, was a restaurant I've heard referred to as a "Winnipeg Institution", and I have to assume that was by virtue of the quality of its food in its heyday, or just that's it's been around FOREVER. (Which, at the risk of getting bottles full of pee hurled at me, seems to be the case for every single "Winnipeg Institution". (I don't want to get into running down the list, so I'll just leave it at this: Salsbury House? Puh-leeze.(*))) But now we have the Grove in Tubby's old location, offering a take on English pub food and branded with an upscale-ish feel.
My interest was piqued as renovations were begun on the old Tubby's space. I pass down Stafford almost daily, and as construction was underway the windows were blanked with butcher paper on which were hand-painted black silhouettes of a table full of revelers: elegant.
The former Tubby's space has been completely opened up to a single large room with the bar in the centre, flanked by the dining room on one side, and the pub on the other. The only real difference between these two seems to be the presence of television screens(**) on the pub side. The dining room was full, so we were seated on the pub side.
The space is spare, a fact acknowledged by the owner in an interview on the Free Press website. Hopefully the "few more pictures" he throws up are a bit less depressing than the black and white photos of dreary English graveyards that decorated the wall next to the table I was seated at. Despite that, though, the space is airy and fairly modern, if not really exceptional in any regard.
A word on the physical layout of the room: as designed, the bar is way too big for the space. WAY too big. It juts out so far into the room that it leaves a stingy, approximately three foot space between the centre chair seated at the bar and the end wall of the room, a space that must be navigated by every server going from kitchen to bar patrons (and back), as well as by patrons on their way to the washroom. In the hour I was in the restaurant I witnessed two near-collisions between patrons and food/beverage-laden waitresses, not to mention countless traffic jams. A veritable nightmare, and a problem it seems incredible no one foresaw.
The menu is fairly short, and mostly (we'll get to that later) focused on simple, traditional English pub grub. (Bangers and mash, natch. Which I've never actually ordered in my life. Doing so seems vaguely embarrassing, for some reason, like it's tourist-y.) The Constant Dinner Companion and I both ordered burgers. I'm always on the lookout for a burger that will live up to my (admittedly almost impossibly high) standards, and the waitress assured us that everything in the kitchen was freshly made. Yes, every time I order a hamburger, I ask the waitress if it's a frozen or fresh patty. I like burgers. They're one of my favourite things. Unfortunately, ordering a hamburger is probably the quickest and easiest route to soul-crushing disappointment available to me in a restaurant.
And hey, guess what? The burger at the Grove was a disappointment. The patty had a reasonably nice char on it, but it was woefully under-seasoned and mostly tasteless. The dominant flavour and smell of the burger was the herbs in the bun, and that's a problem. And speaking of the bun, it was massive, much too big for the patty within, leading to the Grove burger committing the cardinal sin of having its last bites be meatless bites of bun alone. This is a problem I encounter constantly in restaurants, and I just don't get it. Seriously, this is ironclad burger law: the total area of the burger > the total area of the bun.
Oh, and I ordered it with fries. They were okay. And moving on.
While perusing the menu, my dinner companion and I (of course) considered trying the pork belly appetizer. Pork belly = yum, plus we generally feel obliged to order the weirdest thing on the menu wherever we are. It was served with a sweet potato puree and something called "tare sauce". (Quick google at the table = thickened, sweetened soy sauce; okay.) We were both reasonably hungry, but a burger and fries can be a lot of food, so we deferred. After we had each eaten our burgers, we were still feeling peckish, so we ordered the pork belly appetizer for dessert. I really enjoy doing things like this in restaurants, just to see if our weird demands faze the staff.(***) They didn't, and our dessertizer (tm) was out promptly(****). Firstly, it was extremely pretty: served on an undulating, rimless plate, the strips of pork belly were arranged in an angle across, the puree next to the pork belly. Along an edge of the plate a row of various pickled julienned vegetable garnishes (radishes, scallions, beets), and scattered throughout, a few drops of the tare sauce and (I think) a parsley oil. Yes, pretty, but we were left a bit unsure of how to eat it. The dish definitely had an Asian feel, where the pickled garnishes are usually used as palate cleansers. The sweet potato puree was unseasoned, so we figured we should scoop some onto the belly bits, but once we tried incorporating everything on the plate into a single bite, we realized this was how we should be eating it. Unfortunately, we were halfway through by that point. I really fail to see how just putting everything together would have made the dish any less pretty: pork belly, puree on top, garnishes on top of the puree. And it would have been a hell of a lot easier to eat. The pork belly was cooked reasonably well, but not amazingly well, the sear not quite as crusty as I like. And there was so little of the tare sauce, it was pretty much impossible to get some on every bite. All in all, when you managed to assemble a bite with every component it was quite tasty, but the difficulty in doing so frustrated me.
What struck me most about the belly dish, though, was how inconsonant it was from the rest of the menu. Hell, it stuck out like a sore thumb. Fish and chips, welsh rarebit, bangers and mash, and...an Asian-inspired pork belly appetizer? Compared to the burgers we ate, everything about the pork belly made it seem like it came from another restaurant: the flavour profile, the presentation, its psuedo-avant garde-ness, even the plate it was served on. If I had ordered the pork belly as an actual appetizer, when it was finished I would have been thinking, "ooh, that was interesting! I wonder what kind of spin they're going to put on my burger!" And when I received a regular ol' burger and fries, I would have been disappointed. Well, more disappointed. (Heh.) I can understand a chef wanting to stretch out creatively, but it still must be kept in the general context of the restaurant it's being served in. Um, duh.
I guess it sounds like I'm shitting all over the Grove (and I didn't even mention how much I disliked their massive leather-bound menus!). I guess I am. Really, it's much, much better than your standard chain garbage--I'd take it over Tavern United bullshit any day of the week. And it's actually really, really cheap: $40 covered our entire meal, including tip. It just frustrates me when a restaurant seems to have so many of the elements required in place, but the results still miss the mark.
p.s. The prices in the menu include all taxes! This rules. Makes for a nice, even bill at the end. There, I feel much better going out on a positive note.
Location: 164 Stafford St.
Price tag: The burger was $9 with fries, same deal for the appetizer. Some entrees run a bit higher, but everything is under $20. As I said, for us the total bill with tip = $40.
Website: www.the-grove.ca/
*While I'm at it, a word on fatboys. For the longest time, I took a silly, mealy-mouthed stand toward the fatboy: "Oh, they're okay, for what they are, I guess. I just prefer a different kind of burger." Those days are in the past. Fuck fatboys. Seriously. Fatboys suck. A flat, frozen patty the thickness of cardboard, and some greasy disgusting chili that no one in their right mind would touch if served to them in a bowl. And don't get me started on putting mayo on a burger. That this has become the dominant form of the mighty hamburger in this city boggles the mind.
**This is turning into an extra-rant-y entry, but god, I fucking hate televisions in restaurants. I suppose that on the pub side they are required for sports bullshit, but every time I'm in a restaurant and there's a tv in my line of sight, it is a constant irritant. My eye just gets drawn to it, nothing I can do about it, and I spend much of my time fighting not to watch whatever useless bullshit I don't care about that is blaring at me.
***I recall dining with the Constant Dinner Companion at Promenade Bistro and when we asked to share the quiche entree as an appetizer (hey, we both really like quiche, okay?) the waiter's brains melted, and oozed out his ears. Well, not really, but we had to explain what we wanted at least three times, and he was essentially incredulous.
****The CDC remarked that he's going to make a habit of ordering dessertizers, since he's occasionally still hungry, but rarely feels like dessert. You go, girl!
My interest was piqued as renovations were begun on the old Tubby's space. I pass down Stafford almost daily, and as construction was underway the windows were blanked with butcher paper on which were hand-painted black silhouettes of a table full of revelers: elegant.
The former Tubby's space has been completely opened up to a single large room with the bar in the centre, flanked by the dining room on one side, and the pub on the other. The only real difference between these two seems to be the presence of television screens(**) on the pub side. The dining room was full, so we were seated on the pub side.
The space is spare, a fact acknowledged by the owner in an interview on the Free Press website. Hopefully the "few more pictures" he throws up are a bit less depressing than the black and white photos of dreary English graveyards that decorated the wall next to the table I was seated at. Despite that, though, the space is airy and fairly modern, if not really exceptional in any regard.
A word on the physical layout of the room: as designed, the bar is way too big for the space. WAY too big. It juts out so far into the room that it leaves a stingy, approximately three foot space between the centre chair seated at the bar and the end wall of the room, a space that must be navigated by every server going from kitchen to bar patrons (and back), as well as by patrons on their way to the washroom. In the hour I was in the restaurant I witnessed two near-collisions between patrons and food/beverage-laden waitresses, not to mention countless traffic jams. A veritable nightmare, and a problem it seems incredible no one foresaw.
The menu is fairly short, and mostly (we'll get to that later) focused on simple, traditional English pub grub. (Bangers and mash, natch. Which I've never actually ordered in my life. Doing so seems vaguely embarrassing, for some reason, like it's tourist-y.) The Constant Dinner Companion and I both ordered burgers. I'm always on the lookout for a burger that will live up to my (admittedly almost impossibly high) standards, and the waitress assured us that everything in the kitchen was freshly made. Yes, every time I order a hamburger, I ask the waitress if it's a frozen or fresh patty. I like burgers. They're one of my favourite things. Unfortunately, ordering a hamburger is probably the quickest and easiest route to soul-crushing disappointment available to me in a restaurant.
And hey, guess what? The burger at the Grove was a disappointment. The patty had a reasonably nice char on it, but it was woefully under-seasoned and mostly tasteless. The dominant flavour and smell of the burger was the herbs in the bun, and that's a problem. And speaking of the bun, it was massive, much too big for the patty within, leading to the Grove burger committing the cardinal sin of having its last bites be meatless bites of bun alone. This is a problem I encounter constantly in restaurants, and I just don't get it. Seriously, this is ironclad burger law: the total area of the burger > the total area of the bun.
Oh, and I ordered it with fries. They were okay. And moving on.
While perusing the menu, my dinner companion and I (of course) considered trying the pork belly appetizer. Pork belly = yum, plus we generally feel obliged to order the weirdest thing on the menu wherever we are. It was served with a sweet potato puree and something called "tare sauce". (Quick google at the table = thickened, sweetened soy sauce; okay.) We were both reasonably hungry, but a burger and fries can be a lot of food, so we deferred. After we had each eaten our burgers, we were still feeling peckish, so we ordered the pork belly appetizer for dessert. I really enjoy doing things like this in restaurants, just to see if our weird demands faze the staff.(***) They didn't, and our dessertizer (tm) was out promptly(****). Firstly, it was extremely pretty: served on an undulating, rimless plate, the strips of pork belly were arranged in an angle across, the puree next to the pork belly. Along an edge of the plate a row of various pickled julienned vegetable garnishes (radishes, scallions, beets), and scattered throughout, a few drops of the tare sauce and (I think) a parsley oil. Yes, pretty, but we were left a bit unsure of how to eat it. The dish definitely had an Asian feel, where the pickled garnishes are usually used as palate cleansers. The sweet potato puree was unseasoned, so we figured we should scoop some onto the belly bits, but once we tried incorporating everything on the plate into a single bite, we realized this was how we should be eating it. Unfortunately, we were halfway through by that point. I really fail to see how just putting everything together would have made the dish any less pretty: pork belly, puree on top, garnishes on top of the puree. And it would have been a hell of a lot easier to eat. The pork belly was cooked reasonably well, but not amazingly well, the sear not quite as crusty as I like. And there was so little of the tare sauce, it was pretty much impossible to get some on every bite. All in all, when you managed to assemble a bite with every component it was quite tasty, but the difficulty in doing so frustrated me.
What struck me most about the belly dish, though, was how inconsonant it was from the rest of the menu. Hell, it stuck out like a sore thumb. Fish and chips, welsh rarebit, bangers and mash, and...an Asian-inspired pork belly appetizer? Compared to the burgers we ate, everything about the pork belly made it seem like it came from another restaurant: the flavour profile, the presentation, its psuedo-avant garde-ness, even the plate it was served on. If I had ordered the pork belly as an actual appetizer, when it was finished I would have been thinking, "ooh, that was interesting! I wonder what kind of spin they're going to put on my burger!" And when I received a regular ol' burger and fries, I would have been disappointed. Well, more disappointed. (Heh.) I can understand a chef wanting to stretch out creatively, but it still must be kept in the general context of the restaurant it's being served in. Um, duh.
I guess it sounds like I'm shitting all over the Grove (and I didn't even mention how much I disliked their massive leather-bound menus!). I guess I am. Really, it's much, much better than your standard chain garbage--I'd take it over Tavern United bullshit any day of the week. And it's actually really, really cheap: $40 covered our entire meal, including tip. It just frustrates me when a restaurant seems to have so many of the elements required in place, but the results still miss the mark.
p.s. The prices in the menu include all taxes! This rules. Makes for a nice, even bill at the end. There, I feel much better going out on a positive note.
Location: 164 Stafford St.
Price tag: The burger was $9 with fries, same deal for the appetizer. Some entrees run a bit higher, but everything is under $20. As I said, for us the total bill with tip = $40.
Website: www.the-grove.ca/
*While I'm at it, a word on fatboys. For the longest time, I took a silly, mealy-mouthed stand toward the fatboy: "Oh, they're okay, for what they are, I guess. I just prefer a different kind of burger." Those days are in the past. Fuck fatboys. Seriously. Fatboys suck. A flat, frozen patty the thickness of cardboard, and some greasy disgusting chili that no one in their right mind would touch if served to them in a bowl. And don't get me started on putting mayo on a burger. That this has become the dominant form of the mighty hamburger in this city boggles the mind.
**This is turning into an extra-rant-y entry, but god, I fucking hate televisions in restaurants. I suppose that on the pub side they are required for sports bullshit, but every time I'm in a restaurant and there's a tv in my line of sight, it is a constant irritant. My eye just gets drawn to it, nothing I can do about it, and I spend much of my time fighting not to watch whatever useless bullshit I don't care about that is blaring at me.
***I recall dining with the Constant Dinner Companion at Promenade Bistro and when we asked to share the quiche entree as an appetizer (hey, we both really like quiche, okay?) the waiter's brains melted, and oozed out his ears. Well, not really, but we had to explain what we wanted at least three times, and he was essentially incredulous.
****The CDC remarked that he's going to make a habit of ordering dessertizers, since he's occasionally still hungry, but rarely feels like dessert. You go, girl!
01 August 2010
Dessert at EAT! bistro
I just posted on EAT! recently (psst!), so I don't think I need to cover the same ground over again. I'll just make a few points:
- First time eating dessert here, and it definitely lived up to its homemade billing. My companion and I both had the rhubarb tart, and it was served with a vanilla gelati. A fine combination of tart/sweet, warm/cool, crumbly/gooey. Yum.
- They have special "just about to close" menus, and they are NOT sandwiched between old used book covers. Boo.
- The "ugh!" remains in these "just about to close" menus. Maybe they don't update as frequently?
- I should really make a point to NOT mention loose tea in my next post, but: I know for a fact that they generally serve loose teas at EAT!, but I ordered a decaf green and received a tea bag.
Man, this sure ended up being a complain-y post for a generally positive experience. Ah, well.
I like EAT!! Is that better?
Location: 274 Garry St., in Aqua Books.
Price tag: $17 for two desserts and a tea, before tip.
Website: www.eatbistro.ca
- First time eating dessert here, and it definitely lived up to its homemade billing. My companion and I both had the rhubarb tart, and it was served with a vanilla gelati. A fine combination of tart/sweet, warm/cool, crumbly/gooey. Yum.
- They have special "just about to close" menus, and they are NOT sandwiched between old used book covers. Boo.
- The "ugh!" remains in these "just about to close" menus. Maybe they don't update as frequently?
- I should really make a point to NOT mention loose tea in my next post, but: I know for a fact that they generally serve loose teas at EAT!, but I ordered a decaf green and received a tea bag.
Man, this sure ended up being a complain-y post for a generally positive experience. Ah, well.
I like EAT!! Is that better?
Location: 274 Garry St., in Aqua Books.
Price tag: $17 for two desserts and a tea, before tip.
Website: www.eatbistro.ca
28 July 2010
Lunch at Bread & Circuses Bakery Cafe
Fresh ingredients + simple, classic preparations = tasty food. Duh. It's really amazing how many shitty restaurants there are that manage to fuck up this math.
Running a restaurant can't be easy. The vagaries of the marketplace and public whim can be murderous, I'm sure. But a place like Bread & Circuses seems like a no-fail proposition. It's located on Corydon in a beautifully sunny room (big windows, eastern and southern exposure) with simple furniture and accents, and functions as both a breakfast/lunch eatery and a bakery. I'm not certain in the minds of its owners (or accountants) which aspect dominates, but on the Thursday lunch hour I visited the place was packed with lunch-goers; maybe the bakery packs 'em in before and after work.
The service is canteen-style, but the folks behind the counter are friendly and knowledgeable. The menu is small--a few sandwiches, a few soups. Unfortunately, the friendly folks behind the counter were unable to find a soup to accommodate my lunch companion's onion allergy(*), but plenty of sandwiches fit the bill.
I had the gazpacho and a ham and swiss sandwich on multigrain, and both were fresh and clean. My companion's rye bread looked darker and heartier than my multigrain, so I'll have to make a point to try it on my next visit. The gazpacho was summery and exactly what I wanted at that exact moment. We were eating indoors, since a morning rain had driven the patio gear under cover, but the day was already heating up and a cold soup cools like few other dishes. The ham and swiss were both quality (the cheese may have been jarlsberg, but my palette is kind of crap) and they were accompanied with large, fresh(**) slices of cucumber and tomato. The sandwich was served with mayo; I generally think of dijon mustard as being the obvious condiment to add to a ham and swiss, but the mayo wasn't slabbed on with a putty knife, so I could dig it.
They do lose a few points for serving Stash(***) teas--you'd think a joint with the hippy vibe of this place would be down with loose tea. Maybe I just mistakenly ascribe a hippy vibe to any and all bakeries.
Sure, I could have pulled off a ham and swiss sandwich and a bowl of gazpacho at home. But not every restaurant needs to wow. Bread & Circuses isn't reaching for the stars, and that's okay. It doesn't have to. It serves fresh, simple, delicious food. Done.
Location: 238 Lilac St
Price tag: Lunch for two: ~$25
*And really, you can't fault the place for not being able to accommodate an onion allergy. This has got to be the single most difficult allergy to eat out with. Bummer.
**Fuck it. I'm just gonna keep saying "fresh" over and over again.
***Still, probably one of my favourite floor sweepings teas. Tazo is ok, too.
Running a restaurant can't be easy. The vagaries of the marketplace and public whim can be murderous, I'm sure. But a place like Bread & Circuses seems like a no-fail proposition. It's located on Corydon in a beautifully sunny room (big windows, eastern and southern exposure) with simple furniture and accents, and functions as both a breakfast/lunch eatery and a bakery. I'm not certain in the minds of its owners (or accountants) which aspect dominates, but on the Thursday lunch hour I visited the place was packed with lunch-goers; maybe the bakery packs 'em in before and after work.
The service is canteen-style, but the folks behind the counter are friendly and knowledgeable. The menu is small--a few sandwiches, a few soups. Unfortunately, the friendly folks behind the counter were unable to find a soup to accommodate my lunch companion's onion allergy(*), but plenty of sandwiches fit the bill.
I had the gazpacho and a ham and swiss sandwich on multigrain, and both were fresh and clean. My companion's rye bread looked darker and heartier than my multigrain, so I'll have to make a point to try it on my next visit. The gazpacho was summery and exactly what I wanted at that exact moment. We were eating indoors, since a morning rain had driven the patio gear under cover, but the day was already heating up and a cold soup cools like few other dishes. The ham and swiss were both quality (the cheese may have been jarlsberg, but my palette is kind of crap) and they were accompanied with large, fresh(**) slices of cucumber and tomato. The sandwich was served with mayo; I generally think of dijon mustard as being the obvious condiment to add to a ham and swiss, but the mayo wasn't slabbed on with a putty knife, so I could dig it.
They do lose a few points for serving Stash(***) teas--you'd think a joint with the hippy vibe of this place would be down with loose tea. Maybe I just mistakenly ascribe a hippy vibe to any and all bakeries.
Sure, I could have pulled off a ham and swiss sandwich and a bowl of gazpacho at home. But not every restaurant needs to wow. Bread & Circuses isn't reaching for the stars, and that's okay. It doesn't have to. It serves fresh, simple, delicious food. Done.
Location: 238 Lilac St
Price tag: Lunch for two: ~$25
*And really, you can't fault the place for not being able to accommodate an onion allergy. This has got to be the single most difficult allergy to eat out with. Bummer.
**Fuck it. I'm just gonna keep saying "fresh" over and over again.
***Still, probably one of my favourite floor sweepings teas. Tazo is ok, too.
Random: Tomato Pie Renos
Transcription of a text sent to a friend: "Tomato Pie says it's closed for renos, and it's under new ownership. Don't fix what ain't broke, dummies!"
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