Saturday in Toronto
We spent most of the day around Queen Street West. Just walking around and checking out the neighborhood. Our first stop was in Gravity Pope. A mixture of mens and women’s clothes, shoes, accessories. Very cool store.
Down the street is Stephen Bulger Gallery that had a few artists up. The main one was Sanaz Mazinani. The show was called Imminent Infinite.
Just the smell along pulled us into Mabels. The baked breads are beautiful.
Lots of pickled items and well curated condiments throughout the store.
The Gladstone Hotel, opened in 1889, is now a trendy hotel. Great building.
This is the Workroom. It is a communal place for sewing. I have seen many knitting places but this is a first for sewing. The place was definitely humming too. Fabrics, machines, threads, patterns etc.
Gallery 1313 is a communal art gallery. One of the artist was working it when we were there.
We wandered into several places looking for lunch. Cote de Boeuf is quite the amazing butcher but it was standing only for food.
Most of the restaurants were serving brunch and it wasn’t what we wanted so we left the area and went to Bar Raval for tapas. It is a tiny place although there is outside eating in an enclosed porch. I think we might have caught the last weekend for that because it will be too cold. We had a few tapas to share. These are a few highlights. Marinated sardines and green olives.
Tuna belly with pickles, spicy peppers and an olive.
Our next stop was Bau-Xi Gallery located across the street from the Art Museum. They have two galleries, one is only photography. There were a variety of paintings from Darlene Cole. Everyone of the descriptions next to the piece in the gallery had a price tag on it. I have never seen that before. I like it.
This is the basement of the photography gallery of theirs down the street.
We went back to have a little r&r before dinner. Dinner was at Buca. We were able to watch the kitchen. Lots of man buns in there.
The food here is really good. These are warm bread knots pan fried in olive oil and rosemary.
The pizza was amazing. I loved how they served it with a scissor.
The highlight is their branzino crudo. They show you the fish and then carve it like sushi and sit the pieces in olive oil, italian style. Absolutely delicious.
We also had a few sides and a salt encrusted Branzino. The dinner, the wine, the whole thing was delicious.
Comments (Archived):
Good that you got a taste of Toronto via Queen St. West which is eccletic. There are other sides of Toronto, of course. Cote de Boeuf is one of my favorites for picking aged, organic, grass fed beef. I love how they display the meats in the window.
Cote de Boeuf is incredible. It would be my go-to place for all meat if I lived in Toronto
Pusateri’s is also a great place to get meat, in addition to other delicacies.
Cumbrea’s or Cote de Boeuf for me. They have the grass fed selection. Pusateris only carries Beretta which is barely OK 😉
You’re right if you insist on grass fed. To me, though, it’s too much of a pain to drive to those two just to get meat and have to deal with traffic and parking and still have to go get the rest of my groceries somewhere else — too much friction.At Pusateri’s, I get all I need, even though I overpay for some items for the sake of convenience. Sometimes I go to Whole Foods or Ambrosia.
Got it. Cumbreas has a few locations.
Thanks for the recommendation anyhow, I might try Cumbrea’s again since they now have a location on Bayview.BTW, I used to own a roofing company called Bayview Roofing 🙂
Cool. Ask for a 4-week aged , grass fed bone-in filet but they don’t always have it.Then, tell me if you find a difference in taste.
You got me curious now. I’ll let you know when I’ve done it.
They didn’t have any grass fed beef today. I took some rib eye, aged 4 weeks. It looks comparable to something I’d get at Pusateri’s. We’ll see what it tastes like…
great. let me know!ᐧ
Tasted great, but as I’ve said, it’s too much friction for me not to get all the grocery from one place, and Pusateri’s is that place for now. I use to live only a short walk from Cumbrea’s and used to buy there all the time.
Cool.Which Pusateris do you go to? Have they said when the one on Avenue is re-opening?
I currently go to the one at Bayview/Sheppard.The flagship store will re-open in the summer, I was told.
When I was at Cumbrea’s, I also bought some stew-grade beef, which my wife cooked today and which has turned out to be surprisingly good — so thanks for the tip.
I was at both places today, pusateris bayview & cumbreas queen 😉
I missed you as I was at the same Pusateri’s too.I wasn’t crazy about the meat choices today, though. I was expecting much better being so close to Xmas.Makes me want to try to figure out a practical way to visit Cumbrea’s more often. Funny how that work, eh? :-)What was your conclusion between the two?
Same as you. Pusateris didnt impress me, although their avenue staff is at bayview. My other choice for meat is Cote de Boeuf on Ossington, although Cote is also hit and miss on availability but its a good meat store. Also Cheese Boutique for certain items.
I live near York University, and so driving to Ossington doesn’t appeal to me in the winter when my masonry business is closed and I have no reason to go downtown otherwise. And so I try to say uptown as much as possible.
These are very nice photos. What sort of camera do you use?
iphone
Thanks.
Thanks for throwing some love at my hometown. I am slightly obsessed with Bar Raval. They do a great job. (Gravity Pope has great shoes, no?)
Great shoes!