Monthly Archives: July 2013

Aye aye, captain!

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Toronto keeps surprising me. This weekend felt like a weekend spent outside the city, but actually this time we only went 200 meters away from home. It wasn’t solely the lake and our rented sailboat that contributed to this holiday feeling, it’s also the renewed Harbourfront that is becoming more and more fun (check out harbourfrontcentre.com)!

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The ultimate Canadian experience

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My Canadian friends told me it would be the ultimate Canadian experience. Spending the weekend in a cottage on the lake. We were invited to spend last weekend 3,5 hours north of Toronto, in a beautiful cottage on lake Joseph, lake Joe for friends hehe. Located in Northern Ontario, the lake is surrounded by cottages. A weekend full of barbecuing, roasting marshmallows in the fire (my favourite!), swimming, fishing and boating on the lake to peek at all the cottages and boathouses. Did you know a boathouse is a house for your boat(s) and not a houseboat (where you could live in)? Definitely a small cultural difference, or maybe something linguistic… Anyway, love the Canadian style! Every boat deserves a pretty garage.

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Pride and other places to be

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As the so called gay capital of North America, Toronto proudly presented the annual Gay Pride again. For us, it felt a little bit like Amsterdam again with all the parties on the streets. And WOW… what a colourful appearances!

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Time for a little update regarding the places to be in the city. Although it’s tempting to go back to favourite spots, I try to keep discovering new hot spots. Hereby a few of my latest findings.
Best brunch spots: Artisan Baker on Yonge Street (theartisanbakers.com), School in Liberty Village (schooltoronto.com), on the patio of Origin on King Street East (origintoronto.com) and I’ve mentioned it before, but the Drake Hotel on Queen Street West is great, especially now the patio is open again (thedrakehotel.ca)! When it’s raining, it’s fun to have lunch at the Art Gallery of Toronto (ago.net), currently there is this impressive exhibition of the Chinese famous and controversial artist Ai Weiwei. Furthermore, Union on Ossington Street (union72.ca) is a great place to go.
Having a coffee (or a chai latte) at Aroma Espresso Bar at Queen Street West (aroma.ca) is good, but if you really want to enjoy your drink in the sunshine, you should go to my favourite place: the Distillery District. You can choose to sit on the bigger terrace, but there is also this nice little spot called Furbo (caffefurbo.com), you will love it!
You could live forever in Toronto and go out for dinner every night, and still you could find new restaurants. Nice places I’ve been lately are Table 17 in Leslieville (table17.ca), Patria on King Street (patriatoronto.com), Blu in Yorkville (bluristorante.com), Spice Root on King Street (spiceroute.ca), Brassaii on King Street (brassaii.com) and The Grove on Dundas Street West (thegroveto.com). After dining in The Grove you should go to The Cocktailbar (hoofcocktailbar.com)!! But I was really impressed by the two following restaurants. Canoe (oliverbonacini.com/canoe) because of the food AND because of the view from the 54th floor, and Momofuku Shoto (momofuku.com/toronto/shoto) is really cool because of the fantastic surprise menu (ten courses!!). Soon more about great places to eat, drink and have fun in Toronto!