Tag: Toronto

Urban landscape – Underpass Park

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While driving into the city for dinner the other night I drove passed an underpass that looked like it was covered in street art. I had seen it on a website and if I had enough time I would have stopped. After dinner I asked my friend if we could go and take a look at what it was.

Parked the car by this underpass to discover this urban escape of activity and creativity. This space is called Underpass Park. The sign at the edge of park reads: “It is the first park built under an overpass into Toronto. The park was opened in 2012 and transformed previously underused and derelict space into an urban neighbourhood amenity. The park features a number of spaces designed to encourage both active and passive recreation. The public artwork “Mirage” was created for the unique space and is comprised of mirrored octagonal stainless steel panels attached to the overpass to reflect light and movement”.

The space was quite expansive as it carries through the length of the highway above. It was quiet, yet you can see how it is busy during the day and I am sure into the evening. There are basketball courts, skateboard and bike ramps, benches and areas for people to congregate. There was something happening in each of the spaces.

What was the most impressive to me was the Street Art. I know from my Graffiti tour that was offered by the Tour Guys in Toronto that there are areas of the city where creating art is not ‘illegal’ but artists are able to create with freedom and expression. This is one of those spaces. I am not sure if the artists are commissioned in this area or just free to paint, but the art was amazing.

I will go back and explore this area again at some point. If you want to find it, it is Lower River street south of King Street. It stretches for a few city blocks and there are places to park if you can find them. From someone who lives in the ‘burbs, I am happy to always discovering new places in our city.

Dining out in the six – White Lily Diner

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I am a foodie and always in search of new and interesting places to eat, in Toronto and on my travels. I like to follow people who also enjoy food. One person I follow was having brunch at a place I had never heard of before in the city called White Lily Diner. The food looked good, I checked out the menu and website.

I was meeting a friend who I worked with at WE and here is what our conversation went:

Me: I saw that a friend went to a place on Queen Street called White Lily Diner, check it out and let me know what you think.

Friend: haha….I love that place. It’s at Queen and Broadview, works for me.

The first thing I noticed as I walked up to the restaurant was the chalkboard sign saying the doughnut of the day was butter tart doughnut. Um, hello…butter tart doughnut? We will come back to that.

The menu isn’t very large which I think is a good thing. I think it means they do a limited number of items very well. I was right about that.

We started off with their homemade pickles, bread and butter and dill. We both looked at the menu and agreed on the same item to share – Sourdough Toast – Strawberry-rhubarb preserve. Ricotta. Fresh strawberry. Toasted hemp seed. Basil is what the menu said, although it wasn’t basil, it was dill which didn’t quite fit, but everything else was divine. See for yourself below:

We looked at the menu and there were a few items that looked interesting to share and it came down to two – the meatloaf dinner or a hot smoked turkey dinner. We opted for the hot turkey dinner which consisted of – Smoked turkey. “Stuffing” french toast. Cranberry chutney. Gravy. 

Four years ago when Wahlburgers opened in Toronto I had heard about their Thanksgiving burger which is basically the whole turkey meal in one bite. I would say that this dinner was almost the same. It was the taste of the hot smoked turkey that added such a depth of flavour in every bite. Each bite was a bit of the stuffing french toast, the chutney and the smoked turkey. All I can say to this is winner winner turkey dinner.

I mentioned at the start of the piece that the sign coming into the diner said the doughnut of the day was Butter Tart. When the server told me it was a ‘filled’ doughnut, with a vanilla glaze topped with raisins it sounded great, a doughnut and a butter tart have a baby. This was not the case. It was filled, but with custard, which really didn’t give it any comparison to a butter tart with the exception of the raisins on top.

It was a It was a great experience overall, quiet for the time of the day and no line. I am sure that the weekend brunch crowd or even the weekday lunch crowd would have had us waiting in line. It is a fantastic local spot that I would return to anytime.

Always in search of the next place to try in our fabulous city!

Ladies who Brunch – Starving Artist Waffles and Espresso

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In a city like Toronto that has over 7,500 restaurants it is great to always find new places to go and experience great food ideas and spend time with friends. Our most recent lunch spot was a restaurant called Starving Artist Waffles and Espresso.

With seven locations in and around the GTA there is probably one not to far from where you are, and I would recommend a visit. A busy restaurant with a line and you are only seated when your whole party arrives and it is important to note that it is cash only.

As the name suggests their decor focuses on local artists and they change out the art every six weeks. If you are an artist and don’t know about this, I would check it out.

The premise of the restaurant is boldly stated right on the menu:

Warning: Everything is made of waffles. On waffles. Between waffles or made in a waffle iron.

One would think that having a menu that is only waffle related would make it easy to decide right? Wrong. Do you want sweet or savory? Do you want eggs benny on a potato waffle (yes you heard correct a potato waffle) or smoked salmon with cream cheese between two waffles with dill IN the waffles. These were just a few of the choices that our group chose for our lunches. The menu was two full pages and too many options to list, but you can read the full menu here.

The sides were either a green salad or a fruit salad and a choice of maple baked beans or homemade potato salad. a bit odd but both were so tasty and complimentary to the food we were eating.

I chose a savory sandwich that had chicken , cucumbers and their ‘house sauce’. I know that our friends in the southern states have chicken and waffles as a regular menu item. This was not fried chicken, but it was very tasty. It was strange to want to put maple syrup on the waffle with the chicken and cucumber in the sandwich but the flavours melded well and it was enjoyable.

We were celebrating our friends birthday and looked at the dessert waffles before we started and we knew we were going to have to sample something decadent. We opted for the Split This! …. Waffled banana, ice cream, strawberries, chocolate, caramel, strawberry syrup, whipped cream. You did read correctly, the banana was waffled. It says on the menu made for 2. We were four and it was HUGE. See for yourself

There are many different menu items and I would go back and try something different. Overall a very delicious experience to check off our Toronto food bucket list.

Where are we off to next – stay tuned to find out!

Please feel free to let me know if you have a great place for us to try in the future Ladies who brunch days out.