The Avro Arrow Points to Queen E.

not an avro arrow, but close

Leslieville is a neighborhood renowned for its independent cafes and vintage furniture shops, but has yet to become a nightlife destination. Between the Blue Moon and Swirl there seems to be a dearth of middle range bars east of Broadview; it’s either Pabst Blue Ribbon or please make a reservation. Queen Street East’s new addition, the Avro, is sure to spice up the strip, offering customers quality drinks at midrange prices in a trendy setting.

Named after the delta-winged interceptor aircraft, designed and built by Avro Aircraft Limited in Malton, Ontario, The Avro pays nostalgic homage to its dated name in spades. The Avro was decorated with recycled pieces found, rehabilitated, and repurposed by owners Rachel Conduit and Bruce Dawson. The mismatched chairs, retro light fixtures, and eclectic wall hangings give the space a kitschy, yet homey atmosphere. There’s even bearded cowboy mannequin who’s always willing to offer lonely bar patrons some company.

the avro during day time

While the Avro is cheap compared to some of the established Leslieville night life, it’s not necessarily the thriftiest alcohol option available to a tight wallet on a Friday night. Their most cost savvy option is Labatt 50 for 4.50$, other bottles on offer weigh in at 5.25$, and tall cans and draft at 6.25$. But, if you take advantage of 4$ Shot Mondays or Cheap Pint Fridays (wear plaid and save 1$ on draft) you can still feel like you’re living large on a small budget. They also welcome you to bring your own food, and will even provide you with a plate if you ask nicely.

Rachel is a long-time Leslieville resident and is a familiar face to many, as she was a veteran bartender at The Comrade, a premium beer lounge a few stores down. Rachel decided to open the Avro when she noticed that Leslieville’s population was growing younger, and no one was catering to the captive market. Comrade owners Nikki Andriet and Dean Fletcher are sad to lose Rachel, but she leaves with their full blessing and support.

the avro with wall projection

From Live Music Tuesdays to Bring Your Own Vinyl Sundays the Avro is sure to attract attention and a loyal following.

AMBIANCE 4/5
SERVICE 4/5
PRICE $-$$
HOURS open daily from 7pm to 2am.
LOCATION, LOCATION 750B Queen Street East
NOTEWORTHY BYOVS (Bring Your Own Vinyl Sundays)

[Originally written for a Toronto Life internship application.]

Eastern Secrets

Andapinch is dedicated to gastronomy, but if you’re planning a night on the town the right outfit can make the night just that much more pleasurable. For me, glamour is evoked by the classic starlet’s of the bygone black and white era, which means when I dress up, I dress old. Stunning vintage dresses can found in thrift stores like Value Village and Good Will, but finding the perfect outfit takes hoards of luck and time. So, if you’re short on both, why not try a vintage shop?

Vintage and second hand store combers need not feel confined to Toronto’s over saturated, and overpriced, West End. Leslieville offers picky shoppers everything from grandma dresses to vintage Valentino all at bargain prices. I’ve shopped my way from west to east to find Toronto’s top four East End vintage secrets.

• The Common Sort

This well kept secret isn’t your average vintage boutique. Offering “hand-picked recycled fashions,” costumers can buy, sell, or trade gently worn clothes. The clothes on offer change frequently, and run the gamut from designer labels to vintage leather purses, to trendy contemporary pieces. Price point: typically under 25$ for shoes, dresses, and skirts; under 20$ for blouses, dress shirts, and blazers; under 10$ for jewelry & accessories. 804 Queen Street E., closed Mondays.

• Value Village

The VV on Queen E., is one of my favourites in the city. It’s small enough not to induce agoraphobia, but it offers an extensive collection, and best of all– it’s organized! Even better, it’s organized by colour and size. My only issues with VV are that their prices seem to have become very inflated, and often seem arbitrary. Make sure to take advantage of their recurring 50% off sale days. Price Point: 15-25$ for dresses, 15$ for shoes, 10$ for dress shirts and skirts. 924 Queen St E., open 7 days a week.

• Gadabout

Gadabout is a well-kept secret by the Toronto theatre community, as it is an excellent source for period pieces. With everything from frocks, to fedoras, to furs the sheer abundance of offerings can be intimidating, but if you’re patient, you might just find the perfect trinket to bring home from this east end treasure trove. Gadabout isn’t cheap, but you won’t go into debt either. Price point: dresses run between 55$-90$, shoes hover around 50$, and oddities can range in price from 10$+. 1300 Queen St E., open 7 days a week.

• Thrill of the Find

Mireille Watson has a magic eye. She’s one of the select few who can just look a person over and know what they’re searching for, even if they themselves don’t know it yet. The storefront offers interesting pieces, but ask to be shown the coveted back room for fantastic couture finds from Chanel to Prada. Price Point: Items on offer can range from 30$ to well over 800$, but tell Mireille you’re on a budget and she’ll do her best to find something that suites both your style and your wallet. 172 Queen Street E., closed Monday & Tuesday.

[originally written for Toronto Life internship application.]

Bonjour Brioche

Unfinished wood floors, a Provencal palette of yellow and blue, and the aroma of freshly baked bread culminates into a meal length vacation to St. Tropez. Bonjour Brioche is cozy when half full, but becomes claustrophobic at capacity. During peak hours expect line-ups and a lapse in service quality that is compensated for by the quality of the food. Perennial favourites include the decadent baked French toast, marbled with cinnamon and caramelized sugar, served with fresh fruit and maple syrup (8.50$); quiche Lorraine that’s light, yet creamy, and served with salad in basil vinaigrette and a portion of dream worthy baguette (8.75$); perfectly succulent scrambled eggs served on a potato rosti are adorned by a modest portion of smoked salmon and caviar, and garnished with horseradish and chives (10.00$). Drip coffee is unending, but often watery, lukewarm, and hard to flag down.

Brunch mains are all under 10$, and unaccompanied sandwiches hover around 7$. While the sandwiches on the fixed menu are cheap, I often find they’re underdressed, i.e. just roast beef and brie– I demand vegetables in my sandwich, even if it’s just a few tomatoes and a sprinkling of salad greens. But, if spartan sandwiches are your thing, you may just fall in love with their Jambon Buerre sandwich: prosciutto with butter on a baguette for 6.50$. Also at 7$ is their fantastic, and figure friendly, homemade granola served with yoghurt and a fresh fruit salad.

If you are on a tight budget I would suggest staying to the fixed menu, as daily specials are typically more expensive at around 15$. Through experience, I have also found that the daily specials can be hit or miss, although the daily sandwich is almost always safe bet.

SERVICE 2½/5 — service on weekends is significantly worse than on weekdays. It’s not unheard of to sit down and be professionally ignored for  a quarter hour. This, however, has only happened to me once. On off-peak hours the service can be acceptable, but never astounding.
AMBIANCE 4/5
PRESENTATION 4/5
TASTE 5/5
PRICE $-$$
HOURS Tuesday to Sunday 8 am to 4 pm
LOCATION, LOCATION 812 Queen Street East
NOTEWORTHY No reservations and cash ONLY, no plastic

[Originally written for Toronto Life internship application.]

Idealic

Ideal's patio

Over the past 10 years Toronto and Montreal have diverged down two different micro paths. While Montreal has been busy becoming a secret beer Mecca, Toronto has been quietly stoking a roaring roasting fire. One of my favourite Toronto micro-roasters is Ideal Coffee. With a focus on sustainability, both environmental and social, Ideal offers its costumers luscious, guilt free, coffee at competitive prices.

photo taken by joe r. with a panasonic gf1, 20mm pancake lens.

Ideal Coffee has three locations across the city, from east to west: Leslieville, Kensington, and Ossington.  Their Kensington location is my favourite, although the communal ambience and lack of traditional café seating isn’t for everyone. Expect a stranger to strike up a conversation with you— especially during the spring and summer months as the patio buzzes with a vibrancy that will rival most bars. While the Ideal can be a good place to read for pleasure, don’t come expecting to get work done— indoor space is limited, there’s no wi-fi, and plugging in your laptop is a fault pas. Mind you, if you’re looking to unwind during a leisurely afternoon Kensington wander this is the place for you.

Drop by on Saturday and watch them roast your beans right before your eyes.

A pound of fresh roasted whole bean coffee will run you 14$ (tax in), but wait that’s not all—with every pound you buy you get a free mug of fresh steaming drip to bring on your way, or to enjoy on the patio. Yes, I know that S-bucks coffee typically hovers around 12 a pound, but that’s tax out, and you don’t get a fresh mug of drip to sate you.  Not to mention S-bucks doesn’t offer you local Harmony Organic milk, soymilk, or almond milk. A cup of drip is 2$, as is tea, and a latte will run you 3.75$, with a cappuccino closing it at 3.50$. Baked goods range in price, but hover between 2-4$. If you’re penny pinching the 2$ drip can’t be beat.

When I used to frequent Ideal regularly I described it as the perfect bordello of a café, but since partnering up with the Fresh Coffee Network Ideal has under gone a much-needed face-lift. This shift is probably for the best, as cluttered and dingy appeals to a very particular type of person, and that person is usually under twenty. The partnership between Ideal and the FCN has affected more than just the decor— Ideal’s beans have always been carefully selected based on quality and sustainability, but until last year the café was still using Styrofoam take-away cups. The shift to biodegradable Greenshift cups only adds to Ideal’s allure.

Whole Bean recommendation: Prince of Darkness (just saying the name makes you want to cackle manically).

 

 

 

 

SERVICE 4/5 — typically, down to earth, friendly baristas.
AMBIANCE 3½/5
PRESENTATION 3½/5 — they might not draw Mona Lisa in your foam, but they’ll pull a good espresso.
TASTE 5/5
PRICE ¢
LOCATION, LOCATION 84 Nassau Street

Lil’ Bacci: a lil’ lacking

Lil’ Bacci was one of my favourite pizza places in Toronto. Bacci is still a great east end option; one of the few establishments that is both family and date friendly. However, it seems that this once great pizza haunt is on a downhill trajectory.

The restaurant is small, but not claustrophobic, the service is attentive, and the prices are moderate. Dinner for two will run you about 45$. What made Bacci affordable on a student budget was to avoid the wine, split a pizza (14-16$), and if you we’re really hungry, pair your half pizza with an appetizer or salad.

Unfortunately, the establishment’s manager ran off with a few thousand dollars, resulting in a huge staff turn over, from servers to chefs.  It seems their great dough recipe was lost in the shuffle. What was once one of the best thin crust pizza restaurants in Toronto, now serves mediocre artisan pizza. On my most recent visit the pizza’s consistency was appalling; on the outside it was dry and crunchy, while the inner parts of the pizza were undercooked resulting in flaccid pizza slices.

I ordered the Bufala pizza (a simple pizza: tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, and basil), and found it under-sauced and over-cheesed.  I would of preferred shredded basil on the pizza, rather than whole leaf, that would have made for better flavour distribution.

Lil’ Bacci has never been amazing when they stray from their pizza forte. The lemon spinach gnocci was possibly the worst dish on their menu, but under new management it has been replaced by three traditional Italian pasta dishes, spaghetti and meatballs, gnocchi in tomato sauce with buffalo mozzarella, and fusili Primavera (around 17$ a plate). 17$ a plate for pasta seem exorbitant to me. Especially since pasta is one of the most cost and time effective dishes you can make.

I will, however, recommend Lil’ Bacci on the quality of their ingridients. Their Prosciutto was lean, with just a hint of fat, and had the perfect balance of dryness and wetness. It tasted like it was loving cured by an Italian nono. Bacci also has the best home preserved chilies in Toronto.

I recommend skipping dinner here, but keep an open mind regarding lunch. Lil’ Bacci has an excellent lunch special. You choose any soup or salad and pair it with any panino, pasta or pizza for 10$. They shrink the pizzas for this lunch special, but for 10$ you really can’t ask for more.

The bottom line: go there for the lunch special, enjoy the ambience, but don’t expect rave-worthy pizza.

SERVICE 3.5/5
AMBIANCE 4/5
PRESENTATION 3/5
TASTE 2.5/5
PRICE $$/$
HOURS Seven days a week 11:30 am- 10 pm
LOCATION, LOCATION 892 Queen Street East

Joyous Redemption

Joy’s a dinner disaster, but they shine when it comes to brunch.

Joy Bistro is an east side behemoth with two patios and two floors. I recommend, weather and warmth permitting, B side patio.  B side gets great sun, and has a warm Mediterranean ambience with its terracotta stucco walls and wooden patio furniture. In winter and rainy weather, Over Joy, their upstairs indoor option, is also a very good second. Over Joy is bright, elegant, and open, with a great view of Queen St. E.

Brunch seems to be quickly becoming the popular meal of the twenty something. It’s affordable, it’s plentiful, and at a decent hour leaving the rest of the day  open for whatever Sunday whims tickle you. And Joy Bistro is worthy of your precious early Sunday afternoon, especially if you can snag a sun soaked spot on B side by their fire pit.

At Joy brunch, coffee and tip will run you about 15$. The selection isn’t anything out of the ordinary, but they have a healthy selection of bennies (10-13$) and sandwiches (for the more lunch inclined 9$). And their Dutch oven pancakes will fill any belly (8$).  The coffee is unending, always a plus on a Sunday morning, although it is weak, and waving down a busy waitress can be difficult.

I recommend their Rowe Farms Steak and Eggs (14$). Rowe farms provide local, conscientiously farmed, meat, so you can rationalize the cost. It comes served with two eggs, any style, home fries and toast. I had my eggs poached, and they were perfectly runny. And the meat was done rare, like I asked for, although it was a touch on the cold side when it arrived at the table. The home fries were crispy, and they were interestingly seasoned. If you are watching your wallet this week they offer many traditional breakfast items for less than 10$.

Service is never spectacular, but that is mainly due to how crowded Joy Bistro is for brunch.

Ultimately, Joy Bistro succeeds when it focuses on simplicity and quality. The problem with Joy is that there is just too much, too many patios, too many rooms, and too many flavours. They seem to like juggling a lot, but when they concentrate on one thing, like good traditional brunch fare, they succeed.

SERVICE 3/5
AMBIANCE 4/5 (4/5 for B side patio, 3.5/5 for Over Joy)
PRESENTATION 3/5
TASTE 3.5/5
PRICE $$
HOURS Open seven days a week from 11:30am on. Dinner service begins at 5pm. Brunch is served from 8am-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
LOCATION, LOCATION 884 Queen Street East

Underwhelmed Instead of Overjoyed

Looking to satisfy that bourgeois bone on the east side, but not willing to pass Leslie Street? That’s how I felt recently; with the cold moving in I just wanted to pamper myself with a nice meal. From the outside Joy Bistro looks unaffordable to the average twenty something, but on closer examination their lunch and brunch menu are within the weekly budget, and even their dinnertime prix fixe won’t hurt your wallet too badly. However, after my experience there I would recommend Brunching at Joy and nothing else.

Their dinner prix fixe is typically priced around 30 and changes daily.  For a special night out 30 is manageable, but be wary– straying from the prix fixe and adding on extras, like wine and water, can lead you to a painful bill.

There are four elements that combine to make a memorable dining experience: service, ambience, presentation, and taste. Joy is lacking in all four categories. The ambience is warm, but nothing special, the service was slow and condescending, and the food was lacking.

The waiter was standoffish, to the point of being rude. He was simultaneously able to ignore our table and pressure us into tacking on extras that were outside the fixe. We ordered water and were presented with a bottle of sparkling without consultation. That may be practice in Europe; however, I find backdoor upsells like that distasteful.

At our server’s recommendation we strayed from the daily prix fixe. The seared wild fish with tempura shrimp, buttered savoy cabbage, and house made bacon was a disappointment.  While the slow cooked lamb shank with celeriac crushed potatoes, cellar vegetables and mint jus was simply mediocre. The fish was over done and the tempura was heavy, greasy, and cold. The accent of bacon added nothing, other than more grease, to the already too complicated dish. The lamb did not fall from the bone as a good lamb shank should, and worst of all it was over salted.

Perhaps this was a one-time flop—maybe Joy delivers for dinner on other nights, but I have not been inclined to find out. As for the budget? It went out the window. I ended up paying about 60 dollars for my mediocre meal.

SERVICE 2/5
AMBIANCE 3/5
PRESENTATION 3/5
TASTE 2/5
PRICE $$$$

HOURS Open seven days a week from 11:30am on. Dinner service begins at 5pm. Brunch is served from 8am-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays.