Birthday Week!!!!! / Discovering T.O. #7 / Port Hope Showcase

Last Monday, May 28, I turned twenty-five years old.  Quite a milestone, really.  I keep wishing I had some sort of letter from my younger self to my 25 year old self to see what I was expecting / hoping for.  The truth is though that it doesn't matter.  I couldn't be prouder of who I am and where I'm at in life, so letter or no letter, I'm one happy 25 year old...

...made happier by the fact that I had the most wonderful series of mini-celebrations of the day of my birth.  I'd like to tell you about them.

1) The Beamish House: locally just called "The Beamish", unfortunately this great pub and restaurant doesn't have a website.  Once a year the school that I work for throws a huge reunion weekend for its alumni celebrating 5, 10, 15, and so on reunions.  The weekend peaks with a dinner on the Saturday night on campus followed by an evening of debauchery, traditionally at The Beamish.  This small, quaint pub is taken over, and although its interior doesn't have much space, its patio is sprawling.  It's a great night, and two of my besties ventured out to Port Hope to enjoy the evening with me.  This was on May 26, but it kick-started birthday celebrations in just the right way.  Before they headed back to the city the next day, we indulged in the classic greasy spoon breakfast at Dimitri's in Port Hope.  I had the Grand Slam breakfast.  It may not have dill-infused hollandaise sauce drizzled all over it, but it did the job.

2) Jim's Pizza & Pasta: this is another classic Port Hope establishment that I highly recommend.  The truth is that this wasn't particularly the highlight of birthday celebrations, but I find that restaurants are a good anchor in this blog for other stories.  The real highlight was having my girlfriend come to PH on May 27 to have dinner, chill times, and then be there with me first-thing on my special day.  That said, grabbing dinner at Jim's Pizza is ALWAYS a delight.  This is my GF's favourite spot in Port Hope, and we always each get the pizza & salad combo.  With this combo, you get a small, 4-slice personal pizza with any 3 toppings you'd like PLUS a huge serving of delicious Caesar salad (Greek is also a choice, but I mean, really).  After our delicious dinner we bought some snacks and went home for a viewing of "Best In Show".

3) My Special Day itself: the authentic birthday day was no exception to the fun already had.  I woke up with the GF and opened a gift from her and from other family members who had sent theirs in advance.  Then I made us breakfast (she would've made it, but she likes the way I make eggs best!) and we lazily enjoyed the morning (I took it off from work), and then I drove her to Oshawa where she took the GO train back to Toronto.

I had a great day at work, complete with cheesecake shared with my colleagues!

When the work day was done, my Mom and sister came to Port Hope to take me to dinner.  And what a dinner it was!  We ate at Trattoria Gusto (finally a PH resto with a website).  I've eaten here 3-5 times before and it's very delicious.  I find that's a bit of an anomaly about Port Hope - not a lot to do, but 3-4 incredible restaurants!  We went all out, sharing a beet salad, calimari, and carpaccio to start, and then for my main I had the chicken parmesan, which was succulent.  We finished it off by sharing a decadent, rich brownie with a candle on top.  It was fantastic!!!

4) Old school gay village celebration: Even though I'd had my fair share of celebrations, I wanted to do it up right with a night out in Toronto, which went down this past Saturday, June 2.  I hemmed and hawed over how I wanted to celebrate, and it dawned on me - when was the last time I had a night out in the Church & Wellesley neighbourhood a.k.a. the gay village in Toronto?!?!  I came of age in that neighbourhood and came into my proud, gay self, and I have great memories (nostalgic already?) of drag queens and dance parties, so I thought - it's about time I go back.

This evening started with appetizers and drinks at Smith on Church St.  I'll be very honest with you -- I didn't really do my due diligence on Smith.  I basically looked for a restaurant in the village that had a few classy-looking/sounding appetizers and said, why not?  Full disclosure: all it took was seeing that Smith had a charcuterie board.  Charcuterie = class.  Thankfully my lack of research didn't result in 11 friends and I dining at a dive.  Smith had us seated at a long table set for 12 upstairs at the restaurant, with a big window, a fireplace (too hot for that though), and a view of the goings-on of Church St.  It had a great vibe and the drinks and food were great!  For the record, I did order the charcuterie board and I loved it.  I didn't look to see what was on it, but I did eat cow tongue and I enjoyed it!

After 3 lazy hours eating and drinking at Smith we head off to Zelda's new location on Yonge St. for a drink.  I ordered the "Proud Mary" (for its name only) and we left shortly after that.

Where did we go?  Where else does one go when they want an old school gay village celebration?  Buddies in Bad Times.  Buddies has such great music and so much sweaty and fun dancing on Saturday nights, and this past Saturday was no exception.  We danced and drank and had ourselves a great time until about 2:30 when last call was made and it was time to catch the late-night Yonge bus home.

Being 25 is off to a fabulous start, and many thanks to the friends, family members, and Port Hope/Toronto establishments that made my birthday celebrations so special!!!

N.Y.C. Part II

How is it that something I used to do to procrastinate is now something I procrastinate doing?
Ch-ch-ch-changes.

Anyway, without further ado: NEW YORK CITY!!!
More specifically...

10 things I learned in (or general comments about) NYC - 2011 edition

1. The NYC transit system makes so much sense... unless you're used to the TTC. It's an incredibly efficient and elaborate system, but when you're used to tracks being for 1 train that's going in only 1 direction, then you'll likely slip up at one point or another.
   
   
2. I would really love to spend more time in Central Park when I'm next in the Big Apple. Both times that I've visited I've walked around the park a teeny bit, but I'm interested in a full day spent in the park. It's just so lush and grand and I want to go visit at the height of the summer, pack a picnic and a book or 2, and just take it all in.
   
   
3. There is so much good food to eat!!! Each resto deserves its own spot on this list, but I'd at least like to tell you where I ate and why I loved it:
   
   Taboon (52nd & 10th) - My friends and I ate here on Sunday morning with another friend of ours who was performing a musical at a venue nearby. The restaurant was nearly empty when we got there, but we stuck around because of the close proximity to our friend's venue, and the great vibe, and the great service. That said, within the hour the place was packed, and a 3-piece band set themselves up in the corner and started playing some jazzy tunes. My 3 friends all had a waffle with ice cream on top and I had the Steak Benedict. The food was DELICIOUS and completely reasonable. I'd love to go back to Taboon.
   
   Tom's Restaurant (Brooklyn) - We took our Saturday brunch at Tom's Restaurant, a diner near where we were staying. Our friend recommended it highly, and I can see why. When we got there, the line was going around the corner, but it moved quickly, and our appetites were kept at bay with the food that a server was walking around and handing out to people in line - yeah, seriously. While in line we got orange slices, a cookie, and something else that I can't remember. The orange slices came last but were followed by squirts of hand sanitizer. Yeah, that's right - Tom's has got you covered. We didn't wait too long though, and had a delicious meal once we sat down. Tonnes of coffee, and I had the sausage & egg meal with the usual fixings. My friends had a variety of other stuff and everything looked and tasted amazing!
   
   Chavella's (Brooklyn) - The last notable restaurant to share with you (I'm doing this in reverse order) is Chavella's, where we took Brian (our hostess with the mostess) out for dinner on Friday evening. It's a Mexican place that he recommended and it was absolutely delish. We walked over from his apartment and got seated almost immediately on their outside patio. It was a decent evening weather-wise, and we only started feeling cold at the end of our meal, so it was nice to get some fresh air while we ate. All of us ordered some Mexican alcoholic beverages (I had a classic cervesa - Corona) and shared some amazing guacamole, and then I had soft-shelled tacos with delicious rice on the side. Others at the table had Mexican soups and hard-shelled tacos and all sorts of other yummy choices. The dinner was perfect, the server was really fun... all in all it was a great time.
   
   
4. Going to the MoMA on Saturday afternoon was definitely a highlight. I've always wanted to go, so I visited their website before the trip and made note that there was a really cool sounding exhibit on called "Looking at Music 3.0". Lucky for me we went to that exact exhibit on Saturday and I loved every minute of it. You can read more about it at the link, but basically it was the 3rd segment in a series exploring music (a lot of it having come out of New York City) and its impact on culture. The room was set up with headphones and music videos playing on loop... there was Le Tigre, Jay-Z, Beastie Boys... it was so cool! I browsed some other exhibits, too, but didn't have nearly enough time to see it all. I'd love to go back!
   
   
5. The key to Canal St., it seems, is to reject your entire Canadian upbringing, and force yourself to be aggressive and deceitful... at least that's the sense I got after observing my bestie Rachel negotiating with the little woman calling out "Coach...Louis...Chanel" as we walked by. Rachel lied, cheated, and did whatever it took to get a good deal, and I admired her for it. That's just the way you do it on Canal. Thanks to Rach, I got a great deal on a bracelet for my sister!
   
   
6. I love SoHo. The shops, the vibe, the layout, the architecture... there's nothing like that in Toronto; nothing that seems so historic and yet so modern, so hip and yet so accessible... We popped in and out of stores, grabbed a snack at the SoHo Cafe (my 2nd time there, which I was surprised to have happen when I've only been to NYC twice), and just enjoyed walking around. I mentioned that last year: the magic of New York is how much you can see and experience without paying anything and just being willing to walk and walk and walk.
   
   
7. This weekend I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to see the opera Orfeo ed Euridice at the Metropolitan Opera, known as the Met. More fortunate was I to have my best friend Brian (who we stayed with) performing on the stage with other members of the Mark Morris Dance Group. Mark Morris choreographed the dance portions of this production, and not that I've been to (m)any professional operas, but in my personal opinion it was an outstanding production -- unique, funky, modern, beautiful... the list goes on. My friend did amazingly well (front & centre, NBD) and the music was wonderful. It was great!
   
   
8. As I've mentioned already (I think), I stayed with my best and oldest friend (not in terms of age, but in terms of how long I've known him) Brian in his apartment in Brooklyn. The apartment was fantastic and it was so nice not to have to spend anything on accommodations, and it was really neat to somewhat get to know the area in Brooklyn where he lives, which I think is called Prospect Heights, if I've got that right. He told us it's an up-and-coming neighbourhood, and though there was some shadiness in some spots, it was definitely a cute and fun area, where I would be happy to live myself. There were some great restos and cute cafes, and I was happy to now be able to imagine where he lives when we chat on the phone or on Skype or whatever.
   
   
9. On Sunday, after walking through a teeny bit of Central Park, we walked down Columbus Ave. from about 70th to 50th. I'd never walked around this area of the Upper West Side before, and I loved it. Columbus was filled with people walking, great boutiques with what looked like awesome clothing, little stationery shops, cafes, etc. So much fun - glad to have walked down it.
   
   
10. And, as is tradition, I must always say: Home is where the heart is.