Uptown

The most minimalist eye chart I've ever seen.
Or it could be the calling card for Quince.

Friday June 15, 8:21 p.m.

I went uptown later that Wednesday since I was to meet Egg and his wife up at Yonge and Eglinton at 6. However, I got there at about 3. There was a Jays game at The Rogers Centre at 1:10 that afternoon, and the last thing I needed was to travel up during rush hour AND be with a drunk (lots of beef sold) and surly (the Jays lost...again) mob on the Yonge Line.

I took a small break at the local Tim Hortons on the east side of Yonge before browsing at a couple of bookstores for a couple of hours. Did BMV for an hour....browsed through a lot of Marvel Comics and some movie books there before crossing the street and checking out the local Indigos.

I was about to cross the street to meet Egg and his wife at the southwest corner of Eglinton & Yonge, when the couple actually intercepted me just by accident on the northwest corner. It had been a few weeks since I met the Egg, but well over a year since I'd met the wife. She griped about her work again. Apparently, her company suffered one of its first cases of karoshi, the Japanese term for "death by overwork" not too long ago. Oh, the irony.

In any case, we made our dinner venue Quince, just south of the main intersection, across from The Art Shoppe. I'd been there with them before. Good food and service. We started off with a number of appetizers, including one lone Spring Roll, poutine (at Quince, it should be called La Poutine), and frites with aioli (apparently, it's not good form to call it "fries with fancy mayo"). It was all good.

Mmmm, mmmmm....good!

My main course was the Steak Frites. It was a fine and juicy medium-rare hunk of beef with nicely caramelized onions no top and crispy fries...er, sorry, frites...to the side. I definitely had my share of potato that night.

The three of us had a good talk on TV and movies, not surprising since both are big telly fans and Egg is one of the big managers at Cineplex. Yup, "The Avengers"is the movie to beat this year. I am looking forward to the Toronto Film Festival. I haven't been to one since its fortunes went way up. Now, it's one of the world's cinematic events, and I would finally like to partake in a bit of celeb-gazing. Will have to stake out my post near the Bell Lightbox.

Yes, amazingly enough, I still had room
for dessert.

I finished my feast with an Almond Tart with a combination of custard and berry sauces. Also had copious amounts of coffee. I definitely overdid it on the caffeine that day with the three cups at Quince, the iced coffee at Tim Hortons, the Coke with my Chicken Parmigiana and the breakfast cup that morning.

Not sure when I will be able to meet the Eggs again since both are very busy folks. Our dinner meetings may end up being seasonal affairs.






To finish off, I took the Eglinton 34C home. We had a real character driving our bus. Even though, the computer dutifully announced the various stop names, he just insisted on calling out the names by himself in a huge barker's voice. He also loudly offered to let people off before an intersection if the stop was after it. And he even made a Usain Bolt-like dash for the Tim Hortons near my stop for a quick coffee. Got some applause from the passengers when he made it back in less than a minute. It was obvious that he and a number of them were quite familiar with each other, and the atmosphere was almost very cordial....something that I haven't seen on a TTC bus in decades, especially considering the virtual civil war that almost ensued between commuters and drivers a few years ago. Apparently, he was in quite a happy mood since he would be switching to a new route from next week. Of course, his regulars were saddened by this news but wished him well. One even suggested that he take the Woodbine 91 which actually crosses the 34 near that Tim Hortons. I can vouch for that passenger's choice. I used to take the 91 on my way to junior high school decades ago, and it is one of the easiest and most relaxing routes. I remember that that route also had a bit of a happy eccentric driving that bus, too, in the mornings. Kept making birdcalls and announcements in strange voices. He even intentionally drove his bus onto the curb for a few metres when he saw a very pretty young lady sashaying on the sidewalk there.

At this point, I can only hope that that sort of whimsy can infuse itself into more urban situations here. Perhaps then, Toronto can start climbing itself up a bit more.