Big Smoke, Hogtown, T(eee) O(h). Call it what you will, but Toronto is where CWG and the Mrs. reside. Being what is now called a transplanted Montréaler it has taken me 7 years of living in the city to own up to being a Torontonian. Without a doubt the difference between the two cities leaves many native Montréalers at odds with declaring their new homes literally that, their home. As a true Urbanite I knew when I moved to this city that I had to live downtown. My narrow viewpoint on what constitutes downtown irks people from time to time, but realistically, there can only be so big of a “downtown” in any city. For those that know Toronto, I call the downtown core everything north of the lake, south of Bloor St and boxed in by Bathurst and Jarvis Street. To me this really is downtown. I do not make a distinction on uptown because simply I am not well enough versed on where uptown really ends (I can say that without a doubt Yorkville, Eglinton are both uptown areas but how much further do you go?). So after several years of living in the Olde Town part of downtown Toronto (Front St @ the St Lawrence market) we finally got a chance at buying a condo around the corner from our historic loft that had we desired (remember the word urbanite!). While staying in Olde Town we managed to get a lovely condo that had multiple floors and to top it all off a huge roof top terrace, and if that were not “hot” enough already, it was a corner unit.
We moved into this lovely place after a complete repainting and a few other tidying ups we needed to do. Since it was late October we really had little opportunity to actually sit outside and enjoy the terrace’s view of the skyline. Despite my best efforts to get Mrs.CWG out onto the terrace for all hours under our natural gas heat lamp, often times the blank stare or hands on the hips led me to understand that she was simply not ready to shiver and enjoy the night skies with me.
Fast forward to May and I have to boast that this truly is what we were looking for. As I write this I am sipping on some much needed water and basking in the glory of the soleil on this warm Friday afternoon. The biggest contemplation I am having right now, is which wine to open for this evenings dinner. Dinner will be marinated NY Strip with sautéed mushroom sauce and mixed steam veggies. I think I will hold true to my mid week desire and crack open the 2002 Cab Sauv.
On another note, I went browsing 3 different LCBOs today after work to see if I could find a hidden gem or something that might tickle my fancy. Found a well priced 2001 Châteauneuf-du-Pape by Guigal. I believe that the 2001’s are probably ready to drink now and without a doubt that vintage comes highly regarded. I did not pick one up as two of the three had at least 5 to 6 bottles, and at $54 or so dollars I will probably be safe until tomorrow to grab one or two bottles.
Lastly, I cannot seem to find Crème de Cassis for the life of me, if you know an LCBO in the downtown core (see the definition above!!) that carries it, please let me know (post a comment). I will be trying the Queen’s Quai store tomorrow, maybe I will post that I got lucky. Mrs.CWG loves Kir Royales which means I need to get some
