Tag Archives: Vancouver

Tales of the Cocktail II

So the Main Distractor and I went to Tales of the Cocktail last year. Did I mention it? maybe not. Not the one in New Orleans, but the little cute mini-one they started doing here.

We had a blast: stayed in the city near the hotel where it was held so we didn’t have to stumble too far home, tried a few new bars, tasted all kinds of different cocktails, made Ramos Gin Fizzes for breakfast.

This year, we decided to go again in spite of not being very flush, because it made a nice break (over Valentine’s Day even), and it’s fun to be a tourist in your own town. Plus of course we didn’t have to fly anywhere or spend a lot on gas. We actually took the bus to our hotel :D but we downsized the hotel budget, and ate some low budget meals instead of room service, and generally planned a slightly less exuberant version this year.

Then of course the Main Distractor had this horrible cold that kept him home from work for a day, the week before, and we had extremely abridged nights out with it (although we did manage a lovely dinner at Diva at the Met…that was the “Hey I sold my car finally!” dinner). He was coughing and sneezing and blowing, and needing all kinds of sleep, so we were home by 10:00 mostly, in spite of naps. Then one day he slept in and I went to the venue to check things out and taste a few things, and we both managed to go to two seminars out of three we’d signed up for on the second day. But that night (Valentine’s Day, and the awesome Bar Crawl event), my throat started feeling like it was on fire, and so yeah, another early night. We enjoyed our seminars, though, and the few bars we managed to hit (we aimed at six or seven, and managed only three, one of which is where we ate our dinner).

So a few notes.

The Refinery – We had a dinner here, which was pretty good, and the cocktails they came up with worked well with the food. It’s always interesting to do these, because you end up trying things you wouldn’t normally order, and it can expand your horizons.

The Pourhouse – We ate here on Valentine’s Day, and I’ll just warn you that the starters are large, so order wisely. We had a savory to start, and I had the Chopped Salad, which I really enjoyed, but it was so massive that I hadn’t a hope of finishing my main course. Mind you the pound of meat on my plate most likely would have discouraged me even if I’d been starving. Those massive portions just don’t work for me. But everything was tasty. The MD had a steak which he enjoyed greatly, and the mac and cheese is a lovely thing. The cocktails were smart and delicious, but the bartender who was on duty doesn’t shake very long–the MD was not able to get even one photo :D

Clough Club – A Donnelly Group newcomer, with a very engaging man behind the bar. We liked this place a lot. The drinks look fabulous (the one we tried was incredibly inventive without being precious, and involved cedar smoke), and there’s an interesting menu that will likely lure us back for brunch once we’re healthy again.

The Revel Room – A little piece of Americana apparently staffed exclusively by (charming) Australians, we liked their special cocktail a lot. It’s a lively spot, with another interesting menu, that we will not be averse to trying again another time.

Due to our general illness, we decided to skip the cochon de lait at the Chambar closing lunch event the next day, opting instead to go home early for MOAR SLEEP. I hate being sick on holiday time :( we’re both still sick, too! very annoying.

So I do have some (phone) photos, and I may add them later, but I’m still feeling crappy and I must husband my strength to go to the grocery store.

Maybe one year when finances permit we’ll hit the NOLA TOTC, but being as it’s in July and being as my constitution doesn’t really like New Orleans in July, it’s hard to say. But it would certainly be fun to see it in its native habitat.

Enzo is for sale!

My awesome scooter Enzo (because he’s Ferrari red, duh) is up for sale.

He’s a 2006 Piaggio Vespa LX50, automatic, with 12,600kms or something like that. he’s had a new belt, and a new rear tire, and been taken pretty good care of over the past 5 years! He took me back and forth to work almost all the time (except when it was snowy or icy) and handles fine, rain or shine.

He is as cute as a bug, and let me tell you he’s a magnet, I never talked to so many strangers in my LIFE until I got a scooter. People love scooters. Chicks, in particular, dig ‘em, so any chaps reading this who want to find a fun girlfriend, you might consider investing in a scooter, because girls will come and talk to you.

Enzo comes with the spiffy matching locking Vespa topcase (that’s what we call the little box on the back, it holds a picnic, or a couple of bottles from the liquor store and a bag from the grocery store, too, if it’s just groceries you’re hauling), and lovely chrome on the front bumper and body, as well as the groovy crashbars around the engine etc.

I got my motorcycle license and got a bigger scooter, but it looks JUST LIKE ENZO because Enzo looks so awesome!

Enzo

Look how shiny!

 

Reverse Angle

He’s just been serviced at Urban Wasp and is in great mechanical shape.  Drop me a comment if you’re interested!

And Now: Renovation Hell

It really isn’t that hellish. Well, it’s had hellish moments though. The weekend after our return from London we had to empty out a whole storey of our (admittedly tiny) house so that it could be renovated.

Don’t get me wrong: we wanted the renovations to happen; we even wanted them to happen just at about that time; however, we had hardly any warning of their imminent commencement, and that made for a kind of crazy weekend, packing, boxing, shifting, sorting…you know the drill. Quite a lot of stuff, I had accumulated in the past 5 years. It was made even more fun and interesting due to the fact that both of us still had lingering symptoms of the London Cold. So disrupting masses of dust was a uniquely enjoyable experience, this time.

In any case. The lower floor has been duly emptied, and gutted, and re-framed.  New windows (for downstairs and the windows upstairs that were not replaced during the first reno, when I moved in) have been delivered, and may have started to be installed this very day. Or may not. The concrete floor of the bathroom has been jackhammered out, the plumbing has been repositioned to suit the new locations for everything, the dirt and sand there that has not yet been recovered in concrete has been peed in by the small dogs, and we can see where our New Slightly Fancy Shower! will be installed. (Yay!)

The tile we liked the best was impossibly expensive, but the one we liked second-best was the cheapest; the floors will be heated; we got a new furnace; our wiring will be all up to date and yes! we will have more than one outlet per room! imagine that. We’ll have hardwood in the master because that’s the way I like it. There will be new carpet in the guest room, and no it won’t be fancy, but hey it beats what’s in there now! The guest room will, however, be provided with–wait for it–an actual closet. The kind with a clothes rail! and the plan is to put a smallish chest of drawers in there as well, for guests’ delight.  Given what our guests have had to put up with, they most likely will be delighted, don’t scoff.

My Main Distractor has been photographically documenting the work on his flickr page. You can check progress there, if it pleases you.

August.

Normally, August and I get along really well. It’s My Birthday Month, after all, and normally lots of nice things happen to me and I get to see lots of friends and things like that.

This August started out pretty OK! and my Main Distractor made sure I had a pretty great birthday, cause he’s awesome like that. Well I mean I wrote about that last time.

So we went to Montreal for the weekend, which was pretty great: we ate some good food, everywhere from Kojax to Reuben’s to Newtown to Pintxo; we imbibed a rather large number of cocktails and related beverages; we saw some of my old friends; walked for miles and took lots of pictures.

Then we got home and found some douchebag had broken into our little hovel and stolen everything small that wasn’t nailed down. Which is a bit of a pisser. I mean it could have been worse, for sure, and we’ve barred the door a little better following the escape of the horse, if you will, but it’s just revolting to think of strangers in your house, touching your THINGS (what movie is that from?). Anyway, we’re insured, although the insurors seem to be moving pretty fucking slowly getting the billions of forms to us that we will have to fill out in triplicate or whatever the fuck in order to gain some recompense minus deductible and by GOD if I have to argue about “replacement value” I am going to being wrath down upon them. I have never had a claim on my house insurance, and I will brook no bullshit.

So that was kind of a shock. Then the following day, the monsoons came, and the roof started leaking. My MD got up there and cleared the standing water and cleared the spout things but we’ve decided we’d better get the thing seen to lest it all fall on our heads. Anyway, that’s the kind of thing that makes you feel like Job and wonder, what’s the third thing going to be?

The rest of the week has passed without incident, although my work situation has ratcheted up inasmuch as my one junior is MIA, I mean I know where she is but we have no clue when/if she’ll be up to coming back, and the summer temp is gone back to school, and the other student who jumped into the breach also returns to school next week, so it’s just…me. So I’ve been working extra hours with fewer breaks and it’s not really sustainable. Trying to get someone in next week, and that begins the whole training a n00b stress and fun.

In any case. I’m sure I’ll get through it, but I really wouldn’t mind winning the lottery tonight, OK, lottery gods?

Some pics from last weekend (some are mine, some are his–typically, the better ones are his).

Main Distrctor's version

The MD's shot of the dining room, cool, no?

MD got me on a v punk-rock day

Isn't he adorable?

Strange

that it is taking a sick day to have some time to blog…not heinously sick, but major headache and backache combine to create a largely immobile Deeb. Perhaps I will feel better later if I have a nap, I hope.

So what’s been up…I joined twitter (@bittersweetdb) and I suppose the so-called microblogging is taking a bit away from the actual blogging. But the feed shows up over here on the right so if you’ve any interest you can just look over there from time to time. Radiohead friends and food geek friends and Philly friends and people I’ve never met can be fun to “follow.” The whole “liveblogging” thing that people do with that damn stupid scrolly window is impossible for me so never mind that but the tweeting is OK. You also find people and media outlets which are just as pompous and tedious on twitter as they are IRL or their primary web presence, or whose web presence doesn’t translate well to twitter…so some people/sites that I have on RSS feed I don’t duplicate on twitter as it’s just a whack of clutter.

But there are surprising people! or at least for me, since I am (voluntarily) shut off from so much media. Stephen Fry is a very amusing person to follow; ?uestlove is a champion tweeter, also entertaining and informative. Cory Doctorow can get on my tits for sheer volume sometimes, and I’m not sure if I’ll keep him or just satisfy myself with my boingboing RSS. I recently found @LaBuca is on twitter! La Buca being the sister restaurant to my dearly departed, lamented and fondly remembered Parkside, which I find I didn’t have a Parkside tag in here, and I ought to have.

Parkside was my favourite Vancouver restaurant for the past 4 years or something, hard for me to pinpoint. But I’ve had some of my best meals ever there, made a convert of the Main Distractor, celebrated more stuff there than anywhere else ever, I think, beating out even La Grolla in Philly. The MD and I went there for one last meal last weekend, had a tasting menu that pleased us in every way, and have resigned ourselves to the undoubted excellence that the next incarnation of the space as another La Buca will offer. We’re booked for our one-year anniversary weekend and I will report. It is a continuation of the Andrey Durbach/Chris Stewart partnership that has spelled restaurant gold in this city for some years now. There are flashier places (God knows) and more self-aggrandizing owners (oh man!) than these two, but for diners who are more interested in the food than the buzz; in excellence of ingredients and execution; in a disciplined and devoted back-of-house and a warm and sincere front-of-house, I haven’t found anyone else who consistently delivers at this level. And even I can afford to eat in their restaurants (there’s also Pied-à-Terre, French bistro style), at least sometimes if not as often as I’d like.

So twitter has brought another intersection of worlds; in a good way I guess!

I think I will post more later, about some of the cooking and eating I have been doing.