So who here lives/works in Toronto?

DanWEC · Post by **DanWEC** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 4:49 pm

Hey just a shout to see what forum members here are from/in Toronto?
I've been here for just over about 2 years now, but recently moved downtown a few minutes from the Island (on Fort York), and have been doing most of my flying at Island Air. Just finishing the CPL in the next month.
So I'm wondering if there is anyone on here I've already run into or talk to on a regular basis in person, and also if there is anyone close by that would like to meet up for a coffee/adult bevie!

Cheers-
Dan C.

DanWEC · Post by **DanWEC** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 9:51 pm

Whoa.... judging by the views, does this mean there are 138 people in Toronto that don't like beer?? My world is shattered.

Go Juice · Post by **Go Juice** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 10:01 pm

Dating sites are good to find a man-date

burhead1 · Post by **burhead1** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 10:04 pm

I like beer and i viewd your thread, but I don't live there LOL
You would have to kill me tie me to a board and drag me down town.
More of a country boy

Hedley · Post by **Hedley** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 10:20 pm

I used to fly out of the Island back in the 1970's. Pleasant memories.

Can't say the same for Toronto, though. Too many years of my life wasted there. What was that song by Fleetwood Mac? "Never going back again".

iflyforpie · Post by **iflyforpie** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 10:27 pm

This is the song I think about when I hear Toronto...

(Nothing personal, I'd have a wobbly pop with ya if Toronto wasn't further away from me than Mexico is).

DanWEC · Post by **DanWEC** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 10:33 pm

I hear you guys loud and clear. It's been fun here- I like having the sports, events, and few hundred bars within stumbling distance of me, and I have met a few good people, but that's all, and ain't enough to keep me here.... something about half a million bucks for a 1000 sq foot condo doesn't agree with me. (I'm renting one, with 2 other people. ug)
I'm originally from Windsor... (My home, and the friendliest city ever!)..... and sometimes feel like I'm being held with a bit of prejudice by some of the snazzy locals here because I wasn't born and raised in the big smoke. Fine by me.
Some people groan when they think of working a dock for a summer- quite honestly I can't freaking wait.

gustind · Post by **gustind** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 10:33 pm

Hi. I'll participate in this thread. I live at the two locations as shown in my profile.

dcabrown · Post by **dcabrown** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 7:32 am

At the risk of being hated by everyone in Canada (it seems) I live/work downtown Taranna

But in my defence:

a.) I hate the Leafs too
b.) The Island Airport is a pretty cool place to fly out of, lots to see (and lots to avoid.)
c.) If you like food, you will go broke with the available options here

all_ramped_up · Post by **all_ramped_up** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 7:38 am

Used to live in Toronto, up at Yonge and Davenport.

Great city but the call of better opportunities plucked me from the comforts of civilization off to the wilds of Labrador. lol

I do come back from time-to-time though.

Hedley · Post by **Hedley** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:05 am

If you like food, you will go broke with the available options here

Perhaps compared with Sudbury, but personally I think there's far better restaurants in (eg) California, New York, etc than in Toronto.

The only people who think Toronto is the greatest city in the world, don't travel much.

dcabrown · Post by **dcabrown** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:35 am

I said this city has a lot of "available options" when it comes to food, and it does. Chinese, Caribbean, Indian, French, Southeast Asian, Mediterranean, South American, Japanese...

Pick a type of food you want and within 30 mins (thats including the unfortunate 10min Ferry trip off the Island) of landing at the Airport you can travel to Chinatown,Little India,Little Portugal,The Danforth, Kensington Market.

I NEVER said anything about this city being the greatest in the world or having the greatest restaurants in the world...

KAG · Post by **KAG** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:46 am

I have been a Toronto Hater most of my life, until I moved there. High Park is a great place to live, the people are friendly and there is everything you can possibly want, aside from mountains or swimable water.

Toronto aside (it's too big for me), Sounthern Ont is a great place to live with awsome weather, and countless lakes/other outdoor stuff to do.

Kag - The displaced east coaster.

slam525i · Post by **slam525i** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 9:14 am

Dan,

I'm sorta in the area. I live and work right by the hospitals. Msg me if you want a beer and talk about airplanes but:

1. I'm a PPL who flies 1 hour/month (if I can find the money for it that month)
2. IT'S NOT A FRICKING DATE.

OceansEdge · Post by **OceansEdge** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 9:33 am

lived there for 20 years, still back to visit at least 4-5 times a year. But it's not really my taste - I'm not much of an urban kinda gal

if the work ends up taking me back to Ontario I think I'll be looking for a room/place in Orangeville or something

cdnpilot77 · Post by **cdnpilot77** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 10:26 am

slam525i wrote:2. IT'S NOT A FRICKING DATE.

Hahahahahaha...Although that is down right hilaraious, I can attest that Dan is not into guys. He has a very good looking girlfiend and I would suggest that you make any meeting contingent on her being there

Go Juice · Post by **Go Juice** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 10:50 am

slam525i wrote:1. I'm a PPL who flies 1 hour/month (if I can find the money for it that month)
2. IT'S NOT A FRICKING DATE.

It is a Man-date!!

DanWEC · Post by **DanWEC** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 11:59 am

A man-date.... awesome...
I Love You Man is one of my favorite movies and I didn't even realize how much this sounded like that.... Joben.....Slappin da Bass.... lol

KAG- I have friends in your area, I like High Park/Bloor west village a lot. Old brick buildings, lots of shops and bars, if I have to stay in Toronto I'll be moving out of downtown and there for sure.

Adam- you kill me... lol. Bringing Nadine makes it tough for me... I'm incredibly insecure and rarely let Nadine leave the house.. It's just easier this way to keep her convinced that I actually am Brad Pitt.

SO the food commentary has started up. Toronto (downtown anyways) is an odd duck for food. I've been in the bar business for over 10 years, and love food. The grungy pubs aside, almost every independent restaurant is invariably vastly overpriced, and there seems to be more emphasis placed on the decor of the place and presentation, leaving food behind. There are a thousand places you can go where most of the bill you pay goes straight for paying off the designers, and you're getting frozen beef. It's completely fabricated price inflation. It's hard to get a good portion of good quality food for a good price, unless the place is a total dive. The price of rent is to blame for that... and there is not a single good mexican restaurant!
The Wheat Sheaf, and the Bank Note are on the corner of King and Bathhurst, stumbling distance... and are pretty good for price. A bunch of the guys at Island Air used to go to the Sheaf on Tuesdays for 1/2 price wings and to watch the Leafs lose.

dcabrown · Post by **dcabrown** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 12:58 pm

There are a handful of good places in the city but it takes a lot or talking to people to find the really good, reasonably priced ones. Anyone can find a spot like Canoe or Vetical and blow $300 on a meal for 2 people, but for me my fave place was MUSA (Dundas/Euclid). $20/L wine and massive portions! If my GF and I went - usually after work on a Friday, we'd spend a few hours drinking away a good 2 Litres and an app (grilled calamari) before ordering just 1 main (the portions where huge) - ALL in after tax/tip about $70 which gets you pretty drunk and quite full. Sadly, it burned down last year and hasn't been rebuilt yet.

Dan, have you checked out Wing Company yet, at King/Bath? They're the only delivery wings ive had in the city that are any good. Way better than Duff's...

Other options for food,

Terroni's (Queen St West of Bathurst and Adelaide/Church) - amazing Southern Italian food and so long as you dont order bottled wine its reasonably priced. I like Terroni's better than Pizza Libretto (Dundas/Ossington) which i think is over-rated.

BQM (Dundas/Ossington) and . (King/Jefferson) - Both chilled out burger joints worth flying in for

Maggies (College/Bathurst) - Killer breakfast. You will never go back to Cora's or Fran's again.

It's too bad all these spots are a bit of a trek from the Island Airport. But in the summer, visiting any of the above would make for a good day trip.

A little bit closer to the island airport (about 15 min walk after the ferry) there are a bunch of patios along the waterfront which, if you can get a spot outside, are nice for spotting the inbound traffic to 26.

(If you see planes that look for sure like they're heading straight for the waterfront condo's, its someone on approach for 24...ive only done it a few times and it is really a weird sight heading straight towards those condos and then turning so late to final...)

C-FABH · Post by **C-FABH** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 2:56 pm

For basically any kind of food anywhere in the city, check out BlogTO.com. I'm not downtown often enough to visit a fraction of their reviewed restaurants, but if I was, I'd probably need to be pushed around with a wheelbarrow.

justwork · Post by **justwork** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 4:05 pm

I'm there so much sometimes I feel like I live there... but I don't.

DanWEC · Post by **DanWEC** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 4:50 pm

dcabrown wrote:There are a handful of good places in the city but it takes a lot or talking to people to find the really good, reasonably priced ones. Anyone can find a spot like Canoe or Vetical and blow $300 on a meal for 2 people, but for me my fave place was MUSA (Dundas/Euclid). $20/L wine and massive portions! If my GF and I went - usually after work on a Friday, we'd spend a few hours drinking away a good 2 Litres and an app (grilled calamari) before ordering just 1 main (the portions where huge) - ALL in after tax/tip about $70 which gets you pretty drunk and quite full. Sadly, it burned down last year and hasn't been rebuilt yet.

Dan, have you checked out Wing Company yet, at King/Bath? They're the only delivery wings ive had in the city that are any good. Way better than Duff's...

Other options for food,

Terroni's (Queen St West of Bathurst and Adelaide/Church) - amazing Southern Italian food and so long as you dont order bottled wine its reasonably priced. I like Terroni's better than Pizza Libretto (Dundas/Ossington) which i think is over-rated.

BQM (Dundas/Ossington) and . (King/Jefferson) - Both chilled out burger joints worth flying in for

Maggies (College/Bathurst) - Killer breakfast. You will never go back to Cora's or Fran's again.

It's too bad all these spots are a bit of a trek from the Island Airport. But in the summer, visiting any of the above would make for a good day trip.

A little bit closer to the island airport (about 15 min walk after the ferry) there are a bunch of patios along the waterfront which, if you can get a spot outside, are nice for spotting the inbound traffic to 26.

(If you see planes that look for sure like they're heading straight for the waterfront condo's, its someone on approach for 24...ive only done it a few times and it is really a weird sight heading straight towards those condos and then turning so late to final...)

Hey good suggestions- So BQM is OK? I havn't been there yet, but I'm a burger freak. This is a good example of places here forgetting the grass roots- many "gourmet" burger places, which are all the rage here, will outfit themselves with 50 types of mustard, but you can't order a burger medium-rare because they use frozen beef, and is therefore against health code to have it cooked properly, and not everdone (which is medium or higher- think steak).
Glad to hear your opinion on Pizza Libretto. Ridiculously overrated/priced. Grazie is amazing for trattoria style food- on Yonge near Lawrence. Way out of the way though.

all_ramped_up · Post by **all_ramped_up** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:06 pm

DanWEC wrote:Hey good suggestions- So BQM is OK? I havn't been there yet, but I'm a burger freak. This is a good example of places here forgetting the grass roots- many "gourmet" burger places, which are all the rage here, will outfit themselves with 50 types of mustard, but you can't order a burger medium-rare because they use frozen beef, and is therefore against health code to have it cooked properly, and not everdone (which is medium or higher- think steak).
Glad to hear your opinion on Pizza Libretto. Ridiculously overrated/priced. Grazie is amazing for trattoria style food- on Yonge near Lawrence. Way out of the way though.

Craft Burger has a real nice Lamb Burger if you're down with Burgers.

The Yellow Griffon Pub near Runnymede Station has something like 50 different kinds of Burgers and a lot of my friends have suggested it on numerous occasions.

For Greek food... there's a place just a 30 second walk North from Broadview Station that has killer souvlaki. Or for Gyros if you go to Logan/Danforth, I HIGHLY recommend Louis Authentic. Their Beef/Lamb Gyro is deadly.

DanWEC · Post by **DanWEC** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:25 pm

Just went to the Yellow Griffon on Saturday for lunch with a few friends, not bad. However another example of a cornucopia of crazy toppings, and frozen, beef that has to be cooked well done!

crooked timber · Post by **crooked timber** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:53 pm

C-FABH wrote:For basically any kind of food anywhere in the city, check out BlogTO.com.

your best bet for reviews is chowhound: http://chowhound.chow.com/boards/23?tag ... pup_canada
(search function is your friend)

toronto has an amazing resto scene and i don't just mean the blowout places (oliver & bonacini spots, mcewan's empire, etc, etc). there are a tonne of options for every cuisine you could ask for (the chinese food here destroys anything nyc has to offer). lately i've been really digging black hoof, guu, campagnolo and the new porchetta place. woodlot has been absolutely off the hook too. i've been seriously jonesing for the suckling pig boudin noir tart at nota bene since the winter started. i honestly don't see how anyone could shit on the food scene in toronto. when's the last time a bar/pub sourced primal cuts, broke them down and dry aged them in-house? if you're eating at chain-y places you're going to get boil in a bag food and fryer fodder.

there is not a single good mexican restaurant!

tacos al asador? mexitaco? el sol?

as far as burgers go, david lee was just killing it with a waygu burger a couple of months ago (not sure if it's still on the menu) but the bymark burger will always have my heart.

So who here lives/works in Toronto?

So who here lives/works in Toronto?

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