Noon Mark Diner

Umm … hey y’all.  Lots has happened since we last chatted.  Most importantly, I turned 2, and had a mad birthday party, complete with balloons, Yop and a new balance bike.  We also went to Ottawa to visit my Bama and Grandpa Dal and got wild at the annual Metcalfe Fair (more on that later).  Shortly thereafter we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with my newly Toronto-based grandparents, and then summer faded into a chilly, stormy (and Sandy!) fall.  And finally, last week Stella turned 1 (when did that happen?!).  So, yes, it’s been ages, and this is an oldie but goodie.

When I realized I’d totally dropped the ball on posting I was just gonna skip a few places, but then something (Thanksgiving?  Pumpkin pie? :) made me think about pie, and well … I knew I had to dig back into the archives for this one.

Summer and cottages and hula hoops, oh my!  And, I’m 1 now … whaaaaat?!)

So flash back to this past summer:  the fam headed to the family cottage for a few weeks.  For us this means northern New York State … a lovely spot in the Adirondack Mountains that has been in Dad’s family for … well, basically forever.  It’s a bit of a haul from Toronto; it takes us almost 8 hours by car, including a quick lunch and a few leg-stretching stops, but it’s totally worth it.  In fact, there’s so much to do (lakes, swimming, cousins, wagons, sandboxes … and the list goes on) that I think the only time we actually went anywhere else was to hit up the Noon Mark Diner in Keene Valley, New York.

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Mad Dog Cafe

Aw shucks.  It’s been, basically, forever.  Glad to check back in and see that some of you are still keeping tabs on what I’ve been up to … y’all deserve major apologies for my hiatus.  Let me explain:  Mom and Dad keep telling me I have this new thing called a ‘baby sister’, and apparently that means it hasn’t been easy to keep my blogging appetite satiated.  What the?  Honestly, we’ve hit a few old favourites a number of times, but you can already read my reviews of lil’ bean n’ green, Astoria and Lady Marmalade here,  here and here.  In any case, I contemplated blogging about the terrible hospital food I was witness to, but decided to hold out for a more authentic (and easily replicated) dining experience.

Which brings us to yesterday.  I’m battling a bit of a cold at the moment, so when Dad suggested lunch, I agreed to leave the house only if it was somewhere I could blog about.  We ended up at the Mad Dog Cafe on Gerrard at Logan, one of a few spots that have recently opened up on the formerly desolate stretch of road between Broadview and Carlaw.  At first glance, it’s not much to look at, but once close enough to peer in the windows it looked cozy and charming.  Plus, the menu looked good.  :)

Dad ordered our lunch at the counter ... we're cool like that.

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Shanghai Cowgirl

Back in the day, Mom apparently spent a lot of time exploring patios in and around Toronto.  But her no-fail, go-to patio was always the one at Shanghai Cowgirl.  While it probably had a lot to do with location (it was walkable from various places she lived in the area), I’m also told that the pitchers of wheat beer had something to do with it.  In any case, along came Dad, and then Shanghai became a staple for the two of them on various afternoons/nights out, and then baby made three, and today we took a detour from the East end and I got to see what all the fuss is about.  There was, however, a noted lack of wheat beer, as my sister-to-be undoubtedly wouldn’t have appreciated it.

One great thing about Shanghai Cowgirl is that it’s never super super busy, especially if you’re not dead set on patio-sitting, and there is always a table or two available inside.  With double front doors, plus another door flanked by two sets of stairs leading to the patio out back, it’s not incredibly easy to maneuver with a stroller … but then what place is on Queen West these days?  And don’t plan to keep your ride at your table as you’d seriously screw with the servers being able to access other customers.  That said, there is definitely space to park, either inside or out, if you plan on dining with the parentals.  It was beautiful out today and we happily snagged a spot on the back patio, so we stashed my stroller at the bottom of the few steps leading up to it.  Important to note that shade can be a bit of an issue out back, but we were lucky enough to get the last booth under an umbrella.

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