Seattle's Best 1000 Cups

Next we were off to Queens Street to meet with Michelle and Tao at Cabaret Vintage. A super cool boutique serving up high fashion from the 1920s to ‘60s. Tao started the store back in 1996 and it has become a destination for amazing clothes, wedding dresses, ornate hats, and beautiful vintage jewelry.

But what I really took away from Cabaret was some solid tips on where to score some topnotch poutine. Poutine is the Canadian delicacy consisting of French fries topped with fresh cheese curd, covered with brown gravy.

Tao recommends:
Mid sea sister
Smokes
Poutini’s House of Poutine

Also got to a chance to hang out with their blogger Michelle who was beyond personable. It was nice to chat with a fellow blogger and hear her side of the store. See what her take on vintage clothing is, along with a nice little write up about our visit at:
http://www.cabaretvintage.com/

Also they gave Clara this crazy pink hat. Thanks Cabaret!

312 Cups to go

After our roof top adventures it was down to the kitchen to hang out with Alison, head of pastries. We caught up with her as she was pickling some gorgeous fennel. It was already hot by 10 am and with the added heat of the ovens it was ridiculous. I think I got into our iced coffee we were supposed to give away more than a few times.

It was great to see Alison at work flitting back and forth across the kitchen doing what she is best at, making desserts and making people happy. We ended up getting a table later that night to try some and you could feel the love in every dish. The bread pudding was lights out.

346 Cups to go.

We headed out this morning to Parts and Labor, a hip new restaurant that has just opened here in Toronto. We wanted to meet up and do an early morning coffee with the head baker, and the gardener of their roof top urban garden.

First we met up with Katie who has the incredible task of running their roof top garden. Its an amazingly diverse and sustainable set up that includes 2 kinds of basil, beans, chard, beets, rosemary, cumbers, edible lowers bulb, green onions, carrots, mint, spinach, tomatoes and more.

The whole operation is done in a sustainable fashion and the planters are in plastic irrigated bins and recycled ice cream containers. All the bounty is delivered straight down stairs and whatever is in season shows up on the menu that night.

It was a real pleasure to meet someone so passionate about what they do. She truly wants everyone to know the pleasures and importance of growing your own food, especially to encourage people to do it on any scale even if it’s small. She told me  “we are in a time with so much garbage and so much knowledge. It’s important we find ways to reuse things. Especially when it comes to producing our food”

360 Cups to go.

The tides finally turn in Toronto. A good breakfast! I must have been a good blogger to deserve this.