After a solemn occasion at a nearby Belleville graveyard, it helps if people can share experiences and dine in a group. We chose Red Rock Canyon due to location and the fact there were vegetarian options. Having been particular on location, please note that North Front Street in Belleville is not Front Street. If you are coming at it from the south, following Pinnacle Street is better than following Front Street. The restaurant is in one of the malls up on Front Street, which we used to call the miracle mile because when you took the exit off the highway, […]

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Tucked away at 5a Market Street, this pizza place in Belleville is a great pizza spot. By the way, if you are really hungry, don’t order the medium for yourself, it will be too much! It looks like they recently renovated and had extra room made at the back to handle our slightly larger group. I was hoping for a beer, but they had – soon to change I was told – only the big breweries products. I have to say that I’ve turned into a fuss budget because micro breweries are so prevalent that I now come to expect […]

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I had not been to Belleville itself in many years; it’s more of an exit I never take on the 401. But a family event led me to be staying near the old part of town, Front Street. We had our GPS set for Front Street and she was thwarted by the street being closed. Once we parked on Pinnacle Street we had trouble finding our restaurant and had a scenic walk of the construction around the old city hall building, which is truly evocative of the times around the confederation of Canada. There’s a market, which was not open […]

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When you visit Ajax you may not be inclined to think about Sushi, especially along the mall lined Kingston Road. But Makimono near Salem Road, which is in a mall, is a decent choice. The portions are pretty large – my dynamite roll was bigger than I expected and the Udon was good. There were six of us at the restaurant and I did see some confusion from the staff over the orders. Nothing was wrong, but things were being handed to the wrong people. That aside, if you are looking for Sushi, this will work. See these for more […]

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Rare timing allowed me to hang with a friend in the Bay and Bloor area of downtown. She lives in one of the older towers tucked in between Bay and Yonge Streets. It had been many years since I visited the neighbourhood and as I drove in (slowly) on Bloor Street, Toronto looked familiar to me until I came close to Yonge. Then strange new buildings greeted me and I almost lost my bearings. Once I had hidden my car in underground parking, we went for a walk – not very far as there was a heat advisory in place […]

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The original name for Kelsey’s includes the suffix “Original Roadhouse”. It was a frosty January night when we visited Kelsey’s on Kingston Road in Ajax. I can’t recall when or if I ever went to one. It was not busy, but they were dealing with a bus load (literally) of people. We were seated in a booth in the bar area, which was quiet. The service was slightly slow because keeping on top of such a large group was challenging. But our server was friendly and surprisingly honest. My brother ordered a dish that she could not recommend. It had […]

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Fionn MacCool’s on Front Street in Toronto was a nice quiet place for a drink when visiting on an afternoon between Christmas and New Year’s. My suspicion is that it’s not so quiet at other times! Our objective was to catch up with a Toronto friend while waiting for other friends who were seeing a show at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. As reasons for drinking in an Irish pub go, I had seen White Christmas a couple of days earlier and thought, “Well, it’s not good, but it’s a reason.” I like trying local brews and was not disappointed by […]

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Step into Ted’s Restaurant on Old Kingston Road in Scarborough (part of the Greater Toronto Area) and you will have that retro feeling. It’s a diner; it’s rustic; and it’s in a light industrial spot with a collision repair shop out back; and it’s two minutes from a church. It’s really a place to go for the all-day breakfast. It was a cold day just before Christmas and had what was needed in the bacon and eggs and hashbrowns department. Obscure fact: the film Pushing Tin with John Cusak, Bill Bob Thornton, Angelina Jolie and Cate Blanchett uses Ted’s as […]

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Stratford is known for its theatre. See www.stratfordfestival.ca/WhatsOn/ThePlays for the details. One of the wonderful plays being shown in the summer of 2017 is Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. I was on the ground floor, about 10 rows back. The show was well done, all the way down to the set details. The singing was magnificent, a lovely combination of the voice but also staying true to the character at the same time. The beginning of the play itself took a little while to get going, but once the plot had fully settled it was a wavy ride. Ha-ha get […]

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Pazzo pizza is a Stratford Ontario basement restaurant where they serve mostly pizza (not surprisingly given the name), but also pastas and other entrees. I went with some family over the summer, during play season. It was quite busy. We realized maybe we should have gotten a reservation. They said the wait would be about twenty minutes, and offered us seats at the bar. We were sitting for maybe five minutes when they called us, saying that somebody had missed their reservation and we could take their spot. However, I’d consider that more luck on our part than good service. […]

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