Eggspectation Restaurant in Ottawa, yesterday morning

Eggspectation is a pretty busy restaurant in Ottawa. My old friend from high school days and I get together almost whenever I'm in Ottawa, and because the restaurant is close to my hotel and his office, we meet there. The food is always good. The ambiance is kind of funky dirty (it really could use a good scrubbing), the tables are small, and the staff are uber-cool in black t's and pants with matching attitude. Although some are quite pleasant even to the point of smiling, you never real feel overly welcome. A real throwback to the 80's / 90's when restaurants could establish a theme without spending a ton of cash. Open concept kitchen.

Good - hearty breakfast, served very quickly (if you can get someone to take your order - read on...), kind of a 80's roadhouse type presentation, kind of like what you'd expect if a university area nightclub opened for breakfast (and this is not necessarily a bad thing)
Great - full menu with nice play on any word that starts with the prefix "ex" - like "eggspectation", "eggsuberant", etc.)
Growth area - service, service, service. The menu was "eggstensive" so I asked the server if they had any healthy breakfast recommendations. She told me there were lots on the menu. Unfortunately, they weren't marked "healthy choice" or something like that, so I asked her to recommend something. Her answer? "I'll give you a few minutes..." and off she went. I didn't need a few minutes, I'd already had a few minutes (quite a few), I needed the "eggspert" advice of someone who knew the menu.

I kid you not, in the time it took for her to come back the guy next to us had been seated, ordered and received his breakfast. Clearly I was being punished for being indecisive.

I suspect the amount of time I spent studying the menu in the meantime was likely longer than she had ever looked at it.

The Ultimate Comment Card Question (the only one that really matters): Based on this visit, would I come back? Frankly, yeah sure, the food is good and not too pricey, but I'm going to be looking for another place to meet my pal for breakfast in the future.

-- Jeremy Tyrrell

Propaganda War in Windsor

I can't tell the difference between the City of Windsor's "Greenlink" and the Province of Ontario's "Parkway" proposal - and I've been paying attention. Sure, there's a bit more roadway buried in the city's plan, which I really like, but the province's plan is perfectly acceptable to most reasonable people, I suspect. Our city council wants a Cadillac solution, and the Province came back with a Buick. I liked our solution, and I like Cadillacs. But you can't have what you can't afford. And for the record, I still think the DRTP alternate truck route was head and shoulders above anything that's come along since council caved to a vocal minority.

So now a ton of money is being spent by both sides to propagandize their proposals, on top of the money already spent in consultants and lawyers by our city council.

Hey, I may be wrong, maybe this will work. All I know is that from where I'm sitting we're down to splitting hairs and waiting for the other guy to blink. And the meter is running.

Il Fornello - A Return Visit

I wrote a nice review of Il Fornello a while ago with a little bit of a suggestion on improving service. The nice people at Il Fornello were kind enough to write to me and ask me to stop by and try them again. So I did - but to be very clear, I wasn't enticed in by any sort of compensatory offer. The food is good at Il Fornello, and the menu is creative and I really like the "Ontario" section -it's creative and socially aware. I don't mind paying for it.

The service was the same - so maybe I'm the problem. I just don't get the feeling anyone really cares if I'm there or not, almost like they're doing me a favour by serving me. My server was friendly, but not attentive. For example, when I told him I wasn't sure which pizza to choose, instead of making a few suggestions (which I would have welcomed and tried to ask for) he did the Diner dash instead - "I'll give you a few more minutes to look over the menu." I'd already had far too much time between being seated, being acknowledged by the waiter, getting my drink and now being approached for an order. I didn't need more time, I needed some help from the expert - Il Fornello's waiter. I guess he had something more important to do.

Look - I'm really low maintenance. I will eat whatever a waiter sincerely suggests. I order from the menu, I don't complain, I keep a very low profile and I tip well when the service is great.

I really enjoyed the pizza, I'd eat there again, but I'm in no hurry. I think the feeling is mutual.

The Loose Moose - Toronto

I have often walked by this restaurant and thought about going in. The patio at a nearby restaurant was jammed on this first really beautiful day of the new Patio season, so I figured that the restaurants without patios should be fairly quiet - and the Loose Moose was only somewhat busy nearest the open windows.

What are your expectations of a bar that clearly caters to, and probably does a lot of business from the tourist sports crowd on their way to a Blue Jays or Maple Leafs game? This place is about what you'd expect.

Trouble is, just meeting expectations isn't even the entry level for restaurants these days. I'm not in any way criticizing the place, and hey, if they're kick-ass busy most of the time, who cares what one guy's expectations are for creativity and great food?

The thing is, sometimes I go into a pub for lunch and the food is surprisingly outstanding. This was surprisingly banal. It wasn't bad, it wasn't all that good.

I had the Cobb Salad, which was a boring mix of ingredients readily available in the kitchen for other menu items. Romaine lettuce (iceberg in a Cobb makes more sense), chopped tomatoes, chopped green onions, shredded cheese and a dollop of guacamole (hunnh?). These double as fajita/nacho/texmex ingredients, no doubt. Bacon bits, sliced egg (not chopped?) and cucumber spears finished Cobb. Boring and unimaginative, and it could have been a refreshing summer salad.

Good - the young lady who served me was keeping an eye on her section quite nicely, and there seemed to be some teamwork in getting meals out to the tables.
Great - I bet a nice cold beer and some wings during the playoffs would go down very well in this place.
Room for Growth - don't treat lunch as the necessary cost of being open for evening bar biz. Clean the place up, and present a unique and different menu.

The Ultimate Comment Card Question, the only one that matters: Based on this visit, would I return? Not on purpose. Don't get me wrong - the place was OK. But for the same price within a half mile radius you can get better than OK in easily a dozen other pubs.

Windsor Ontario - a Beautiful City

Nothing to complain about today.

I bicycled across the city, most of the way on designated bike trails. This city, this Windsor, has some very beautiful green areas alongside the Detroit River. They are well maintained and a source of pride for all who live here.

No matter what else may need fixing around here, it can wait. Today I thank God for my country and my community.

The Keg - York Street Toronto

The Keg - a Thursday in April

Good - I took the server's suggestion and tried a Chipotle Steak special of some sort. The steak was cooked perfectly, the presentation and accompaniments were perfect, and everything tasted great! I added a half-pound of Dungeness Crab legs to the order. Really good!

Great - Server was extremely knowledgeable and courteous. She gave us an overview of the menu, made a few suggestions and treated us with respect (none of that "can I grab you a drink?" or "are you still working on that, guys?" nonsense.) The Keg obviously puts a premium value on outstanding servers who give great service. Here's the coolest part - she asked if either of us had any food allergies, and as it turned out my associate has a severe allergy to scallops. If the server hadn't asked...

Room to Grow? I have no idea. Just keep delivering at this level, and the Keg's well earned success on York Street (the bar was jammed with the after-work office crowd) will continue. Congratulations to the Keg - I look forward to eating there again.

On an unfortunate post-script, it turned out I ate in the Keg's competition the very next night - you know that casual steak house chain with the Australian marketing concept. Wow - night and day for the same price. I'm going to stick with the Keg.

JT

Jesus of Nazareth - Pope Benedict XVI

If you are interested in all in the Christian faith, you should read this book. Pope Benedict XVI takes various aspects of our faith and puts them into a scriptural context. For example, the parable of the Good Samaritan – the Pope says that the man who lay by the side of the road, beaten, stripped and robbed is symbolic of Adam, and of man in general. He compares the fate that befell this man to the fate of the poor, the afflicted, the victims amongst us. Benedict challenges us to be good neighbours to these people. Taking it a bit further, I have at times tried to imagine myself as each of the characters in the story. I can perfectly understand why some people walked by – he might have been dead, it might have been a trap laid by robbers, it might have slowed me down after the sun had gone down and put my own life in danger!

I can also imagine being the victim of violence and rejection. I have imagined being the innkeeper, trusting that the Samaritan would be back to pay an extra costs, accepting a guest who was clearly going to be “high maintenance.” And occasionally I have wondered if I could ever be the Samaritan – on the fringe, unwelcome in good company, but forgiving and able to do the right thing when no one, not one person, would blame him for walking by.

What kind of neighbour am I to God’s people across this world, some as far away as the other side of my fence?

Not to simplify it, but the Pope’s writings tell us we're on the right track. The Catholic faith is under a lot of pressure these days. If there is some sort of "other" agenda in the Catholic church, I’ve yet to discover it. This Pope speaks of love, a love which transcends religious differences and is rooted in Christ. One doesn't have to be a member of the Catholic faith to agree with that.

The Hungry Trekker Restaurant Review - Il Fornello, Toronto

Il Fornello, Toronto - one snowy day in March, 2008

Good - atmosphere, thin-crust pizza, creativity. The Pollo Pizza was recommended by Barbra Streisand (it says so right on the menu) so I tried it. It was a nice light lunch; I liked it, but it wasn't so good that I'd have Il Fornello cater my food on my private jet to Boston, like Babs did.

Great - "all ontario" section on the menu (but who would have thought of putting potatoes on a thin crust pizza? I didn't try it, so maybe it's a good idea.) Nice to see some support of Ontario grown produce, apples, blueberries, locally raised chickens... Other restaurants should follow suit.

Room to grow - service. Less than attentive. Charlie's Angels was playing on the TV at the bar, so it took precedence over guests in the dining room. I waited a long time to have my order taken, my cheque delivered and I really could have used a refill on my water. The waiter just wasn't around much, and it wasn't because it was busy.

This is the ultimate service trap - when it's not busy the staff get distracted with non-service related things - like TV and each other at the bar.

The ultimate comment card question (the only one that matters): Would you come back?
My answer: Yes

JT

Freedom to speak

I was absolutely horrified in the closing moments of the final luncheon at the PCMA Conference in Toronto when a young lady stood up to ask a question, and told Newt Gingrich and Jean Chrétien that she had waited six years for this very moment. At her tender age of 26, that seems like a very long time, no doubt. “Nothing good can come of this,” I thought. Sure enough, in one fell swoop she managed to insult our American friends, make strident political statements and bring the conclusion of an otherwise outstanding conference crashing to a halt. “America is a nation of idiots,” she declared as part of an anti-war rant. The room fell silent. I think many Canadians in the room feared that the good will we had built with our American friends might now be in jeapordy. Would they think we all feel that way? As good fortune would have it after the conference I had the opportunity to meet “La” (that’s what her name tag said). I had assumed she was some sort of political activist who had commandeered credentials and was using our forum as a platform for her views. Not so. She told me she had just learned of the PCMA conference and had been in business for only six days. She decided we were a good base from which to launch her aggressive global business plans - something about meeting planners and municipal planning that I didn’t understand. She was misinformed about PCMA, thinking this was a conference of travel agents. She told me she hoped that she hadn’t offended anyone, and I assured her that she had indeed. That said, in retrospect, we have to realize that if PCMA is going to invite political figures to speak at our conferences and then open the floor to questions, stuff like this is bound to happen sooner or later. My first inclination was that she should never have been given the opportunity to speak, but that is wrong. Every day most Americans ask God to bless their beautiful country and Canadians implore God to keep our land glorious and free. Perhaps God has answered our humble prayers by sending this citizen to remind us of our rights to freedom of speech, however misplaced her idealism was on that day. I shook her hand, wished her well, and forgave her inappropriate spontaneity.

Calling God by Name, Finally...

I recently attended the Professional Convention Management Association in Seattle. After four days at the conference and countless speakers, someone finally named God. Mr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ended his talk by referring to Him as the creator, but then went on to specifically use His name – God. He pointed out that every major religion can trace a defining moment to time spent in the wilderness. Kennedy said, and I parphrase from memory, that "Buddha and Mohammed went into and came out of the wilderness and moved their religions forward – Mohammed to write the Koran, Buddha to discover Nirvana. Moses spent his time on the mountain productively, emerging with the Ten Commandments. Christ realized his divinity after forty days in the wilderness, and John the Baptist, Christ’s mentor (Kennedy’s words) lived in a desert on locusts and honey. Kennedy’s point, in defense of ecology, was that if one wants to see the face of God (metaphorically) or be closer the Creator, one must study and appreciate creation. That’s a fair point. He compared it to Michaelangelo. You can read about his work, or you can go and see it with your own eyes. Kennedy said that God communicates through works of art, through music, through man and through nature."

Amongst the many good points Kennedy made, I realized two things. First, that before he spoke today not one speaker or presenter that I heard had attributed anything to God the entire time we were here. That’s not unusual at these conferences, but I do long for the days when we began a meal with a prayer. Heck, I would love the chance to get to Mass on Sunday but usually the conference agenda fails to account for people of faith, whatever faith. That has to change.

And secondly, unless we give credit where credit is due, unless we allow God, we leave the door wide open to the evil one.