When I arrived on Friday night, we hit the Beaches Jazz Fest and trolled along Queen Street. We stopped for (what else?) nachos, wings and a couple of beers at Lion on the Beach. Then we stopped by to say hello to Molly's folks who I haven't seen for a couple of years and we had a nice visit (and a beer) with them.
Saturday we didn't have any firm plans, so after getting some international visa photos taken (for Molly - not for me), we decided to go check out the Shops at Don Mills. I've been obsessed with going to the Shops at Don Mills for a couple of years now, ever since I watched Chef Mark McEwan's show "The Heat" on the Food Network Canada on the opening of his new gourmet grocery store, aptly named ... what else? McEwan's. Funny thing, though. Turns out the Shops at Don Mills are not located at Laird and Eglinton as I was convinced they were ... they are located at Don Mills and Lawrence. How odd! Molly found this exceedingly funny that I was totally confused as to what the heck we were doing at Don Mills and Lawrence! We shopped around for a bit, including checking out McEwan's grocery store which is massive. Then got the the real raison d'être of our visit: to check out McEwan's newest restaurant: Fabbrica.
Many many years ago I had dinner at North 44 ... McEwan's first restaurant after leaving the Sutton Place. The food and ambiance was amazing; that was one of my first few 'fine dining' experiences and it was great. I knew that I was cut out for eating gooood food. It was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon and since we were way past the lunch rush we got a perfect, private table on the patio. The patio is really nice with wicker benches, cushions and plenty of flora and fauna to block out the cars (Lexus, Porches, Audis, Mercedes, BMWs and Infinities) driving by ... not that you necessarily need to block out such luxury!
There is some yummy bread and herb oil while we were deciding on food; and of course we also had a beer. We suspect that Mill Street Brewery is making a specialty beer just for McEwan: Birra Sophia. We could not find it anywhere else, including checking at the Mill Street booth at the Beer Festival and they had never heard of it (stay tuned for Toronto Part 3 ... The Toronto Festival of Beer). Which is unfortunate because its a really good beer - probably my favourite Mill Street brew and I can't just go to Fabbrica every time I want one!
For lunch, I picked the "Mario" panini sandwich and the misticanza salad. My panini had a grilled chicken breast which was moist and the bread was well grilled and nice and crispy. It was gooey and drippy from the fresh mozzarella, bruschetta and garlic aioli. But ultimately, even with the fresh basil it was somewhat bland and lacked some seasoning (i.e. salt!).
I chose the salad at the suggestion of the waiter. Because it was a warm day he thought that a hot side dish, of crispy parmesan potatoes would be a less preferable option, but in reality I did want to try those crispy parmesan potatoes. Don't they sound delish??? Anyway, I had the salad; and it was a salad. It was fine. It was very fresh and the house vinaigrette was nice ... but ultimately it was not anything new or different.
Molly picked the margherita pizza. It was massive and looked absolutely amazing. Beautiful colour with the fresh tomato sauce and mozzarella along with the whole fresh basil leaves. It was nice and toasty on top with a little light char along the edges from the wood burning oven.
Molly said that it tasted good and while I didn't try it, I could tell that it was a bit soggy in the middle and she agreed. The flavour was good though and it was way more than she could eat.
It was a gorgeous day and we had lots of laughs, shopped, ate some food and drank some beer. I can't think of too many better ways to spend a sunny Saturday especially with such a great friend as Molly. And this was really just the beginning of the weekend and lots more fun, food and drinks to come.
Molly left for the first leg of her trip on August 26th on her way to Africa. She's volunteering for three weeks in an orphanage in Kenya, approximately 8 hours west of Nairobi. If you want to follow her travel blog, check out: http://www.travelpod.com/z/eddim/1/1345410558 but she may have limited internet access in some locations. I imagine it will be a while till she has any meals like the one we had at Fabbrica, but I bet she will have some very interesting things to eat from time to time ... maybe she'll even share some of her strange eats on her blog!
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