The Royal York Hotel!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to some top secret sneakery (that cannot and will not be mentioned here) Paddy and I were miraculously able to score a night in the The Royal York Hotel. On the GOLD floor no less, with a private concierge, Honors Bar (where they trust you to declare all your drinks...), sushi at our fingertips and opulence a-plenty. It was pretty swish, and in true Paddy/Sarah style, we sipped wine from the bottle, spilled soy sauce EVERYWHERE and had our fill of spongebob. It was wonderful!!!!!

I found a great article by ninjalicious that provides a nice background into this fine building......

http://www.infiltration.org/hotels-ryork.html

""A Baby Building
I used to think the Royal York was really old. Really old. Like built by the Mayans before Europeans discovered North America. In reality, the Royal York is a mere baby among buildings.

The Royal York was originally constructed between 1927 and 1929 (AD). At the time of its unveiling (n.b. no actual veil was used), it was billed as "the largest hotel in the British Empire" and the only building in Canada with elevators. A concierge boasted to me that people used to come to Toronto just to ride the Royal York's elevators -- I chose not to confide that some still do. The 15-floor east tower was added to the hotel in 1959.

The Royal York underwent extensive (i.e. over $100 million) renovations in 1993, which modernized the hotel and made it fancier. These renovations killed much of its original stern and gothic charm in favour of colour and airiness. I've seen pictures of some of the old dining rooms and ballrooms, and they're delightfully dismal. One old dining hall had the appearance of a remodeled dungeon. I detest renovations, and fail to see how we will ever successfully coat this planet in civic space if we insist on wrecking something old everytime we put up something new, but I digress.""

It was good.





An interesting fact about the Royal York. It is home to Canada's largest kitchen! Long enough to house seven 747's. That's BIG!

smirky berin

is a good woman!

Little Big Sis

Is she little or big?? Older, younger?? Is she both or neither?? DING! It's little big sis. The Jessica!




(would you believe that this spread was only our STARTERS!!! We were stuff-er-oonied by the time dinner came and we had to call in backup. God bless Lydia - who actually turned out to be NO HELP AT ALL!!!!!!! but who was great fun all the same)

clicky clicky!!

coolio. misslili rocks xx

THE DAKOTA TAVERN

My entreprenurial pals finally got tired of working for everyone else, and bought themselves a bar!!!!! Mag, Jen and Sean are running The Dakota Tavern and it's so cool. I tried to be captain aristic with the camera, but I think the second or third bottle of 50 blurred my judgement. Let me assure you, the bar is quite in focus, it is just me who is not.

That's Jud on the left!!! He rocks.







I didn't take these photo's (as you can probably tell...) They're from the website www.thedakotatavern.com
Check out the menu. That's where I will be wed nite.

CANADIA!!!!!

So the first thing that needs mentioning is that THE DAY I got here, the weather changed from un-seasonably warm, to UN-SEASONABLY COLD, the likes of which they haven't seen since twelvety oh nine or some such nonsense. typical.
Thankfully I'm such a trooper. I've been making the most of Dad's spare room, three quilts and electric blankets. It's been a sleep fest of the highest order.
Oshawa is fine, somewhat the same as last time I was here, only much improved with the recent addition of John Fox. It's strange but quite nice not going to Brampton. Oshawa is much prettier, and new beginnings are always great fun.
We saw a cardinal in the backyard. ( The little red dot in the photo, squint and it looks a bit bird-like...)



It's been a good trip so far, we had a few nice visits with Grandma and Grandpa, some cherries Jubilee(yum!!!!), lots of TimHortons coffee and timbits and a trip to Jesse's barn.



(hay!!!)



The barn is so lovely, not smelly at all, and full of beautiful horses. I wish I had a photo of the dog Neo He's bigger than a horse!!! Giantitus maximus. And he's a growler. It's all quite terrifying really.
I also don't have a photo of Allison who runs the barn with Jesse. A very cool chick!

So now I'm in Toronto, waiting for my Paddy to get his butt on a plane. xx

Amadeus

Grandma, Grandpa, Dad and I went for dinner at Amadeus restaurant the other nite in Oshawa. Here I learned that the easiest way to annoy your family is to buy them dinner. Ha ha!! For years I've watched Dad and Grandpa war over the bill, so I wanted a piece of the action...
The meal was great. I recommend the steak, it was cooked to perfection. But more than that, the cherries jubilee was the buisness!!

After years of wondering, I finally got to taste the beautiful food from newly awarded Michelin star eaterie, CHAPTER ONE!! It was worth the wait. You wouldn't want to be a veggie stepping into this place, it was all bits and parts of various things with faces. I'm sorry but it was GORGEOUS!! Little bits of fine fancies, spectacular wine and the most wonderful cocktails I've ever knocked back. Myself, Rachel and Marcus met for our (now annual) boozee lunch. I embarrassed poor Marcus by taking photo's of all my food. The poor guy was mortified. ((He's obviously never had the pleasure of dining with Sarah Fox. I take photos of all my food... (in the tradition of Dr. NakaMats...))
I recommed everything, the couches, the amaretto sours, the tour of the kitchen (which aparently not everyone gets....)