Carolime Time

Toronto brunch, patios and summer hangouts

Those of us who wait for the first glimpse of sun are quick to shed the boots and coats and head to our favourite Toronto patios for sangria and calamari. Don’t pretend you don’t do it. I know when we saw the the light a few weeks ago, my friends and I started our lengthy wait in a line up at Black Bull, near Queen and Soho, for 20mins. It was OK for the first little bit, ordering water indoors as others manned the lineup..but we got restless and left the Queen West hood for Little Italy. Our crowd of 4 quickly turned into 6 and then 8. Larger groups are harder to manage but more fun at the end of the night:)

A Little Trek through Little Italy

At Cafe Diplomatico, in Little Italy, we had a little more patience. I lost interest in the restaurant and its patio awhile back after eating a weak pasta there. But I’m also really picky about my pasta, to be honest..So I was open to leaving the resti on this evening, and I started wandering College St. as my friends held the Dip line down..a 40minute wait was ahead, we realized.

I stopped by Vivoli and found nothing. I love their rooftop patio on late summer evenings, when it gets  dim and the salsa music downstairs drifts upwards. But alas, their heated upstairs patio was closed. So I left. I crossed the street to the place directly opposite Cafe Diplomatico and found a really hot, really rude and disinterested bartender. My guy friends and I wondered whether we thought she was hot because she was rude and whether we disliked her for it. Still not sure..

Cafe Diplomatico

Finally got into Cafe Diplomatico, or rather, out on the patio at Cafe Dip and…guess what..I liked the food this time:) So it is a fact, after all, that some restaurants can outdo themselves. If they fail the first few times around! Either way, I will always enjoy their chilled out checkerboard cloth patio table tops. The sangria was also ab fab, and not just because it was pretty to look at. A  white wine sangria is not the easiest drink with which one can woo a visitor, but this one definitely captivated my crew and i. Our one lament was that the sweet array of berries, raspberries and other sangria toppings of otherwise juicy fruit families were frozen. Frozen and not melting anytime soon. But we sucked it up and warmed the fruits with our mouths instead..’cause nothing should get in the way of a good drink. Sometimes, though, you gotta wonder if you’re just really thirsty/hungry/happy to sit down after waiting 40 mins plus for a patio. Mind you, the sun was gone by this time.

Grace Restaurant

Another patio to check out in Toronto’s Little Italy neighbourhood is  Grace. This restaurant is touted as one of the best in Toronto, and I’m looking forward to their Thursday Algoma Smokehouse Barbeque specials, which serves up picnic-style food with a chef’s touch– barbeque ribs, chicken, coleslaw, roasted corn. Grace is definitely on my list of places to check out this summer, as I’ve never eaten here. I’d like to be able to tell you a bit about the food, but all I can say for now is that it was on my former restaurant editor’s top picks list..and I trust her because she seemed to know her food without getting sold on the trends or fashion consciousness of these places. I am also drawn to restaurants and patios with live DJs. What can I say, it makes me feel special when I see a real, live person near the speakers putting some sort of effort into the ambiance. I’m that much closer to an outdoor dancefloor in Goa.

Thursdays at Grace, $10 specials with beer or $5 cocktails and DJs spinning from 8pm to 2am! And guess what, they have their own herb garden rooftop. So if you’re into that whole local food craze, this should fit your needs.  But these toppings will mostly be used in their summer menu and cocktails. Their summer menu seems a little more careful and less rough around the edges than their barbeque offerings. Check out the menu on their site, Grace Restaurant.

The Drake Hotel

Though people love to hate on this place, or love to give this place excessive credit, I will affirm that it is a hangout if ever you need to satisfy people coming from several different directions. I can easily take my anti-everything hater friends here with my uppity friends who like to see the ‘be seen’ places alongside the hipster friends that..ok, I don’t have many hipster friends (not that there’s anything wrong with that;) or is there? next topic of discussion, now!) …yeah so the rooftop patio is totally enigmatic. There are nights where it’s dead, save for a light drizzling rain and a fantastic conversation illuminated by heat lamps, afternoons when you can watch fashionable couples canoodling on the couch, of course behind the guise and shield of sunglasses..

so, I’ve had some really good times at The Drake, memorable to say the least..with all sorts of characters, from actors to musicians, hairdressers, good friends, highschool friends..I think you can really do it all here. And if you feel like dancing, head to the basement and visit the underground, where there’s always a DJ or band doing something. One warning—summer and spring lineups can get horrendous at this place. So either go early or make sure you know someone! But totally worth it!

Mother’s Day at The Drake

They’re doing stuff this weekend for Mother’s Day–a “soul food” brunch, so to say.. Live music is performed by Treasa Levasseur and friends. I don’t know how much of a delight it will be, though–they’re serving the buffet breakast in the basement, which tends to get dark and which I can foresee as being a little claustrophobic. Whatevz, if you’re into that, then do it. The food sounds good: fried chicken, waffles, baked goods and maple ham and apples…but that’s the kinda stuff I’d like to be eating on the rooftop:) I don’t know what their excuse is for not welcoming mothers up to the roof!

Boiler House Brunch

If you really wanna take your mom to a good Mother’s Day brunch somewhere in Toronto this weekend, I totally suggest and support the movement towards the Boiler House in the Distillery. That’s a mother’s sorta area, not to mention the restaurant itself is a pleasant experience. Boiler House offers a buffet brunch, but not the kinda slimey buffet where you feel everything is mashed together without care. The poached eggs don’t fall apart, the makings for a good caprice salad are not at all soggy and everything feels sorta..freshly made just in time for your arrival. Enjoy! Plus, the place offers a lot of privacy if you’re going for a one-on-one with mom, or a date if you’re too cool for moms. It’s a large venue and not the sort of joint where you can eavesdrop on conversations. Sunday brunch is accompanied by afternoon jazz. Anyhow, I think Mother’s Day would be nicely topped off with some window shopping in the Distillery area. Just because there are lots of knick knacks to ooh and ahh over, kitchen stores, little boutique-style stops and small art rooms to peruse. Something, once again, for every mom.

Alright I’m out..hope y’all find somewhere to sit under the sun this weekend, with your mom or at the very least, someone elses [very hot?] mom.