{"id":73342,"date":"2015-11-14T08:30:55","date_gmt":"2015-11-14T15:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wend.ca\/?p=73342"},"modified":"2021-12-29T16:03:34","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T21:03:34","slug":"coffee-food-and-airline-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/?p=73342","title":{"rendered":"Early Bird and El Catrin"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m back on the road and have loads of interesting stories to tell… some food-related and others flight-related. <\/p>\n

I will say that Toronto is rapidly becoming one of the best foodie cities I’ve ever been in. Yes… I have worked in great cities with great food… but I’ve never worked in a place where you look down a street and are completely overwhelmed with restaurant options. <\/p>\n

As such, I’ll wend my way through Toronto’s food scene and post some of the great findings every week. <\/p>\n

Coffeedence<\/h3>\n

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The best coffee of the week comes from Early Bird Espresso & Brew Bar<\/em> located at 613 Queen Street West. From the outside, the cafe is completely nondescript and slightly hidden behind a pile of garbage (perhaps on Wednesdays only). However, I got wind of the place via a shop clerk down the street who told me (as one coffee snob to another) that Early Bird has the best coffee on Queen Street.<\/p>\n

Regardless of its outside appearance, when you enter you are delivered into a land of people working on shiny Mac laptops, great coffee, great food, and bouncy friendly funny baristas. For me, Early Bird was a welcome reprieve after a long morning of walking and exploring Toronto.<\/p>\n

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As an added bonus, not only is their coffee fantastic, but half of their baked goods are gluten-free. Below is a gluten-free energy bar. They also have homemade peanut butter cups that are to die for!<\/p>\n

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Food Porn<\/h3>\n

Skip to later in the day (but to earlier in the week) for the best foodie discovery: the Mexican found at El Catrin<\/em> at 18 Tank House Lane in the Distillery District. This came out of nowhere as a recommendation from a friend. It’s a fantastic place to spend a drizzly evening in the city.<\/p>\n

The restaurant is located in the former Boiler House of the Gooderham and Worts Distillery, a Whiskey distillery from Toronto’s Victorian era. When you first walk into the restaurant you’ll see a huge mural along the back wall. This mural took three Mexican artists almost 100 days to paint.<\/p>\n

The restaurant’s head chef (Olivier Le Calvez) comes directly from Mexico City; he was stolen away and brought to Canada for his prowess in Mexican cuisine served with a European flair. He was named one of the Top 10 chefs in Mexico by Buena Mesa Magazine, a Spanish language foodie publication.<\/p>\n

The menu offers tapas-style dishes with a twist (notice that you can add crickets to your guacamole). <\/p>\n

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During our “girl’s night,” my friends and I couldn’t decide what we wanted to eat and opted for the 7-course tasting menu. This is an incredible amount of food… but gives you a robust sampling of the menu! And, even between three people, by the end of the evening, none of us could move or finish what was on the table.<\/p>\n

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Yes. They can accommodate gluten-free and just about any food allergy except probably corn (though the flour tortillas are house-made… so maybe).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nI’m back on the road and have loads of interesting stories to…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “Early Bird and El Catrin”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[16,133,582],"tags":[480,307,468],"class_list":["post-73342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canada","category-ontario","category-toronto","tag-foodie","tag-gluten-free","tag-life-on-the-road","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t