Our recent staycation week was so much fun that we had vowed to make exploring our own city a higher priority. Since Vince had the day off last Friday, we decided this would be the perfect opportunity.
Before honing in on our itinerary, I had considered spending the day in a different part of Scarborough or along Lakeshore West. Both options had what we wanted -- good food at reasonable prices in a new-to-us neighbourhood. I had these two ideas in draft form, but neither felt exactly right. It wasn't until Thursday night that inspiration struck. We were at Kiin, sipping on cocktails and discussing the draught beer menu, when I said, "maybe we should go to Blood Brothers tomorrow." Eureka.
We've only tried several of Blood Brothers's rotating taps, but the Devil's Trill (# unknown) and Shumei have been among our favourites. As soon as we got home, I started planning our day around our first visit to Blood Brothers Brewing. While I rely on my intuition for that initial spark, I then lean heavily on Google Maps to round out the day. First, I mapped out the exact location of the brewery and how far it is from home. Can we walk there? Nope, not if I wanted a happy husband beside me. How long does it take to get there by TTC? Around 45 minutes. Perfect.
Then I zoomed out a little to look at what was in the vicinity. I was focused mainly on food. Specifically, mom-and-pop establishments that have stellar reviews. I quickly found a couple that caught my eye: Papamio's for Italian sandwiches and Knockout (sister shop to Bang Bang) for ice cream & waffles. The day was starting to take shape. Then I noticed that since we'd be near DuPont and Ossignton, we were ony a short bus ride away from Bellwoods, another brewery we've been meaning to visit. And what's near Bellwoods? Bang Bang. POW. Done. With that, our itinerary was all set.
Here's how our Friday shaped up:
We had a leisurely morning in the condo. I don't remember when we woke up but it was in plenty of time to get ready for our staycation-inspired day of exploration. We left the condo just past 11:30am and headed to Papamio's for our first meal of the day. Papamio's was exactly what we were looking for. Super friendly owners, delicious food, reasonable prices. I ordered the Award-Winning Succulent Chicken Sandwich and Vince ordered The Magnifico Hot Chicken Club Sandwich -- both were satisfying and filling. We ordered a couple of cookies for dessert, and the owner insisted we have some coffee, on the house. Our bill came to a mere $30.
After our yummy lunch, we took a 20 minute stroll to Blood Brothers Brewing. We sat at one of the communal tables and order two flights of four beers to share. We sipped the beers and ranked them in terms of our favourites. The IPAs were hubby's favourites, and I loved the stout best. It was such a nice day, and we fully enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere. The food looked delicious as well, so perhaps we'll grab a bite next time.
As we headed out, we noticed that there was still a huge line outside a business just down the street from the brewery. I had no idea what it was, but we were on our way to Knockout so I just prayed that there wouldn't be a similar line where we were going (there wasn't). Hubby and I had such a good experience at Knockout! We both ordered the Mini Kong, which is a scoop of ice cream served with a small HK style waffle. I ordered the London Fog and Vince ordered the mango sticky rice, which included a bit of actual sticky rice as garnish. OMG both were so delicious.
Since I always finish my ice cream before hubby, I decided to check online to see if I could figure out what the line was for. I nearly fell off the bench when I realized it was Famiglia Baldassarre. I discovered this pasta maker when I first started my eatsabound IG account. There was something about the pasta photos and videos that just drew me in, but I had no idea what this place was or where it was. Lo and behold, we were sitting right around the corner from it. We decided we'd come back another day to try the pasta, but when I checked again, the line was minuscule. So I joined it.
We still had to wait 20 minutes or so for our pasta, but it was worth the wait. Since we were full, we only purchased one order of the tagliatelle ragu to share. The sauce was good, but star of the show was definitely the pasta. It had the perfect texture and mouthfeel. Vince picked up a few pieces of the complimentary crusty bread to sop up the sauce, and even that was delicious. Yum, yum, yum. It was $13 well spent.
Bellies very full, we headed back to Ossignton and took the bus to Bellwoods Brewery. I was so excited to try it for the first time. But. It. Was. Closed. Well, more accurately, the brewpub was closed for a private event, but the bottle shop was open. After hemming and hawing for a minute or so, we decided to break our alcohol no-buy and pick up some beer from the bottle shop to try at home, because who knows when we'll be back in the area.
It was time for our last stop of the day. Bang Bang! I've enjoyed the ice cream sandwiches from Bang Bang several times but Vince had never tried them. We each got a half sandwich, which comprises one cookie cut in half, with two little scoops of ice cream in between. I ordered the ginger molasses cookie with the bee's knees and ginger ice cream. Vince ordered the oatmeal cookie with the boba tea (plus tapioca!) and b'day cake ice cream. We ate our sweet treats on a little bench just outside the shop. Everything was delicious.
Once we were done our last bites, we slowly made our way home. We walked off our meal, chatted about our day, and looked forward to seeing Truffle and Lulu. We had only spent around five hours away from home, but we saw (and ate) so much outside our immediate neighbourhood. It was great to have a change of scenery. It was a fantastic outing.
***
Inspiration: I am thinking of starting a staycation series on one of my blogs, so I decided to play with that and write a short memoir about last Friday.
Before honing in on our itinerary, I had considered spending the day in a different part of Scarborough or along Lakeshore West. Both options had what we wanted -- good food at reasonable prices in a new-to-us neighbourhood. I had these two ideas in draft form, but neither felt exactly right. It wasn't until Thursday night that inspiration struck. We were at Kiin, sipping on cocktails and discussing the draught beer menu, when I said, "maybe we should go to Blood Brothers tomorrow." Eureka.
We've only tried several of Blood Brothers's rotating taps, but the Devil's Trill (# unknown) and Shumei have been among our favourites. As soon as we got home, I started planning our day around our first visit to Blood Brothers Brewing. While I rely on my intuition for that initial spark, I then lean heavily on Google Maps to round out the day. First, I mapped out the exact location of the brewery and how far it is from home. Can we walk there? Nope, not if I wanted a happy husband beside me. How long does it take to get there by TTC? Around 45 minutes. Perfect.
Then I zoomed out a little to look at what was in the vicinity. I was focused mainly on food. Specifically, mom-and-pop establishments that have stellar reviews. I quickly found a couple that caught my eye: Papamio's for Italian sandwiches and Knockout (sister shop to Bang Bang) for ice cream & waffles. The day was starting to take shape. Then I noticed that since we'd be near DuPont and Ossignton, we were ony a short bus ride away from Bellwoods, another brewery we've been meaning to visit. And what's near Bellwoods? Bang Bang. POW. Done. With that, our itinerary was all set.
Here's how our Friday shaped up:
We had a leisurely morning in the condo. I don't remember when we woke up but it was in plenty of time to get ready for our staycation-inspired day of exploration. We left the condo just past 11:30am and headed to Papamio's for our first meal of the day. Papamio's was exactly what we were looking for. Super friendly owners, delicious food, reasonable prices. I ordered the Award-Winning Succulent Chicken Sandwich and Vince ordered The Magnifico Hot Chicken Club Sandwich -- both were satisfying and filling. We ordered a couple of cookies for dessert, and the owner insisted we have some coffee, on the house. Our bill came to a mere $30.
After our yummy lunch, we took a 20 minute stroll to Blood Brothers Brewing. We sat at one of the communal tables and order two flights of four beers to share. We sipped the beers and ranked them in terms of our favourites. The IPAs were hubby's favourites, and I loved the stout best. It was such a nice day, and we fully enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere. The food looked delicious as well, so perhaps we'll grab a bite next time.
As we headed out, we noticed that there was still a huge line outside a business just down the street from the brewery. I had no idea what it was, but we were on our way to Knockout so I just prayed that there wouldn't be a similar line where we were going (there wasn't). Hubby and I had such a good experience at Knockout! We both ordered the Mini Kong, which is a scoop of ice cream served with a small HK style waffle. I ordered the London Fog and Vince ordered the mango sticky rice, which included a bit of actual sticky rice as garnish. OMG both were so delicious.
Since I always finish my ice cream before hubby, I decided to check online to see if I could figure out what the line was for. I nearly fell off the bench when I realized it was Famiglia Baldassarre. I discovered this pasta maker when I first started my eatsabound IG account. There was something about the pasta photos and videos that just drew me in, but I had no idea what this place was or where it was. Lo and behold, we were sitting right around the corner from it. We decided we'd come back another day to try the pasta, but when I checked again, the line was minuscule. So I joined it.
We still had to wait 20 minutes or so for our pasta, but it was worth the wait. Since we were full, we only purchased one order of the tagliatelle ragu to share. The sauce was good, but star of the show was definitely the pasta. It had the perfect texture and mouthfeel. Vince picked up a few pieces of the complimentary crusty bread to sop up the sauce, and even that was delicious. Yum, yum, yum. It was $13 well spent.
Bellies very full, we headed back to Ossignton and took the bus to Bellwoods Brewery. I was so excited to try it for the first time. But. It. Was. Closed. Well, more accurately, the brewpub was closed for a private event, but the bottle shop was open. After hemming and hawing for a minute or so, we decided to break our alcohol no-buy and pick up some beer from the bottle shop to try at home, because who knows when we'll be back in the area.
It was time for our last stop of the day. Bang Bang! I've enjoyed the ice cream sandwiches from Bang Bang several times but Vince had never tried them. We each got a half sandwich, which comprises one cookie cut in half, with two little scoops of ice cream in between. I ordered the ginger molasses cookie with the bee's knees and ginger ice cream. Vince ordered the oatmeal cookie with the boba tea (plus tapioca!) and b'day cake ice cream. We ate our sweet treats on a little bench just outside the shop. Everything was delicious.
Once we were done our last bites, we slowly made our way home. We walked off our meal, chatted about our day, and looked forward to seeing Truffle and Lulu. We had only spent around five hours away from home, but we saw (and ate) so much outside our immediate neighbourhood. It was great to have a change of scenery. It was a fantastic outing.
***
Inspiration: I am thinking of starting a staycation series on one of my blogs, so I decided to play with that and write a short memoir about last Friday.