John "The Bear" F.'s Profile

First the bad news.  They don't have air conditioning, which made it pretty hot to dine in a pizza restaurant last night.  They also could use a new set of menus - their paper ones are falling apart.

But the pizzas, individually sized ones, were wonderful.   Very thin tasty crust and great toppings.  I had the Diavolo and my partner had the Angelique (for contrast I guess, did not notice the irony until I wrote this down).  In any case, both were fresh from the oven and super hot.

Pizzas run from about $12-$14 and are quite filling.  They have a small regular dinner menu too, and a party of four sitting near us was having pasta, which looked very good.

Very friendly and helpful service.  Simple but pleasant decor.  It is a narrow storefront, so they only have room for a couple of outside tables.

This is a good museum which with a little more gallery space and an expanded display collection (I assume they have loads not on display) could  be a great one.

What they do cover is very good, but patchy.  Nonetheless if you love ceramics and porcelain you'll have a ball here.  The current permanent displays cover Meso-American antiquities (mostly Mayan and some amazingly sophisticated); Italian Renaissance Majolica, much of it with exquisite paintings; contemporary ceramic sculpture, varying in quality; Japanese porcelain; European porcelain with an exquisite collection of Meissen and Viennese objects; and early English porcelain.  There is an entire floor devoted to special exhibits.  The one being presented during my visit dealt with contextualism in Japanese Edo period ceramics by juxtaposing them with other crafts and arts - well done and presented but too few objects given the large space that was available for the exhibit.

If you are looking for classical antiquities (e. g,. Greek vases) or Chinese porcelain, go to the ROM, which has a great collection of both and which I assume is why neither is covered much here.  What I would not mind seeing more of, if they had the space and possessed the objects, would be the following:

Islamic ceramics (perhaps the Aga Khan's collection in the new Islamic museum will fill the slack)
Korean ceramics (I love Korean celadon)
Early Canadian and American porcelain and ceramics
Lomonosov and other Russian porcelain
Indigenous American ceramics from the 19th century through contemporary

Nonetheless, this is a most enjoyable specialty museum and possesses some objects that are so exquisite they will make you gasp.  I had to say my favourite was the adorable little "singerie", an entire  porcelain orchestra of monkeys dressed in eighteenth century clothing - perhaps the height of rococco silliness but lots of fun.

Information and signage is quite well presented.

I would probably not bring little boys here (unless they exhibit the signs of growing up into gay men!) but little girls would be delighted with much of this, especially the figurines.

I had been curious about this Indian restaurant while passing it repeatedly on our way to our favourite Thai place on the next block.  Unfortunately, it was a bit of a disappointment.

Decor tries to be cheerful but except for the porch in the front is rather too dark.

Chicken samosas were interesting, with ground chicken subbing for the potatoes.  The main dishes and sides were not all that special.  Chicken madras was not spicy enough.  Chicken kaddai (I guess we were in a fowl mood) was okay, though nothing to write home about.  Raita was too sweet and way too thin for our liking.  Rosemary naan had very little flavour of rosemary, and onion kulcha was a small portion with not a lot of filling.  Plain rice did not come with cumin seeds or cardamon, as in many Indian restaurants.

If you are in the area and have an absolute craving for Indian food, this place might be okay, but don't make a special trip there.

Most towns with local history museums have collections of artifacts.  Markham has a collection of buildings, specifically nineteenth century buildings from around Markham that were preserved and moved to this location, then restored (generally quite well).  There are houses, barns, a church, a general store, a honey shop, a historic train car (under renovation) and a huge sundial (probably not old).  In addition to being a museum they have rental facilities for parties and a little miniature golf course which actually manages not to look too tacky.

What is unfortunate about this place is lack of organization.  It is staffed by volunteers and they seem to not have a lot of knowledge, mostly reading from sheets of paper.  I got a personal tour, as no one else was visiting the place except for some kid's parties.  I notice they are spending a lot of money on additional restorations but they could collect more on fees (only $6) if they promoted themselves a bit better and had more knowledgeable guides and more info on the displays.

I actually wandered in here by mistake, as I had really intended to photograph the heritage homes subdivision next door.  The nervous old biddy who showed me where to park knew nothing about that, but the two guides (one looked like a high school senior) showed me where it was.  It is worth seeing as the homes are lovely and it is unusual to see a subdivision made out of re-located historic houses.

Had been wanting to see this and got here over the weekend.

This is not really a castle, but actually a stately home belonging to Allan McNab, a colonial premier of Canada and ancestor of the current Duchess of York (AKA "The Rottweiler').  It has been a museum since 1900 but they are stll doing restoration - the main hall was about to have new wallpaper based on the original.

It is interesting as a house museum as it has a lot of original pieces and generally careful restoration, with the tour spending almost as must time on the servants quarters as upstairs.  The guide was knowledgeable but geared her scripted spiel more to the children in attendance.

For its mid-nineteenth century time, the house combined some fairly sophisiticated features (early gasification, running water and a flush toilet) with some rather corner cutting finishing touches (stucco painted with lines over brick instead of real sandstone for the exterior wall, trompe l'oeuil marble inside instead of the real thing, and bare plank floors upstairs - in the Eastern US or England at this time I think they would have been covered by "Turkey carpets.")

The grounds include a pretty dovecote (visible prominently from York Boulevard), a rather boring gift shop, a military museum of somewhat moderate interest,  an strange little building used for cockfighting (!), and the most interesting, a lovely heirloom garden with an excellent interpreter.

The tour plus the museum and garden take about 90 minutes to see.  I felt the $11 price tag was worth it and suited to the scale of the property.  I learned some interesting tidbits of Canadian history, and the house, despite some of the cost-cutting of the orginal inhabitants, is quite lovely and has some truly unique touches.

Well worth a trip to Hamilton.  Remember to leave early as the QEW traffic on a summer weekend will add another hour to the trip.

Kristy walked our dogs for a week while one of us was away and the other was working.  She is very professional reliable and has real empathy with dogs.  Her prices are very reasonable.  She is located in the West End.

Okay, the carpet is so dirty it looks like it will roll itself up and die.  But the kitchen appears clean and for $12.99 at dinner they have an excellent buffet.  Not the largest Indian buffet I've ever seen, but for $12.99 what would you expect.  The dishes seem to have some regulars, especially the meat dishes, which include very tender tandoori chicken, good curried goat and chicken tikka masala, plus butter chicken and other delights.  The veggie dishes always seem to include daal, aloo gobhi and chana masala, all excellent.  Eggplant and okra are both great when they offer them.  Desserts are limited to kheer, gulab jamun and western ice cream (not kulfi).  Full bar.  Pleasant and considerate service.

Not for impressing a guest with decor and atmosphere but good for a quick Indian buffet fix, especially when you want a buffet open at dinner time.

Have returned a few more times since taking out a membership.  They have lots of neat shows - last week's featured lilies and the perfume of so many was exquisite as were the arrangements.  The oldest part, the rock garden, is exquisitely landscaped.  Was filled with annuals for summer colour but can't wait to visit in spring when the bulbs are out.

No change in review but I need to mention that she is no longer accepting new patients.

Were here last night treating a friend to dinner.

This is not a cheap restaurant, but the food is first rate.  Traditional Italian (not updated or North American Italian) with a seeming emphasis on dishes from central Italy (Lazio, Umbria, etc.)

I ordered a non-Italian appetizer, Caesar salad, but it was one of the best I have had in a while (note, they do use anchovies in the dressing so be forewarned if you don't like them).  Our friend had buffalo mozzarella over tomatoes, also wonderful.  We all split an order of carpaccio.  The virtually fat free paper thin meat slices were bather in lemon juice and topped with a lot of shredded (not grated) parmesan and were heavenly.

The main dishes were just as good - the specialty veal bruschetta was great and I ordered rigatoni with ground lamb, mushrooms and truffle oil which was melt in the mouth perfect.

A gratis portion of good bruschetta comes with the meal.  Beware of the olive oil served with the bread  - it is hot pepper flavoured and really HOT!

Nice service but we were there when the place was empty.  Too full for dessert.

One minor quibble was that for a place of this caliber, serving the parmesan for the pasta in a little sprinkler seems a bit declasse.  A chunk in a grater would have been nicer.

Decor is pleasant but not fancy.

Expect to spend about $45-50 per person without drinks, tax and tip.