Working for the Weak-end: Patio Princesses

It's 8am in the morning and it's Terrible Tuesday. Your eyes are groggy and your stomach still has not settled down from last night's disaster spinach chicken dinner. Five clients come in at the same time while the phone rings and you think that having a couple of bullets in your face is the only cure to the volcanic rage that comes with middle of the week blues. Only three more days to Friday. You would see that Finally Friday finish line clear in sight....if only your eyes weren't so blurry with sleep deprivation and gastrointestinal distress.

We're all working for the weekend. But I think I might speak for all nine-to-fivers out there when I say, 5 days is way too long (and painful) a wait. And so is born a new branch of Tout Toronto called Working for the Weakend. Myself along with my good friend Lisa break the monotony and the soul-killing boredom of the proverbial nine to five and throw our office dramz into an apple martini. Or a beer if times are hectic.

This week, Toronto's miracle high temperatures and Lisa and Karen's Tuesday low spirits lead to us to the patio of Milestones at Yonge and Dundas Square.

Lisa's extra tall Sex and the City-esque bellini. A tell-tale sign of the Terrible Tuesday syndrome.

Karen's extra large please-kill-me-now-esque glass of wine. A tell-tale sign of the Traumatize Tuesday syndrome.

While drowing our sorrows in large glasses of alcohol does not sound like the ideal way to deal with life's problems, it does change your outlook on life when you combine booze with sunshine, a large plate of delicious food and a patio on the third floor overlooking the city.

Just to be fair though, save the Milestones rockstar treatment for those Tuesdays that are superbad. You know those days when you wake up and you stagger and stumble on your way to the bathroom, fall asleep on the toilet, cry when you see the Mount Everest of paperwork piled up from I-Don't-care Friday and Can't Function Monday and completely lose it when you miss your bus because some asshole kept you on the phone at work to tell you about his tomato plants.

For days that are morderatly uneventful, unproductive, unnerving, unexciting and unhappy, we will go Tout Toronto on the world and search till we find our appletini oasis.

Appropriate average price of the night: The average cost of 2 beers.

Apropriate days for Working for the Weakend: Terrible Tuesdays and/or Wackjob Wednesdays.

Remember to wear sensible shoes to prepare for walking with after-work feet. Hydrate and cool down with some water and an icecream cone. Have a theme song with an equally frustrated 9-5iver friend and beer up!

V for Vintage

I have finally gotten out of the lazy funk to get my ass back into Tout Toronto mode. However, it has not been all couch potato and The Office re-runs. I have been out there trying to find ways to make waking up at 5:30 in the morning tolerable by means of having adventures with clothes. One of the least expensive, afforable and creative ways to achieve this has been scouring vintage and thrift stores.

Here are some of the best finds:

I decided to stick to the basics. And the basics are the countless boutiques and thrifts stores on Queen West. Somewhere around Queen West and Ossington, I found this gem:

Vintage 69:

Vintage 69 is one of those stores that make going thrift shopping look like the epitome of cool. Anyone who is cool thrift shops. They have a wide array of vintage T-shirts, scraves and belts.
They had a wide selections of everything actually, although, it might have just been a downer day for me wherein I could not really find anything to my liking. I really like the way this store is set up though, and its always fun looking at outrageous outfits. I would definatley go here again.

Walking down Queen Street is probably one of the most soul lifting things you can do for yourself on a hot summers day. Even if you have the artistic personality of a goldfish, there is something about summers in Toronto that inspires you to want to get out and create something. Even if its just a castle in the air of creating something.

There are tons of boutiques down on Queen West but don't let them fool you. One of the aspects of vintage shopping is great finds on a budget. Most of these shops have enticing display windows that draw you into heart attacks when you flip over to see the price tag. When you find a dress that costs the same as half your monthly rent, there is no shame in jetting out of there like you just saw the devil.

Another one of my favorites is CTS on Queen and Spadina.

Canadian Thrift Stores (CTS):

There is always something for everyone at CTS. From funky hats for $5.00 to gorgeous purses below $10.00. You know how sometimes you've been shopping all day and you find nothing and then you walk into a store and you see a below average scarf and you buy it because its cheap and you don't want to feel like the entire day has been a waste?

Yeh, you will probably not have that experience at CTS. Like one of reviews for this place so eloquently stated "its like someone scoured all the Value Villages and Vintage Stores from the GTA for the best finds and brought them over to CTS"

At this point after an hour or so of walking on Queen Street, it is always a good idea to stop for a bathroom break and a $2.00 double scoop ice-cream cone. Once we are have sufficiently hydrated and fueled up, its time to kick up the pace by hopping on a streetcar and moving up to the mother of all vintage: Kensington Market.

Kensington Market:

Kensington Market in my opinion is one of the most interesting place in Toronto. You have everything from vegetable markets to vintage clothing stores to pot stores. Most of which have a sketchtastic, new agey feel to it. And I love it!

Where else would you find Victorian style teapots, earings from Mrs. Hubbard's jewellery box and 50's vinyl records. Not that you need any of this garbage, but really, to me Kensimgton Market is more like a museum of all the interesting phases of clothes, music and lifestyle of the past decades.

Probably one of my favorite store in Kensington Market is Vintage Depot.

Vintage Depot:

Vintage Depot is store with gorgeous $5 scraves and color cordianted clothes racks. Not feeling gray this summer? No problem. Skip on over to the pink, or the reds sections (which will somewhat be arranged according to sizes too). They have leather jackets and blazers galore with price ranges galore. Cute dresses and even sports jerseys.

Yes, this is the one exceptional time when you can take your boyfriend shopping without having to worry about him looking like he'd rather have a bullet in his face.

Funky Junky:

Funky Junky is a store that will invariably side track you. It is honestly the coolest little store that looks more like a polished version of your grandmother's attic. It has everything from old school telephones to $3.00 comic books from 1974. I'm still dreaming about a cute little 60's looking set of tea cups and saucers. So dangerous if you are a weak willed shopper with a penchant for cute antique-esqe items.

Definately more of a museum than store seeing as how there is very little in there that would actually be worth buying. But every once in a while, you can afford to splurge on a brightly colored 2 dollar mug.

And that's what I did on this hot beautiful Victoria Day weekend. Perfect for hours of walking and bargain hunting. And if bargain hunting is not your thing, walking in downtown Toronto in the summer is sure to be just as fulfilling. There's really nothing like seeing the world without heavy jackets and mittens. Smiles are wider, walking is lighter and the streets are sunnier.

Until next time...Happy Hunting. Or sunshine shopping! ;)

And don't forget to check out Flats and a Starbucks Coffee this week!

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Home Favorites and Cheap Food

This weekend, my cousin Andrea came to visit me in Toronto all the way from Kingston. Since the start of Tout Toronto, I've been a busy tourist bee, hopping on and off street cars, peering over city maps and making google my BFF. Naturally, I was dying to show off to her what I had found and I had been introduced to.
I'm excited to share this post with you for the main reason that all places mentioned in this post are not new discoveries. They are some of the places that I frequent regularly...or would like to frequent regularly.

Chez Laurent:

Chez Laurent is a French-Italian restaurant that was discovered by roomate and I when we first moved into the Yonge and Finch neighbourhood. It's a quiet little place located on Yonge Street. The charm of this place is that it is a cute little house converted into a restuarant by the family that ownes it. The food is delicious and the atmosphere is warm and intimate. There is an unspoken understanding between my roomate and I that when one of us has a really really bad day, we go to Chez Laurent. Their soups could scare away a bad day and their bread is always freshly baked. And it's a 20 minute walk from home!

Cafe Princess:

Cafe Princess is another place very close to home that I only found out about now. I pass by this place everyday and never thought much of it until my friend Margaret took me there. It's a cute place, predominantly frequented by Koreans. They have comfy couches and cool high chairs everywhere! The atmosphere is warm and cozy and it a great place to hang out with friends or read or study. The cafe is open late hours and their cheesecakes are to die for. They even rent out board games which means hours of Cafe Princess fun.

They do not serve food though. Just drinks and good cheesecake.

Red Room:

A long day of shopping at Kensington Market really works up an appetite. And its fairly uneconomical to be stuck downtown Toronto with an elephant sized appetite. Which is why we chose to go to the the Red Room. The Red Room is a restuarant located on Spadine Avenue close to Kensington Market. The food is extremely cheap. The decor is very artsy. Apparently all the furniture at this place is put together from thrift stores. (This may or may not include the very expensive looking antique chandaliers)

The service is blah. But really, when you pay 6 bucks for your food, there are only so many expectations you can have.

And that's it for Tout Toronto this week folks! Until next time...