Saturday, 29 July, 2023
It’s nice when there’s a not-so-hot day in Toronto during the summer. Krish was off for his phototherapy and we said we would meet afterwards. This takes some discussion about where we will go, but we settled on King Street East without much of a plan other than Krish mentioning the amazing almond croissants that we’d had some years ago (it was closed that day – a Wednesday) a possible pizza place and perhaps go into Toronto’s First Post Office.
I started my journey and changed to the College streetcar. This is now familiar to me. I love the Alice mural and I had a bit of a wait – also becoming too familiar. There was a lovely smell of baking nearby and I wandered over to a small bakery – Janelle’s and Southern Accent. The latter has meaning to me. The restaurant Southern Accent was undoubtedly my very favourite in town. It was Cajun and Creole and the owner prided himself on having taken the staff down to New Orleans every year to make sure they knew what the food was supposed to taste like. Later in New Orleans myself I didn’t have any food like it, but then I couldn’t get Cajun food so I won’t know how alike they might have been. Southern Accent had a lovely vibe – dark with coloured lights over the bar, cosy with two floors and some nice private alcoves with curtains to draw, with a Zydeco backing track. The server would come and explain the dishes, help you choose, and then bring them to you, always smiling. And it was delicious. Like most places, it fell on harder times, the menu shifted a bit and then the street was redeveloped. They moved, but never made a real success in their new spot. Portions had become smaller, more expensive, and the vibe just wasn’t there – none of it.
However, Janelle was pleased I was buying the spices. I asked her why Southern Accent. She said that they had been her neighbours, hadn’t survived the pandemic, but had befriended her. Good thing too. Janelle was also pleased to hear me ask about her still-warm scones. ‘I’m known for my scones,’ she told me with that broad Toronto accent where the ‘o’ sounds are different. I vowed to go back, ate the scone at the streetcar stop until my ride showed up.
After meeting we started off at Queen Street. I wanted to take a look at the construction for the Ontario Line there. Things are fenced off and there are ‘guards’ around but no work was going on. This is going to take a long, long time to complete – estimate is 4.5 years but no one expects this to stick. It’s the latest transport controversy for Toronto, and there are many of them.
We also took a little detour into the Eaton Centre. Those flying geese overhead looked lovely but my photos just won’t capture the detail no matter how much I play with editing. It feels like this flock of sixty has been flying up there to who knows where for a very long time. Flightstop was installed in 1979 and was crafted by Canadian artist Michael Snow.
We don’t walk east that often. Yonge Street is the major divide in Toronto. Streets that run off from there are numbered at zero and there’s East and West. Like most cities there are people who love one side of town and those who love the other. I’m a West person in Toronto (East in London, but you knew that). But this time we headed east to see what we could see.
I asked Krish if he thought there was more construction going on in London or here in Toronto. He thought Toronto probably had. Anyone know? We were looking at a pizza place but it wasn’t open yet, the sun was shining down at full force now and we just moved along.
Continue reading “Toronto Old Town”