Jeans!

Jeans are possibly the most enduring and universally loved type of garment there is. I love jeans, and wear them almost exclusively. For me, a good pair of jeans is one that fits well, has a clean and minimal look, is durable, and can be worn in both casual and dressier situations. I have a weakness for dry selvedge denim with a classic fit.

Fortunately, in the King/Spadina area, we are blessed with a number of stores where such jeans can be found. Here's a few of them:


Nomad (431 Richmond St. W)

This wonderfully designed store is a mecca of street style and should be on any serious shopper’s itinerary. Jeans-wise, they carry a good selection of A.P.C., Imperial, Wings+Horns and Nom De Guerre.

Ransom (431 Richmond St. W)

Upstairs from Nomad is its sister store, Ransom, which has a more casual selection of street wear, and vintage reproductions from Levi's, like the LVC 1948 501. They also have their own original line of dry denim jeans which looks promising.

Next Door (433 Queen St. W)

A couple of minutes' walk from Nomad/Ransom is Next Door, which specializes in more formal stuff, and carries a few jeans from Acne and J. Lindeberg.

GotStyle (489 King St. W, 2nd floor)

This menswear store has lots of interesting stuff on hand, including some nice jean brands, like Kicking Mule.


Gotta start saving for that fancy denim!

Resto Writeup: Breakfast at Brassaii

Breakfast, to me, is definitely the most important and intimate meal of the day. Morning is a special, vulnerable time, and it sets the mood for the whole day. I don't have breakfast with just anyone, and I don't just have it anywhere.



For a cozy, relaxing and tasty breakfast with a friend, Brassaii (461 King St. W) is a venue that seldom disappoints. Named after the famous Hungarian-born photographer, the restaurant is elegantly designed in an impressively refurbished brick-and-beam industrial space with white walls providing a clean backdrop for classic and original photography. Large windows give the space a light and airy quality and make it a thoroughly enjoyable place to start your day.

Walking into this impressive yet friendly space, one expects to overpay for food, but breakfast here is surprisingly affordable. The top prize for value goes to the delicious and filling $3 croissant filled with nutella and banana. If you are interested in a healthier option, the $6 granola (with yogourt and honey) is one of the best such dishes I've had. A perennial favourite is also the goat cheese omelette ($7), with a side of toast and potatoes.

Resto Writeup: Fusaro's Kitchen

Following the theme of crowded but delicious and affordable lunch places around King/Spadina, a shining star definitely worthy of some attention is the lively and always satisfying Fusaro's Kitchen (147 Spadina Ave).

This charming cafeteria-style restaurant is a local lunchtime hotspot and it's usually fairly difficult to get a table, but even getting your food to go is worth a bit of a wait in the line. Once at the counter, you can order one of the delicious panini (my favourite is the tuna, $6.25), wraps, pasta, chicken alla parmigiana, or anything else they have laid out in the display. The bottled Brio Chinotto is another personal must-have.

Resto Writeup: Thai Princess

Thai Princess (387 King St. W) is one of the restaurants I most frequently frequent for lunch. It is also probably the best Thai restaurant I know in Toronto.

While lunchtime is often crowded, causing waits of up to 15-20 minutes on bad days, the struggle is well worth it. The dishes are mostly fairly usual fare (pad thai, curries) but they are made to a standard superior to that of most other Thai restaurants. The curry pad thai (with chicken and shrimp, $10 before taxes) is my favourite and it is truly sensational. I sometimes like to wash that down with hot ginger tea ($2.50), which comes in a nice ceramic tea pot and is a delicious remedy on a cold winter day.

Only once has anything in this restaurant disappointed me, and it had to do with the aforementioned ginger tea. In this one instance, another person accompanying me ordered the ginger tea as well, and we were made to share the one tea pot. We had had multiple tea orders before, and each person was always given their own pot previously, but the server assured me there was no mistake in this case. Certainly, it makes no sense to charge us twice for the same thing I normally get a single charge for. Anyway, a minor misunderstanding which was not repeated.

For an inexpensive, lively, laid-back and yet high-quality Thai lunch in the King/Spadina area, you can't go wrong with Thai Princess.

Spaceship Umbra

Last night I had a bit of time to kill before the Brian Auger show at Jeff Healey's Roadhouse so I decided to take a walk up to the new Umbra concept store on John Street.



I was lucky enough to stumble into a special event they were having, with wine and snacks and notable locals including councillor Adam Vaughn. Also on hand was architect Will Alsop, who designed the store and, more famously, the Sharp Centre for Design just up the street. Cameras were flashing, improptu interviews were being given, and I was just walking around sipping my wine and minding my own business.

The building is quite stricking. Its outside is clad in vertical pink panels which are backlit and apparently produce an impressive effect at night. One employee I talked to called it "Spaceship Umbra". The interior is very open and modern, reminiscent of a gallery space but still very functional for retail. The products were mostly the usual Umbra stuff, bathroom accessories and the like, though they did have some specialty items by Karim Rashid, available on special order.

London, Japan

So I spent this past week in London, the grand metropole of this distant dominion. As expected, I had a great time and was blown away by a great many things in the departments of architecture, urban infrastructure, cultural amenities and so on. More apropos for this blog, I also brought back a few impressions pertaining to London's retail scene and how it relates to Toronto's. Of course, those impressions should by no means be taken as an objective evaluation. They are merely the subjective views of one man, received through the prism of his own interests and experiences.

Firstly, I was somewhat struck by the overwhelming domination of chain stores in the main mid-market shopping districts. Regent Street, Oxford Street and Covent Garden are completely saturated with Gaps, Zaras, H&Ms, Aldos and the like. I felt like it would actually be quite a challenge to accomplish any substantial shopping with a strong local flavour - most of the same stuff can be found right here on Queen Street, and usually for less money. I know, complaining about this effect of globalization is a bit tired, but there it is.

On the flip side, one thing I was impressed with was the strong presence of some Japanese chains and department stores that we don't have here. Muji and Uniqlo are well represented and wonderful. Also, as New York has Takashimaya, London has a Mitsukoshi department store. It seems to me that the world of Japan-based global retail may be a good indication of a city's global credentials. By this metric, clearly, and not surprisingly, Toronto is not yet in the same league with the likes of NYC and London. I hope that changes soon. Muji has so many great little things to offer!

Continuing with the Japanese theme (bizarrely, I know), I also discovered a great okonomiyaki place in London. Abeno has two locations: one on Museum Street, just south of the British Museum and another, much more meticulously designed, near Cambridge Circus. Great food! In Toronto we have Okonomi House on Charles Street to satisfy our regular cravings, and it does its job well, but we could certainly use a bit more choice.

Sayonara, and cheers!

Wii!

So I was lucky enough to stumble upon a Nintendo Wii console at the small Microplay on Queen St. just west of Bathurst. After some time trying to find one online and following various wiintelligence boards, I was ready to give up until Nintendo got their supply chain in order. Then, during a random stroll, I happen to find one last one in a store, just like that! No early-morning line-ups, no inside scoops, no connections, no voodoo. I was pretty happy and surprised about that. Hopefully I didn't spend all my good karma on a gaming console, but the thing is so much fun that it would possibly be worth it.

The controller and bundled games are really fun to use. I've also rented a few games since I got the console. The Blockbuster near my place doesn't have much of a selection, but I did manage to find a few decent Wii games.

What impressed me the most about this little device are actually the non-gaming features. The news and forecast channels, constantly updating via wireless, are pretty useful and well thought-out, but the free Opera-based "Internet Channel" really blew my mind. The browser is fully functional and can even play movies off YouTube! Who needs cable? Who needs a computer?! With a $250 Nintendo Wii (and free wireless that we downtowners still enjoy courtesy of Toronto Hydro) you get everything you need to function online! When Nintendo releases the rumoured Wii keyboard, making things like Gmail more usable, we'll really be set to roll.

Yay! These kinds of more-than-you-expected gizmos really make me smile.