Tales From The Pantry

On Wednesday, I stopped off at The Well, a bar near Dundas and Ossington. I wasn't there for a beer, but I heard that they had teamed up with North Of Brooklyn, a pizzeria joint located on Queen St. W. Stepping inside, a younger me would have loved the set-up. At the front, a large bar area for booze. There's a back lounge area with 80s arcade cabinets and pinball machines. The pizzeria is sort of its own thing in the back with the kitchen. The older me wished there was more formal seating, though I did appreciate the fun vibe.

A full pie was too much for 1 person, it's both larger and more expensive than Libretto's down the street. I settled for 2 slices that ran about $4/each: a traditional margherita, and a kale and bacon. But pre-made pizza doesn't work well for thin-slice crust. I could taste the fresh tomato sauce, rich cheese, and smoky bacon. But the dough suffered. The relatively new margherita was limp, and the kale was crunchy like crackers. Next time, I'll join the steady stream of take-out orders.

I didn't see any free-to-play games but there were at least 2 exceptions: a shoot-em-up, complete with machine-gun control, had a free button that gave you credits; and the classic 4-player TMNT fighting game allowed you to have as many lives as you wanted on one quarter just by repeatedly hitting the start button. Sadly, I did not finish the game even with 40 lives. In my defense, player one's jump button didn't work, making certain parts harder than usual. Secondly, I had to leave for an event next door.

416 Dating Stories was being held at The Garrison. In honour of Earth Day, all ticket sales went to Citizens' Climate Lobby. It was a fun show but I felt that there wasn't much story-telling, despite its claim otherwise. The closest piece was a spoken-word poem about Chewbacca from a hair fetishist. The comics were very funny, but they were obviously bits. The rest reminded me of kvetching gossip from friends. I suppose I was expecting stories that had more structure and craft: somewhere between a book reading and a theatrical monologue.