Pokey Chew

Sunday was another beautiful, sunny day so I walked through the areas between Davenport and St. Clair. In general, the homes were quite nice. With the current real-estate market, I won't even guess their selling price. Depending on the steepness of the street, the houses were often elevated with long climbs to the porch itself. I thought Springmount Ave. was even more unusual. The East side of the street was normal but their West-side neighbours were pretty garages with some possibly housing a small apartment above the car-hold. The actual houses attached to those structures seemed to be set way back and up on the ravine of adjacent Glenholme Ave.

I used to frequent St. Clair when I began to practice Yoga more seriously at a studio around Winona in 2010. It was large for a "boutique" (i.e., 1 teacher) studio but quite spartan. Snobs might call it more "authentic" compared to chi-chi offerings like Sweat and Tonic nowadays. The affordable building, first a Jewish synagogue then the Hungarian-Canadian Cultural Centre for decades, also housed other small businesses including a boxing gym in basement. It was taken over by condo developers in 2012.

It seems like the site has been unused for almost 8 years because construction has only just started. This was a full demolition with nothing saved. On the other side, where I used to reward myself with a post-Yoga croissant or pastry at Café Patachou, the stores have vanished too. The entire south-side block is now a condo. It did house a few street-level businesses like What a Bagel.

I stopped for lunch at a Thai restaurant called Chai Pochana. I had the, in hindsight dubious, idea of ordering like a "typical mid-town resident". As such I chose some spring rolls ($6.95) and a veggie pad thai ($11.95). The rolls were adequate but the noodles were inedibly sweet. I forgot how bad mainstream-calibrated Thai food was especially "regular" pad thai. This place didn't offer interesting fare like whole mackerel but maybe you'd have better luck with the street-style (tamarind) pad thai or one of the curries.

As I made my way back to Oakwood Ave., I noticed signs for 2 more condos.