Our friend thehandoftamm.com writes about places in Toronto from time to time.

I hope that you enjoy this cross posted piece:
http://thehandoftamm.com/blog/2008/06/27/spasibo-do-svidanija/

(The vodka troika pictured below is at home, not Pravda.)


The old man and I made a pilgrimage to the Pravda Vodka Bar last night, as they promise an authentic, dedicated vodka appreciating experience. We met with something interesting, but which fell a little short of irresistible.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Pravda has high ceilings and high-concept soviet-era artwork, which mainly leans toward portraits of Lenin, Marx, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, and Mao, along with images of Red Army soldiers and noble workers. It’s also louder than a May Day parade in there, with a DJ that seems intent on making sure that any voices of dissent are immediately drowned out. There are sofas and high stools, plus a roped-off VIP section. No regular tables so, in spite of the dinner menu available, this is no restaurant.

ORDERING, DRINKING, EATING
We order a couple of rounds of the Premium “Russian Czar” sampler, which means we get three fine vodkas and a plate of blini with sour cream and caviar. We’re not fussy as to the choices, as the selection is vast (promising 70+ vodkas), although only slightly beyond what is regularly available at the LCBO. We also order steak tartar.

The vodkas arrive, along with the bread and pickles that accompany the “Red Army” tasting menu, not what we had ordered. They are withdrawn but this is mistake #1. Our waitress brings Pravda, Chopin, and Reyka vodkas. Good call on the Pravda -after all, it is the house-named brand. Our waitress informs us that it’s Russian for truth. Uh-huh, got it. But the hooch is from Poland, so clearly they’re willing to capitulate to capitalist marketing in Warsaw! It’s a five-times distilled grain vodka which goes down super-smooth with no burn and hardly an aftertaste. A little sweet on the lingering palate, perhaps. The water is said to come from a pristine source in the Carpathians.

Somewhere around this time our caviar appears. There are three kinds of caviar (sturgeon, tobiko, and salmon) and half a dozen blini, about the size of loonies. The caviar and blini are delicious. Full marks for the accompaniment.

The Chopin is a potato vodka from Poland. Again, well done for including a potato vodka but marks off for repeating Poland on two out of three. Are we to be served Meatloaf? It is four-times distilled and promises another unspoiled-by-man water source. It’s becoming evident that the waitress is giving us the mini-bios that are printed on the backs of the bottles. She’s not sure why it’s called Chopin but tells us it’s good for those with gluten issues, owing to the absence of grain. The vodka itself is smooth with a little more bite, thanks to the mighty spud. Not as heavy as a Luksosowa, the more brutish Polish potato vodka.

The tartar arrives and it’s very tasty. Not as flavourful as my grandfather’s recipe and I suspect it’s not the topmost grade of meat as I get a bit of tendon in my teeth so the care isn’t entirely there but it’s still enjoyable. A nice peppery finish but the range of flavours aren’t present or haven’t had time to properly mingle.

Our next vodka is Reyka from Iceland, which is again four-times distilled. It’s quite drinkable and smooth and the filtering process is through lava rock instead of charcoal. The bottles feature native wildlife, most often the Arctic Wolf. The vodka is clean with a slightly medicinal finish.

Our vodkas are done, our food is done. We’ve only been at the bar for 30 minutes so let’s have something else; something which might prompt us to linger. Unfortunately, the music is getting only louder and it’s getting harder to shout over the overheated dancefloor anthems. This is not a restaurant and vodka-tasting establishment. It’s a disco meat market. The clientele are a mix of cougar women and American Psychos who look like they just left their brokerages minutes earlier. They’re mostly drinking mixed cocktails and Czechvar beer. The vodka theme is barely in evidence outside our table, apart from the impressive rows behind the bar.

We order a couple of “Russian” beers. What arrives at the table is Zywiec, which is from Poland. I ask the waitress what’s up and she tells me that they’re out of the Russian gear (Baltika). I figure she didn’t really know herself to begin with or hoped we wouldn’t notice. Staff knowledge/disclosure is becoming increasingly suspect, not to mention their clear Polish leanings. Does Lech Walesa have a stake in this joint?
We hadn’t tried a Russian vodka in our set so order a couple of shots of Youri Dolgoruki and ask for a plate of the Russian dark rye and pickles. The vodka is silky smooth and most like the Pravda. The pickles are nice but the bread is pumpernickel, nothing like Russian rye. More deception/lack of authenticity/attention to the details.

By now the bar is packing in with people and the music is so loud we can’t hear one another so we’re reduced to comical hand gestures to summon the bill. Daddy-o produces his gag Russian Express credit card and the waitress kinda doesn’t get it. Oh well, that one played big in the ‘80s. The cold war is only a curiosity for today’s youngfolk.

THE LASTING IMPRESSION
Bottom line is that the Pravda vodka bar has a great theme that they’re not holding themselves to with sufficient diligence. They lack the eye for detail that would make them something more than a regular club with a wide vodka selection and hammer & sickle artwork. They haven’t searched the world for off-the-LCBO-map vodkas (although they did have three from Japan which we didn’t try on this time out). They have good food but make it unfriendly for dining. They’re somewhere between a bar and a nightclub.

For my card, Pravda gets two out of a possible four red stars. Food was good and vodka was cold so a little tweak here and there and it could be transcendent, transporting the customer to Red Square on Wellington. Maybe management needs to be threatened with a trip to the gulag for some reeducation.

Pravda could be building the Hermitage of vodka-appreciation rooms but instead they’re sliding into the excesses of the Politburo, not caring for the proletarian man who wants to reach for the stars through vodka.

- - -
Pravda is located on Wellington Street E, west of Church.

Technorati Tags: bar, Toronto, vodka

In Corktown, just up from the Distillery District, a Jamie Kennedy Cafe hides in an unsuspecting alley. 4 Gilead is bright and beautifully designed and serves up delicious cafe fare from 8-6 on M-F, 8-4 S&S. As one might expect, nearly everything is excellent. Why not try it and see if you can find an item that is sub par? Could be a fun game. Cookies, danishes, breads, salads, sandwiches… the menu is not large but it’s worth a drop in for a snack. Between 11am - 3pm there are additional options to choose from on the ever changing a la cart menu.

Technorati Tags: Artisan, Cafe, coffee, Corktown, pastries, pastries, sandwich, breads, Toronto

A lovely looking wine bar called Pic Nic just opened last week on Queen East. The interior uses beautiful wood combined with stone and concrete. Very inviting. The menu, while not extensive, looks yummy so far, with a great selection of wines, cheeses and meats. There is a salad nicoise on offer, and a few other options that sound enticing. Cocktail hour, here I come.

Technorati Tags: cheese, cozy, Design, Riverdale, queen st east, Toronto, wine, wine bar

If you haven’t been to this mysterious place… you should. Delux at 92 Ossington is a great place to procure an excellent dinner.
A celebration, perhaps? A reward? Any reason will do, just make sure you have a reservation, as a lot of people have already figured out the truth about this special place on Ossington.

One of the big challenges in running a small software startup is service availability and support. This was, perhaps, a little easier in the bad old days when software shipped in boxes and "support" meant picking up a phone between 9-5 on business days, then mailing out a CD or floppy disc (remember those?) with updated bits.

Nowadays, much of the software people are building "ships" as a service running 24×7 on the web, or at least has a online service component to it. What’s more, customers increasingly reside around the world, and expect near-realtime responses, especially if their business depends on your software service.

You can imagine, then, that for a 1- or 2-person dev shop, making a web service highly available to customers is a particularly daunting challenge.

[You can read the rest of this piece over on my personal (and geekier) blog, MyOwnPirateRadio.]

Elicser is one of my favourite local artists.
You can find his works on public walls around Toronto, and in galleries.
Check out some of these images…

His pieces communicate very interesting characters and settings. I’ll let you know when I get the details of his next show.

Technorati Tags: Design, graffiti, Artist, Toronto

Thanks to Miru, we can all have these cute friends. Tai Kim McPhail originally designed these soft adorable creatures for her daughter Miru, and now makes them for more people to enjoy. She handcrafts them from recycled wool, cashmere sweaters and vintage buttons. You can find Miru’s Friends at a handful of stores around town. (Her website has all the details.) With each of these friends having so much character, I can’t see owning one of these and not being inspired to put on a short play for any willing viewer.

Technorati Tags: Artisan, environmental, handmade, recycling, Sew, Toronto

I promised a few weeks back to join Katrin on the Mukodu Blog. This is my first Mukodu post, co-authored with Katrin, and cross-posted on MyOwnPirateRadio. Sorry, no pictures.

People have been asking what we’re up to with Mukodu. While we can’t talk in detail yet on the specifics of what we’re doing, we are ready to share with you our vision, our motivation, and the company culture we intend to build.

Over the past ten years Katrin and I have lived in two countries, three different cities, and five different homes. We’ve also had the good fortune of travelling broadly. In doing so, we’ve recognized a common challenge: more and more people live in and move between urban areas, where they seek new opportunities, new friendships, and increased quality of life. Yet newcomers often don’t know where to begin, or how to get connected in a city, despite being surrounded by people. At the same time, "old-timers" often get so caught up in the routine of daily life — working, commuting, connecting with friends and family — that they fall out of touch with the changes going on around them, and with the people and resources right outside their front doors. It’s a great irony: despite living in populous, thriving, dynamic cities, we are so often disconnected. Thus the inspiration for the Mukodu blog, and for our first product, 5 Blocks Out.

5 Blocks Out is about connecting people with local life and culture. If you’re new to an area and trying to figure out which neighbourhood to call home, 5 Blocks Out will help you. If you want to learn what’s happening in the nooks and crannies of the city around you, 5 Blocks Out will keep you informed and up to date. If you want to hear what real people like you have to say about local places, events, and issues, 5 Blocks Out will help you to tap into urban word of mouth. And if you’re interested in helping others find “nearby good stuff”, thereby supporting local communities (yay!) and reducing environmental footprint (yay!), 5 Blocks Out plans to help you there too. 

Why work on a challenge like this? Because we love the places we’ve lived, and the friendships we’ve made there, and we want more of the same for everyone. We believe cities whose people engage in neighbourhood life, local culture, and civic discourse have unlimited potential as places to live. We believe healthy connections between people within neighbourhoods are essential. We believe the collective voice and wisdom of a city’s inhabitants is more interesting and, indeed, more personally relevant, than the voice of popular media. And so we’re setting out to create a community powered by the people, for the people, with the goal of making cities great places to live.

Mukodu is just getting going: for roughly the past year it’s been Katrin and myself, working together in true startup fashion: 25 hour days, 8 days a week, 1 to 2 minor miracles per day. We’re learning how to bootstrap a business on a shoestring, design and build products together, and leap tall buildings in a single bound. We’ve spent a great deal of time analyzing, debating strategy, and thinking through minute design and implementation details. We’ve learned a lot, and built the beginnings of something we think you’ll love. It’s been thrilling, and terrifying, and the most fun we’ve ever had "working". We count ourselves very fortunate to be doing something we’re passionate about, day in and day out. We owe huge thanks to all of you who have supported us thus far.

Mukodu is also growing, and we’re looking forward to growing further. We’ve recently had a great boost with part-time help from Katy, Aaron, and Troy. We’re plugged in to a wonderful community and office space at the Centre for Social Innovation. And we’re starting to bring on some trusted advisors to kick the tires on our product and provide more guidance as we near public release.

While we aren’t in a position to hire people yet, we soon hope to be. We’ll need help: in particular, more software engineering and operations talent to build and run a kick-ass software service; advisors and board members to guide us; and angels to help prime the pump. We’re looking for these folks, starting now. We want people who share our values, passion, and hunger to change the world. We want people who are smart, scrappy, and get things done. We want people with creativity and a love for data analysis and problem-solving. We want people who understand that "going live on the web" is just the beginning; we must also have the humility to continually seek feedback and iteratively build something that actually works for customers and solves their needs. We want people who can handle the uncertainty and risk inherent in a startup environment, and whose instinctive response to a challenge is, "Can do!". If that sounds like you, or someone you know, let’s talk. 

We’re excited. We are getting great feedback. And with your help, we will make a real change.

Fire it up!

Osh and Katrin

Things are really buzzing in the West end. Buzzing with caffeine, that is. The Junction now has Crema Coffee Company. In my humble opinion, this is one of the best coffee shops in the city. Or perhaps it is the best - you decide. The design is fantastic, with clean and simple lines. It rivals Manic and houses a Clover machine.

mmmm…. delicious.

Technorati Tags: cozy, Dundas Street , espresso, latte, coffee

I’ve been meaning to mention this wall for a while.

It’s a classic graffiti wall that has been painted since the early 90s. (And updated since then, obviously.) Located by the Dundas West Subway Station in a parking lot, you can see it from the subway car if you look carefully. I think the businesses that own the building allow artists to paint this wall.

I love the detail of the images and the fantastic portraiture. A truly talented group of artists.

Technorati Tags: Artists, Dundas Street , the junction