Tasting T.O. with Nicholas Pashley

Nicholas Pashley is the author of Notes on a Beermat: Drinking and Why It's Necessary, a meditation on drinking beer and hanging out in pubs, recently reissued in a second edition. His next book, an examination of beer in Canada, is scheduled for publication in 2009. Nick is one of the founders of CASK!, a Toronto-area organization designed to promote cask-conditioned ales, and is a long time member of the Campaign for Real Ale (UK).

Born 13.6 miles from the Harveys Brewery in East Sussex, he is saddled with an allegiance to Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club, FA Cup finalists in 1983. He has written comic material for Dave Broadfoot and three governors general, and he wrote a humour column for The University of Toronto Bulletin for fifteen years before being fired for offending a bureaucrat. Nick is known to bartenders across central Toronto, as is his pub-minded wife, Anne.

(Photo: Sid)

You've got $10 to buy lunch - where do you go?

When I worked at the U of T Bookstore (28 years of my life), I could amble down to Baldwin Street for many affordable choices. Nowhere was more affordable than Yung Sing Pastry Shop (22 Baldwin Street), where you can practically eat for a week for ten bucks. It's unlicensed, which makes it easier to lunch cheaply, if less satisfying. Now that I'm working from home, I find that the Dos Amigos (1201 Bathurst Street) has a takeout stand during the day, catering to the TTC workers across the street and selling tacos, chimichangas, and the like at very good prices. I can bring a burrito home and wash it down with something appropriate from the beer fridge, all for less than a ten-spot. They're also open for a sit-down lunch, from $7.75. They close Mondays.

The budget's unlimited, someone else is paying and the choice is yours - where do you pick for dinner?

Am I allowed to insist on The Spotted Pig in New York City? No? All right, be like that. Last year I was taken out for dinner to Amaya (1701 Bayview Avenue), an upmarket Indian restaurant, and I loved it. I'm of the plebeian don't-mess-around-with-comfort-food school, but the meal was terrific. If we can't get a reservation at Amaya, I'll join Cass Enright - one of your 2007 guests - and his benefactor at beerbistro (18 King Street East) for Brian Morin's beer-drenched cuisine.

Tell us some of the food shops you frequent when buying groceries to cook for yourself.

My crack team of round-the-clock medics expresses daily concern about my cholesterol issues, so it's probably just as well that my most frequent stop, the Cheese Dairy on Bloor Street West, closed last year. It‘s possible that my doctor-mandated dwindling purchases put them under. I do miss that store. Along with the earlier demise of the nearby Elizabeth Deli, the area has lost its interesting food stores. I eat a lot of fruit to assuage the aforementioned medical squad, and the stretch of Bloor between Spadina and Markham generally offers reasonable prices and decent quality. Otherwise, I'm afraid my wife does most of the shopping. And the cooking.

When ordering in for a quiet night at home, what's your favourite place for take-out or delivery?

We don't do a lot of that sort of thing, but occasionally we need a visit from Swiss Chalet, especially during the Festive Special season. It's the only thing I like about this time of year.

Oh, no, relatives are coming to Toronto from out of town - where do you take them?

I don't have many relatives - or at least not many who acknowledge me - but my English cousin came to town earlier this year. Apart from the usual pubs, we took her to Seven Numbers (516 Eglinton Avenue West) for amiable, tasty Italian food. Janet was wildly enthusiastic about her lasagne. We also went to the Indian Rice Factory (414 Dupont Street) in our neighbourhood, where we've never much liked the attitude. We'd have been better going to Bistro Tournesol (406 Dupont Street). It's ridiculously friendly and the food is very good.

An almost-relative came to town two years ago from Australia and, before he went back, a number of us took him to Yer Ma's Kitchen at the back of Dora Keogh (141 Danforth Avenue), where they do a bang-up family roast. It's a perfect setting for an informal gathering of roughly eight-to-fourteen people. It's like having a big family dinner where you don't have to wash the dishes. Book well in advance.

Your favourite place to grab a couple of drinks and hang out where everybody knows your name?

I like to spread my beer dollars around, but the Granite Brewery (245 Eglinton Avenue East) is just too long a walk most days. In my neighbourhood I am known at Kilgour's Bar Meets Grill (509 Bloor Street West) except when the Montreal Canadiens are playing and it turns into a zoo, and the Victory Café (581 Markham Street), a house of fine ales (and very pointedly not a place to watch hockey games). The Victory grows ever more popular; I eventually had to take early retirement so I could get there at 4pm when it opens. Sometimes it's the only way to get a seat, especially one with enough light to read. One of the many good things about summer is that everyone's out on the patio, leaving almost infinite space indoors.

What's coming up?

I'll be doing a reading - or something like a reading - at Bar Volo (587 Yonge Street) on Sunday, December 7, at about 2pm. Carl from Volo asked me if it would be a reading as such or a psychotic rant, and after some thought I told him it was more likely to be a psychotic rant. People can read the book for themselves, after all. My wife thinks my rants are funny, and she's sat through more of them than anyone else. If nothing else, it's a good excuse to go to Volo and drink cask-conditioned ale. It's only eighteen shopping days before you-know-what, and the book is cheap. I'll even sign the damn thing. You could have pretty much all your Yuletide shopping done before December 8. When's the last time you managed that?

Tasting T.O. is a regular feature where we ask local artists, writers, musicians, foodies and other personalities about their favourite places to eat and drink in the city. If you or someone you know would like to be featured in an upcoming instalment - especially if you have an upcoming event, gig, release, etc. to promote - please get in touch.