Too Darn Hot
My brain’s gone missing. The accu-therm in my apartment is reading 95F night and day. Due to building repair, air conditioners have been removed. We expected, vainly for our landlady to deliver icy Pilsener. The Health Department suggests the library, a shelter, – how about a gelid movie? I think of sinking into a seat to watch the human/vampire/werewolf triangle in Eclipse, the third installment of the Twilight Saga, but wait a mo, what’s this creepy feeling I have around my neck? OMG could it be a hitchiking Dracula, the bedbug who’s conducting a stealth invasion of Toronto and loves the comfy cinema seat…. Aaarrgh….
Outside is safer. A short walk west along Yorkville and I am grateful to find a comfortable chair at One (116 Yorkville Ave 416-961-9600) the epitome of cool posh – deep, and deeply shaded. No music. I can if I like take a book and settle in for the day as long as I keep ordering Bellinis, peach juice, lemon juice and champagne $15. Excellent iced coffee. Eats are good too. A lobster salad $30 is the nearest thing to a beach. The chicken cobb salad $19 is appropriately rustic.
One wraps around the Hazelton Hotel affording great people watching. But why’s that freezer truck parked right in front ? For the umpteenth time I wonder why the tourist destinations of Cumberland and Yorkville can’t have some traffic constraints, trucks only allowed before l0 am, something like that . Why not adopt the Italian tradition of the evening passagiata – the main drag is closed to traffic at 5pm, the locals parade up and down in their finest, stopping to eat a caffe granita at a sidewalk cafe. Yorkville would be transformed.
Next dawn deep orange sun drags itself sulkily into the sky. The accu-therm squeaks like the droid R2D2. Another day on the street. Health advisories suggest tying a bottle of iced water round the neck. Gosh, people would think I was a St. Bernard come to rescue them. Better I think to follow the advice of Indian friends. Eat hot spicy food and thus produce cooling sweat.Not exactly bonhomous but if everyone’s doing it…
At Ciao Wine Bar (133 Yorkville Ave 416-925-2143), another Yorkville patio caressed by a whisper of a breeze, I eat very very slowly incendiary penne arrabiata, pennywhistles of pasta $14 soaked in tomato, garlic, chili sauce which causes my forehead to breakout in bubbles. I avoid drinking which would just send the fire throughout my body. The loud music however isn’t cooling. Could it be lower? “Of course, we see you’re reading.” The music dips a nanonotch. It isn’t until I’m joined by a Yorkville regular that the problem is solved. He says to the waiter “Turn the music down or I’ll call the manager.” It works!
Another day in sauna city. This time I head for solid air conditioning at Quanto Basta,(1112 Yonge St, Toronto, 416-962-3141) the new Italian wine bar/youthquake which has succeeded Lakes on Yonge between McPherson and Roxborough. Quanto Basta is packed every evening with scenesters baying to the moon. Downtime is Saturday drunch, the space between lunch and dinner. We sit in the cool window and sample international Italian. A watermelon soup with lime and mint leaves $7, rich wild mushroom ravioli with musty cream and truffle sauce $18 and a leafy grilled parmigiano chicken salad $15, just the food to relax with after a swim.
I find the ideal cool dinner at Avant Gout, (1108 Yonge St,
416-916-3681 )a couple of doors away from Quanto Basto. I call this retrovore food, the good meals I enjoyed before worrying about fresh’n’local. There are times when nothing but Kamal Hami’s perfectly cooked slivers of provimi veal will do with Zinfandel sauce $19 which makes the fries as rich as foie gras, or a lemony/saffron tagine of salmon $20.25. We have an epiphany as well. We eat at 9 just as customers start to leave. Noise dies down. Finally we can discuss Canada’s Bewusstein ( identity search ) and Lindsay Lohan’s disasters without shouting. In future, I’ll eat on Spanish time.
The restaurants saved my sanity, they are above stars. So is the Four Seasons Hotel which when my accu-therm stalled at 99 F invited me for a swim in their outdoor pool. A lifesaver.
