With the amazing weather today, we checked out the cherry blossoms in High Park and decided to walk up to Bloor West Village for some beer on the patio.
Having grown up in the area, it was certainly weird seeing this bar in place of Future Bakery over the past couple years but I can definitely get behind more variety in bars and alcohol choices in any neighbourhood so I definitely wanted to give the place a shot.
We didn't have time to wait for a seat on the patio but it did look to be a fantastic and bumping patio. With the garage doors open on the side of the bar facing Bloor St, there was a lot of natural lighting in the place and a great summery atmosphere in general. We were at the table closest to the street so we were practically on the patio too.
When we sat down, we were immediately told of a few things which weren't available. It was nice that they told us but I was surprised at the number of items which they couldn't make - including bar staples like sweet potato fries and nachos. They also told us the kitchen was short-staffed and that food would take at least 30 minutes. All in all, it wasn't a great start to my pending review of the bar. However, the food actually ended up taking less than 15 minutes so it turned out great - good idea for them to set the expectation low and over-deliver.
We ordered a couple pints of beer and ended up sharing the calamari dish and side fries. The calamari came with hummus, pickles, zucchini and eggplant. I must say that the combination seemed odd to me at first but it went very well together and I'm a fan of the dish. The fries were decent and so was the mayo that came with it.
I'll definitely check this place out again when I'm back in the area, especially if it's a patio weather kind of day.