photoblogging exhibits, latte art and diners with attitude

My friend Ray.

Had a very relaxing Saturday with friends yesterday. Jeff and I are still not used to these, having been through months of recent packing, moving, househunting chaos; we're both (but especially Jeff) still too used to having our weekends scheduled far in advance.



We had brunch with Ray and Craig at the The Patrician Grill (219 King Street East), a old-fashioned tradition diner that has been run by the Papas family since its 1967 opening.

We were served by Louis Papas, the head of the family, who has since appointed his son as head of the business. Mr. Papas was friendly and gruff at the same time. He couldn't get over the fact that Ray didn't want meat with his scrambled eggs even though the meatless entree was a menu item, for example, and wouldn't let me have a glass of water when I asked ("We give out water later. People order water and then they don't drink it"). And when he brought Craig the wrong entree, he clearly expected Craig to eat it anyway.



And at one point during our repeated (at least a dozen times, no exaggeration) explanations that Ray really DIDN'T want any meat, Mr. Papas asked us if we were from out of town.

"No," said Jeff. "We're locals. We live just a few blocks from here, in fact."

Mr. Papas: "Oh. I thought you might be Americans."

I admit I teetered on the fence between amusement and irritation but in the end I accepted the Patrician Grill for what it is: a family-run traditional diner where you're definitely made to feel like part of the family, with the good AND bad of what that entails.



Our other afternoon activities included:

-- Seeing the PUBLICity at the Toronto Free Gallery with Ray and Craig. The exhibit features the work of Toronto photobloggers Sam Javanrouh (Jeff's and my favourite photoblogger), Matt O'Sullivan, Rannie Turingan, Davin Risk, Gayla Trail, Jonathan Day-Reiner, and Adam Krawesky.

-- Visiting Dominion Modern, the Museum of Modern Architecture and Design with Justin (visiting from Montreal!), Craig and Ray. The current exhibit focuses on architecture and design in Toronto during 1945-1975. I admit that my interest was more on seeing my friend Justin again than in the exhibit itself, though it was kind of interesting seeing various aspects of a young Toronto.

-- Picking up our friend Andy and then going to Kendrick Astro Instruments so that he and Jeff could buy an astronomy thingamabobby. Andy took a photo with it last night (see the picture below); apparently it's a globular cluster M3 in Canes Venatici:





Then before heading back to my mom-in-law's condo, Jeff and I dropped by a Loblaw's for some groceries (where we ran into Andy again!) and found a familiar-looking van in the parking lot. Six years ago, I wrote about the pool cue house guy, Albino Carreira (you can also read more about Albino's amazing house here). Anyway, I found myself surprisingly happy that Albino was still around.



And here's a few other interesting links I found while browsing the Web this weekend:

The Zoom Quilt: I originally found out about this from Jeff, but came across the link again in Drawn.

Latte art: A Flickr photo set of latte art images. Makes me crave a latte even though I don't usually drink them!

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