Burger Week

Last week turned into a serious burger week for me. I had 4 burgers in 8 days. Now my body is feeling the consequences - I think I'm getting sick.

Anyways, last week, wednesday I believe I met up with Drew and we headed to the Duke of G for the always classic Duke Burger. This is one of the best burgers in the city. The G is one of the only places that I know that makes its own patties by hand. They have that true homemade taste that just doesn't come through in frozen/store bought patties, excellent seasoning. The burger was topped with excellent topping - fresh green leaf lettuce (no iceburg here folks), red tomato and red onion. Also an added bonus is the dill pickle relish. Also, the Duke's fries are superb. Drew and I debated on whether they were fresh hand cut or not, but regardless these are good fries. The Malt Vinegar makes it all that much better. The Duke Burger and Fries goes for about 8 Bucks I believe.

Last night Luca, Heather and I went on a little dinner mission up to Bloor. After a nice stroll around on a temperate spring evening we decided on The Tap due to its genericy. We wanted something honky. They had a banquet burger special goin' last night listed for 6 bux. The topping didn't dissapoint with cheddar cheese and two strips of bacon along with lettuce, tomate, onion and pickle. The toasted bun was nice but the patty itself wasn't that great - very processed taste and texture. The fries weren't that great either - extremely greasy. Luca and I again debated weather they were frozen or fresh cut. We need to get an authority to weigh in on the issue. We had a good time at the Tap playing NTN.

Last weekend in Kingston I ate a burger that wasn't too great at Bubba's. The thin patty was over cooked and crispy around the edges - the toppings were shoddy. But this was to be expected in a place like this. Bubba had the horseracing statellite channel going on the tv, it was good entertainment while I ate my bad burger.

SO, i might be getting sick - gotta lay off the burgers this week and step up the healthy food. But more stops on the diner/burger tour to come including a return to People's Food up on Dupont which Chris and I were at last summer. Its the only other place that I know of that makes their own patties in house. Other places to hit eventually include reviews of the Vesta Lunch and the Stem. Eventually I'll make it over to the east side and head to the New York Cafe Restaurant for their cheeseburger (good memories of last march going there for lunch), and also some places that I have yet to visit.

Friendly's

Was down at Queen and Dovercourt tonight for a vaudville show that Jon's theatre group was in. I had a bit part in their play so was down early to help them set up and stuff. Before the show I strolled down Queen to look for a place to grab some dinner and strolled into Friendly's.
I got their Deluxe Burger Special (fries and cole slaw)
The burger was very good - great sized patty, fresh taste. tomatoes, pickels, onions - decent toppings. The bun was toasted which was a nice touch and it fit the size of the patty which isn't always the case with some places. The Fries were ok, but nothing special. The Cole Slaw was decent, but it was the vinegar style dressing stuff which isn't as great as the creamy style. Also got a dill pickel on the side which was nice. They had certificate that claimed 'best queen st. burger' I'm not sure if that was true but it is definately worth a repeat visit.

Brian's Record Option

Holy Hell!
I was in Kingston on the weekend for a gig at the Grad Club. I spent the better part of the afternoon before the party at Brian's Record Option. This was my first time in Kingston but I had been told to make sure I check out Brian's when I was there. The place seems like total chaos - thousands of records everywhere, but Brian seems to know exactly where everything is. I got some great deals on some rock stuff..
Clash s/t and London Calling
AC/DC - Let There Be Rock
Thin Lizzy - Johnny the Fox
Stones - England's Newest Hit Makers
Giorgio Moroder - From Here to Eternity
Eurythmics - Sweet Dream are Made of These
James White and the Blacks - Off White

Also grabbed a few things for doubles routines I'm workin on but those are secrets...

but the real gold mine was the 80s 12"s--
Madonna - Like a Virgin
Madonna - Vogue
Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait (dutch and english versions)
Rolling Stones - Miss You (8 min. disco version which I didn't even know existed)
Eddie Murphy (!) - Party All the Time
Bangels - Walk Like an Egyptian (supadoopa 12 inch edit that I hadn't heard before)
Yaz(oo) - Situation/Only You (standard versions but nice to get 'em on 12 inch as the LP is a little lo-fi)
Kano - Another Life

I could've easily spent an entire day in there as i didn't even really look through the rock stuff and only got about half though the disco section but its best that I left when i did as too much money was spent.

Crazier than a bad of fuckin' angel dust...

A few months ago Jon brought home about 500 records from a house that they cleaned out at Got Junk. At first we were like "oh shit!" this is the greatest thing we've ever seen. But then after going through them for a while we were amazed at how someone with such bad taste could own so many records. They were about 75% Broadway soundtracks, 20% bad bad jazz and 5% other stuff. He even had some James Brown records, but there were the ones from the late 70s and 80s when James had completely fallen off. We guessed that this guy was either a homosexual or a serious musical theatre enthusiast...wait...

stuff that I actually bothered to grab -
Rusty Warren - Songs for Sinners (some 'adult' comedy album from the 50s)
The Bold Humor of Davey Bold
The Best of the Pointer Sisters (eihn)
Gloria Gaynor - Never Can Say Goodbye
Rocky Soundtrack
A Phil Silvers album
James Brown - Jam 1980s, The Original Disco Man (1979) and Body Heat (1976)
Some other crap not even worth mentioning.
SO now we have all these records in our basement and we're not sure what to do with them...many people have dug through them but there's still too many there. Jon says he knows someone who might be willing to take them all. At least there are crates that we can grab.