Against the Grain

The weather outside was up to 33 degrees Celsius today. Since it took so long for summer weather to get here, I don't want to take it for granted. Today, for the first time, I ate my lunch on the shaded patio at the office building I work in. At the end of the work day, as I walked home from the subway enjoying the weather, I knew I had nothing good in my fridge to eat except a frozen pizza. I wasn't about to turn my oven on! I like Sugar Beach and wanted to hang out there to enjoy the weather so the decision on where to go was easy. I went to Against the Grain, a new restaurant that opened in the Corus building on Queens Quay.

The weather on the beach was great when I got there. It was 22 degrees with a nice breeze coming off of the water. Against the Grain has a great patio with a number of couches on it. This was actually my second time there. The first time I went it was a bit chilly out so I sat inside. The sablefish was delicious and worth having again. The waiter on the other needed a bit of work. I've never had a waiter shake my hand when he introduces himself. I think he must have been in training based on a number of other things he did. He was there tonight but thankfully was not my waiter. The waiter I had seemed to have arrived in Toronto just 6 weeks ago, based on what I overheard in a conversation he was having when I first sat down. He seemed like a very nice guy. He's allowed to serve me again. :)

I ordered the Barcelona pizza this time around. The fact that I had a travel guide for Barcelona in my purse may have had something to do with my selection.

The wind started to pick up a bit and the sun disappeared behind some clouds while I waited for my pizza. There were a lot of sail boats of all sizes in the water, a group of kayakers exploring the harbour front and a number of Porter planes flying in to the island airport. I love Porter and watching the planes fly in!

I ate my pizza carefully keeping hold of my napkin while I ate and coaster while I drank as the breeze that had welcomed me was now a bit gusty. The pizza was pretty good. I don't think it will win any awards or anything but it's pizza! You know what they say about pizza, even when it's bad it's still pretty good. I personally like a thin crust. Theirs wasn't quite thin enough to meet my thin crust standard but it was nice and crispy.



Just as I settled my bill and looked around the building to the North, I could see storm clouds approaching with lightning. That explained the wind. So I headed home and abandoned by beach time. It looked like quite the storm but I was thankfully just South enough to not get caught in it.


Weirdest thing I saw today: When I was heading down to the beach there was a girl riding her bike on the wrong side of Sherbourne heading South. When she got to Lakeshore she somehow clipped the curb or didn't see the curb between the Gardener exit ramp and the traffic lanes on Lakeshore and ended up doing a body slam into the pavement right in front of the waiting traffic. She picked herself and her bike up and dusted herself off. No serious damage.