Lisa Marie

I went for walk along Queen West since it was such a beautiful day on Saturday and made my way over to Lisa Marie.  I was hoping to try something from a lunch menu but when I got there they were only serving brunch.  I wasn’t in the mood for brunch but I had my mind set on trying something there so I went in to give it a try.  When I walked in I noticed everyone was sitting in the front half of the restaurant.  The back half was strangely empty.  I can only assume that everyone wanted to be close to the open facade facing the street to feel like they were outside or enjoying a patio.  I took a seat near the back at the bar.

The bartender gave me a menu and went back to making various brunch cocktails while I perused the menu.  I noticed an item called “The Peameal, EH?”.  It was braised peameal bacon, American cheese, fried green tomatoes (which I’ve always wanted to try) caramelized onions and a fried egg with a choice of salad, duck fat home fries or pad thai fries.  That sounded good to me and I had heard good things about the pad thai fries served from the original food truck, Fidel Gastro’s, so I went with that.

After ordering I took a minute or two to look around the place, observing the patrons packed at the front, the Elvis Presley bust behind the bar, the one staff member glued to the computer behind the bar and the cooks in the kitchen at the back.  Then I turned my attention to my phone and started reading the news while I waited.  At some point Matt Basile, the owner, came out from the back and started having a conversation with staff member at the computer about rearranging the space at the back.  I didn’t catch much of the conversation but it gave me a chance to see that she was on some restaurant site called Restaurant Center.  I later noticed that she was entering information from their menu into the site.  It looks like it all appears on Open Table.

My food eventually came and I wasn’t initially sure how to eat it.  I was just about to cut into the egg and peameal piled on a bun when I noticed the greens were also sitting on a bun.  It was actually a sandwich so I put it together giving it a bit of a squeeze.  I figured it was going to be messy with that egg yolk.  I bit in and it was delicious, and messy!  It’s the type of food where the less you put it down the better, otherwise you’ll just be spending a lot of time wiping your hands and face.  I really liked the braised peameal in the sandwich.  The fried green tomato blended in with the overall flavour of the sandwich.  The pad thai fries were good too with a little bit of bite.

For not wanting to have brunch I feel like going back to have this again.  Since this was the first time I had been to the restaurant I don’t know if they regularly change their menus.  Given that the staff was entering them into the website I’m going to assume they do.  I just hope this stays on the menu for a while or at least if there is something with braised peameal and fried green tomatoes, I’d be happy.

The finishing touch came with the bill.  The bill was presented in an old tape cassette case with the original cover.  It was Shadowfax, Shadowdance.  I had never heard of it but it gave me something else to look up when I got home. :)