The Tuesday Taste - Burger Drops

 

 

Take it all back cause

it don't mean nothing

If you give it away

and you're looking for something back

Looking for something back

Wake up every morning when there's nothing there

No reason to die

but no reason to care 

 

 

Another Tuesday... another Taste! 

 

Seeing as one of my gigs happens to have me at BMO Field frequently on Saturday nights, and Liberty Village happens to have something happening to be regarded as a top notch Toronto burger, and I happened to be hungry after a busy shift, and they happen to close at ten o'clock which is very close to when I typically happen to finish a shift... well you can guess what happened. I went to Panago and got a crummy pizza, then went home and watched M.Night Shyamalan's The Happening.

In all seriousness... Panago is actually just very meh. Definition of damning with faint praise. Fortunately... that is not where I went, nor is it what we're talking about today. Instead, it's Burger Drops! 

Hip smash burgers have become a trend here in Toronto, with many following the burger bible of the famed NYC legend Shake Shack (soon to open a spot in the 416 area code). It's not exactly a new thing to the Toronto food scene: for ages some old diners have surely been doing some variation on a greasy burger pressed into crunchy thinness, while Rudy got a big head-start on making it trendy in more recent years...  yet now does seem quite an era of this specific style popping up to offer the Rudy/Shack more refined version of this burger.

Since their turn-of-the-decade inception, first as a pandemic curbside pop-up by chef Greg Bourolias (formerly of Aloette) which quickly evolved into the current Liberty Village spot... Burger Drops has appeared on most of any "Top Toronto Burgers" list, including one by the owner of another burger joint we reviewed not too long ago. Despite this success and popularity, Liberty remains their singular location... which normally and previously disqualified a spot for the TT review in these parts. But... as I wrote last week I can only review the absurdly huge fast food chains so many times before it becomes pointlessly redundant... plus Burger Drops background as a mobile pop-up and the apparent existence of a food truck means we'll let the old rules slide.

Going in, the plan was to keep things simple: their 'original' cheeseburger and some cheese fries (I cannot resist cheese fries in almost any form). Like most new Toronto burger joints of this vintage, Drops keep the menu very straightforward: your standard single or double burger option, some kind of fried chicken offering, a desserty-thing or two, a vegetarian choice, and maybe some kind of poutine or chili addition for the fries. 

But oh... oh. Burger Drops offer something I delight in more than even cheese fries... curly fries! Man, I freaking love curly fries... and you have no idea, dear reader, how difficult it was for me to hold fast with my original plan. These cheese fries have a jalapeno relish on top as well... intriguing enough to end up as the tie-breaker.

 

 

Since we're talking about cheese fries, here be they. Those crinkle cuts, like these modernized smash burgers, are also really becoming a thing too, aren't they? Cool sure, but even writing this now I'm still thinking about what those curly fries might be like...

You might look at this and wonder, as I initially did: "Uh, where's the cheese?" It is definitely in there, just most of it pools at the bottom, and there's a good amount. This was a quick photo as well, maybe five minutes after getting my order... so not a case of things being jostled about en route. 

As fries... they're fine. Pretty good even, at points. I'd like a little more crispiness with all of them, and the seasoning isn't really much. The ones that have the crisp are great... but other fries (about 50/50) were a little too soft and especially the ones swimming in the cheese pool. 

As for that cheese... it's that classic American cheese taste. They nail the specific flavour: like a much better and authentically cheesier version of gooey nacho cheese-product you might buy in a jar, or find on tap at a 7/11. Full honesty, I love a good cheese sauce and this particular style of it has never quite been my thing... still I'll appreciate it when it is done with this strong level of quality. Plus, one positive of the pool of it at the bottom is controlling how much you want with each dipped fry.

The jalapeno relish was far more interesting. A really nice sweetness, some spice, a good consistency that gave some sting through that heavy sauce (which really just congeals as it cools). I quite liked this relish a lot, and think it would also work brilliantly on a burger (Drops thinks along with me, offering it as an addition for a couple bucks).

 

  

Onto the burger and... these guys really like their American cheese, don't they. 

While I'll reiterate my "meh" feelings towards American cheese (especially on grilled cheese sandwiches, nope)... I'll concede that a hamburger, and especially this particular type of hamburger, is the exception. There is just something about that slightly plasticy taste combined with a greasy, fried crispy (on the outside) beef patty that just works so well. The cheese has to be well-melted for it to really work (another reason I can't stand McDonald's... that cheese could probably emerge from being thrown into the sun in still its packaged shape) and when it does, magic. Score one for Burger Drops.

There's quite some significant sweetness in this burger, mostly from the potato roll and the griddled onions. Still, the overall balance is on point (having some quality pickles to counteract the onion helps) and keeps the main attraction as being the beef itself. Man, it's another take on the old school greasy burger done right: the crispy edges, oily all around, lots of flavour in the beef and it's both juicy and still cooked more Medium-Well than Medium. Great textures throughout. Not a thin patty either: a single of this size was exactly what I am usually looking for.

Another little touch I greatly appreciated: the slight toast of the buns. In-N-Out are the masters of this, somehow keeping that center of the bun soft but having a perfect thin circle around the outer bottom edge of the bun have this amazing buttery crunch. Such a nice touch, and this Drops burger aims for that and gets it right as well. 

 

           

Overall! I think their placement in the upper tier of Toronto burgers is well deserved. But... are they actually the best as some might say? Or, at least one of my favourites that I've tried in my fairly limited burger adventures (what is this, pizza)? 

Of the ones I've reviewed recently... I think Harry's blew me away just a little more, and Friday's was, while also a smash burger, one of similar strong quality to Drops but a bit more in tune with my particular tastes. Less sweet and oil, more body and dimension... hey though this is all good stuff and we're arguing in millimetres here.  

Burger Drops is terrific, and I do highly recommend them. It's got more of that dirty, greasy griddle taste to it than those others... but in such a way that won't leave your stomach turning immediately afterwards. Like a dirty diner burger done with great prep, detail, and ingredients (those sweet onions really are an important secret weapon). 

Since their main beef burger options are either the 'Original', which I had, or the 'American', which swaps out the pickles for a ketchup relish, lettuce, and diced onions instead of the sweet ones... well seems a good excuse for a second visit some day. Those curly fries will be calling my name anyhow. 

 

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Funky Jobs On The Run

I've worked a lot of various jobs in my adult life, the vast majority of them in bars/restaurants, and as such some of the extremely brief ones do stand out in my memory for something comedic and/or bizarre. Enjoy this new semi-short feature on the TT. 

SPIN

Back into the weird first ten-ish weeks of 2020 (did anything notable happen after early March? Things cooled down I figure). 

I'd actually been hired in February of 2020 by a job I still currently have, but the whole process of orientation, training, union stuff etc was dragging on and I needed cash quicker than this was playing out. There was a posting for support staff at a downtown bar near King and Spadina: I applied, got an interview the next day, and that very Friday was in for a training shift. Exactly March 6th, 2020. 

I hadn't been support for a night-time establishment in over half a decade at this point (already being in my early 30s, already significant years of bartending experience... wonder why) but bills are bills. The thing with SPIN though: not a typical King West-like place. It's a huge space slightly below ground level... but instead of fancy couches, dance floors and bottle service under strobe lights... the place had about a dozen ping-pong tables. Which is their thing: they're a ping pong bar/event space.

A chunk of the job was your typical support/busboy stuff: clear glasses, wipe tables, take out garbages etc... all that fun stuff. Meeting my other co-workers here in the same role, I was at least ten years older than any of them (never a great feeling for the ol' pride). This is where the job gets unique though, because the most important aspect of this support job wasn't the usual stuff I just mentioned, no sir or mam. 

Because this was a very busy ping pong bar, you've got plastic balls flying everywhere and ending up on the floor in corners and various random spots. So, the main priority was to collect them from the ground and continuously restock every table (there was some kind of basket thingy). How did we collect these dozens of ping pong balls flying everywhere? There were these Lacrosse-like sticks with nets that you would glide along the floor to scoop them up. And... you would be doing this constantly... at least every five minutes walking around with this netted device scooping up tiny balls. 

It wasn't the worst thing? Not really? I've had some real bad jobs and this wasn't that. But... it was very repetitive and time did not flow quickly... also the "being open until 2am so working past 3am" thing... been there, done that. 

My co-workers were all extremely nice. The bar manager bought me a beer once we'd closed on my second shift (the Saturday, March 7th) and I got paid in cash on the spot for both my hours and a bit of a support tipout. I knew this wasn't something I wanted to do (hell I was dreading both shifts on the streetcar rides there) but... possibly(?) I could've gotten through doing it a couple nights a week just for a while if the people and vibes were this generally positive.    

I'll never know either way. They offered me a position early the next week, which I accepted while warning my other new job with MLSE could conflict (they were okay with this). Three days later, the oncoming hell storm could not be ignored any longer. March 13th, 2020 (a Friday the 13th actually, which could've been worth a chuckle in retrospect but no, definite no). That same Friday would've been my long awaited first training shift at MLSE... turns out I'd have to wait a year and a half for that.

As for SPIN... whenever it was they reopened, I never got an invitation back. Likely I was just forgotten in the craziest shuffle of a generation... a random dude who worked a random weekend before the hail of ping pong balls was halted indefinitely. 

Looking back, it was a weird quirky gig I did for two weekend nights that doesn't hold any regret, disappointment, or pride in my memory. Can't even remember anyone's name. Just kinda... was there for a brief moment in time, a weird moment in a world about to be thrown off a cliff for a desperately long while. I still have the shirt they gave me though, and I do wear it sometimes.                  

 

Tuesday Tune

Sometimes I like my deep cuts. An overlooked tune on a less known record by an artist I dearly love. Other times, a song I dearly love might be their most famous, while I just kinda like a couple of their albums. This one is closer to the latter, although I do really like the first two records (the only two I know). And this song is a personal favourite regardless, one I've heard since a teen and still am as entranced by it as ever. Can't explain it.

 

 

Hey that's all for this week. Amazed I managed to get this done after four baseball games (okay three were Slo-pitch) and three long work shifts in the span of five days! Boo hoo, of course. Not getting my review done in time is hardly a universe altering event. But... it is an event of some relative accomplishment nevertheless. Until the next such event, stay cool out there, stay safe, and don't spill that mustard. 

        

The Tuesday Taste - Good Behaviour

 

You and I

we were captured

We took our souls

and we flew away

We were right

we were giving

That's how we kept

what we gave away 

 

Another Tuesday... another Taste! And may I say, this week's particular review is only possible because I was on my best g... ...yeah no I just can't make the joke. It's too corny even for me. 

 

Anyhow, good fortune behaved enough for me to go try Good Behaviour! A place with sandwiches and ice cream? What more do you want? Seriously, tell me... TELL ME. No but seriously, admittedly this was not a place I was familiar with (hell I'd barely even heard of them). It must've been some tantalizing photo on the social medias that made me think "that looks good", leading me into looking them up, then seeing they have three locations... one of which is relatively close to me? Score! Yes, despite my many reviews I am far lazier than most people realize.

Good Behaviour as a concept is still in its relative infancy, about three-to-four years old by my research... their quick expansion from ghost kitchen into a trio of full fledged locations a testament to the quality of their offerings. 

It was born from co-owners Michael Lam and Eric Chow crossing paths while working at Ascari King West (now closed according to Google) and collaborating on an ice cream pop-up as a side-gig soon after. Their creative approach to flavours (a Hong Kong milk tea is not something you'll find at Baskin Robbins) and positive reception led to them pursuing this as a full time project, and so opened up an ice cream shop on Westmoreland Avenue in the Davenport neighbourhood here in Toronto. I'm about 95 percent confident this was their first location, but if I'm wrong please unsubscribe. Yank that 'like' button out of the keyboard.

Regardless of my factual accuracy, this appears to have been 2021 when Good Behaviour settled it's roots (wherever it was). At first their ice cream, which had gained them positive attention in the first place, was the singular attraction... but smartly (and rather quickly) they decided to offer sub sandwiches as well. Clearly this was also successful, they opened up a couple more locations and yada yada yada I showed up to the Gerrard East one on a Friday night I did!

This particular stretch of Gerrard East fascinates me, for the record. It's the "Little India" segment of Toronto, nicknamed as such because of the zillion Indian restaurants that occupy this fairly short stretch between Greenwood and Coxwell (just a hunch). Truly a lively pocket of East Toronto that is a ton of fun to walk through, with some sneaky fun dive bars among the excellent Indian restaurants and the awesome Greenwood Theatre (*cough* performed there *cough*) within it all. 

 

 

Good Behaviour fits this colourful, bit-of-everything vibe of Gerrard East also. I went inside expecting a simple sub shop... I did not anticipate a mini-speciality grocery taking up the entire area between the ordering counter and those two tables in front. Plenty of packaged ice cream and gelato for sale (shock) but also artisan frozen foods, like pizzas from Casa Nostra (a pizzeria based out of Port Credit specializing in supplying their frozen pies to small retailers).

 

Enough dawdling, here's the sub:  

 

 

Meatballs! While directly comparing their Italian cold-cuts sub against Lambo's might've been instructive... whatever! I was just craving a hot meatball sub, damnit. 

Points instantly to Good Behaviour for slicing this thing in half and presenting it open faced. As you can see, the ratio of 'meatball to everything else' is delightfully even at best... trying to eat this thing as a full enclosed sub? Two bites in you'd be staring at a few meatballs splattered upon whatever below surface you chose to eat this above.  

No matter how you slice it though (see what I did there), it is humanly impossible to eat a sandwich such as this without it being a fabulous mess. You can try your best, as I attempted, but it's gonna drip and droop and crumble and yeah just bring several times as many napkins as you might think you need. 

Getting into the tastes: well, I both really enjoyed it, and it was also not quite what I typically imagine a meatball sandwich to be. Usually I envision: heavy tomato sauce as the overriding flavour, hint of melted cheese... basic stuff. This one? Far, far heavier into the cheese equation, like dominatingly so. 

The tomato sauce is actually the weakest element here: there is a solid amount of it but it lacks anything especially notable about it. Not much sweetness or sting, not particularly hearty (fairly thin)... it's just sort of there as a well blended tomatoey texture. Totally fine (it isn't generic canned stuff is what I mean) but not memorable beyond being well made. 

Fortunately, this meatball sandwich holds some hidden aces. The bread is excellent: wonderfully soft, no stale segments front to back, and still firm enough not to let anything bleed into it as to make it soggy. This isn't a overtly saucy sub, true, but still a heavy one. Another positive: a parmesan presence alongside the melted provolone. That constant sharpness, mixed with a subtle creamy garlic kick here and there, adds so much to the enjoyment of this sub. There's a pesto spread in here as well, which also adds another nice flavour dimension to this. It's kind of like a nice meatball pasta dish, wherein somebody made all the noodles vanish and threw what's left into a freshly baked sub bun. I love a well balanced sandwich and I also love an adventure where every bite is a little bit different: the very best pizzas and burgers and sandwiches have this. 

The meatballs themselves... aren't meatballs kind of boring by themselves? It's really about the texture and a hint of taste within that sells them... when they're crusty on the outside and/or dry in the middle it's no good. 

These meatballs ain't that. Not super vivid as far as taste, but you get that necessary taste of juicy pork (their site mentions these have beef and veal also, but pork is the most noticeable) and some herbs... meanwhile the texture is incredibly on point. Soft all the way through, juicy without being oily or undercooked... and just enjoyable to take a big bite out of (they are huge too!). I'd gladly eat these with just some garlic toast on the side, very tasty. Really my singular complaint is: this sandwich definitely resides in Heartburn City. All that pork and heavy cheese... if you're like me and susceptible to such things, be warned. 

---

Well, this is going to sound crazy... but despite Good Behaviour starting out as only an ice cream shop, going into review I had no intention of trying that. I'm not a dessert guy! I love ice cream (which proves yes, I am human and not a goblin in disguise) but honestly I buy some maybe twice a year. Indeed, reviewing this sub sandwich was going to be enough for me.

Until... as I was finishing this tasty sub on Good Behaviour's patio, on the other side of Gerrard I saw a family of six emerge from a car and all jaywalk (it was almost dicey) with considerable haste and go directly into Good Behaviour. Minutes later they all emerged with ice cream cones... and the most obvious idea at last struck me: "Gee I'm still here, I should probably check out the ice cream too." You know, the thing they're actually famous for...

 

 

So I did! First off, gimme a sugar or waffle cone all day. Cups are boring and safe. Second, Good Behaviour offer some pretty inspired flavours. I was oh so tempted to get the HK Milk Tea flavour, which I later learned is indeed one of their well known staples. Instead, this is their strawberry cheesecake.

I may not be a dessert person but this has very much been a strange development in my adult life. As a teenager? I'd go through tubs of cheap ice cream (those 4L No Name ones... not proud of it) and make root beer floats constantly... and so when I taste legitimately good, made-in-house ice cream it stands out to me that much more. This here is the real deal: that great taste of real cream and milk lingers in the mouth so long after each bite or lick or whatever.

Second: they absolutely nail both the strawberry and the cheesecake aspect of this. The strawberry isn't overpowering but its sharp sweetness is a consistent presence throughout, perfect for cutting into what would otherwise be one rich tasting scoop. That distinctive floaty cheesecake flavour runs throughout this as well, but the true strokes of genius are the chunks of graham cracker-like cake crust all over. Without them, it would be an enjoyable sweet cone... but with? Like two classic desserts merged together into something really exceptional. I really, really liked this... and enjoying it while walking down the vivid stretch of Gerrard East, after eating a satisfying sandwich, all on a pleasant Friday evening? That's the good stuff.

 

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Overall! Damn right I recommend checking out Good Behaviour. Very good sub sandwiches (not sure if all three locations offer them but I think so?) and even better ice cream. Keep in mind, I am no ice cream expert. Legitimately I've lived a few blocks from an Ed's Real Scoop for almost a decade, and have only been inside once about eight years ago just to drop off a resume (in my defense, the lineups for that place from May to September are ridiculous). However! I feel I'm a good judge of strong quality food in nearly all of its forms, and Good Behaviour definitely offers that in both sub and dessert form. Highly enjoyable. 

 

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Funky Jobs On The Run

I've worked a lot of various jobs in my adult life, the vast majority of them in bars/restaurants, and as such some of the extremely brief ones do stand out in my memory for something comedic and/or bizarre. Enjoy this new semi-short feature on the TT.

Friendly Thai (Leslieville)

Ah 2015. Fun summer to follow the Toronto Blue Jays, not a fun summer as far as securing a steady job.

I was still enrolled at University of Toronto at the time although my enthusiasm for studying English Lit was seriously waning... plus this was summertime, I had rent to pay and OSAP support wouldn't arrive until the fall. 

It would've been sometime in late June or very early July I saw a Craigslist posting that the Queens Head Pub, right at Leslie and Queen East, was hiring. At this point I had some limited bartending experience, so I applied, got called in for an interview at the pub with the then (or still? who knows) owner/manager, who was impressed enough to give me a trial shift. 

The thing was, he also ran the Thai restaurant next door, where the trial shift would be. "Just as a way of feeling out if you can handle things" was something along the lines of what he said. No problem. I show up at 5pm the next day ready to go... and nobody in this Thai restaurant has any clue whatsoever I was supposed to be shadowing or training, while the manager is nowhere to be found at either place. Seriously, I could've just been a random dude from the street wandering in and claiming I had a job here... it would've been the exact same kind of situation. 

Awkward as this is, I linger about and get shown around by the other servers. The restaurant, which is still there and not very large whatsoever (ten tables), is also completely dead. Not a soul comes inside the entire time. About an hour and a half into this (a ninety minute span that felt like nine hundred) I'm starting to think this just ain't happening... not only is this not at all the gig I thought I was applying for, but this is boring as hell and wasting my time for a place I'm essentially volunteering for. 

Must escape! So, I devise a (very obvious) lie that "Oh! I have to go umpire a softball game! Just remembered! Sorry gotta go!" I never signed any paperwork, filled out any forms and nor were any offered to me... I would not have been paid for this even had I stuck around longer than two hours. I got home just in time to see the Boston Red Sox completely obliterate Matt Boyd (there's the exact day, BbRef nerds!).

And that is surely the shortest job I've ever had, although it is pretty iffy whether or not it really qualifies. For the record, I hold no hard feelings towards the Queens Head. Solid pub with good wings that one of my softball teams likes to frequent after our games (sort of a strange irony how my weak-ass lie about umpiring softball got me out of the weirdness next door, and 2015 was well before I even played softball).    

Anyhow, I've got plenty of other odd stories about weird jobs I worked very briefly. Until the next edition...

 

Tuesday Tune

Outdoor concert season is upon us! Seeing as I saw this legendary artist just last night (with a direct view of the stage, no less... very cool) it's fitting the song of the week has to be one he performed during the brief acoustic section of the concert. Heck, here's even a (older) live version of it:

That's all for this week! Until the next one, stay cool, stay safe, and most of all don't spill that mustard. 

                     

The Tuesday Taste - A&W Mini Burgers

 

 

 

When I come home feelin' tired and beat

I go up where the air

is fresh and sweet (up on the roof) 

I get away from the hustling crowd

and all that rat-race noise

down in the street

 

 

Another Tuesday... another Taste! As the lead photo suggests, four tastes in fact. 

 

If you've been a longtime reader of the TT throughout it's now multiple re-incarnations... yes we are doing A&W yet again. I've probably reviewed A&W more times than I've even eaten McDonald's in the past half-decade. They featured in my Veggie Burger Showdown, my Breakfast Sandwich square-off... I compared their Teen and Mozza burgers at a location that in it's previous pub form was a long time ago summer job of mine... gave thoughts on their old Nashville hot chicken sandwich with fries... hell I even did their limited time "Best Ever Burger" collaboration with Matty Matheson (maybe the sheer fattiest burger I've ever eaten... still good though). At this point, I could probably recite the menu, no?

So yeah! There are a lot of reviews about A&W on this site. And yet, seeing as all of those previous articles are from 2021 or early 2022... another piece about A&W was overdue, right? No! I'm not going to write about something like the Double Great Grandpa Burger just because I've never tried it. Clearly my motivation and ideas towards featuring this fast food chain had exhausted steam quite a long while ago...

...until I realized I'd never actually reviewed the Buddy Burger. Son of a gun.

Writing about just the Buddy Burger would make this my shortest review ever (even shorter than the 'offensively meh' Four Brothers pizza). Hmmmm. Well A&W offer a bunch of other small items on a value menu of sorts... why don't I just review some of those as well? Heck I've already done it with both Wendy's and Jolibee (geez forget The Tuesday Taste... this week should be called "The Tuesday Old Weblinks Dump").

A&W doesn't really offer anything like tiny nachos, chili, mashed potatos or very tasty pineapple-like beverages... and I don't much care about their wraps... so mini-burgers it is! Two of these might be limited time: the double burger called a "Stacker" and the more decorated chicken offering they're calling the "Spicy Piri Piri Chicken Buddy". The other two are the normal Chicken Buddy and the classic beef Buddy Burger avec fromage. 

 

 

This here is your "Stacker" and HO GEEZ THAT IS A BIG HUNK OF LETTUCE. Seeing as I showed up to my local A+Dubs here in the Beaches around 11pm on a Sunday... because it was the end of the day did they just go "screw it, plop the whole thing on there it's easier than throwing it out"?

Whatever it was, no complaints because I love crunchy, watery lettuce like this. A true shocker from any fast food joint, wherein usually you're far more likely to encounter thin faded wisps that exist only for appearances sake. This was... actually... fresh. The fact that it might be more lettuce than burger isn't a problem for me, anyway.

Diving into the other 47 percent of this thing (take away that huge tomato slice too and I think we're down to a 1/3) well, the beef patties are entirely fine. They're thin and not particularly juicy, but you get a somewhat hint of beefy flavour and some greasy griddle on top. Also not overly seasoned with salt (if anything it could use a micro-pinch more) which is my consistent complaint with Eh-and-Dubya's regular sized burgers. 

As I've said before I'm not really a "double burger" guy (a stance earning much disagreement and ridicule) but there are exceptions and this is one. With patties this thin on a burger with so much other stuff (like an entire patch of lettuce) you need to at least double them lest their entire presence be drowned below. 

Quick note on the other unmentioned stuff: pickles and a "new sauce". Fast food pickle slices are fast food pickle slices, always too soft for my liking but at least you can taste these. The "new sauce" is really your standard Thousand Islands Dressing-like sauce that is perfectly serviceable for a burger like this.                     

The other potentially limited time item is this Piri Piri Spicy Chicken Buddy. Well, they eased up on the lettuce a bit this time.

I've always found A&W's chicken entirely fine by major brand fast food standards (superior to many, but not my favourite). I'll get into this more with the regular Chicken Buddy. For now, lets examine what they've added here to this special featured item: lettuce, tomato and a piri piri sauce. 

Come on, the sauce is the only thing at all interesting to discuss. My experience with Piri Piri is extremely limited (think I may have bought a Nando's hot sauce once?) so tasting it here, I'll say it isn't like your typical spicy mayo-like spread you usually find. Kind of a grounded, chili flavour with an odd residual sweetness (lemon, as it turns out) that really took my taste buds a while to describe it. I can see why it so classically pairs with chicken... a spicy sauce that does a few different things alongside a particular meat that isn't exactly known for it's own dominating flavour. 

'Spicy' is in the title, so lets discuss that. At first, a few bites in, I totally shrugged it off and laughed at the "Spicy" label of this thing... but it later snuck in just enough to tingle my tongue and warm the mouth to a slight extent. The spice is there and does build slowly, just far from the point of producing actual flame. Accessible spice, I'd say. 

The biggest problem here is the tomato: the sweetnesses clash. This Piri Piri sauce and tomato slice just aren't complimentary to each other, like two drivers on a thin circular road going opposite directions. I'll dock the sandwich a point on composition, but since you can, ya know, just take the tomato off... it's hardly a big deal.

 

 

While we're on the chicken train, might as well dive into the regular Chicken Buddy burger.

Myself, I've always avoided the Chicken Buddy. I probably tried it once or twice ten years ago when they debuted it, was underwhelmed, and never went back... until now (wuhahaha).

Uh right. Anyhow, I can remember why I never went back. Not because it's horrible, not at all. This is okay breaded chicken. Not much to say as far as herbs or spices go beyond a basic hint of pepper, and it has no crunch whatever, like absolutely none. Poke it, your finger will indent it! And that's the same with either mini chicken sandwich here... so that's not super great. 

What this regular Chicken Buddy needs more than anything though, is something else. Desperately. It's just chicken, pickles, mayo and bun. Fun. That's a basic combination that works brilliance on truly great fried chicken sandwiches, because that chicken is so damn good, crispy, and so precisely marinated and seasoned that you don't need any other frills (maybe coleslaw). 

Here? Look, I get I'm dissecting very cheap fast food items happily intended to appeal towards drunken people stumbling home from the bar (always wondered why all these A&Ws are open late...) so it isn't completely fair to measure this against something like Chica's, or even Dave's Hot Chicken. And yet, reviewing it I have to hold it against some kind of level... and so it's my opinion the Chicken Buddy just doesn't have enough. Frankly, I can't even decide what it needs (coleslaw) to make it more of a something. As is... it's a something to wolf down a couple of and hope it doesn't come back up with the Jager shots.      

Still, flavour-wise there is much, much worse (I shudder even remembering it) and for something so small you can at least taste the chicken when you get an okay bite of it (there aren't many). It is also my opinion that the very worst fried/breaded chicken I've ever had fall in the 'too crunchy' department, not the 'too soft'. Too soft (as long as it's cooked properly, otherwise that's a whole other much worse problem) I can handle somewhat. Too crunchy? You know what I mean with this: overly battered, bulbs of it fried to death in every bite, every bite tasting of old fryer oil and the crunch is like chewing a rock... all acting as an airy gross shell for stringy, tasteless chicken inside. Sweet dreams are not made of these. Lets move on.      

 

 

Finishing with an old longtime friend, a forever affordable and reliable late-night companion... the Buddy Burger. Hmmm... maybe that second description suggests something els--I mean no you get your head out of the gutter!        

The Buddy Burger is kind of a weird one for me. On the positive side... it is rather unique. No other fast food joint offers something like this, in such small form, that is simultaneously simple and distinctive. And there isn't anything complex to it: thin beef patty (the exact same they use for the Stacker), ketchup, basic mayo (barely any), and those dirty fried onions that are truly the key to it all. 

It all works (I could do without the ketchup personally, always forget to ask) so I think the problem is I'm just sick of these. The charm has worn out for me. It is a simple burger and there isn't much to carry it beyond the ketchup and greasy onion taste, and I don't think doubling the patty takes you particularly far away from that. I even added cheese just for this review (in the past I'd rarely do so) and sadly barely noticed it except for a bite or two. Decent cheddar, by fast food standards... but there's just too much bun and ketchup for anything else to have any chance. 

Sorry, old friend. Please don't take it personally when a few months from now I still hit you up post-midnight after a few. Okay, nevermind clearly my head is the one in the gutter.     

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Overall. Look it's A&W, there are a zillion of them everywhere, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is doing commercials for them, and I've personally reviewed them a half-dozen times now. See you again when they dabble with a fish sandwich or a pulled pork thing! But in seriousness, there's no point in me recommending them or not... unlike perhaps some of the smaller places I've been writing about recently, you definitely know what A&W is about.

Since it has been a couple years though... after reviewing them again my belief holds that A&W is a clear notch above your other major burger chains we have in Ontario. Their burgers are of overall similar quality to Wendy's but trounce them via creative specials, meanwhile with McDonald's or Burger King it's not even remotely close. I'd barely classify those as real food. 

I suppose Harvey's on a very good day makes it very, very interesting... but a dry meh Harvey's burger (and I've had a few) makes it a tough matchup. You can only taste "grill" for so long. At their absolute best? Probably lean Harvey's. One thing I appreciate about both: you never get that "I just ate a pretty heavy fatty meal and yet am still hungry" feeling afterwards. You simply feel... full. How novel.        

Anyhow, I tried four things. Lets rank them, bottom to best:

 

4. Chicken Buddy - Decent-ish chicken desperately seeking help. Too hollow even when drunk.

3. Buddy Burger - It is what it is. Does hit a guilty spot when drunk though.

2. Piri Piri Chicken Buddy - Shows what a more enhanced Chicken Buddy could do. Quite alright.

1. Stacker (Double) - The thin beef pattys still disappear(ing) in the fade but composition-wise a very solid, okay tasty burger. Needs more lettuce though. 

 

Final final conclusion: A&W use the exact same buns for all of these mini burger things and while all were soft and fresh enough (unlike *cough* McDonald's *cough* Subway *cough*)... after eating these four bread heavy sandwiches with that exact same texture, that very neutral bun flavour, all in the span of six hours... I'm not having any of these again for quite a while...   

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Funky Jobs On The Run

I've worked a lot of various jobs in my adult life, the vast majority of them in bars/restaurants, and as such some of the extremely brief ones do stand out in my memory for something comedic and/or bizarre. Enjoy this new semi-short feature on the TT. 

 

Lady Marmalade

Yep, the very same one you're thinking of. Queen of the Busy Brunch Restaurant (on Broadview now but formerly on Queen East). This was February 2020: COVID-19 was still but a mere vague notion in the middle-to-back end of the news cycle, the weather had been semi-decent, and I was nearly broke. I saw a posting for a dishwasher and so applied to Lady Marmalade, thinking this could tide me over for a while until something more in my wheelhouse came along. 

They brought me in for a trial shift at 7am(bah! gross!) on a Tuesday, showed me around the kitchen and put me to work. It's awful boring and repetitive work, but I was focused and for a few hours felt I was doing steady. Of course, being as absurdly busy as they are pretty much everyday of the week, they have an enormous prep kitchen in the basement... which also goes through tons of dishes that have to be washed with near similar priority.

See, among my many many jobs... dishwasher has never been one of them. At least, not for long. Once lunchtime hits and everything starts piling up significantly more, the sous chef calls down to one of the prep guys to come up and give me a hand. The prep dude arrives, runs through all the piles of built up dirty dishes and pots in like fifteen minutes without breaking a sweat... meanwhile I'm standing awkwardly and uselessly nearby in the back of this kitchen, unsure if I'm more shocked at discovering I'm so terrible or more impressed at this fella being so good, all while not really able to help or do anything. 

Immediately after everything is cleared, the general manager tells me they have another trial shift arriving soon, hands me a written cheque for the four-ish hours I worked and says "we'll let you know ". Can't remember if she ever actually did, but she obviously didn't have to. This was like the Tanzanian Devil having to take over for Droopy (I'll mix my cartoon similes how I please, damnit!).

Hey, at least they paid me... 

 

 

A Trip Along Dundas Street

I'm rather obsessed with maps, city maps especially, and I absolutely love this kind of stuff. This fella goes along most of Dundas Street here in Toronto (notorious for it's twists and confounding general path) and explains or theorizes why, using old maps, how modern Dundas looks the way it does. He isn't the most charismatic presenter, even if this world weren't comparatively the YouTube/TikTok Age (think dry university lecturer) but he knows his stuff and is genuinely informative.          

          

 

Tuesday Tune

Just one of those songs where it's near impossible to be in a bad mood when you hear it.  

That's all for another week! What will be next? Will it be tasty? Who knows! I sure don't! Until then, stay safe out there, stay dry, and most of all don't spill that mustard.

This Week In Pizza: Four Brothers

 

 

 

I'm a man on a mission: this will be my shortest pizza review ever. Yes, I have a tendency as a writer (and person) to babble on (I just like telling stories damnit) but on this rare occasion there is little story to share. Four paragraphs at most, and we're counting this brief opening one.

Four Brothers is a pizza mini chain with other locations further west (Mississauga and Oakville) that have set up shop near King and Spadina here in Toronto. The decor is... odd: lots of open space, big open windows in the front (not exactly ideal when you're watching construction-loaded King West and your entrance-way is just a giant parking lot set back significantly from the street), and many old-timey looking chairs and sofas that are splattered with paint, Pollock style. 

 

 

Does this look familiar? It sure does taste familiar. My critique of the pizza is: this is like any mediocre slice you've ever had in your life. Like, down to every detail. You don't need to try these guys, trust me you've already had it. Painfully forgettable. Generous with the toppings, I'll give them that... and it is on the larger side of slices. But flavour? There's just nothing here. Nothing lingers, nothing is interesting or even slightly memorable. No freshness or buttery texture with the crust... the cheese is typical "cheap cheese on a cheap slice", the ham strips are desiccated, the tomato sauce (which is barely there, so an offense to my particular tastes) is your bland generic fare lacking any punch, and you've got the cardinal sin of a bacon crumble on here. I have a soft spot for bacon crumble, not gonna lie... but it never ever appears at any pizza joint with any ounce of decent quality. How about an aftertaste? Do you like air? Because this one fades in milliseconds.

 

Overall. This is meh pizza 101, a beginners course that a washout is struggling to pass. What a letdown. They offer something called "pizza skulls" which are baked dough items shaped like skulls filled with pizza toppings. Trying to imagine such a thing is way, way more interesting than this lame-ass slice. Did I mention it was seven bucks? Really? It's King West and I'm sure they get a lot of drunken late night business... but I showed up in the late afternoon relatively sober (relatively) and this was the best they had to offer. You know it's bad when I, Crazy Pizza Man, only finish half of it, put it away and then forget it's even there when I'm hungry later. Seven bucks? Get lost. The pizza itself isn't offensive but it's just so insultingly forgettable and pathetic that I strongly suggest you stay far, far away. "D++". It's barely better than the true offenders like Pizza Pizza, and only barely. At least 2-4-1 is far cheaper, and the quality is an even match. I didn't go into this planning such a brief review, but taste-wise there's nothing else to say! Unbelievably lame pie. 

       

The Tuesday Taste - Porchetta & Co

 

 

But we did nothing

absolutely nothing, that day

and I'll say

What the hell am I

doing drinking in L.A

at twenty-six

I got the fever for the flavour

the payback will be later

but I need a fix 

 

Another Tuesday... another Taste! We've been reviewing fairly new attractions in the recent editions of the TT... so lets review an older sensation on the Toronto food scene.

 

Porchetta & Co has existed long enough to persist through multiple locations. Their old, old spot on Dundas West is the one I recall best when first hearing of and trying them over a decade ago (and it made an excellent "sneak a sandwich into a Jays game" snack) but they've been comfortably located on King West between Spadina and Bathurst for quite some time now. Back in the late 2017-2019s I two-timed double shifts working the Firkin at Queen/John in the mornings and then off to bartend at Roy Thomson Hall in the evening... so with a couple hours as a gap between on many occasions I went to the King West Porchetta & Co for a deliciously sloppy fried chicken sandwich. It always did the trick. 

They've also found an additional home in section 120/Gate 1 at the ACC-I-mean-Scotiabank Arena here in Toronto, another place I work and do so currently please know it was a joke post-scanning-bots! I was working the Nicki Minaj concert last week, noticed Porchetta had an outpost in the arena, realized I hadn't sampled them in well over half a decade, and thus the idea was born!

Was a good sandwich born from this flighty idea though? It's a tricky one. Fortunately, I did not visit the Porchetta & Co location at my work that even with my 1/3 discount would've still been bankrupting (please don't read this, bots! I'm a wicked good though obviously sarcastic worker. Go Leafs). Actually, to the credit of Scotiabank Arena they actually have hidden little spots that feature local food and drink. Cherry Street BBQ has an outpost on the third floor near 308 (right by the main elevator) and there's a bar in the 100s I've worked a few times that features an excellent Italian pilsner by the excellent Henderson's Brewery.

 

     

No, for this review I went back to my old messy fried chicken stomping ground. On the topic of 'messy'... can I mention how much King Street West sucks? At least the portion between Spadina and Bathurst... and look I know I'm an east end guy and downtown Toronto has become an anxiety nightmare clusterfuck of condos and endless construction... but geez this was impressively clustery. Totally a word and if it isn't, patent pending. It was a gorgeous day, Porchetta has a delightful front porch with comfy benches... except within a second of biting into my sandwich a sewage sucking vehicle pulled up six feet away to do, you know, what they obviously do. And they did not do it quietly or without significantly unpleasant scent. Combine this with the half-dozen enormous trucks spewing dust in your eyes within a block... yeah King West sucks. At least between Spadina and Bathurst it sure does.

None of this is the fault of Porchetta & Co, obviously... and now that my feelings of "I like going downtown about as much as I like a pinecone up my unspeakables" have been reaffirmed, lets move onto this sandwich itself... and most importantly lets move far beyond that image I just put in your minds (sorry).

 

 

Photo taken immediately before the stench of sewage yellowed the air! So I will say: it's a good sized sandwich. The experience of eating it is somewhat hollow... the best bites are when you get the combined fatty and thicker tender cuts of the pork... but it's about every fourth bite you get nothing but bun and various sauce.

Please don't mistake my snark for negatively. This is indeed an excellent sandwich, but it is also extremely inconsistent. Certain bites are truly sublime... the perfect balance of tender, decadent fattiness, sweet and rich sauce, and a bit of crunch. Other bites, as just mentioned, are very empty. When all you get is dry crackling and kaiser bun you have to chew on for a minute... not really fun. Averaging it out... it's very good.

 

 

Diving into the specific construction of the sandwich (briefly). The sauce combination is absolutely brilliant: seedy mustard and a truffle aioli. I'm not normally a seed mustard fan (normally too bitter and I'm a heavy honey mustard or dijon fella all day) but this particular spread really brought a unique sweetness I wasn't expecting... which when mixed with the rich truffle hint (faint but definitely there) in the aioli really was quite dynamic.

A kaiser bun is always a kaiser bun. How about the pork? How about... very good! It's very no frills... not overtly seasoned, no marinating sauce or anything... simply a very fatty and roasted taste to it. There's a wonderful juiciness that, when you get a good chunk, only perfectly roasted and prepared pork can provide... absolutely pristine.

Porchetta & Co definitely succeeds in making you want more of their porchetta... alas this is a review and I'm gonna call that success both a significantly good and a significantly bad thing.

 

----

 

Overall! Yeah... if you can somehow avoid the perpetual construction dusty traffic smelly nightmare that is King West... Porchetta & Co is legitimately good! I do recommend trying them, but with an asterisk: I'm a tough critic and I was hoping for something here that would blow me away... it did not. They're good! But not 'great'. A generally enjoyable fatty pork sandwich but it is really missing one or two things to really elevate it into excellence. Very roasty, great sauces and juiciness in the fatty bites make it worthwhile... extremely well constructed... but just too many bites of nothingness that bring it down. 

Every third bite is an "oh... that wasn't a fun anything" and while batting .667 in baseball would make you unbelievable, in food consistency is even more crucial. Those 2/3 good parts though? Incredible. It's a 1/2 two thumbs up (apparently this is the fraction hour now)... which is technically one thumb up? Whatever lets get out of here. 

 

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Tuesday Tune    

 

Beyond an obvious nostalgia trip of "nine year old me watching music videos on MuchMusic" when that was actually a thing... well 27 years later this song still rules. A rare band that is probably a two-hit wonder: their later collaboration with the incomparable Curtis Mayfield is a likewise wonderful song that got some brief traction. But this is the song they'll be remembered forever for, and it's a damn good catchy one.

 

  

That's all for this week! Plenty of other mini-chain places in Toronto I gotta check out, and Tuesdays are just the time and place to make it happen. Until next time... stay safe, watch out for the Killer Cars... and most of all don't spill that mustard.