Hey gals (& Joel)!

Just a note to wish everyone a very happy holiday and New Year! And in keeping with our brunch theme....if anyone happens to have a good holiday brunch story, make sure to post it if you can. (ie. Christmas breakfast stories)

Until our next brunch in the New Year! Can you believe it's gonna be 2007? :)

Sue

Upcoming Brunch Schedule!

January 13th – Dana (cake)
February 10th – Jennifer (banana)
March 10th – Natalie (cake)
April 14th – Sue (banana)
May 12th - Joel (cake)


Rules of the bananacake brunch:

• Every 2nd Saturday of each month
• Date can be changed if we have conflicting plans.
• Significant others / BF / Non-Bfs / BFFS are allowed, but each of us must be there.
• Brunch is at 10am
• We rotate on who picks the place. We’ll start alphabetically by first name
• Enough of the overview enteries. Person who picked the resto, must write a brunch review in this blog.
  

One day someone will have to order bananacake for breakie.

Any objections? please comment.

Yay Nat! Your first blog posting ever! I'm proud of you girl. I'm still amazed at the fact that you've made it this far (33 years ladies and gentlemen!) in both life and career being blissfully aware of technology trends of the past decade (aka total time wasting/overcomplicating). Being that you are an opinionated girl, the blogging thing should catch on nicely.

Time to write on Verviene while it's still fresh in my mind!

December 2006 - Joel's (honorary caker and one of the girls) pick.
Verveine Bistro (verveine.ca)



Located on Queen Street East in the heart of Leslieville It's a 10 minute walk from our place. One of the reason's Joel' picked it because we were frantically trying to clean house before hosting a 'small' party on saturday night. The rest of us girls had dinner there, i believe it was for sue's birthday one year? (correct me if i'm wrong...spring or fall?). We really enjoyed dinner and i've had brunch there before the new management took over.

I had a breakfast wrap with eggs and cheese and crumbled sausage...it was pretty simple but i enjoyed it a lot. It's always the same story though, i'm so into catching up and chatting that sometimes the food barely registers. Like nat said, toronto is a crazy brunch town and i've rarely had a bad brunch. SO i'm going to review the fashion!

Jen of course rolled out of bed and skipped to the restaurant complete with makeup on and wearing accessories. Nat is never without lipstick and i'll give her props for looking fantastic even though she HATES waking up before noon on saturdays. Sue is perfecting the intellectual student look with a pink sweater and looked fresh faced even though she's been burried in books all week. Joel and I on the other hand are trying our best at starting the trend of disheveled and bedheaded. Joel's morning hair is spectacular.

With this bunch occupying tables in the 'hood, it's no wonder Leslieville is 'up and coming' and 'queen east is the new queen west'. I may have to continue the easterly trend in the new year and pick Hello Toast because it's been MONTHS since i had their eggs benny. Or I might take it out of the east end to be nice: maybe Saving Grace for nostalgia and their awesome french toast...or ...or...Petit dejeuner (are they going to change the name now that it's open for dinner?). I still occasionally yearn for their granola/yogourt fruit bowl...with the bittersweet memory of 'breaking up' with sue there over brunch. It really wasn't you girl, it was definitely me.

Happy New Year everybody. 2007 is the year of the brunch!
maybe we'll let nat plan ludinner so she can sleep in on her turn.

We're close to the eve of another Bananacake Brunch. Like sue said 'tis the season for parties and libations....I do wonder if it will be the Banana's or another Caker down for the count this saturday. The good news is that we're going to Verviene...which i have had brunch at before...hungover...a number of times. And they do serve the best cure for a hangover...a fantastic Spicy Ceasar just loaded with horseradish!! This girl is draggin' her ass to the last BCB of 2006!

Excuse the writing...i'm the Art Director in this little 'family', my writing is a little rougher than the Writer/Student (Sue) but it looks like we're the only one's bloggin' anyway so suck it up!. The Marketing Manager/Travel Consultant (Jen), the Director of Brand Integration and Communication (Nat) haven't posted yet and neither has the Vice President of Client Services and Training (Joel)....i'm thinkin' the longer the title, the less time for BLOGGIN'...i'm sticking with 2 words.

JULY '06 LeSelect Bistro
432 Wellington Street West



image courtesy of their website: www.leselect.com

The one that started it all. Four girls who used to see each other EVERYDAY (at one point or another) are now in their early 30s, desperate to see each other even once a MONTH. How does it happen? High falutin' jobs, entrepreneurial ventures, traveling, bookclubs, university courses, various men taking up all of our time!? The tragedy!

I don't remember what I ate, but i remember it was a beautiful sunny day, and we had such a great time that Jen made a schedule....in ALPHABETICAL ORDER!!

So my pick was next (D is for Dana!)

AUGUST '06 The ONLY Café
972 Danforth Ave (at Donlands subway station)



I used to spend a lot of time here when I lived in the neighbourhood. It's not THAT bad of a neighbourhood sue!! The Only was like a home away from home with a million types of beer and a pinball machine. Of course there's no beer at brunch but if anyone is listening...

They make a fantastic brunch Huevos Rancheros is my fave...or the Cowgirl breakfast...they lace their coffee with cinammon and you can bring your hangover and wear your trackpants...it's ENCOURAGED. Our dear girl sue laid her head where so many have done before. (ooh, that sounds bad).

OCTOBER '06 BarOne * picked by Jen
924 Queen Street West



Great spot jen, the food was awesome and it was a lot quieter...oh wait, nat wasn't there. We had a great time calling her, but we couldn't get her to drag her sorry arse off the bathroom floor. I'm wondering if maybe we should start 2007 brunches at an AA meeting??

OCTOBER '06 By The Way Café *Nat's pick
400 Bloor St. W.



Lucky it was Nat's turn to pick...she bought brunch for everyone as a penalty for missing two in a row...if one of us had picked we would have gone all upscale on her ass.haha, just kidding. It was nice that the four of us got together, one of those days when i really realize how much i miss you guys!!!


NOVEMBER '06 Insomnia Cafe
563 Bloor St. West



* Supposed to be Grapefruit Moon, but nat made us change the time to 11 (lineups girl!!). We didn't get in...Sue was sick, ahem, hungover...for HER OWN BRUNCH. Joel and I stood outside Grapefruit moon staring in the window at the nice people eating their brunch...trying to make them uncomfortable enough to leave but to no avail. Nat and Jen met us, with a BCBL guest Nabisco. We wandered down to Bloor and wound up at Insomnia, which is across the street from Amnesia...what IS it with the Annex?? Jen, you should tell Jo to open a club near there: Therapy? Not the best food but the company was great. Lot's of great talk about traveling based on Nat's impending trip to London/Oman/Dubai -Maybe she'll post a link to her awesome pictures if you ask nicely!

So that's my post...all about the pics baby! See you after Verviene!!