Bonjour Montreal!

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I was really looking forward to the Montreal portion of our trip, hoping it would be much like Paris or atleast remind me of it.  It did.  I especially love how French is the native tongue and I was glad I was right about the French French or French Canadians not being rude.  Although, we tend to only speak with those in the service industry, but I quite like the French.  Some of the persons with more bilingual capabilities are so impressive.  It's such a cute town, lots of character, love Old Montreal, which is where we stayed.  Mount Royal was so beautiful.  It's nice to see nature in true fall...gorgeous!  We didn't have much time in Montreal, but we enjoyed this small, beautiful city with all it's cultural diversity while mostly only French speaking people, a romantic city!

Touring & Tasting Toronto!

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We had a wonderful time in Toronto.  The weather was great, except the last day of rain, but overall great walking weather.  The restaurants, shops and sites were fabulous.  We had a few things on our list we wanted to see, CN Tower, Distillery District, shop and eat and the rest was up to the wind.  Our favorites were our hotel Gladstone for it's uniqueness, creativity and art, Terroni, Drake, Wvrst, and Cluny Bistro & Boulangerie for atmosphere, service and food.  Wish we had more time.  It was good seeing you again Toronto!

Visiting Northville & Detroit Michigan

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On Northville, I'll be honest, I was thinking podunk, but I was wrong!  It is so cute!  At least their downtown was. It's generally a small town, you know big chains, etc, but they have a great charming downtown and believe it or not, some places with really great food.  In their downtown their bookstore had one copy per book, hehe.  They have cute little shops and Rebecca's Family Restaurant had really great omelettes and an amazing banana nut breat!  Still thinking about it.

Isn't Northville so fall?  We're not having much of a fall in Houston.  We get lucky if it gets a little cool in Houston.  No, but I thought Northville was great, but you do run out of things to do.  So on to Detroit we went!  I'm so glad Matt was ok with us going to Detroit.  I really really really wanted to see it.  Especially with some of the research I had been doing, it looks like there is a strong arts and culinary culture.  We hit up one spot for brunch before our Canadian roadtrip, Dime Store.  Super urban cool, food was great and we got a chance to walk around downtown Detroit, it's not as unsafe as everyone makes it out to be.  Atleast not in downtown it isn't...see my pictures!  I thought their downtown was very nice, maybe even nicer than Houston's...nice on a more interactive scale, that is.  And we actually got pulled into a broadcast interview for the local news!  I hope we get a chance to see that!  Anyways, it was great to meet you Detroit!

Wooster's Garden (Midtown)

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We got to experience Wooster's Garden for my good friend, Chef Niki's, pop-up Ramen event.  I had not heard a word about Wooster's, but really loved the atmosphere!  It felt much like a biergarten.  I love biergarten's by the way.  They're so festive and so conducive for social greatness!  Love love them.  You like a dark corner?  Got it!  You like sitting at the bar?  Got it!  You like sitting outside?  Sitting in and outside at the same time?  Got it!  Got it!  Tons of variety on how you like your social outtings.  I really enjoyed the atmosphere.  I think they could probably use some help on organization.  We weren't sure if we were supposed to order at the bar or if someone was coming to us.  Other than that, we enjoyed the ramen, the sides, and the beers!   Fun night!

Popping into Helen Greek Food and Wine (Rice Village)

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All I need is to hear a little buzz and I'm there.  The latest buzz and we were excited to visit this weekend when we got a chance to get out was Helen's located in Rice Village.  I believe they took over the Kahn's Deli that was formerly there.  Super cute place, small and cozy.  We didn't make a reservation, but got lucky and were seated immediately.  However, call in for a reservation a day or two and you should be good.  

We had  a great server, she reminded us of Jennifer Garner and said she did get that often.  She was great, she directed us towards, in order that the dishes came out, fried squash interesting flavors and textures, the Greek salad was fresh but so many tomatoes we were almost stuffed trying to finish it off.  It wasn't what we were used to for a Greek Salad, but we assumed it might be the way a Greek salad is traditionally done back in the mother land.  Then our chicken entree came out, we only ordered half which was great because in hindsight I think we, overall, ordered too much.  But again, the chicken and chips below it were good, interesting flavors.  Next was the butter pasta, wow, super buttery, but after awhile, I just didn't notice it as much.  This dish was my least favorite in taste because it was so heavy, but the tile pasta was different and like I said, I didn't mind the butteriness of it as much.  We finished off with desserts, Ricotta Mousse (they're most popular) and we also ordered the Baklava, which was not her recommendation.  She also suggested the Pistaschio dessert, but Matt really wanted the Baklava.  I don't blame him, it came in a super adorable presentation, in one of those iconic Greek paper coffee cups!  The baklava was not to my liking...I don't really like chocolate and cinnamon in my Baklava, I realized.  But, Matt liked it.  Oh and the mousse...it was fantastic, as she suggested.  And my apologies, but I can't seem to find their menu online so I'm not totally sure what the official names of the dishes were.  

It's more of a mild version of fine dining for Greek food, not so much casual, as most people associate with Greek food.  We really liked the restaurant.  It's a great place for a date or small groups.  We enjoyed the atmosphere, service and the food very much!  Fun place, the perfect spot for our date night on this beautiful evening!

Trying the Newly Opened Lee's Fried Chicken & Donuts (Heights)

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Well, it's about what you think...just fried chicken and donuts.  A little odd of a combination, but hey...there must be something to it or else they wouldn't be doing it.  They do have a Kale Salad on the menu...I wonder how many people are ordering that.  

The place is brand spanking new, first day opened...and we get there at 730pm and they're open till about 10pm or as they said, when their fried chicken is sold out.  We order the combo #3, which includes 2 breast, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 drumsticks.  Of course we ordered some donuts, we're not party poopers.  We got 3 glazed, 2 jelly, and as suggested the bacon and praline.  I'm not sure what Matt was thinking with the jelly donut, but who am I judge...I'm all about nostalgic experiences.  I eat mash potatoes with white gravy and a white roll strictly for the nostalgic reasons.  

The fried chicken has to be the best fried chicken I've had since the whole fried chicken movement.  It's super tasty, crispy, flavorful!  We all agreed the fried chicken was really good.  I have to tell you, just thinking about it is making me crave it!  And surprisingly the doughnuts were really good too!  I liked the glazed doughnut the best.  I find it's hard for doughnut shops to get the glaze to dough ratio right.  Shipley's does it right and Krispy Kreme does it right, other than that...most fall short, incudling, in my opinion Dunkin Donuts.  Anyways, I was pretty impressed.  However, the two they high suggsted, apple fritters, which I didn't get to try, sold out, they said were their most popular item.  She also suggested the praline bacon, which I thought was a little too sweet and way to much on it.  I'm a big fan of mixing bacon with the unexpected, but for me and Matt this one wasn't that great.  However, the 14 year old did like it. I took a bite of their jelly doughnuts and did not like it.  We also got the potato salad and coleslaw, which I thought were also both good...we were all on the same page, Lee's gets 3 thumbs up!  Definitely worth the try!