I went to Toronto for two days last week to research stories for my blog, to attend a social media event and to meet people. One thing on my list was having a formal tea service. When I saw that Windsor Arms starts serving their tea service at 1 pm, I jumped at the occasion. Some people find it old-fashioned but I like the luxurious feeling of sitting in a classical tea room. For me, the more formal style is part of the pleasure.

I went with Ian Barr and Brenna Flynn of Rocket XL, the firm that planned the Pillsbury Baking Challenge for which I am a judge. Since we only communicated by email or on Twitter before that day, I wanted to actually meet them. The tea service experience was enhanced by our lively conversation.

What comes with the Full Tea Menu at Windsor Arms?

We each chose a tea blend. I opted for the Earl Grey tea with blue flowers. The lavender adds an exquisite touch to the classic Earl Grey blend. Brenna enjoyed her Earl Grey tea with roses. Since they had to go back to the office after, they ordered the Full Tea menu. I indulged by ordering the Complete Tea menu, which added a sparkling wine (or a sherry) to the full tea menu.

We started with elegant sandwich rolls. They look so much more elegant than basic triangles. They served us three delicious sandwiches:

• Smoked Salmon and Salmon Caviar with an Oven-Roasted Tomato Cream Cheese
• Baby Greens with Asparagus, Cucumber Salsa and Chive Cream Cheese
• Grilled Chicken with Citrus Essence

The smoked salmon sandwich and the asparagus one were my favorite. The scone with raisins pleased me. I did not try the plain scone. Besides the sandwiches, the scones and the sweet desserts that I captured on photos, they served us a goat cheese and caramelized shallot tart. The finale was a small bowl of strawberries with whipped cream. As you can see there was a lot of food. Overall, I am pleased with my tea service at the Windsor Arms.

For almost any tea service, you need to make a reservation 24 hours in advance. I knew it but I didn’t reserve! Still, they have accommodated us by sitting us at a nice table.

Business and Pleasures

A while ago, I read an interview where Martha Stewart mentioned that she booked her meetings around her daily activities. For me, it a pleasant way to talk business. When I asked Ian to join me for lunch at a place that I was researching for a blog post, I made him laughed by making this reference to Martha Stewart.

+ Tea Menu at Windsor Arms

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Earlier this year, I told you about Maman, Bébé et Café, a coffee shop in Montreal that was more a community center for parents than a typical coffee shop. (October 4th, 2009 update: A friend told me that Maman, Bébé et Café has closed their door.)

It seems that Toronto are catching up with two new kid-friendly cafes opening in trendy neighborhoods with a good concentration of strollers. Lil’ Bean N’ Green opens this week in Leslieville with a fun play area for kids. You can read on BlogTO that Leonor Filipe opened the Gingerbread House Family Café in the Junction three months ago with a similar goal of providing not only food, but a social service for parents at loose ends.

I like the idea that moms and dads have spaces where they can hanged out with their babies and toddles while meeting other parents. I think we will see more of these places once they figured out a viable business model.

About the Play Fee at Lil Bean N’ Green

Some people complained on BlogTO about the fact that the play area is not free at Lil Bean N’ Green. As an entrepreneur, I see why they are doing it. The store owner pays to set up the area. They have to pay the rent on for a retail space in the city. They have a business to run and they can not survive on having moms with kids hanging there for hours while buying one coffee. After all, maintaining a playroom costs more than supplying Wi-Fi. Finding the right price to charge is the challenge.

I invite you to read the post on BlogTO to learn more about these 2 family-style cafes.

MORE:
+ BlogTO’s review of Gingerbread House Family Café
+ Images via BlogTo

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Why it is so hard to find a restaurant that serves tea in style? I want my tea served with a porcelain teapot or an iron cast model. It seems that most restaurants skipped the memo about the current tea popularity.

PHOTOS by Kim Vallee:
+ Awesome teapot at Art Java on President Kennedy in Montreal – some coffee shop owners get it
+ Sugar pot at DNA restaurant in Old Montreal

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We have seen a few European examples of portable restaurants established in shipping containers from a promotional campaigns. Architects assembled containers into houses for years. This year, restauranteur Daniel Noiseux revamped the trailer diner concept.

The first Muxbox fast-food restaurant unit sits in the Old Port of Montreal for the summer season. They will close soon. My husband and I had dinner there last weekend. Muvbox is a wonderful and well-thought fast-food restaurant concept. We were impressed by how much you could accomplish with a small space. Muvbox is more than a pretty face. It is an efficient place to serve and eat food. We examined the staff preparing the food and watched them close the restaurant at the end of the day. It is a smooth operation.

The Design

From a closed box, Muvbox transforms into a chic fast-food restaurant in 90 seconds. The panels go up and down at a touch of a bouton. The side panels become the floor when they are down. The two patios are big enough for 28 patrons spread between the standing bar tables and the bistro tables with benches and chairs.

The eco-friendly actions did not stop at reclaiming an old shipping container. The floor is made from recycled tires. The solar panels supply up to 40% of the energy. The fact that you can relocate the restaurant anywhere and easily adapt it for another restaurant concept increases the usable life of each unit.

The Food

Muvbox operates its own high-end fast-food restaurant in the Old Port of Montreal all summer. You still have a couple weeks left to savor their clam chowder, lobster rolls and seafood pizza made in a wood-fired pizza oven.

If you are interested to start your own restaurant, one Muvbox unit costs $150,000 USD. The container can be branded to fit each restaurant concept. Sid Lee Architecture did the visuals. Watch this video to see Muvbox in action.

I took more photos. Look at the gallery by clicking on a picture.

MORE:
+ Muvbox Concept

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Naming a restaurant Basil and Cacao is a sure way to grab my attention. I had the pleasure of eating a wonderful gastronomic at Basilic et Cacao located in Eastman, Quebec last Friday night. Friends who were vacationing in the region invited us. We are glad we drove from Montreal to experience a delightful meal. Since our cottage is in the Eastern Townships, we took this opportunity to relax a bit.

The restaurant is run by the husband and wife team. Mario does the service. Monique is the cook, an outstanding cook. It is good to know that the woman who prepared us these fabulous creations is not a Chef. We were all astonished by her talents. I am telling, you will take notes on how to dish your plates.

The menu is one prix fixe menu per night. It costs $50 per person. They served nothing else. They carry a nice wine list. The 5-course dinner is made of an amuse-bouche, a soup, the appetizer, the main meal and the dessert. Do not worry, when you call to reserve that will inquire if you have allergies or strong dislikes.

Since we were in season, the herbs and vegetables were freshly picked from their small garden. They grow out of the ordinary varieties like the maroon carrots and the very long French beans. Each course was a refined composition of food and presentation. Everything went well together.

We had rolls of foie gras and a fig for the amuse-bouche, two tapenades that complement the soup, an ostrich carpaccio and its local cheese mousse decorated with an ostrich chip before we received a superb duck entree with lightly cooked vegetables. A chocolate waffle with a chocolate sauce filling topped our dinner. It was exquisite! I will definitely return during the ski season.

MORE:
+ Gastronomy at Basilic et Cacao

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I wish to talk about this restaurant not for his cooking, since I have never ate there but for its decor. Les Enfants Terribles is a pub located in Outremont, Quebec. What strikes me is how the architect Louis-Joseph Papineau play with depths on the reclaimed walls to create storage and decorating shelving. Naturally, he used the same technique to keep the bar bottles.

The food is a mix between typical French bistro and pub food. I am curious to try their fish and chips. If you want to get an idea of the food, watch this 30-second video. I would skip the calamari dish.

PHOTO CREDITS:
+ wall: photographed by Dominic Gauthier for Voir
+ bar: 30 seconds review
+ small : sweetmama.ca

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This is a delicious French restaurant in San Francisco with a beautiful quiet terrace, set on a plaza not far from Blue Bottle Coffee. I am showing you the lunch we ate on the terrace of Chez Papa on Mint Plaza last Monday.

My Grilled Arctic Char with Fingerling Potatoes, Capers, Lemon and Brown Butter was excellent. Jerome, my husband took the Niçoise Salad. I almost regretted not taking it since it was one of the best Niçoise I tasted this side of the Atlantic. On the menu, it is described as a Seared Ahi Tuna Niçoise with Roasted Peppers, Haricots Vert, Artichokes, Arugula and Meyer Lemon served with quail eggs in a pesto sauce.

The dessert of the day was equally delicious. We paired it with a French white wine.  After all, I needed to get the full experience of the restaurant to give you a proper review. I will definitely go back to Chez Papa.

MORE:
+ Chez Papa
+ Follow Chez Papa on Twitter

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I told you on my other blog that Twitter can be an efficient marketing vehicle for businesses. One type of business that benefits well from the free marketing platform that Twitter provides are local restaurants.

What I like is that I decide which local stores and restaurants I want to follow on Twitter. This way, I can learn in advance what is on today’s menu and when they host special events.

Cheap and On the Spot Survey

The benefits for small businesses do not stop there. Twitter is great to survey the opinions of customers. You can directly ask questions. Or you can set up a Twitter poll in less than a minute. I recommend twtpoll.

Myers + Chang’s chef and co-owner Joanne Chang used this method to validate a request from a customer. She tweeted: “Should cilantro be listed on menu item when it’s an ingredient?” Four hours later, she received enough answers to be convinced that plenty of customers would like to know which dish has cilantro in it. She went further and decided to give the option to have the dishes without cilantro.

Twitter allows businesses to quickly find information, features and services valued by their customers and to react accordingly. In a competitive market, it is an opportunity that small businesses cannot afford to miss.It costs almost nothing to tweet a few times a day. You can tweet with any smart phone. It does not require a computer or any technical knowledge. Your account can be up and running in less than a minute. Unlike a blog, it could take only a few minutes a day to maintain.

I now follow a few Boston restaurants and restaurant reviews accounts on Twitter. I will be in the know when I will go there next August. You could also explore the Alfresco dining options in Boston for some clues on where to eat.

MORE:
+ Restaurants using Twitter for cheap, effective marketing by Devra J. First for The Boston Globe
+ Pictures: L’espalier on Twitter and Myers + Chang on Twitter

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A 300-year old tradition got a makeover at the Café Royal in Copenhagen. The Danish smørrebrød was invented in Denmark when poor people could not afford two pieces of bread. Later, as people get more money the smørrebrød became more complex. It is a popular lunch dish. Do not be surprised of you do not see the bread anymore on the traditional smørrebrød.

Basically, the smørrebrød is an open-faced sandwich. It is often made with dark rye bread and the condiments are nicely assembled in layers. Although there are a wide variety of smørrebrød, tradition in Denmark dictates was goes with what and in which order. They took their smørrebrød seriously. There is a 3 years and a half school program to master the art of making smørrebrøds.

But Rud Christiansen, the owner and founder of the Royal Café in Copenhagen, wanted to broke the rules and played with the dish. He decided to reduce the size of the smørrebrød and to explore new ingredient pairing. He called his finger-sized open-faced sandwiches Smushi; in reference to sushi.

The presentation at the smushi at Café Royal is sublime. I would love to smushies at my next tea party. Plus the interior design of the Café Royal is a treat by itself. I marked Café Royal as a must-see place.

MORE:
+ Listing of traditional smørrebrød restaurants
+ Told & Snaps
+ Café Royal in Copenhagen

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A few weeks ago, we were invited by a couple to eat at La Montée. I am delighted that L. & S. selected this restaurant because the food at La Montée is exquisite. The service is courteously friendly. The cuisine is North American. Their modern dishes are influenced by our French cooking background.

The menu at La Montée does not include the concept of appetizers and main courses. All the courses, except the dessert, are of the same size. The menu proposes a 4-course dinner and a 7-course tasting menu chosen by the chef. The 4-course option for $55 is plenty.

Basically, you take either 3 salty dishes and a dessert, 3 salty dishes and a cheese plate or 2 salty dishes, 1 cheese plate and a dessert. I recommend that you go for the wine pairing. The salty dishes provide a good mix of vegetable dishes, fish plates and meats.

The menu changes often so if you are interested by a dish, go for it. To show you how I like the place, I registered to their newsletter, a rare thing for me since I prefer RSS feeds. On top of being notice of upcoming events at the restaurant, the Chef sometimes shares his recipes.

Our friends took a picture of my husband and I. For this occasion, I wore the dress I bought last January at The Drove in Los Angeles.

MORE:
+ La Montée – get directions p (514) 289-9921
1424 Bishop Street, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3G 2E6

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You probably noticed that tea is becoming the new premium coffee. More and more people are getting into the pleasures of a good cup of tea. A tea made with natural flavored tea loose leaves.

People are also cooking meals with tea. A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine prepared a refreshing cucumber and green pepper mousse with Lapsang Souchong, a black tea with a strong smoky flavor. It was delicious.

In 2006, the Kusmi tea importer for Canada recruited top chefs in Quebec to produce a cookbook filled with delicious dishes made with tea. I owned the cookbook, titled Du thé plein la toque, but I must omit that I still have to try a recipe. The Cream of zucchini with Zoubrovka Green Tea or the Cream of carrot and mango soup with Troika tea seem like a good introduction. You will find a few more recipes translated from the cookbook online.

Exploring Tea Blends

I enjoy a cup of Anastasia by Kusmi Tea. I finished my brunch meal yesterday with a nice cup of Anastasia and a decomposed lemon pie at La Fabrique. I created a small photo album with picture of my meal on AHWKV fan page on Facebook. I will write about this restaurant later this week.

Anastasia is a twist on Earl Grey tea that is a part of their exclusive Russian blends. Earl Grey is a Chinese black tea flavored with natural bergamot essence. Earl Grey with lemon is a common combination. Adding the orange blossom to the Earl Grey with lemon gives the edge to Anastasia.

Besides their exclusive Russian blends, the 140-year old Kusmi Tea produces the classic black teas and blends, a dozen green teas plus some herbal teas. If you like black teas, their Russian Evening is low on caffeine. Green teas are healthier and are rich in vitamin C. The Gunpowder green tea mixes well with fresh mint leaves to produce a Moroccan tea.

MORE:
+ Kusmi Tea Canadian importer
+ Kusmi Tea US importer
+ Get directions to Restaurant La Fabrique p 514.544.5038
3609 Saint-Denis Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H2X 3L6

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I parked in front of Le Canard Libéré yesterday as I went to take pictures of a store on Saint-Laurent Street. It was just after lunchtime and I did not have lunch yet. I saw that they served gourmet sandwiches.

I entered for some take-out food and I got out with food provisions from their delicatessen. I was in a hurry but I took the time to ask a few questions and take pictures. I bought a duck pie for when I work late, a duck liver terrine and a pack of dried duck that you can roll over a melon like we do with prosciutto.

For lunch, I ate a country-style soup made with cabbage, duck cubes in a duck broth with a duck confit Panini. It was delicious! Not bad for a girl who had to eat in a hurry.

The duck from Brome Lake Ducks are not sold everywhere so it is great to be able to find everything under one roof. Le Canard Libéré also carries a vast selection of harmonizing gourmet food from small regional producers to save you time. There was a couple in the store who were having friends for dinner and the first reaction of the man was: get the sauce.

Whether you are a Montrealer or only visiting Montreal, put Le Canard Libéré on your shopping itinerary.

MORE:
+ Brome Lake Ducks
+ Le canard libéré, espace gourmand p 514.286.1286
4396 boul. Saint-Laurent, Montreal, QC, Canada, H2W 1Z5

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