Dinner at Pony

POSTSCRIPT: Pony closed down for renovations in April. They plan to reopen as a lounge-style restaurant.

We went on a Wednesday night, we brought two bottles of wine. We had dinner on the first floor. The room there is kind of on the small side. It's a little tight, but i would call it cozy not cramped. The room is dimly lit, so its got a nice vibe going. We went on an off-night. There was a table of old people behind us (some guy in a bad suit, i think he thought he was in wall street). Overall, I think the crowd here is somewhat mixed. Old people tend to go earlier (for the first sitting) and then you get a younger crowd for the second and later sittings. We had a reservation at 7:30, and stayed to about 10:30 or so. We pretty much had the place to ourselves after about 9:00 or so.

I've been there quite a few times. I think they switched the menu sometime last year from the earlier iterations. I really liked a few things on the old menu, like the arctic char and the duck confit. The duck confit on the old menu was awesome (duck confit, plus some bacon, a beef brisket and beens in the cassoulet-style). Unfortunately, they don't make it like they used to. I think the menu before the change was more along the lines of hearty bistro classics, but the new menu is more like nice presentation restaurant food. So the food might still be quite good, I just miss the old menu.

They have a reasonable corkage fee. We brought a chardonnay and a bordeaux. The chardonnay was a Mersoleil, a play on Mersualt from France. We followed that with a 1989 bordeaux, from St. Estephe (i forgot the winery). They decanted the bordeaux for us. The chardonnay was excellent. The bordeaux was even better. Both were excellent with the meal and we're not compromised in any way by the food i had that night. After trying the bordeaux i can see why people rave about them as good wines and good food fines.

We had an excellent waiter. A true professional. Andre, the old french guy. He is reason enough to go to Pony. We showed up in two waves for dinner, so the white was there before the red. He approved of the white. Initially I thought the red was going to be an amarone classico, so i told him we'd need a decanter. He concurred and approved of the wine. When the red finally arrive, his eyes lit up when he saw the bordeaux. He tried both of the wines (we gave him some) and he was thoroughly happy with both of them. He provides brutally honest opinions on the menu. For example, we asked about the coq a vin on their menu. I was kind of eyeing, someone else had it on a previous visit. Andre's assessment of it changed my mind. According to andre, the coq a vin -- when done properly -- should use a castrated rooster that gets really big. This is what the Italians call a capone. So then you get all this meet in the gravy/sauce. However, the coq a vin at pony uses a cornish hen, which according to andre doesn't have enough meet on it. So he was basically saying it was three bites and your done kind of thing. He didn't recommend it. When it came time for the desert he also made some recommendations, he really likes the creme brulee there and strongly recommended it. Basically this guy is going to give you a straight answer, because he's a purist and professional.

I started with a duck quesadilla and the beef bourguignon. Andre approved of both choices.

The duck quesadilla was fine. I think the tortilla or whatever you call the wrap was a little on the thick side, but the filing was a ok. It was topped with some sour cream. There was another appetizer that looked good (the shrimp and scallops). I had a shrimp from it, but not enough of the other stuff to give a detailed assessment of it. I would probably try that one as well next time.

The beef bourguignon was excellent. It was so tender you could tear the chunks out with your fork. Pony does a variation on this. My understanding is that most people serve this as a stew. Pony's comes as a rack (i think they used the meat around the ribs). They cook the whole rack, So i would guess that this is beef in bourguignon style. Anyway, forgetting about semantics -- it was good and tender. I only need by knife to help me clean up a few pieces of fat. it came with a decent dark sauce and was served on a bed of grilled vegetables. This is definitely something that I would have again. The wine was really good with this. I mean there was no problems with the wine changing its taste half way through the meal or anything. If anything the wine got better as it opened up.

For desert I had the chocolate mousse with grand marnier. So after Andre brought the desert he brought a shot glass and poured some grand marnier on it. This was really good, but I had enough of the creme brullee to really like it as well. If I had to pick between the two, I would take the creme brullee. I had a coffee as well. It was a little more chocolatee than many coffees, almost like a mocha. It was quite good. Andre made a fresh pot and gave me a refill.

Overall, I was quite happy with the dinner. Pony is not a place that is going to break the bank. I think that there fixed price menu is $25 (starter, main and dessert from a subpart of the menu). Most of the mains on the regular menu are in the high teens. I think some of the seafood (eg, black cod), might be in the low-$20 range. So you get solid food at a good price. The thing that I love about this place is Andre. I would go back just for him. As long as Andre is there you know the food is not going to be shit, because he would walk out. Andre bumps the rating up a whole bunny, so its a 2 with Andre; but only a 1 without him

Rating: 2 bunnies with Andre, but only 1 bunny if you get someone other than Andre as a waiter/waitress.


Notes on the Bunny Rating System:

• 0 or no Bunnies, it's a waste of time; don't go.
• 1 Bunny, the place is worth checking out.
• 2 Bunnies, you should go out of your way to check out the place; the food is really good and the place is cool.
• 3 Bunnies, you absolutely have to go there; the food is exceptional and the place is really cool

Focus on Photography: Private Rooms by Guido Argentini

I'm a fan of this book.

There is of course a debate about whether this art or porn/objectifying women.

Shoots like the one below would evidence in favour of this being art. I'm not sure if its clear in the picture (the book is too large to scan with my scanner) but the foreground is out of focus, but the reflection in the mirror is in focus. If this was porn he wouldn't have bothered with something like that.



He also uses really nice looking models and he has some variety. So he's not totally into one type of girl. This book is worth a look. I highly recommend it, it was a great addition to my library.

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Kimora Lee

I suppose if we have to get percise about terms, she would be a M.I.L.F.

A.P.C. Rescues

These are some snapshots of my rescues. The picitures are taken in a basement under some flourscent lighting, with the flash one. These pictures were taken in January of this year after their second wash. They have (in the picture) about 4 months of overall wear, spread over 8 months. There's a bit of a lap fad happening and some whiskering up near the pockets and crotch. I'm not sure how much of this comes through with these picutres. Same thing with the honeycombs and the thigh whiskers. They're still a work in progress. They look better in natural light, but when these pictures were taken it wasn't an option.


This one is probably the best picture because you can see the lap fad and the whiskering up top a little better.

Random Picture

Wow.

Recent Pickups: Nom de Guerre Rain Jacket

This is going to be my favourite jacket. It's got a real rugged military feel to it, although its a real slim cut. Small pockets at the top are decorative, but there are two interior pockets that you can use for a cell phone and other smallish items.

The back of the jacket has something like the "cruiser" pocket on the Filson Mackinaw Cruiser, which is also a rugged looking piece of clothing.


Here's a look at the epaulets. The jacket is dark and the hood is huge, so its somewhat hard to see them if you aren't looking at the right angl.e
Here's another detail that I really like. The lining of the jacket has the Nom de Guerre logo on the inside. I didn't even notice it until I brought it home, its hard to see. Maybe they should have lined it red and have the logo in gold, it would have a real yakuza feel to it.

Here's the logo for comparison.

Recent Pickups: Engineered Garments Western Shirt

The shirt is grey with a glen plaid pattern.

Here's the detail on the plaid.

The Canadian Winter: Salt and Denim

When I started to wear these I was thinking they;re just jeans and wore them in some pretty heavy snow. The problem is the salt gets on them and made them extremely crusty. Salt can do some pretty serious damage to organic material, so I had to get rid of the salt which was pretty much in the denim.

These are the before pictures (PRPS dark selvage):






You can see how far the salt worked its way up above. Although it started off being contained close to the hem, with cuffing the salt spread like a cancer further up the leg.

I cold soaked the infected parts of the denim in a tub for 9 hours. These are the after pictures after soaking.

The cold soaking got most of the salt out. But there was still a bit of sandpaper texture to the parts which were bleached white. So then I decided to wash the affected parts in cold water with woolite black. This ended up softening up the salt stained parts, so I think most of the salt is out. The details on the salt stained parts are really out there. This is the left leg after soaking, which was heavily stained. It almost looks like a spider web down near the hem.

Sugarcane 1955: Part II, What I Didn't Like

Not to seem like I'm really complusive about stuff, but I found that the fading on the hems was really disappointing. I got this hemmed to length, so I got rid of the orignal chainstitched hem. The guy who hemmed them for me has a chainstitching machine, but as I look at the fading on the hems I don't really see any roping happening in a serious way.

Here are a few pictures of the sugarcane hem:



































So there is the fading, but its not on the angle that one usually associates with roping.

For comparison purposes:

hem detail on a pair of LVC 501's, these were not raw they came with a wash (they are the Heath's)



















This is a pair of PRPS selvage which came with a wash



















Both the LVC and the PRPS have the roping effect. Those are the original hems.

At first I though maybe the roping would only come from repeated washing. So I looked at PRPS dark selvage that have about 3 weeks of wear. These have been soaked twice to get rid of some salt stains. (The sugarcanes were washed once)





















































These PRPS have the roping effect starting to come in, but it's not as extreme as that on the the washed ones. I have noticed that the thread the guy used on the hems was a little flimisier than that on the the LVC and the PRPS jeans. Maybe that has something to do with it. I'm not sure if the guy has a Union machine or something else. Could that have an effect?

In the end, I'm disappointed because I went out of my way to get the chainstitched hem to preserve a vintage detail, but I'm not getting the desired effect. I mean I could have gone to the Laotian guy who hemmed my APC Rescues and gotten the similar fading on the hem. Here are the APCs, so you can see what I mean.

Sugarcane 1955: Part I, What I Like

These are my Sugarcane 1955. The pics are post-wash after about 3-months (Oct 1 to first week of January) of almost daily wear. The denim is 14.25 oz, one wash at purchase. I wouldn't say that the denim is slubby, but the selvage seam is defintely a lot coarser than what you get with 1947 Sugarcanes. It's pink line selvage by the way. I got them hemmed to length, with a "chainstiched" hem (more on that in the next post). The pictures were taken in a basement under a flourscent light with the flash on.

I was really suprised about how quickly the indigo started to fade from the points where there whiskers, creases and honeycombs. I mean you could see the indigo start fading around the crotch whiskers after 4 weeks. I didn't get much of a lap fad, but then I don't wear these hard. Basically I just walk and sit down. The honeycombs came in a little better than I thought they would, although it might be hard to tell in the pictures. In natural light you can see them a little better and they extend for quite a bit on the back of my leg. I get some crazy creasing and fading near the hems because I walk a lot and get caught in the rain quite a bit.

I'm still getting used to blogger, so the picture placement isn't great.

Here they are: