Big Bunny's Girl Of the Month: Sarah Shahi

Sarah's exotic and sultry look is a product of her mixed heritage: Persian (father) and Spanish (mother). Currently, she's staring on the L-word, which is some sort of program on lesbians (I've heard it described as the lesbian equivalent of Sex in the City). She does a lot of magazine spreads and she's ranked as high as #66 on the Maxim hot 100 list (they don't know what they're doing).

I couldn't find any suitable pictures to complete the 360 degree perspective, so these will have to do.

Dinner at Sotto Sotto

Checked it out on a Friday (Good Friday actually). It was really busy, we got there at about 7:30 and all the tables were full. The first sitting gets turned over pretty quickly, but the second sitting people can pretty much linger around. We left at like 10:00 or 10:30 and it was still pretty busy. We had a reservation. I've heard that this place is kind of popular with celebrities and you could get bumped if they want to have a celebrity show up without a reservation.

I've heard this place described as pretty romantic. I don't know if I'd use those words to describe the place. Its really really dark. It's also really loud -- there's no background music or anything -- wouldn't be the place to go if you were looking to have a quiet dinner. The place is in a basement, but its kind of like at street level so its not like your in a dungeon or something. The place is set up with two rooms. There's like a food preparation area in the first room and some tables there as well -- i think this is like the VIP section; the other room has a bunch of tables. I think they were going for a grotto/cantina look to the place. Given the dimly limit rooms I'd say they nailed the look they were going after.

The crowd looks to differ by sitting. The early sitting was more like 40-50-ish, but the second sitting tended to be younger (30s, but not much younger than that). A lot of couples, but there were some women in groups of 2's and 3' s in the place as well.

We had a waiter. He looked like he was a professional. He had good answers to questions and made some good suggestions. They also had this old Italian cougar walking around the place in a low cut lime green top. I don't know what her job was.

They have a good wine list, but this place is not going to be cheap. They do have some house wine which is priced really well and is quite good. We had the house chardonnay ($55 a litre) and it was quite good. If you're on a budget I'd say you can't go wrong with the house wines.

The menu is kind of extensive. They have a lot salads and grilled stuff to start and a lot of the pasta dishes come in starter and main size. For the mains you can pick from the pasta, meat (primarily veal), chicken, fish and risotto sections. The risottos here are for two people and take like 45 minutes to prepare. I've heard that these guys are hardcore when it comes to risotto -- it's probably their signature dish.

I had the grilled mushrooms to start. They were quite tasty. It came with a giant porto bello at the bottom and a few other varieties on top. The guy across from me had this smoked salmon penne, which came in rosey sauce that also had a smokey taste to it. There were also some good comments made about the buffalo milk mozzarella caprese. For my main I had the misto di mare, which was some scallops, calamari and salmon fillet. It comes on a bed of argula with assorted other greens. The calamari was grilled with a little charring, which actually complemented the balsamic vinegar in the accompaniment. The scallops and the salmon was cocked just right -- so it wasn't charred. This dish was great. With a little lemon juice it was light and refreshing. The only complaint I would have is that there is too much balsamic vinegar -- so it makes it hard to enjoy the wine after a while because all you can taste is vinegar.

They have a good selection of deserts. I tried a bit of the pecan pie and it was pretty good. There were some favourable comments made about the chocolate mousse and the molten chocolate cake. I had a cappuccino and it was prepared quite well. This is an Illy coffee shop.

In terms of price point, this place is not cheap. Two litres of house wine, 3 starters, 4 mains, 3 deserts and 3 coffees came out to like $380 or so.

Overall, this is place is pretty good. The food is not like going to a culinary experience, but its pretty simple food that's prepared well and they don't use cheap ingredients. They also do the little things right -- like make good coffee and offer you a selection of good table wines.

Rating: 1 Bunny

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

Manic Coffee

I've been sampling the place for a while.

It's just outside of the College street strip near Bathurst.

The place looks like a typical coffee shop in this city: colour accents on the walls, track lighting, etc. However, the music is a lot different from the crap you might hear at most coffee shops. For example, a few weeks ago I sat down and listened to some Black Sabbath as I sipped on a latte. Last week I went in and they were playing some sort of punk rock, but the week before it was Hall and Oates. So the musically taste of whoever picks the music is really eceletic or they have different people picking the music.

The place is like a long rectangle. There are seating areas in the front (by the door and window) and in the back, you pick up the coffee and stuff in the middle. The back area has got a few tables and a couch. The front is all tables, but there's also like a magazine selection (stuff like vice and skateboarder magazines).

You get some hipster guys and a lot of cute girls hanging out in the place. Mostly locals I think.

I've been casing the place to get a sense of how different people work there because there can be differences in the skill level. I've seen four so far -- they were breaking in someone new last week (he's got one of those shaggy hair looks). The other three are pretty much all even as far as i can tell: there's a preppy looking guy with a mustache; a guy with a shaved head; and a girl with dark hair and tattoos. They all have the same technique when it comes to working the machine to make the coffee and making a latte.

In terms of the coffee, these guys definitely know what they're doing. For example, the americano has a crema that is comparable to that on most espresso's that get served in the city. It also tastes a lot better. By comparison, the americano at Starbucks is absolutely horrible. When they make a latte they hold the cup at an angle when they pour in the milk so you get a swirl. The latte here absolutely blows away what they have at Starbucks and other place.

I've also tried some of the specialty drinks. The mocha is really good, but you have to drink it fast because it cools a lot quicker than the latte. They also do a chai latte, which has an apple cinnamon taste to it. I've gotten use to the Starbucks version, but this doesn't have that kind of taste. This one is more like one of those loose leaf chai's (e.g., The Gallery Grill or Pangaea), but it doesn't get overly tannic or astringent because they don't have the tea leaves steeping too long.

Overall, this place is really impressive and is worth checking out. This place is a solid 2 bunnies.

Rating: 2 Bunnies

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

Real Estate Signs as a Palette

I guess I'm the only person fascinated by real estate signs. Here someone has decided to modify the sign.

So lets take the basic image:



Now what about if we decide to blindfold him. Like this:



This person also decided to put a patch on the agent's head.



These aren't really path breaking modifications, but I'm surprised that you don't often see people coming up and doing something to the sign. Like the one below, where he's got an eye patch:


or the Viking helmet in this one:



I guess you could take it one step further and use the signs or pieces of the images to come up with some sort of collage.

Spotlight on Gear: Uniqlo Denim

This month the spot light shines on denim. This is the premium premium line offered by Uniqlo -- a 15oz selvage denim.



Nice pocket -- plain and a decent size. Its a straight cut with a bit of a taper at the bottom. The indigo is really deep and it rubs off pretty easy. Given the weight I figure this will fade really well and without much effort.

What really grabs my attention is the price tag. If you can't make out the picture, they were 5000 yen -- about $50 Canadian. What a bargain!!!!!!!!! Most premium Japanese denim in North America in the 15 oz range is going to set you back about $220-$250. The price is even better than A.P.C, which you can get for the $155 or so shipped from New York.



It's not like they're really going cheap on the details either -- the hems are chain stitched (which you don't see on the budget selvage denim from the gap).



If Uniqlo ever expands its presence in Canada and the U.S. its going to game over for the Gap, Banana Republic because they give you a better product for a lot cheaper.

Sale at the Rub and Tug?

If the local rub and tug has to cut prices there has to be something going on.

Could there be a downturn in the economy -- so consumers have less to spend?

Or perhaps, the massage therapists are not very visually appealing.

I wonder if there will any another special promotions to drum up some more business. Like a 2-for-1 or $2 Tuesdays?