The Fish Store

A little spot on college street. Almost like of like a stand, but it has some seating out front.

You order inside, so its either take out or sit on the patio to eat in the summer. The patio is nice, its got some umbrellas over the tables and there's a bit of a counter facing the street with stools. So you can sit in the shade. They bring you the food. The servers/staff are friendly and polite.

The menu is pretty simple. You order some sort of grilled fish, which you can get as a sandwich, burrito or a salad. You can pick from, among others, catfish, grouper, salmon, black cod. They also have some soups -- a clam chowder and a butternut squash.

I tried the clam chowder, its fine. It's not the best thing to order in the summer because its kind of rich. It's a better pick in the winter or when its colder. Also its a lot richer than the fish, so its kind of awkward to have it before the fish.

They also make a lemonade that I like quite a bit -- it comes with half a lemon in it.

I've had the fish sandwiches; I'm not into burritos. They come on a bun that is really light. It kind of reminds me of a croissant, but's it even lighter. So basically it just wraps the fish, so its not like you have all this doughy bread to chew through. Nice way to package grilled fish. The fish comes with some sort of lettuce and tomato as well. These are nice light sandwiches and they're prefect for the summer, filling but not too heavy. They run a daily special, which is like $5.99. It's usually the lower priced fish on the menu (e.g., the grouper, catfish) that are used in the special. You can go for the more pricey fish as well like the halibut, wild salmon or black cod, which will run you like $9 or $10 for a sandwich. Still pretty decent return for the price. The rest of the menu is in the $7 to $8 range. The soups are $4.

Overall, this place is alright. It's not going to be overwhelming in terms of what they provide, but they have a simple menu and they do it well. I feel so much more civilized after having lunch here and walking past the people having lunch at the hot dog cart.

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

Splotlight on Gear

How do you keep track of what's happening in the fast paced world of "gear"? There are all these different collaborations and release dates are all over the place. I guess a Google search would work, but you'd have to do one every day or so. Or you could take the easy way and check out Selectism.com. They do all the work for you and they update it every day.

Check it out if you don't believe me.

Musical Selections

Mixtapes are where it's at if your into hip-hop or you could even say music more generally. There's something about being able to use a sample that would otherwise not be able to be cleared or jacking someone's else beat and using it in a totally different way that can take something familiar to a totally new level. There's quite a few good ones at there right now.

Although its been out for a while, and got quite a bit of attention this spring, Wale's Seinfeld themed mixtape "Mixtape About Nothing" is a really good one. I don't know much about Wale, but his mixtape is one of the best this year. it was mixed by Nick Catch Dubs -- who did Saul Williams stellar "Real Niggery" mixtape a few years ago.

KiD CuDi's mixtape "Emile and Plain Pat Present a KiD Named CuDi" might be the best non-cocaine dealing themed mixtape out in the last few years. Plain Pat mixed Kanye mixtape from last summer and he put together another scorcher this year. The beat selection is really good and the KiD delivers some fine verses.

Looking for some mellow music to chill to do on a hot summer day/evening? Diplo and Santogold's Top Ranking will fit the bill. There's a few hard driving tracks on this one, but most of it is pretty mellow. There's quite a bit of reggae, probably about one third of the total tracks on it (this has got about 35 tracks on it).


While most big label hip hop underwhelms -- although the mixtapes are a different story -- indie/underground hip hop continues to thrive. Stone's Throw steps the pace with two releases this summer. The first solid entry is the Dilla Ghost Doom "Sniperlite". So this is a couple of J Dilla beats from donuts with verses from Ghostface Killah and MF Doom. This is short, one from Ghost, one from Doom, and the 3rd track splices the two together.

On the longer side, is MF Doom & Madlib's (i.e., Madvillain) "Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix". Apparently, this was Madlib's personal remix -- which he just decided to release this summer. Although its a remix, it has the feel of a totally different album because none of the track names are the same. Also the beats are so different it gives it a whole totally different feel to the original. This is highly recommended.

Coffee at Aroma Espresso Bar

This is supposed to a coffee shop, but they also serve sandwiches. I'm not sure if its like a chain or a small independent operation.

Its a fairly big space, they have two seating areas that flank an order counter that faces another counter with stools that looks out onto the the street. Its got a bit of modernist look to it. The tables are dark in colour and the chairs have redish/burgundy upholstery. It has a bit of a club/lounge feel to it because they play house music/club music quite loud. The furniture in the back room is pretty low profile as well, which adds to the club vibe. The tables in the front seating area are a little higher. There's a patio in the summer. The place is really busy -- doesn't really look like there's a slow time or night.

The crowd is all over the place. Some really young, some really old and pretty much everything in between. The staff is really young, and not very competent.

I ordered an americano and i got a dark liquid with a little foam on top. I tasted it. It wasn't coffee as far as I'm concerned, but I suppose some people might consider it to be so. This is one of those times where you should be allowed to throw the hot "beverage" in the face of the person who made it, so maybe they might actually try to make what is ordered the next time -- kind of like when a dog shits in a house you shove its face in the shit and it won't shit in the house anymore.

The coffee was so appalling, it should get a negative rating. Unfortunately, my rating system doesn't have this sort of feature -- so it gets 0 bunnies.


Rating: 0 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

American Apparel Ad

Even though the company has been sold to a private equity group I guess the old management team is still in place. This is a classic. I like that's it kind of like a proof sheet where you can pick the best image. My personal favorite the first one on the right side. I'm not sure if it comes through on the scan, but in the newspaper ad you can actually see her skin has a sheen to it.



They also provide a little bio on the model.

Jessica works in the Montreal store and is working on a business degree at McGill. But I'm not sure on how many people would read the bio part. In any event, the visuals are quite nice. She's also got a few slide shows on the American Apparel website if your into that kind of thing.

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Lucy Liu

Star of television and screen, immortalized in Outkast's "Hey Ya", the seductress Lucy Liu gets featured this month.
Yummy.

Coffee at Ella's Uncle

It's a tiny coffee shop on Dundas West between Bellwoods and Claremount.

Pretty simple layout to the place there's a room with a counter in about the middle. The staff are one side and the customers are on the other. It's got a bit of a retro kitchen feel, with the black checkerboard tile setup. There are some counters along the window and one of the wall with stools (seats 8 or so). The other wall has the sugar, cream, milk etc. There's a print of some streetcar track being laid from way back. They usually have music playing. The times I've been there they've played Beck and Marvin Gaye. Combined with the service, it gives the place a pretty laid back feel.

The place is pretty busy on the weekends and you can see the hipster douche bags out. But during the week days its not as busy especially in the early afternoon.

I'll have to admit my first visit was really disappointing. I had an Americano that tasted like it was made at Starbucks. However, they do have a very skilled guy working the machine, his coffee is substantially better. He's got a beard. I'm not sure if they've got a bigger crew working the machine, it looks like a pretty small operation. In any event, the Americano here when its made properly is quite good. There's a decent thickness of crema on it, which suggests that the espresso would be worthwhile. They also make a really good iced latte if your into that sort of thing. They can sweeten it for you as well -- to your preference. I'll have to say that I prefer this one to the stock iced latte you can get at Manic Coffee, which doesn't taste as good (at least to me) unless you get it with soy milk. The prices are really reasonable, a small Americano for $2 and nothing over $4 for the larger size -- lattes, machiattos etc.

There's a dark skinned woman who bakes stuff, I haven't tried any of her stuff yet but it looks pretty yummy. I guess that most (if not all of) the treats they sell are made in house.

Places like this give me hope. It's worth a look. It's a solid bunny, could be two if it didn't matter who was behind the counter.

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