Terroni @ the Courthouse

The place is pretty impressive -- high ceilings, nice floors, marble, nice wood (reclaimed douglas fir) and ornate plaster work. This is a big place, but its broken up into distinct rooms. There's a bar area with a banquette when you come, the hostess is in a corridor and you tell her how many. She then basically figures out where you'll sit or have to wait -- no reservations. You can get seated in one of two rooms, a smaller one of two the side and a large one in the middle with a big fireplace. The smaller room has like a gallery or balcony on top so the ceilings have a lot of height. They also have a few private rooms: the one upstairs has a more contemporary look to it, but the basement one makes you think of those movie scenes where you get these little Italian cantina around the time of WWII. My favourite thing about the place is the giant case where they keep the prosciutto's at the front -- makes my mouth water.

The patio is nice. It's pretty understated. It backs onto to a square or green area for some condos or something. It kind of reminds me of this side street just off of St Denis in Montreal where the patios for the restaurants and cafes spill out onto the street.

The crowd tends to lean towards the younger end of the age spectrum, but the you get all sorts here. Pretty casual and relaxed.

The service is decent. I mean this is not the sort of place where you're going to get a personalized meal planner and spectacle when they serve you, but they answer your questions and are friendly and polite.

In terms of drinks and wine, they keep it real. If you're looking for a place to go get fruit martinis and shit like that this is not the place for you. So you can get cocktails and drinks that Italians drink. I like that, no pandering to local tastes. So if you order a Campari, you're not going to have your server say things like "Excuse me, can you say that again" or "I'll have to check whether we have that", or even worse bring you a cranberry juice.

The wine list is pretty extensive. I have to admit I've had some trouble sorting through it because its so extensive. To really work through it well you have to have a pretty good knowledge of Italian wines or perhaps a good knowledge of the wines from some region. I'm not sure the staff would be too much of a help. The last time I order wine there I asked for some help and got a glowing recommendation, but the wine turned out to be really pedestrian. Of course, if you've got some money to spend you're going to be able to find something decent -- you can probably sort most of these wines by price. But if you're on a budget its tougher to work the list. There's no house wine to fall back on.

The menu is basically simple southern Italian food -- although I'm not sure how the smoked salmon pannino made it on to the menu. So stuff is done in a homey kind of way. For example, if your secondi dish comes with broccoli then the broccoli is prepared the way an Italian mother might prepare it -- boiled, garnished with some olive oil and sprinkled with chili peppers.

The salads are nice and you can tell that they don't go cheap on the ingredients. For example, if you get the buffalo mozzarella caprese you really get fresh buffalo mozzarella that tastes different from what is described as buffalo mozzarella at most. The salads are all relatively light so you can get two or maybe three for two persons and sample the menu. The fried calamari come super-sized. They only come with some slices of lemon and they're done well -- not soggy, not burnt, just right.

The pastas there, broadly speaking, come in a tomato sauce or without (cream or oil based). Personally, I'm not a fan of the tomato sauce ones because the tomatoes aren't cooked before making the sauce, so you get a little more of the acidic taste of tomatoes. But this would be true for almost all Italian spots. So they would be fine for people with less refined palettes who can't tell the difference. Of the ones without the tomato sauce, I tend to prefer the aoili e olio ones (oil and garlic). For example, the pappardelle (thick fettuccine) with sausage, peas and mushrooms is kind of like a bolognese, but without the sauce. The serving sizes are relatively big.

They do thin crust pizza's well here too. Big variety to pick from.

Surprisingly, coffee is not really a strength here -- but then the places that can serve well made coffee are few and far between. On the other hand, the deserts are well done. They have a flour less chocolate cake on the menu right now that's really good. The tiramisu is also a nice fall back pick.

A dinner for 2 (2 starters, 2 mains and a shared desert) with a few drinks will be about $80-$100. So this is in the medium price range.

Overall, you can't go wrong with this place. Good food and great vibe. I'd say they set the pace for simple Italian food in the city. As much as I like the place, I can't give it two bunnies though, its a real close call. There's just something missing -- maybe they need some real Italian guys roaming around the place or a sommelier to help out with wines -- but its really close. But this place gets a bunny without any reservations.

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

Musical Selections: The Beat Konducta

Checked out Madlib's Beat Konducta Vol. 5: Dil Cosby Suite, which is a J Dilla tribute beat tape (J. Rocc from Stones Throw is involved too). Nice cover:

Really smooth, most of the tracks are less than 2 minutes. This is really smooth, you can keep listening to this over and over again and not really get bored with it. If you are into the mellower beats on J Dilla's Donuts then you'll like this. The only negative about this is that its so short -- about 33 minutes.

I don't think this is really recent, I just listened to it for the first time, but Madlib's Raw Ground Wire Hump (Beat Konducta in India 45) is also worth checking out. Not surprisingly -- this has a real Bollywood soundtrack feel to it. The 45 has Raw Ground Wire Parts 1 to 4 on it. There was a track called Raw Ground Wire on his Beat Konducta Vol 3-4, but none of the 4 parts on the 45 sound like it. The Bollywood soundtrack thing does come through pretty clearly on a few parts of this -- the other two are more low key influences. Again this really short, about 6 or 7 minutes. But then you can get more the stuff on Beat Konducta Vol 3-4.

Il Gatto Nero

Or in English The Black Cat a cafe on college street.

The place probably has one of the best locations around. It's on the corner on the east side of a side street with some big trees providing shade over the patio on the side. You can sit near the front or on the front patio and look at the hipster girls in their American apparel outfits and the street cars roll along College street. Prefect spot for the summer.

The place building itself is really great too. It's got really high ceilings -- although the colour scheme wasn't so great. There's a banquette on the wall and the bar is also against the bar. Tables fill in the rest of the space. The place would look fabulous if a professional with some taste redid it.

The staff seems like a bit of a mix. There was a nice, polite and perky girl working the tables. But then there were some monosyllable guys who sound like they were from Brooklyn in the place as well.

The menu has a mix of salads, panini, pasta and pizza. To me the menu looks kind of similar to what you might get at most Italian spots around the city -- although a few of the salads look like they got ripped off from Terroni's menu.

I ordered a grilled chicken breast panino. I was appalled by what I was served. The menu said chicken breast and they brought me processed chicken. If I had wanted processed chicken I would've gone to the deli counter at the Dominion across the street, but I suppose some establishments need to lie to diners. The menu also said it was grilled, but I don't think these guys have a real grill -- the grill marks looked kind of fake (maybe they use a George Foreman grill). The bun was too doughy and thick -- so the balance in the sandwich is off. The "chicken" is really thin so you end up having to chew really hard because the bread is too thick and the sandwich starts to come apart after a few bites. I asked the waitress whether the sandwich came with anything. She politely replied that it came with some mixed greens. What she didn't say was that the mixed greens didn't come with any dressing, so even though it looks like a salad and it's more like something you would feed to a grazing animal.

Also I'm not sure if cleanliness is high on the priority list here, the washroom has a really strong urine smell to it.

I generally like to check a place out a few times before I deliver a review, but in this case I'm going to pass a summary judgement because if you can't do something simple liked a grilled chicken breast you can't be expected to deliver on something more complicated. It's a shame someone who could actually make food can't invade the place and take it over -- but I guess these sorts of things happen when you have a legal system that enforces property rights.

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

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Leryn Franco

Since the Olympics are underway it seems appropriate to have an Olympian as this month's feature. Leryn Franco is a javelin thrower -- how phallic -- for Paraguay's olympic team. I would have figured that javelin throwers would have a bulky east German look to them, but apparently I was mistake. Leryn looks like she might be on the Brazilian beach volleyball team. She was a runner up in the Miss Paraguay contest a few years ago -- the winner must have been sizzling hot.

She's been trying some modeling and has her own calendar (see a couple of snaps below). The one with the white bikini is a nice one, kind of makes you picture with her skin a little wet with sweat.

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.