Hope everyone's weekend has been going well. Mine has been pretty much non-stop. Today M and I hit the Toronto Home Show (thanks to Shannon for passing on the tickets!) where I checked out stone options for the fireplace in the new house and saw a front door that I just fell in love with. Afterwards we did a bit of shopping and then, famished, headed into La Bettola di Terroni for an early dinner. From what I can tell Terroni restaurants seem to be a divisive issue for Torontonians, despite always being full. Most seem to agree that the Toronto Terroni locations serve delicious, rustic-style Italian food (they're famous for their pizzas), but a lot of people can't stand that the restaurants have a no-substitution rule. Me? I could care less. I know if I want balsamic vinegar to go with my olive oil bread dip not to head to Terroni. And while I've heard that some have been refused even pepperoncini oil we never have been (it's one of M's must-haves) and tonight were even offered it by a charming Brit waiter. The only thing I can't stand is that this is yet another no-reservation restaurant.
While I had been to the other Terronis I had never tried La Bettola on Victoria, located right beside Terroni's Osteria Ciceri e Tria, and overall was happy with it. The concept is supposed to be a "hole in the wall" neighbourhood type place with good wine and better food. One of the first things I noticed when walking in was the cured meats hanging by the doorway, the communal table stretching the length of the room (later occupied by a smiling bride complete with veil) and the big block letters on the far right wall that read, "Il vino scioglie la lingua ed apre il cuore" which means "wine loosens the tongue and opens the heart."
My pizza (La Bufalina, as always) was great and M loved his pasta special (spaghetti with truffles, sausage and pecorino) and Caprese salad. I think my fave part were the fritti (fried) dishes on the menu. For a minute there I was considering ordering all of them and being done with it. They had two of my faves Arancini (rice balls) and Crochette, and I went with the former because the Crochette had mortadella in them. I much prefer them without meat and I can't really stomach mortadella these days after OD'ing on the stuff when I was a kid. We hardly ever get dessert, but I let M eat half my pizza so I could eat the Frittelle di Nutella (I mean, really, did you really expect me to pass it up?) Unfortunately, while good, they didn't live up to my expectations. I'll take a bombe any day of the week. I also got to check out the new location of Grazie--no weekend reservations here either, I think someone is trying to push me over the edge--where the best part of a good meal was the Baked Goat Cheese Salad (pizza was also good as were the gnocchi, which they did for us in a vodka sauce). So, enough about food and on to the winners!
The Winner of the Lemel Designs Necklace is
Sarah of Haute Design
Visit Lemel Designs on Facebook and check
out more of their great jewelery here.
The Winner of the Erica Eriksdotter Stationary is
Shari of Little Blue Deer
Learn more about Erica here. Like what you see?
Check out her Etsy shop, too.
Congrats to the winners (please email me your shipping info) and thanks so much to the very generous and talented Melanie of Lemel Designs and Erica Eriksdotter for sponsoring these fab giveaways. Don't forget to enter for your chance to win a $100 Shopbop Gift Card! Hope you enjoy what's left of the weekend, darlings.
Images: Toronto Star, Compendium Daily, BlogTO
