Jenny and I realized recently that we have had tunnel vision when picking spots to eat. We automatically walk the Half block south to queen, and decide whether we want to head east or west.
It wasn’t until we spontaneously grabbed dinner at Wynona (will do another post about that), that we need to spend more energy on Gerrard and the Danforth.
So naturally, when it was time to grab dinner with my past clients turned friends Pat and Claudia, we decided the Auld Spot was our venue of choice.
We walked the 25 minutes north on Logan and worked up a pretty good sweat passing by Withrow park. It felt like 40 degrees and it was humid.
our conversation quickly turned into a debate about whether it was better to walk slowly, to try and sweat less, or to walk faster and get to the ice cold patio beers faster. Jenny argued for the former and luckily lost.
We arrived 20 minutes earlier than our friends which gave us plenty of time to order our beers, pick out the best patio table, people watch and most importantly cool down to a socially acceptable level of sweatiness.
really wanting to lean into the pub theme, my beer of choice for the evening was Night Piper Scottish Ale. Not a typical choice for a humid August night.. but the Auld spot had me feeling romantic and in my mind I was in the UK.
When Pat and Claudia arrived we kept that same energy. We collectively ordered three pieces of fish and chips, 2 vegetarian scotch eggs, one burger, and two orders of the chicken drummies.
After about a half pint more each, the food arrived. Everything came all at once which only helped to fuel my Fantasy of an Irish/English/ Scottish feast.
We were very hungry at this point so we were all pretty quiet as we sampled a bit of everything. The consensus favourite was the chicken drummies. Jumbo sized and perfectly breaded chicken wing drum sticks tossed in hot/ honey and Buffalo sauce.
Jenny had (strongly) suggested them and after one bite it was easy to see why. I think the best way I can describe it is that if she orders wings at any other restaurant on the planet, she specifically gets flats only. The drummies at the Auldspot are so meaty, so well made, that she orders them as her main.
The rest of the food was great as well. I do wish they had a traditional scotch egg instead of a vegetarian one, but even that was delicious.
By the time we cleaned our plates, it was dark out which made for a nice vibe. As I finished my last Scottish ale we shared some laughs and Optimistically talked about post Covid trips to whiskey bars in Tokyo, and pubs in Scotland.
We said goodbye to our friends and walked our way back down Hampton, eventually making out way over to Logan. The walk allowed for us to get some much needed steps in to help digest the deliciousness That was sitting in our bellies.
Soon enough we were back on Colgate and back to reality. Overall a fantastic night with great friends. We will definitely be back to the Danforth sooner than later.