Adios, Mexicali! Hola, Feleena & Amigos! – A Waffle Exclusive

Si, señor & señorita! Mexicali Rosa’s is no more – in Ontario, at least. That is what The Waffle found out as he brought his familly to the establishment formerly located on Clarence Street, which is now called Feleena’s Cantina. (No link to Feleena’s on Bank that I can see.) Rebranding? Upscaling? Another failed Market adventure? I was curious, and since we still wanted Mexican-style food, the name-change didn’t deter us. We walked in a little before 2PM looking to enjoy the Mexican-fare and the air conditioning on this hot Sunday of July. The place was empty, which made for great, friendly and attentive service throughout our time there! We were greeted by a sign that announced that the changes may only be cosmetic at this point. “Different name, same great taste” it said. Well, Mexicali has never been a high-end establishment, so we would have to judge for ourselves…

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Doing the Hangover Brunch without the hangover

Back in May, the trendy OZ Kafé on Elgin introduced its Sunday Hangover Brunch. The owner confided in The Waffle that the goal was to attract the same branché clientèle who visited them the night before and who enjoyed a few “Pretty in Pinks” too many – a signature martini at OZ, which, I must add, was invented years ago by my wife and her then roomate Tara. So OZ’s Hangover Brunch is offered starting at 2:30 PM: “We do not want to compete with the places offering the traditional brunch on Elgin, we want to offer something different,” added Oz herself. Hence, people are invited to get brunchfaced, all the way to 9:00 PM – which means, of course, that if you do not want to get brunchfaced, you shouldn’t go on Sundays as their regular menu is not available. Whitout having had the pleasure of visiting Oz Kafé…

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Fionn MacFly… err, MacCool’s

When one travels from airport to airport, one must know where you can grab a bite. Westjet flies out of Terminal 3 at Pearson’s International Airport. This means that food choices are limited – especially if you’d like to have a rest and enjoy a sit-down meal. There is a Swiss Chalet, a couple of food counters, 2 small bar and grills. And since last December, there is a Fionn MacCool’s. Part of the Prime Pubs family and opened in partnership with HMSHost, this is the second airport location for Prime Pubs, the first one being a Darcy McGee’s at MacDonald-Cartier in Ottawa. At the same time, Prime Pubs announced the opening of another Fionn MacCool’s – this time in Orangeville – making MacCool’s the leading brand of the company with 8 restaurants. The Pearson MacCool’s menu is more limited than their other locations, but you can find the usual…

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Daily Deals at Wild Wing

Anyone who reads this blog semi-regularly knows I love chicken wings, and that I do enjoy the never-frozen, double-deep-fried ones served by the Wild Wing establishments. And so when Mel suggested that we go there for lunch as an enticement to go shopping at Ikea and DeBoers (the latter opening its doors for one last time), I couldn’ t say no. So we ended up at the Eagleson road location, where we sat on the patio – and were the only ones to do so, even though it was a beautiful day. It is true that, like most Wild Wing restaurants, this one is also located in a small non-descript mall with a superb view of a parking lot. Nevertheless, the sun was shining, the breeze was refreshing, and we would sit outside. The first thing I noticed: Inside the menu, which still features 101 kinds of chicken wings, was…

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Giordano’s World Famous!

We had heard good things about the Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise aboard Chicago’s First Lady. Apparently, it is the best cruise on the Chicago river, and a must for all to experience, even if you know next to nothing about architecture. You get to hear about more than 50 buildings along the river during the 90 minutes cruise. We made our way to the river, hoping to hop on the next cruise. Alas, it was sold out – but there was room on the 2 PM cruise, meaning we had about 90 minutes to go for lunch and make it back in time. Thankfully, I had spotted something on the way. So from the river-walk, we walked south on Lower Beaubien until we hit it. Giordano’s Famous Stuffed Pizza. According to their story, Efren and Joseph Boglio were born in a small northern Italian town near Torino, where their…

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