Tags
Cookie Friday Company, Desmond and Beatrice, Foodies On Foot, Gloria Czomko, Queen Margherita Pizza, Queen Street East, Steven Hellmann
We had a great evening tonight participating in our first Foodies On Foot event at Queen Margherita Pizza, 1402 Queen Street East, just east of Greenwood Avenue.
I came to hear about Foodies On Foot from some of my new “foodie” acquaintances and started following their blog and Twitter posts. The principals of Foodies On Foot are Steven Hellmann and Gloria Czomko. This dynamic and outgoing duo love Toronto and they love food. What better way than to bring Torontonians and tourists together with fine dining establishments in our great city.
And that brings us to our communal dinner at Queen Margherita Pizza:
http://www.queenmargheritapizza.ca/
Steven and Gloria were there to greet us as soon as we arrived around 6:15 pm:
They had a special beverage offer of either Prosseco or a Negroni cocktail for only $5.00. Prosseco is a dry Italian sparkling wine. And a Negroni is composed of gin, vermouth and Campari, making it a dry/bitter apéritif. I ordered two of each for our party of four consisting of my wife, myself, my brother-in-law and his wife.
We met one of the co-owners, John Chetti who gave us an explanation about Queen Margherita:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margherita_of_Savoy
At 7pm we were informed that it was time for dinner and we went upstairs to a huge dining area with massive windows to the east and south:
Steven had reserved three huge tables for our group and we all took our seats. At our table we were joined by a lovely couple from Toronto, Michael and Lynda. And I had the great fortune to be seated right next to Gloria. Steven located himself at an adjoining table.
Since this was a communal dinner, it was served “family-style” which I love. We started with a fabulous salad and I apologize that I didn’t get the full ingredient list, but trust me, it was terrific:
We were also served a platter containing porchetta/pulled-pork, onions and tasty crusty Italian bread:
Next up was the first pizza which was a simple yet tasty cheese pizza:
And then the second pizza; spicy with sausage and it was delicious as well:
And finally pizza number three which was our favourite containing mushrooms and prosciutto:
A guest at our table told us that these pizzas only take 90 seconds to cook due to the high heat of the pizza oven and the thin crust!
Through these many courses we shared stories about our travels, food finds and restaurants in Toronto. We also talked about theatre, technology, travel, photography and had great conversations with our new friends. And this is why we love these type of outings; meeting new people and sharing life experiences with strangers is rewarding, and there is nothing more basic in human nature than sharing a meal with other people.
Our dessert course came next and I was so engaged in conversation and enjoying the signature Nutella mousse dessert, that I forgot to grab a photograph!
And at the end of the evening we were all given a cupcake done by a local bakery, Desmond and Beatrice:
http://desmondandbeatrice.com/
And a cookie done by Cookie Friday Company:
http://www.cookiefridayco.com/
We had a terrific time at our first Foodies On Foot event and we look forward to another event in the near future. Steven and Gloria have a winning formula here and their energy, enthusiasm and love of food and Toronto are truly inspiring.
