Mercato

Italian food store and restaurant in Mission called Mercato, so I made the trip out to see it for lunch. Took a couple of clients of mine simply to have someone to go with.

Nice airy atmosphere in there, the tables are a touch close together & it's a little bright at lunch (I like eating in the dark). Service was good & the food is very good. The portions are "normal" sized, meaning if you're hoping for a 6 layer sandwich and 300 pounds of fries...keep stepping homeboy, you ain't going to find it here. I'd think this would be a good place to take a date if she liked Italian food. They even offer parking (if there is any) if not, try one of the side streets.

The only catch is, this place costs a fair bit. Lunch for 3 cost me 130 bucks with a tip. Thankfully, after work I was able to walk around the alleys and collect bottles to recharge my bank account.

Off to the bottle depot...

Photo Radar

So...I managed to get 2 photo radar tickets...in the same area, in the same day. For over 200 bucks. *sigh*.

2.26

That's how much a venti coffee is at Starbucks. that seems normal to I realize I used to pay like...1.49.

Weird thing is, I don't like Starbucks coffee, but I drink it. And I'm the only one. The rest of the people order things with "chino" on the end

Lunch

One great place to eat lunch is CO OP at the Mid Town Market on 12th or 11th, or whatever. U go there, fill up this plate with food and pay for it by weight. It's good. For 10 bucks (a deal) you can have about 7 different things...and a can of CO OP pop. If you go at lunch, it's super busy tho.

Beer

After what seems like forever, I've weaned myself off the ale of Ontario and now like two local brews. One is Traditional from Big Rock...the other is all things Wild Rose. They're a small micro that's located in the old army area of Calgary. They sell this thing called The Party Pig, which is this fridge sized keg you get from them for 50 bucks. You'll drink it fast..and it's pretty easy to handle.

It sure beats taking empties back to the bottle depot here. That's THE most annoying thing you can do in life. The lines are terribly long and it's the most stinky place in the world. I usually give my bottles to the homeless people but I have so many now, I think I'm going to be greedy and keep them for myself.

Ducky's Pub

This is a pub on 4th Street...around 22nd. My first experience there was the assault of their karaoke....which consisted of the same 5 people singing 100 different songs.

Regardless, I've gone back, and I like this place. I took a buddy there for drinks...and it's not that bad of a place. Some things about it.

1. They have lots of hockey on TV screens
2. The customers are either young and sexy or like 50 and just having a pint
3. The food...well you have about 5 choices. I had their wings the other night which where...chicken legs. But they were good
4. The service...is slow. But the people are nice.
5. There is one small pool table in there.

All in all, a good dive bar. If you like "high class" places...this is not where you wanna go. If you like places you can sit in peace and just do your thing, this joint is OK. It's rather refreshing in a city that is all about the imagery of clubs.....