Open City…

Dish & Stella

Coming up to this weekend… I saw all the tweets! One after the next of various local shops and restaurants I follow, tweeting about the “Open City” event in Halifax this weekend… a brilliant concept drawing folks downtown to visit places they’d never been… enticed by free beer, amazing food and discounted ice cream!

I was excited.

Then… Saturday came and the fact that my kids weren’t home and I hadn’t put my feet up in multiple days… I was soon plunked on my couch, un-showered and enjoying the thrill of doing absolutely nothing while considering cracking the the cap off a cold one.

But Twitter wouldn’t leave me alone!!

One after the next they told me of things I should be doing and the guilt was stronger than the TIME magazine’s cover flashing at me that I hadn’t breast fed my baby long enough and had I done so… I still might be able to fit into my damn skinny jeans!!

On top of that… CHIVES BISTRO HAD KETTLE CHIPS AND LAMB SLIDERS!!!

I called Dish… jumped in the shower… and headed down without a plan, a map or a single idea of where we were going except I had to try those kettle chips.

SOLD OUT?

I wasn’t annoyed. In fact, quite the opposite. I was all… “shoulda got off my couch”, “my own fault”, “good for Chives for being so popular.” In fact, I was oddly “proud” that so many people came out, lined up and happily tweeted about their awesome lunch!

So… we headed to Carbonstock… I’d heard they had beer and I’d a hunkerin’ for beer but before arriving at our destination Dish was all “What’s Bearlys” and next thing you know… sidetracked faster than @FeralSeagull with a French Fry… we found ourselves sitting in a darkened pub on a windy Saturday eating the best damn cheeseburger I’ve ever had. (To be honest, I actually wanted Eggs Benny but with my feet up and a Corona half gone…  it hit us that the combination of beer and eggs was potentially gross.)

With lunch over… though more beer beckoned… we grudgingly headed out and decided to continue our journey to take in a bit of local culture and see what this “Open City” was all about.

Our stop at Carbonstock had us laughing at greeting cards and me contemplating the purchase of a  Quarrelsome Yeti t-shirt for Spiderman. Off to Bishops Landing for a peruse through Maples Gallery where I met the lovely owner Arline… and found a fabulous gift for Mom. A stop in Bedazzled had me open-mouthed-gaping at one exquisite piece after the next of the beautiful jewellery designs of Trudy Gallagher as the artist herself was in the shop and happily showing me her delightful pieces. On to Rum Runners where Dish couldn’t quite get enough of their “sample cake” squares positioned on their counter and then a quick view of the long lineup at Sugah where I considered jumping on the end but much as I LOVE their paddled ice-cream… was still too stuffed from lunch.

We happily looked at the displays of NSCAD’s “Artist for a Day” and continued perusing along the waterfront until we found ourselves walking brisker towards the Lower Deck. It was as if our homing devices were suddenly chiming in and low and behold, next thing you know, we found ourselves sitting on the patio purchasing a couple of cold ones and having a chat with our favorite and handsome waiter Eddie… where we happily stayed for the rest of the afternoon.

So… all in all… our “Open City” adventure was more like a mini “Dish and Queen” pub crawl with a few local shops thrown in for good measure! Turns out… my Saturday was exactly the way I wanted! Feet up… drinking a few beer… and relaxing!

As far as I’m concerned, “Open City” was a huge success!