Toronto Daily Awesome EXHIBIT 14) One of the very favourite meal time delights of the Scarborough Rumballs was the meatball sandwich. My Dad would often arrive home with insanely super delicious bread-enwrapped tubes of Italian happiness. He told us they came from San Francescos. Well, there was a San Francescos at Bathurst and Queen. I knew this because the Exhibition streetcar passed right by. My Dad worked at Front and Spadina. For years I just assumed I had the right meatball mecca. From 1997- 2010 I lived in and around Little Italy. Eight of those years were on Claremont Street. I used to tell people I lived in the Bermuda Triangle of sandwiches. I was smack in the middle of California Sandwiches, where I acquired my eggplant sammies, Bitondos for panzerotti with tomato sauce and, yes, San Francescos where I grabbed, of course, meatball sandwiches. Now, within this triangle, 30 seconds from my door, directly above San Frans was and is The Monarch Tavern. Good, old school and very welcoming of outside food. Traditionally, they had no kitchen, so they were quite fine with people bringing in whatever they liked. Very civilized. When anyone visited, that was one of our first things to do. Welcome to Toronto, lets have sandwiches and beer. Well, I am not always the best puzzle putter together-er. But it did finally dawn on me that probably the San Francescos my Dad was dropping into was not the one at the bustling corner of Queen and Bathurst, but was this one tucked quietly into a little Italian neighbourhood with work-decompressing draft taps and convivial charm. Hmm. All those years later and here was I, accidentally carrying on my fathers tradition. My nephew and I went guitar shopping in my neighbourhood when he was 16. When we had lunch we went to The Monarch and had sandwiches, beer for myself and pop for his self. Not accidental at all.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 23:13:54 +0000
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