THE SPOKE CLUB - www.thespokeclub.com

Alright, so my BFF is pretty important, especially in the city of Toronto. To prove this, he is a member of "The Spoke Club." A no-bullshit members only club that gives you a plastic card with your name on it--just to prove that you're the shit. Long story short, after a hectic week (or two) he treated me of a bottle of organic white wine. When I first got to this place, we took a huge elevator the size of my apartment up to the third floor, the main restaurant. The doors opened and the place was looking pretty alright for my taste. The girls are the front desk stared me down a few times just to make me feel at home in this high-class place. As we sat down to our table and overlooked the wine menu (because we are clearly alcoholics), we noticed something called "bio-dynamic wine." Being health freaks, my BFF and I asked out waiter what "bio-dynamic" meant. The waiter clearly had no clue and proceeded to run to the back kitchen to google "bio-dynamic" on his blackberry. Five minutes later, a lovely Asian woman greeted us and fully explained "bio-dynamic:" (I think his blackberry didn't have service at the time.) Anyways, It's basically a step further then organic. The dictionary states it as: "a method of organic farming involving such factors as the observation of lunar phases and planetary cycles and the use of incantations and ritual substances." Ritual substances?!!? Is that like witchcraft? Whatever, the wine tasted like heaven, it was floral and just the perfect amount of sweetness.
As for the decoration and crowd? I would honestly say that one half of The Spoke Club's main level is beautiful, it has exposed bricks and natural colors, while the other half is trying too hard to look like The Mod Club with it's red walls and tacky chandeliers. If you feel like sitting next to large tables full of Thornhill, Gossip-Girl wannabes taking self-pics, then this sure is the place to hang out.
It's too bad that we couldn't eat anything on the limited menu because it is all meat-based. I guess those Thornhill folk need iron to get through long days at the office so they can pay for their wives plastic surgery and Gucci bags.
All-in-all, if I ever go back to The Spoke Club, I'm going up one level from the main restaurant and wearing a wig and sunglasses to fit into the superficial crowd.

I give the "bio-dynamic" wine 5/5 on my D+D scale, but be prepared to spend an arm and a leg to sip the sweetness...

Fressen- www.fressenrestaurant.com

After watching the new NOTORIOUS B.I.G movie that lasted 2 hours, my BFF and I were getting pretty hungry. It was 9pm on a Thursday, and we thought Fressen would be closed (due to the sensitive nature of the vegans who run the restaurant.) We decided to be adventurous and walk up to Queen West in the freezing cold and call to make a reservation so they wouldn't hate us, showing up late and unexpected.... we basically didn't want any vegan spit in our food. Long story short, we showed up, sat down, and got the service from a waitress that could have been taken straight from an SNL skit. She mumbled the daily specials as her head was down, lighting our candles, then and walked off before we could ask her anything. Needless to say, we burst out laughing in shock and eventually ended up being served by another woman who was slightly happier, yet looking like she'd had a long day putting up with asshole vegans. We decided to order 4 main dishes (to share) and one side of sauteed spinach sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. The mushroom dish and veggie "pizza" tasted pretty good for the fact that everything was vegan. Flavourful, gracious portions and satisfactory prices, Fressen is a good place to go to if you want to knock faux leather boots with your ex yoga teacher who is now a singer, sipping red organic wine at the table next to you. I must say, it's a great place to over-hear conversations. When we first entered we saw a couple, the man was wearing a Velvet hat with a feather attached to the side and some cowboy attire, while the swooning lady he was with exclaimed: "Oh wow..you like...know everyone who's dated a famous person before!" I could practically see her drooling all over her tofu dish as I watched two up-tight ladies walk in with yoga mats on their backs.
Overall, I give Fressen a 2.5/5 on my D+D scale