The C-Section: C-Lounge + Second City + Complimentary!

Man, free stuff rules!

This week has also been full of amazing things on the house. It makes me feel like a celebrity. I also like to think it’s because we have a blog. I also know it’s not because we have a blog.

Monday night some people from the tech group at my work asked if I wanted to join them that night at C-Lounge. A DJ manager had invited them there as a gesture of goodwill I think, since they often work with some of his DJ’s on events – super nice of the dude. Man, even their website is too cool for me. Their bathrooms have hairspray in them! Even MY bathroom doesn’t have hairspray in it!

They were offered bottle service, but since it was a Monday night, they were wanted to ensure a good group of people were able to come out to show their appreciate and support. He and I decided, what the hell, we love free stuff, and we love DJ’s, so we made a night of it.

Before the show, we hit up Poppin’ Fresh at Czehoski’s for some good times and good chips.

It was good to see Fred and jam to some beats before hitting up the C-Lounge – all in all, a sweet-ass night where we felt like celebs – Toronto celebs!

Second City

So the title of this blog post originally had Comedy Bar instead of Second City, which I thought made the C-Section part a lot funnier. But I just realized the show was at Second City, not Comedy Bar. Dammit.

Tuesday night, still reeling from the generosity of Isaiah (the DJ manager), my friend Carly Heffernan invited me to head over to Second City for free tickets and free drinks to check out the new show, This Party’s A Riot! Done and done.

He and I were amazed that the show had free drinks. I think it was maybe like a friends + family kind of night or something? I’m not sure, but I’m not complaining.

Anyway, we thought the show was phenom, really funny. Some of our favorite cast members were back from the other show we saw at Second City, and we were glad to see them. The one guy, Kris Siddiqi, is just fantastic… well, they all are, but I really like his style. Inessa is back too – you can see my friend Mary’s interview with her on her blog here actually.

The show has lots of great parts – you should check it out. The reviews are mixed: NOW Magazine doesn’t seem a fan, Toronto Star digs but sounds like your mom is writing it kind of, National Post seems on the fence. I was really pleased that the Post mentions the “other office scene” though – it was my fave.

Anyway, base your own thoughts, but we thought it was a slaaaaaam dunk.

Then again, we WERE drinking for free.

Go To: P.J. O’Brien’s, a stellar Irish pub in downtown Toronto

We just got back from P.J. O’Brien‘s for supper.  Great place. The food was the best that I’ve ever had at an Irish pub. Beer and whiskey selection was good.  Waitresses had Irish accents (no kilts).  Just a great place. As BlogTO said, “…older crisply dressed Irish gentlemen almost always to be found sharing a story or a joke somewhere in the place, this is as Irish a pub as it gets. Period.”  And, you know, I’d have to agree with him.

Check it out if you’re at Yonge and King (the pub is located one block south of King and two blocks east of Yonge).

As a side note, Him and Her are going to try to hit up each of the Irish pub’s in BlogTO’s list of “The Best Irish Pubs in Toronto.” So far we’ve been to 5, and He thinks it’s safe to say that Mr. O’Brien’s is the most authentic…well, except that having really good food might compromise it’s legitimacy as a REAL Irish pub!

Date Night #2

This date had been in the mix for awhile. As mentioned awhile back, we had a gift card for the Old Spaghetti Factory, one of our favorite restaurants. I mean seriously, what’s not to love? Free bread, delicious pasta, and a $2 corking fee on Tuesday nights? We’re there!

Interjection – totally just realized that our only other Date Night post is also about the Old Spaghetti Factory. But seriously, free bread. I’m not embarrassed at all.

We’ve known about this $2 corking fee for some time now, but this was the first time we’ve been able to put it into action. So at 5 p.m. sharp, He went to buy our advance tickets to the movie we were seeing after TOSF, and I went to the LCBO by the Yonge/Bloor subway to grab a bottle of wine for us. After some seriously depressing searching (hardly any bottles of white with Air Miles), I finally found a bottle for $7.95 that had five airmiles. Sold. It will inevitably be received here later.

We met at the resto with the intention of pretending it was our first date. Aw, supercute! We kind of forgot about it though, until 20 minutes in my coworker texted me as my get-off-the-hook-pretend-it’s-a-car-crash phone call. It was pretty funny. We had our awesome pasta, free bread (two loaves) and our salads. BUT NOT OUR WINE.

They changed the corking fee! Apparently it wasn’t just on Tuesday’s, it was everyday, but no one was using it, so they turned it back into their old fee of $10 to uncork it! The guy, Joel, asked if we wanted to pay that fee, but seriously, do I look like the kind of girl who’s going to be late for dinner in order to find a cheap bottle of wine that costs $8 and comes with Air Miles, just to pay MORE to uncork it than the bottle of wine cost itself? I don’t think so brosef.

So we sucked it up and got the bucket of five beers for $15. Still not a bad deal, but not what we were expecting. Old Spaghetti Factory, you’ve let us down. You’re lucky we don’t have any more gift cards…

During dinner I received a phone call from Queen’s Alumni Relations a.k.a. Queen’s Alumni Please-Give-Us-Your-Money-You-Graduated-A-Year-Ago-What-Don’t-You-Have-Lots Relations. They almost get me because they’re so damn nice and inquiring as to details of my life that no one else cares about. But no, I will not give you my $20.09. Even if it is cute to ask for money in the year I graduated.

We went to the Rainbow Cinema, a neat little spot that He has been after me to go to for some time. It was a neat theatre, and we saw True Grit for only $5 each. Not terrible at all.

I know True Grit got a buttload of Oscar nom’s and all, but I don’t really care. It was a good movie though, although (spoiler), it would have been nice if SOMEthing nice happened at the end, you know? Plus, I don’t like when animals die in films. It’s not their fault. While the movie was good, I kind of like the trailer more. It’s funny, because the thing I told Him that I liked about the movie most was that they had funny parts in it. I mean, just because you’re on a quest to avenge your father’s death doesn’t mean someone can’t tell a decent joke on the way, am I right? The trailer has none of that funny stuff, but I still think it’s really good.

Good Date Night over all though. A friend of ours was even at the theatre, sitting next to us. We haven’t seen him since Queen’s, so it was nice to run into him. He’s really tall, and I forgot that until he stood up next to me.

PLUS – we still have a bottle of wine to drink!

Driving each other nuts

Tonight we went on Date Night. Not something we do terribly often (Interjection by Him: yes, we do go on dates often), and it’s never planned, but it’s always nice.

We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner, which was great. We had a $25 gift card from His brother and His brother’s girlfriend for Christmas from last year, and we figured we had better use it. Not like us to leave a gift card for so long, but hey, there you have it.

The food was great, as usual, but what was funny was what He saw in the bathroom. (Not that kind of funny). He noticed a sign saying if  you bought a $25 giftcard, you received a $10 giftcard free. We wondered if that was how we received the gift last Christmas (minus the $10), and as we pondered this, we decided to get them the exact same thing. Not because we’re cheap, just because we’re hilarious.
From there we made our way in the pouring rain to the Factory Theatre. He likes rain, She doesn’t, He had a raincoat, She didn’t. It was not fun. (Interjection by Him – it was fun)

The show was very well done. Called “Spent,” it was about the financial crisis and relied heavily on the use of clown and physical comedy, as well as a handful of great accents. We highly recommend it.

Home again through the pouring rain, which was made way more fun by us running through it.

Date night = great night. (Interjection by Her – minus the rain)