What NOT to do in Toronto

As I'm sure you're all painfully aware, I really like The Gourmet Food and Wine Expo... and have been known to go on and on about this fact.  It stands out as a shining example of something incredibly fun to do in Toronto that only comes around once per year.  Given my great affection for this event it's no great surprise that I was pretty excited to find out about a Tequila Show taking place at the Convention Centre a few weeks after my beloved Expo.  Gray and I, ever your intrepid reporters, went in search of information and drunkenness last Friday.  I am unhappy to report that the Tequila Show provided us with neither of those things.

I went in envisioning the Food and Wine Expo (which covers the entire main show hall in the South Building) only with a higher proof.  We found ourselves instead in one of the side meeting rooms, a region not much larger than most people's back yard.  A quick tour of the room revealed two private importers offering samples of unique tequilas, both of whom we'd visited at the Food and Wine Expo, and then a handful of booths being operated by the likes of Jose Cuervo, El Jimador, and Cazadores.  In other words, it was almost entirely composed of drinks that we could have just hopped across the road and picked up at our local LCBO.  I looked at my esteemed brother in dismay as he declared to me in a voice heavy with his customary rage "I have literally tried every single tequila in this room."  Gray is not normally inclined toward hyperbole, and this was no exception; there wasn't a single beverage on display that he hadn't sampled either on his own time, or at the Food and Wine Expo.

It's now worth mentioning the matter of cost.  The Food and Wine Expo cost something in the neighbourhood of $15 to attend.  It is also awesome.  The Tequila Show cost $45.  It is not awesome.  At all.

Take that inflated cost and under-delivered experience and add to it the fact that I woke up 3 hours early that day to ensure that I could get off work in time to make it downtown for the show, and I did not leave a happy camper.  So that particular event is going to get a rating of "Not Recommended."

On a positive note, Gray and I went to Duggans for dinner before we went to the show and it was, as always, amazing.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, Duggans is a brewpub that's serving up beers that they are crafting themselves on site alongside some really fantastic food.  If you are in Toronto that restaurant gets a rating of "Highly Recommended."

Well, I'm off to work.  I hope you are all having a lovely day, and I will check in again next Tuesday.