My friend Paula was visiting from Switzerland this holiday season and to help make her feel at home we took her to Marben on Wellington West (at Portland). You do know that Switzerland is farms, farms, and more farms, right? And Marben is farmhouse meets foodie haven.

I hadn’t been to Marben yet and was really looking forward to it. Not only because I’d heard good things about their food, but also because much of the design and decor is by Stroudfoot. I’m happy to say I wasn’t disappointed.

Paula and I opted to start with the soup of the day – butternut squash with Chantilly cream. One word: delish! And perfect timing because it was a really cold day. Colby, true to form, had the charcuterie board to start. You simply can’t keep him away from cured meats. Not that this is a bad thing, and lucky for us he was nice enough to share. There was one selection (forgive me Marben for not remembering what type of meat it was) that was interlaced with chocolate. It sounds weird, but the tanginess of the meat was nicely offset by the sweetness of the chocolate.

For a main dish I had the brook trout. What a flavour explosion. The trout was so delicate and tender it melted in my mouth. It came with crunchy green beans, mixed greens, and what I think was some kind of aioli – a flavourful creamy sauce with the consistency of a dip.

I won’t say much about what Colby and Paula had – chicken sandwiches? come on! get your foodie on and think outside the sandwich box you two!! – but they did order a side of “Kennedy potatoes”. Intrigued? We were. It’s sliced potatoes pressed together with beef drippings and deep fried. Healthy? Not. Tasty? You bet!

Between work, holiday shopping and other errands, Colby and I didn’t have time to go out for lunch today.

Poor us, right?

Well…since I don’t have a foodie style lunch to tell you about today, and because this time of year always gets me thinking more than usual about those less fortunate, I wanted to tell you about St. Francis Table.

St. Francis Table is a restaurant run by the Capuchin Outreach to the Poor, a ministry of the Capuchin Franciscan Friars. It has a seating capacity of 40 people and averages 250 meals a day, for which they charge $1. They’ve been in operation since December 1987 in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood.

Their patrons are psychiatric and post-psychiatric patients, drug addicts, alcoholics, ex-cons and the people who live on our city streets and in our parks and alleys. Many of them spend the bulk of their income on accommodation and so have very little left for basic meals. St. Francis Table also provides meals to single parents, refugees and the unemployed.

At the beginning of this month – the month when we all start thinking about the holidays and gifts and all the glorious food and drink to come – St. Francis Table served it’s one millionth meal.

In truth, Colby and I can go out for lunch pretty much any old day we feel like doing so. Small luxuries like a nice lunch are something we all tend to take for granted most of the time.

Don’t get me wrong – we all work hard and deserve to indulge from time to time. But please let us not forget that we are fortunate to be able to do so.

I left Colby (aka my better half) downtown and travelled to the wilds of North York today to have lunch with some old friends. We chose Pho 88, a hugely popular Vietnamese restaurant with locations all over the city.

It’s particularly known for it’s noodle bowls, which come in serving sizes of small, medium and, well, gargantuan. But I had my all time favourite – the Basil Beef. Spicy!!!

By the time I finished eating I felt a little bit like I had done a 10k run, but I love the heat of those red chilies. They must simmer these into the sauce for hours because the heat permeates all the ingredients of this dish.

On my way back downtown, I did a quick cruise around to see how some of the newer condo developments in this area are progressing. I noticed that the hoarding is up for Emerald Park, located at Yonge just south of Sheppard. This building promises to be a real jewel (pun intended) with truly unique architecture, a stunning port cochere entry, and ground level retail. I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished product…hey, maybe there will be a lunch spot among the street level shops!

Who doesn’t like food??

We love food and we’re always looking for great new places to eat – especially for lunch because we’re on the go and it’s often the only time during the day that we get a chance to sit down, catch each other up on what’s going on that day in our business and just generally compare notes.

There is one caveat to our love of eating though – the food has to be really good! And we have pretty high standards.

So recently we had lunch at Canteen on King Street West.

WOW! Not only is the food great but the service is excellent – friendly but very professional – and the place is buzzing at lunch time with a lively mix of clientele from suits to scenesters.

Colby had the Mac ‘n Cheese (pictured) and I had the pasta of the day – a stretched out version of fusilli with lamb and sausage ragout…unique & delicious! Of course, Colby had to have the brownie for dessert. It was made with Soma chocolate and came with vanilla bean ice cream, really nice berries scattered about the plate, and the brownie itself was probably the best I’ve ever tasted (yes, of course I had to have  little taste of it!)

So what does this have to do with real estate? Well, first of all, Canteen is at the street level retail in the Bell Lightbox/Festival Tower complex. This is where TIFF was held this year and will soon be home to hundreds of people. More importantly, though, the influx of new condo developments in this area (Fashion District; Entertainment District) are bringing with them not only much-needed residential growth but new and improved services, retail and dining.

And this can only mean good things for these areas, especially in terms of building communities, which is what neighbourhoods and, therefore, real estate are really all about.