JT and I dined at Blu Ristorante on Saturday night. We had been there with Barb and Kevin (from Profiteroles and Ponytails) a few weeks ago and enjoyed it so much we decided to go back. Blu is in an old Victorian house in Yorkville (a very trendy part of Toronto, and expensive). Some of the restaurants in Yorkville are pretentious and expensive but we were quite pleased to find this one none of the above! Chef Massimo Callovini serves traditional Italian cuisine in a contemporary setting.
The restaurant is nicely lit, with many hard and soft surfaces; the tables are grouped into twos and fours and sectioned by silver billowing fabric screens, which is a very nice sense of privacy. Although when we were there both times, the place was packed but not noisy. What made us choose to go back was that the restaurant has live music from Wednesday to Saturday; with Barb and Kevin there was a piano player with a voice similar to Seal, last Saturday it was classical guitarist with a sound similar to James Blunt. Both were equally as good and made our dinner very enjoyable. Although I must say I enjoyed our first waiter, Margo, better than the one we had last weekend; nothing bad, just personal preference.
The music entertained us throughout most of our dinner. JT and I ordered the same starter (what Kevin ordered before) Pear, Gorgonzola, Belgian Endive, Radicchio, Walnuts, Walnut Vinaigrette; it was tasty, but I felt, as did JT that there was not enough Gorgonzola on it. Sticking to my appetizer only rule, I ordered the Grilled Calamari with Roasted Red Pepper, Olives, Capers, Chili Olio — it was delicious, the Calamari was cooked perfectly! JT had to order Kevin’s dinner of Fettuccini Carbonara with Pork Loin, Sun Dried Tomato, Cashews and Olives; wonderful, creamy and the tang and sweetness of the sun dried tomato complimented the richness of the sauce. He polished it off. Incidentally, Kevin enjoyed his so much, correct me if I am wrong, but he didn’t even want to give Barb a taste! 🙂
We didn’t order dessert or coffee but lingered with our wine and listened to the music. Although the dinner did not last quite as long as with Barb and Kevin (you know who talks a lot), it was nicely paced and we never felt rushed.
Overall rating of Blu Ristorante (in my opinion): Decor 4/5, service 3.5/5, food 4/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 3.5/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).
Disclaimer: We purchased our meal for full price and my opinions just that, my opinions.
I recently came across a little bit of info one of the photographers I am “friends” with on Facebook posted. Jim Norton is a food photographer in Toronto and does a lot of work for many magazines (LCBO is one of my favourites). Check out his portfolio on line, his photography is only something I can wishfully aspire to, sadly it won’t happen in my lifetime. Jim is a great source of useful information on Facebook. Recently he posted about the shady terms of service for Pinterest (I know many of you subscribe to this repository of photography. I urge you to read this article; basically saying that once you post your photo on Pinterest, they can sell it whenever they want, in perpetuity. That means FOREVER. Anyway, I thought you should know.
By making available any Member Content through the Site, Application or Services, you hereby grant to Cold Brew Labs a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view, and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site, Application or Services.
That was such a fun night Eva — we loved the restaurant. Great that you were able to go back. When is our next night out? BTW, Carol may be interested in Victor on the Friday night she’s here in June.
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Hey Barb, apparently it’s a done deal, she and JT have been communicating already! I’ll tell him to include you next time, after all she is YOUR friend!
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That fettuccini sounds wonderful (I wouldn’t have wanted to share it either) — guess my appetite is back.
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So happy that you’re feeling better, Sharyn! JT gave me a taste and although it was soooooo yummy, I was glad I didn’t have it (I would’ve ate the whole thing!)
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Hi Eva, I’ve read before what you posted about Pinterest and it is disturbing, but perhaps not as much as we would like to think. I want clarification of exact meaning and abilities of the end of the final sentence “the Site, Application or Services” before I truly ponder using the service in the future.
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Hi Jed, that is exactly why I posted it! Pls pass on any info you find out, many people are interested.
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Definitely an interesting tidbit about Pinterest. Huh. This restaurant sounds delicious. You keep making me want to plan another trip up that way. 🙂
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Do give me a shout! I would love to meet you and your posse!
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I had heard that about pinterest, but it’s such a fun site…the restaurant sounds delish!
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Hi Ann, thank you. Caveat Emptor, so they say.
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Sounds like a great restaurant! Now with Pinterest, what if other people post your photo? It doesn’t sound like they should be able to sell it as you would be giving up your copyright wouldn’t you?
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Check out Charles’ comment below Lorraine, I think this requires some exploration. Little scary, that’s for sure! Particularly for someone who has a business of it.
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Sounds like some very fine dining was had by all. And a good experience overall.
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It was lovely Maraia, I’ll go back again.
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Hi Eva – a number of places have a similar clause to Pinterest’s. I believe Facebook did until there was outrage and they had to change it. They give people the option of disallowing their site from being “pinned”… You can specify a “no-pin” tag in your site header if you want. Regarding the actual clause itself though, I’m not sure how they propose they would actually reinforce this right – Very often, the people pinning the content aren’t the copyright owners. If you had a pinterest account you could go to my site and pin a photo right now. My permission is not required for such a thing as it’s social networking, sharing, fair-use and all that sort of thing. That doesn’t mean that you’re “acting on my behalf” though, so I don’t know how they can claim they own rights to a photo, submitted by you, who also didn’t own rights to it.
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Hi Charles,
It’s a problem if you are a professional or part professional photographer (or blogger who makes money from their blog), who may use pinterest as part of their marketing tool in social media. I understand the whole sharing thing, but frankly I would be a little outraged if one of my photos were sold for $15000 and I wasn’t able to share in it. That just sucks. You never know how the future pans out and how that statement may be put to use.
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Hi Eva, of course – maybe I didn’t explain myself very well. Of course it’s a big problem – I can totally understand it why anyone would be peeved about them suddenly claiming ownership, or rights to, something.
What I meant was – if you posted my picture to pinterest, which you’re allowed to do, that does not, and cannot grant them any rights over the original image.
Legally, they wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, as it was you who posted the photo, and not me, the copyright owner. Of course, if I posted it, that’s a different story, and in those cases then it does come down wholly to their shady terms of use which are far too arbitrary and should really be changed. I’d like to know how they would respond to a request for them to remove all pins that weren’t submitted by me… it would break their whole business model 😀
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If that were true, then couldn’t you ask a friend or an alternate id to pin the photos? I have a feeling their intent is to scam everyone out of their property! But that’s just me! The first time I signed up on Facebook I was so freaked out I disabled my account the next day. but now I’m on full time, but not nearly as frequently as before. Do you have separate FB accounts for personal and your blog?
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I think to be honest it’s an over-zealous lawyer who’s just trying to cover all eventualities to stop his client (Pinterest) from being sued for anything, and in the process accidentally alienated all their users. If enough noise is made about it they would probably change it. Of course, I don’t believe they’re innocent – I wouldn’t for a second believe they’d try and screw me or you over if they could earn a few bucks off our work, but it’s rare that it’s a big conspiracy I think.
I don’t have a separate FB account for myself and my blog – I just have my FiveEuroFood page and I have the option of using Facebook as FiveEuroFood, or using it as Charles.
I don’t use FB much – it’s a useful tool for promoting blogs and so on, but I have friends who are documenting their lives on there and I’m like “erm… ok”
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You’re right of course about Pinterest and an over zealous lawyer! It’s good to know what you’re getting into though.
I was so into FB at the beginning, once I got over my fears, now I’m on it maybe once a day; not alone either, most of my family (because of whom I joined FB), hardly goes on at all anymore. Such a fad!
We can tell our kids (nieces and nephews for me) remember the time you had to pick up a phone to ‘chat’? Or you had to write a letter and mail it? I wonder what’s in their future?
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Brain implants connecting them 24/7 to cyberspace :p
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🙂 @ Charles!
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I, too, enjoy dining with live entertainment — so long as it is in the background. I just don’t like a loud place to dine, no matter the cause of the noise. From your description and food served, I bet I’d really enjoy Blu Ristorante.
Funny you mention Pinterest. I just read an artcle that Flickr is disabling all Pinterest Pins on copyrighted images. This could get interesting.
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My voice seems to be the same frequency as noise, so I can’t even hear myself speak in a noisy place, John.
Ate you subscribing to Pinterest? I’ve had recommendations to do so, but have held off. I wonder if Shutterfly is similar!
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No, Eva, I’ve not subscribed. I was going to join but now I think I’ll wait and see how all of this plays out. Even so, I’ve seen that some of my recipe/pics have been “pinned.”
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I am not too sure what ‘pinned’ means in that context, but Charles seems to have a handle on it. We should maybe have a discussion on it.
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Very interesting about pinterest- good to know. I love love love to eat and listen to live music. This restaurant sounds wonderful!
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I do love eating out where you can hear live music. It makes you want to sit and enjoy the evening which is relaxing and so special.
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Absolutely, Charlie. We don’t have many places in Toronto where they do have live music.
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