Hintonburg Food Crawl @ Bar Laurel and Carben [General]

2016 Aug 12
Hi Everyone

Final details for our Hintonburg Food Crawl

When: Wednesday, August 24th

Where: Bar Laurel @ 6:00pm
Carben @ 7:45pm

www.barlaurel.ca
www.carbenrestaurant.com

Space Available: 12 people (we may be able to push it to 14 but it will depend upon space being available at the restaurant)

Interested Parties:

* Foodtravel * Confirmed
* Pastalover
* Lovetoeat (+1) * Confirmed
* LF
* iFish (+1?)
* Strawberry Girl +1

We are at nine people now, please let us know if you are interested or if something has changed and you are no longer able to make it. We need to provide numbers to the restaurants as soon as we can.

With Elmdale Tavern having live music on Wednesdays, we decided to go with the two restaurants and leave it open for an optional third if we want to continue the evening. There are several places with in a 2-3 block area. Elmdale, Tennessy Willems, Hintonburg Public House, 10 Fourteen, Cafe My House, Ola Cocina, Ministry of Coffee (they do cocktails and small bites in the evenings) and Tooth and Nail Brewery. Also Bar Laurel is open until 2 am if anyone wanted to return there.

If you have any questions, please let us know

See you there!


2016 Aug 12
We're still in. Thanks for setting this up!

2016 Aug 12
Great strawberry girl. See you there.

2016 Aug 13
lol lovetoeat,

You know I am still on...


2016 Aug 14
In for 1 : )

2016 Aug 15
FT - yes, I figured you were still confirmed ;)

iFish - great, we will see you there.

2016 Aug 17
I'll have to miss this one:(
Post photos please:)

2016 Aug 18
I won't be able to attend either. Have fun though and I too look forward to seeing the pictures after!

2016 Aug 23
lol Less than 24 hours roll call.... Please confirm again if you are still on.
We have a few spots if you or someone you know is interested.

I am still a yes :D

2016 Aug 23
We'll be there.

2016 Aug 23
lovetoeat said she is set earlier today and iFish confirmed by email plus another person I know confirmed for 2.

* Foodtravel
* Lovetoeat (+1)
* iFish
* Strawberry Girl +1
* LG + 2

So current count 9..

2016 Aug 27
So how'd it go?

2016 Aug 27
We were 12 for the food crawl and everyone had a good time at our 2 main stop.

At Bar Laurel we had 2 tables of 6 including one of the booth by the window. I know w order more than I should with some of my favourite from the test drive including
* Chorizo Stuffed Piquillo peppers
* Albondigas a dry aged beef meatballs
* Patatas Bravas and they were still good
Although might leave the patatas bravas next time since it is fried with mayo and try something new.

Others ordered the burrata with tomatoes which was very good, tuna crudo which I heard was good, wood fired olives, etc. I think most ordered more than we should have given that we had another stop.. Half were drinking cocktails and half drinking wine and they had a nice cab sauv/graciano, pablo claro, la mancha, spain by the glass.

On the test drive(s) with lovetoeat we also have the
* squid stuffed marguez sausage (tasty)
* sardines Conservas (while good was sardine in a tin with crostinis when lovetoeat wanted a different sardine dish)
* Serrano Ham Croquette (okay) and
* exotic Mushroom tapas which only had about 3 bites of exotic mushrooms.

We tried several cocktails each and my personal favourite was one with blackberries.

Sorry my cell was out of power and charging at the bar so did not get any photos personally.

2016 Aug 28
Had patatas bravas in Spain:) mayo and spicy sauce yum:) Sounds like that was a great time. Thanks for posting the description foodietravels, enjoyed all the events you organized and sounds like LTE did a great job with this food crawl. If anyone has photos do post:)

2016 Aug 30
Thanks again to the organizers for setting this up. This was my first visit to Bar Laurel. I'm looking forward to going back and trying more dishes.

I only took a few pictures. Top left is the wood ear mushroom dish from Carben. Top right is the patatas bravas from Bar Laurel, and bottom is the burrata with tomatoes from Bar Laurel.

2016 Aug 30
I am looking up some photos from when LTE and I taste tested Bar Laurel before organizing the food crawl..

This was a pretty tasty cocktail with blackberry but I forgot what it was.. The bartender which I forgot the name was a scot and he put on quite a show..


2016 Aug 30
Lovetoeat also picked a very tasty cocktail.. I ran out of power on my cell so lovetoeat was the photographer and sent it to me.

The following photos also by lovetoeat

2016 Aug 30
Sardines conserva

2016 Aug 31
Abondigas - Beef meatballs

2016 Aug 31
Exotic mushroom tapas on left (meh), Chirozo stuffed piquillo peppers center (excellent) and croquettes right (decent bit not spectacular). The peppers were my favourite of the 3...

2016 Aug 31
Thanks for sharing your yummy pics and comments! I've cloned them to the vendor page at Bar Laurel.

2016 Aug 31
Thanks for posting the pics FT

The 1st cocktail is the Midsummer Cup
Absolut Vodka/ Pink Peppercorn/Absinthe Rinse/ BL Grenadine/Pink Ginger Lemonade/Citrus

The 2nd cocktail is Cuban Redolence
Havana 7YO Rum/Lustau Amontillado/Pineapple/Citrus Sugar Cane/ Coconut/ Bitters

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the food crawl. Both Bar Laurel and Carben were very accomodating esp Stephanie at Bar Laurel when I went to her and said, we have an extra person coming. Ok no problem. We'll add a chair at the end. And then 10 minutes later Umm now we have 3 more people coming. She re-arranged her table assignments for the evening without a blink.


2016 Aug 31
Bar laurel dessert tart

2016 Aug 31
Bar Laurel desserts while nice I prefer their savory tapas...

2016 Aug 31
Both times I ordered the beef tartar with kimchi, egg and taro chips at Carben. I eyed the duck breast both time but the beef tartar won and was my absolute favorite dish of the night both times

1st time we had cocktails with pimms and tea and another tasty cocktail. 2nd time I tried Stewart beer which was good.

2016 Sep 3
Both Bar Laurel and Carben had been great... I did end up going to Ministry of Coffee and had a pretty tasty tuna small plate but music level was pretty high.