Black Bull?

The one in Loretto is the Loretto Inn. I've never been in but my OH says "It's wonderful. I love it. They have the best wings in five counties, Marlene makes them. And you can rent a room above the bar".


So there.

I've only been once...I lived in Brampton and needed to meet up with a friend of mine who was working at Honda and we were supposed to go to a party in Barrie that night...we had such a good time people watching at the Loretto Tavern that we got to the party in Barrie pretty late.

It seems to draw people from all over the surrounding area. I notice on their website on the menu they have battered pickles...your kind of place dbd

Inn, not Tavern, Inn.

In light of there being pickles I shall make every effort to check it out. However, I am nowhere near as blended into local society as the OH, and shall do so with some trepidation.

I only went once and to me it was more of a tavern than an inn....I wasn't aware that rooms could be rented....

It looks like you could be on a foodie road trip if they have battered pickles...doesn't Mikey B live up that way......

Ahh, the one on the corner of the intersection, middle of nowhere??

We spent last halloween at that particular venue, children's party.... Quite entertaining if your eight years old. Luckily I am quite happy to people watch, it almost put me off moving to Canada.....

I believe MikeyB is a bit further up the road in Alliston.

I believe that there is a danger you could end up running into the dreaded non-hyphenated Canadian species at a place like that.

I think he may have moved on after a domestic upheaval. The OH goes to the Loretto Inn with reenactors, people who do rustic things in period costume. They have lots of facial hair, especially the men, and when not in period costume wear lots of garments from the house of Harley-Davidson. I can see that, at first glance, they would not create a welcoming impression.

I'm comfortable with that so long as I have the woman with me, unhyphenated Canadians usually take her to be one of their own and tend not to be hostile to either of us.

This might interest you, clynnong, it's not a description of Mississauga but of somewhere else like everywhere else. Sometimes I despair of North America.

'On Sunday we took a drive out to "the Valley". Two roads lead out of Anchorage. ... The Glen Highway leads North to the Evangelical ex-urbs which were, until last summer, Alaska's dirty secret. You've probably heard of Wasilla and, if you ever visit it, you might be struck with an uncanny sense of deja vu. It might make you nostalgic for Buffalo or the road leading out of East Lansing. People say it's a nothing but an agglomeration of strip malls but Wasilla lacks even the sense of cohesion that malls would provide. It is, literally, a stretch of highway along which every big box retailer and restauranteur in America has opened a franchise. Mid-way through the strip, just behind the "chili's", there is a lake. Sarah Palin lives somewhere on that lake and so do all the other Mat-Su high rollers. Everyone else lives in subdivisions overlooking the parking lots of Best Buy et al.'

The imagery that I'm coming up with isn't too pleasant...what is the source of the quote.

North Americans don't build cities very well...especially the edges of them where the Chevy Avalanche rules supreme.

If you want a depressing southern Ontario equivalent drive along Hwy 24 in Cambridge south of the 401 or Victoria Street in Kitchener east of Hwy 86, Hwy 7 in Bramalea, anywhere in Concord, Ont, Bayfield Street north of the 400 in Barrie...the list goes on.

I think you are underselling yourself when you say you 'sometimes' despair of NA.....The unfortunate thing is that the UK contains the Slough's, MK's, Hatfields etc, that aren't exactly bucolic urbanity.

Ah, so you OH is a member of SCA...is that what they call it these days...Society for Creative Acronism...in other words, people who either don't realize or don't want to acknowledge that we are now in the 21st century.

So the OH is your foil for dealing with unhyphenated Canadians...

email from child living in AK.

Yes. She's not actually Canadian but they don't notice as she speaks their language. She's not a reenactor, at least not yet, just knows a bunch from work.