1645 Queen Street West
phone number: 416-537-4893

On Sunday January 7th, 2006 my friend Daniel moved into his new condo at Queen and Bathurst. After a 3 hour move, we all decided to celebrate with brunch in funky Parkdale. We were going to go to Mitzi’s but the lineup was crazy as hell. Pathetic how on Sunday afternoon it is almost impossible to compete for a brunch table. This is not New York City but I wish I lived there sometimes. Sunday afternoon Torontonians go brunch crazy and flock from their boring suburban haven to places where they would never roam during the week, like Parkdale, Queen East, or Queen West. Even a friend of mine and her hubby live in Woodbridge and they consider it an outing to venture to the Danforth for a nice Greek meal. I will never move to the suburbs for fear that Parkdale and The Danforth will be considered special outings. I want access to these funky urban neighbourhoods and I am happy I live downtown. I do enjoy going from time to time to the suburbs (i.e. the COSTCO at Dufferin and Wilson) but the suburbs are my outing.

After Mitzi’s rejected us, I begged the crew to try Easy since Aaron had gone there and he loved it. Easy is a small and funky brunch place/diner in Parkdale at Queen and Roncesvalles. Easy is named the 1960’s movie Easy Rider. Decor looks like the diner from Happy Days with 1950’s and 1960’s movie posters and images of a rugged diner with the theme of motorcycles, toughness, and testosterone. Easy is pretty small, with old 1950’s style diner tables and booths huddled very close together. Specializes in brunch items like eggs, omeletes, and extra large and thick smoothies (try the chocolate peanut butter smoothie) and the mango smoothie looks smashing. They also serve many other brunch items like burritos with salad. I ordered the tostadas (deep fried corn tortilla) with black beans, salsa, and veggies. Daniel had the breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs and bacon and veggies with a side order of salad. Paulo had the eggs overeasy with bacon, sausage, homefries, side order of salad, and toast, and Rob had the omelete with home fries, side order of salad, bacon or sausage, anf toast. . I would have preferred a veggie burrito with black beans and veggies, but oh well, people make mistakes. They also have my signature brunch dish (that i try to avoid) organic granola with fruit and yogourt. They also serve massively thick and large mango smoothies as well as their classic peanut butter and chocolate “to die for” smoothies which I chose not to have (Daniel was treating us for brunch and smoothies were almost $5). They only accept cash (like Mitzi’s), which sucks the bag. Expect a 15-20 minute lineup on the weekend