Blog — Hoser News

Coffee In Halifax – The Daily Grind

January 24, 2009 By Jeff Leave a Comment

To supplement my Eating in Halifax series, I am going to chronicle some of my thoughts about different little coffee shops and “cafes” in and around downtown Halifax. I will be writing a little something from every one that I visit in the next little while.

I get around to a lot of coffee shops as these are the places that I get the majority of my work done. I try working from home, but there are too many distractions that I can’t seem to get anything done. The key thing that allows me to get work done is that most of the coffee shops around have free Wi-fi which I love. And when I am there I buy a lot of coffee and treats to so that I have the energy to keep going.

The first place that I am going to be reviewing is The Daily Grind. Why? Well that is where I am sitting while I am writing this, so it only makes sense.

The Daily Grind is situated in behind the magazine part of the shop on Spring Garden Road in Halifax Nova Scotia. They have a variety of baked goods to go with their coffee, along with sandwiches, and an all day breakfast.

Where you can find The Daily Grind

The tables in the seating area are huge and you can very comfortably sit 4 people and there is still lots of room. It is usually quiet, with just some friendly chatter going on around you. I first found the place when I was still in University at DalTech and I was trying to find a quiet place to study. The alternatives at the time were the Second Cup and SteveRenos (both which I will review next time I am in) and they were both far too noisy. I credit this place for me passes Signal Analysis all those years ago.

The Pros:

The coffee here is decent and when you get a cup to stay you get one free refill, which is a step up on a lot of places that simply give you a discount on the refills. They also have a large variety of teas, if you are into that sort of thing.

The tables allow for some great sitting and if you are just looking for some place to unwind you can come in, buy a magazine and sit down with a coffee and samosa and read. And like I mentioned before, the tables are large enough that you can sit down with a couple of people and spread your work out to get some real stuff done.

The Cons:

NO FREE WIFI.

This is usually a huge deal, but for me I like to think that it is a plus, when I plan for it. I come here when I have a lot of writing, reading, or other work that does not require me to be online. This keeps me away from twitter, my google reader and other distractions that the internet has abundantly available.

Up until recently the WIFI problem was not a big one. Your Fathers Moustache was just next door and they had their own free wi-fi open, but they have since gone to the dreaded Aliant Hot-Spot and since I don’t have them at home I am stuck to pay if I want access, which I refuse to do.

Another con that for some is huge and others not so much is that as far as I can tell the coffee is not fair trade. Typically around the city the coffee vendors have taken to loudly announcing if it is as a selling feature forthe socially aware public.

Conclusion

The Daily Grind is a great place to come to get some serious work done with a coffee in hand and some great fresh baked goods, or an all day breakfast. I like to sit by the back windows so that I can keep track on what is going on outside, and if it is nasty I will grab another coffee and hope that the weather is going to clear up before I head home

Filed Under: Featured, Reviews Tagged With: Coffee Break, Coffee in Halifax, Eating in Halifax

Week 2 is Always the worst

January 16, 2009 By Jeff 2 Comments

There is a song that describes my week to a tea. It’s Rat Silo’s,
Getupgotoworkgohomegotobed. All I was able to do was get up in the morning, get into work and then leave around 10pm.

It is not a way I would like to go for very long, but I think I should have a break from the madness next week and will be more active with everything else that is going on in my little world.

If you like Rat Silo, be sure to check out some of the other bands on CBC Radio3. It is a great resource for finding new music and I have all of their podcasts on my iPod for when I am not near a computer.

Filed Under: Rambling Tagged With: Hoser Music

Eating in Halifax – Rockbottom Brewery

January 7, 2009 By Jeff 11 Comments

There is a new place to eat on Spring Garden, down below the Moustache where the old Dooly’s was.

I was there twice in the last little while and was tipped that it existed by an ad in the Coast. When I was there I had brunch, it was Sunday morning after all. They have a decent brunch menu at decent prices. I had the omelette that comes with whole grain toast and home fries. And not the home fries that you expect to get from Smitty’s or such, but real pan fried potatoes with onions. They were delicious. Rockbottom Behind the Bar

What’s the Hook

The Rockbottom Brewery seems to be a brew pub, but from what I have heard they cook the wort at another location and then only the final stage of the brewing process is taken place on site. This is different compared to the other brew pubs in Halifax including, The Granite Brewery and Rogues Roost(someone needs to get these guys a modern websites)

“To run great restaurants…for the benefit of our Guests, our Community, and Ourselves.” – From the website.

Why would you go?

Where you can find the place

Both times that I was there to eat the service was first rate. The lady that was serving us the first time was awesome. She was very keen on letting us know all of the offerings of the place, and showing us the evening menu. The second time they didn’t really go out of their way in terms of service, but they were friendly enough. I think that there was a hot guy sitting at the bar.

As for the seating atmosphere, it is a big change from the Dooly’s, in a very good way. It still feels “hard” like a lot of the new places popping up, but the lighting helps to offset this to make the place feel more welcoming. I also enjoyed the seating, there are high booths with foot rests and comfy lounging chairs which makes the place comfortable enough for me to hang out for extended periods.

What will Stop You

There was one evening that I got to stop in to try out the beer on tap. It was a cold night near the end of December and the hockey game was on. I didn’t want to dare to try the other sports pubs on Spring Garden as I knew they would be packed, and I only needed to catch the third period. This meant it was the best chance to check out the beer at the Rockbottom.

Hated it.

I am not sure if it was just that it was one of their first batches and that they haven’t quite got the hang of it, but I had the ale and my GF had the IPA. The ale seemed very fruity and the IPA had none of the kick that we have come to expect from the Garrisons, Propellers and Granite Brewerys of the world. HUGE disappointment. Oh yeah….and the game was on MUTE. WTF we are in Canada and they our Junior Team was playing an important game.

I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt and give it another try in the near future, but I am not going to make a special visit on my way home. But if I am thirsty and am close I will give it another try.

So what do I Really Think

Value – 3/5

Really middle of the road. not expensive but you can get cheaper brunches elsewhere

Menu Selection – 3/5

Again they have select items that I assume they are going to make really good. It seems like a chef inspired or developed menu which is not necessarily a bad thing. Everyone will find something on it.

Food – 3/5

Great food. Everything that I had and everyone else that was with me had was cooked perfectly and tasted amazing. The fired potatoes were amazing and omelettes full of great stuff, and the omelette eggs were REAL. Not for a carton.

They would have gotten a four (4) if it wasn’t for my disappointment with the beer.

Service – 3.5/5

Like I said above, we had one that was amazing (5) but another that was at best a 3. Not that she was bad, but she really didn’t go out of her way.

Atmosphere – 4/5

I really enjoyed sitting in the place. It was damn near empty every time I was there, and the fact that there are a lot of hard surfaces it might get loud when it is busy.

Overall – 3.5/5

Decent but not amazing. It is high enough that I will recommend it to people to give it a try out. If they can get their beer tasting better, unless that was the way it was supposed to, then I will be revisting this review.

What do you think?

So have you been? What did you think about the place? Let us know.

Cheers,

Filed Under: Featured, Reviews Tagged With: beer, Eating in Halifax, Food, malt, Review

My NO-TV Experiment

December 21, 2008 By Jeff Leave a Comment

Like everyone else, this time of year can get a little crazy. There are all of the Year End activities, the Christmas planning, and all of the regular day-to-day stuff. And if you work in an industry that thrives on the Christmas season then I am sure your work life is getting a little out of control.

With that said I still have stuff that I want to get done, and even though I don’t watch a lot of TV in the first place, I am going cold turkey. I am turning off the TV and not turning back on except for HNIC on Saturday. I am going to keep the TV off, except for HNIC, till at least the New Year.

So what am I going to do with all of this extra time? Well going to the gym comes to mind, and there are other projects that I have on the go that need to be cleaned up in the next couple of weeks. My plan for the gym is to be in there every day, I am going to do some light cardio on my “off” days and some heavy lifting, or soon to be heavy since I am a sloth at the moment, on my “on” days.

The program that I am following is the 5×5 that I found when searching around. It is a 3 day a week lifting program and you start off very light and add weight every day you go back to the exercise. The idea is to teach your body slowly how to lift the weight correctly, and then when you get to the heavy portions you will not get injured.

I will be chronicling everything on Twitter, when I go to the gym, and how it went when I left so be sure to follow along. I will make a weekly update on hoserlife.com
Cheers,
JM

Filed Under: Featured, Rambling

Moving towards Minimalist

December 17, 2008 By Jeff Leave a Comment

I am starting to move towards owning less stuff. I have started to put together a plan on how to do this, and there are things that I have to buy to make it happen correctly, yeah I know that sounds oxymoronic.

One of the moves that I have made recently is that I am not buying any books. I am using the library. Of course there are always going to be reference books that I am going to need to buy for work, but for the last few years I have been buying books, reading them once and putting them on a shelf where they sit till I put them in a box, move them to a new apartment and unpack them. This is tiring, and takes up a lot of valuable space in my home.

The other move is working on going paperless. I get all of my bank statements online, I pay all my bills online and I do the majority of my work online. That said I don’t enjoy reading on the computer, so I still print off large reports that I am proof reading to read and mark up on. The other thing I print off are large format drawings for review, this again I find hard to work with on the computer. Most of the problem is the ease of marking and eye strain.

I think that I have found a solution for both the eye strain and the marking. It is the iRexTechnologies Digital Reader. This reader is approximately the size of a letter sheet and has a Wacom pen-tablet built it. It is the first e-ink device that I think is large enough for me to review reports full size. With it I will be able to review reports, mark up and then send back to be modified. I will also be able to use this device to take meeting notes and make design notes, both things that I currently do on paper and then scan into the project file.

With this tool I believe that I can go completely paperless in my day-to-day life, there will always be print shops when required. That means that I can also dispose of my printers, which I have 3. One ink jet, one laser and one “large” format 11×17 max. These take up a lot of space that I hope to clear out.

What Stays, What Goes

The next step is to look at what comes into the house and give it a 1-10 rating on importance. For example, magazines I am going to give most of them a 2, maybe some of my industry specific magazines I will give a higher ranking but for the most part every magazine that comes into my home is read once and then put in a pile. The advantage that I believe that magazines have is not in the actual information that they convey, but in the filtering of the noise out there. This is the same reason I still read technical books. I can find the information free in other places but there is much more work involved to parse through all of the crap.

Getting Rid of it

Some of this is the magazines that I mentioned before, the printers, but it is also books and “stuff” that I don’t need any more, well they can go now. Some of this I think there is still some monetary value in and I can probably sell online with ebay or Kijiji. I will use the money generated by these sales to off set any costs that are associated in the new tools (or Toys) that I am going to use, including the Digital Reader. I will have more on my strategy, and talk about the volumes of stuff I have purged in the future.

Filed Under: Featured, Rambling Tagged With: Lifestyle, living, minimal

Back in the Saddle

December 14, 2008 By Jeff Leave a Comment

I am back in the saddle here at Hosernews. Life has been busy, but if you happen to read one of my other blogs, then you will know that I have found a great MS tool that will help me to update this site easily and on the road.

I must say that I have been very busy with my life and haven’t had a lot of time to do anything. However there is one good thing about being busy at work, and that is that I eat out a lot. I have been to a lot of different places in and around Halifax that I will be writing about, just like I did for Annies Place.

I am also reading and going to more shows and will be talking about those to. Maybe even get in a review of a CD that I have just bought.

Oh and don’t forget about the forum. I am working on a couple of contests to get that place hopping, and make it the place that you want to spend some time.

Later,
JM

Filed Under: Rambling

Tales from the Middle of Nowheres

November 12, 2008 By Nick Leave a Comment

So currently I am living in Maine, getting an education appeanrlty (I refuse to EDIT) (USA!, USA!, USA!). The title of this pretty much sums up everything in this state, tales from the middle of nowheres. Something I have noticed is that people here do not seem to understand the concept of a cross walk. All over this town there is signs, road painting and even signs stating MAINE LAW STOP FOR CROSS WALKS.

The funny part is people will stop right in the middle of the bloody cross walk and look at you, yeah just stare. Then drive away, or the ever popular, I am going to speed up and possibly try to hit you trick. Or the one I have found fun, I am going to try and drive through the cross walk while you are walking through it. A nice lady in a sunfire discovered, people can walk on cars too.

I am afraid to go across the cross walk, bloody hell, I believe at any moment I could be gunned down. People really don`t pay attnetion it is almost scary, ill take my chances in a mine field vs here. Hell crosswalks in Toronto are more safe to cross.

So I will be taking wagers for when you believe I will get hit first

bonus points if you can pick the injury

Filed Under: Rambling

Shakespeare by the Sea

August 17, 2008 By Jeff Leave a Comment

Shakespeare by the Sea is just about finished another successful season. This year was the first time that I ever went to a show, I have been living here for 5 years, and I have been smitten. I saw A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and it was a blast. The cast was amazing and the setting was great.
I am planning on going to see Othello and CINDERELLY before the run for this season is over. And that is coming soon, End of August. Check out the schedule here.

Now you don’t have to believe me that SBTS is a great show The Coast thinks so too.

Oh yeah, the company is great this year too. I would link you to the page but people these days still like flash to make all of their sites for some reason, so navigate yourself over there and check them out. There are some great resumes there for such a production.

If you have already been, make sure that you leave a comment telling everyone out there how great of a time it is. And the admission is by donation too (suggested donation is $15)

View Larger Map

Filed Under: Rambling Tagged With: entertainment, Halifax, Point Pleasent Park, TheCoast

Kiva Loans – HoserNews is back on Kiva

June 30, 2008 By Jeff Leave a Comment

I have just finished making another loan at Kiva.

Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

There are now a group in Paraguay that are going to use their Kiva Loan to help bring prosperity to their families.

The ladies are involved in many business activities such as: running grocery stores and selling fruit, clothes, bags, shoes, drinks and sheets among others. The money provided by Kiva lenders will be used to purchase these goods.

Comité San Rafael Group

The five previous loans that we have made through Kiva are all on track. When you sign up for Kiva yourself remember to tell them that jeff@hosernews.ca told you about it.

Filed Under: Rambling Tagged With: kiva, microcredit

Eating in Halifax – Annies Place

June 23, 2008 By Jeff 1 Comment

Annie’s Place is on Birmingham Street just off Spring Garden Road. It is a fantastic little place to go for a bit of lunch. I got the Roasted Chicken Pita with a side salad. The chicken was perfect and the salad is simple and delicious.

So now that I know you want to go there they are open at7am-4pm Monday to Friday and 8am-3pm on Saturday. Annie’s Place is closed on Sunday.

All in all I give it 4 beers out of 5. It is a great place to stop in for lunch or brunch, but not the be all end all. However it is excellent in what it is trying to do.

However I go there not for the food but the atmosphere. It is one the of the most relaxed and friendly places to eat in Halifax. There are only a few tables and you can sit by the window and watch people scurry around on Spring Garden Road. And then there is Annie, she is great, always wanting to chat and she will remember you the second time you go there and ask how you are doing. It is like going home and having lunch at your grandmother’s.

If you have been here, let us know what you think, how many beers out of 5 do you give it?

View Larger Map

This is the first “review” for Eating in Halifax. I have started a

Google Map so that you can find your way around as I review places that I stop into in and around Halifax and HRM.

I also like to drink the beer and coffee so I may be adding a couple more maps and review types in the coming weeks.

Filed Under: Featured, Reviews Tagged With: Eating in Halifax, Food, Review

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