Derek Powazek and Heather Champ, two people who’ve had a great influence on the social side of the web (in ways that probably affect you), passed through Accordion City last weekend. They stayed at the Gladstone and asked for a local to help them find a place in the neighbourhood to have a little meet-up, and I arranged for one at the ever-reliable Rhino. After following their work for ages — I was reading Derek’s The Fray since the ’90s and have tried (and failed) to make it to the legendary Fray Cafe event at South by Southwest each of the three times I’ve been, I check out JPG regularly, and Heather’s work as Flickr’s community manager and now at Findery is well known — I was glad to finally meet them in person! My friends Katie Hrycak and Andrew Louis also dropped by.
Fun fact: Heather’s Canadian! She’s from Ottawa and went to Guelph for university.
The only disappointment was the Rhino’s bourbon selection (I promised Derek that I’d find a place that served it), which is limited to Maker’s Mark and one other that I’ve forgotten. I know that their strength is their wonderful beer selection, but it’d be nice if they stocked some Woodford or Bulleit.
Katie shot the photo above on Derek’s phone outside the Rhino at the end of our meet-up. After that, it was beers at the Cadillac Lounge, topped off with Dark ‘n’ Stormies at Unit Bar.
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Sorry I missed them. You should have crossed the street and taken them to Grand Electric, which has amazing tacos and a fantastic bourbon selection.
James McNally: I'd have taken them to Grand Electric, but we had a crowd of unknown size, no opportunity to line up early and no guarantee that Derek and Heather had enough in Canadian cash (Grand Electric is debit cards and cash only, if I'm not mistaken). That place is great, but too small and too popular to work for this sort of gathering.
Bulleit is awesome - though I'm an Irish whisky guy myself.
Unfortunately I'll have to stick to Portuguese fresh grilled mackerel on Saturday at the Kensington market. Down by the park.....