So remember in October when I went to
City Harvest? Remember how much fun we had spending the day downtown? Well we did it again. Today was Open City 2.0 in Halifax. Open City was created in the Spring of 2012 and then re-incarnated as City Harvest in the Fall and now Open City 2.0 happened.
The event is used to promote the shops, museums and restaurants downtown and to encourage residents to spend their money locally and to return downtown more often. It works! I won't say too much and I'll let the pictures do the talking. Here is what my day downtown was like..
Our first stop wasn't in Halifax actually. We made a stop at the Alderney Market in Dartmouth first to get a few things. While we were there we sampled homemade marshmallows,
found the first rhubarb and asparagus of the season (woot!),
and then picked up my order of Made with Local Bars. Today they introduced their new Haskap bar and also instant oatmeal. Yes, there is now such a thing as local oatmeal around here, made with Speerville Oats, Valley Flax Flour, maple sugar, and Terra Beata dried blueberries or apples. Can't wait to try it!
While we were there my daughter spied a vendor with lots of hair accessories and got herself a new headband. These are totally her style. She loves flower headbands.
After our pit stop at the Alderney Market we continued on and made our way into Halifax. Free Parking for all!!
Our first stop was to the Brewery Market and to the Food Wolf Food Truck parked outside.
We got their OpenCity special and tried the Vegan Milkshake - made with coconut milk.
Inside the market we walked around a bit and bought some lettuce, some sausage, radishes and vanilla beans. Check out these quail eggs. I might need to pick some up next time. So cool!
After the market we continued our excursion and visited the Waterfront. In the Sands at Salter we found Krista from Food Savvy (www.befoodsavvy.com). She was giving samples of homemade sports drinks (aka homemade Gatorade) made with lime, honey and sea salt. Yummy!
Next to her was the new I Heart Bikes location. It would have been fun to rent a bike today but they didn't have any little kid bikes available. With a mention on Facebook or Twitter we could have received a free 30 minute rental. Another time I suppose. Instead, we bought my daughter a new hand-painted bell for her bike.
Bikes weren't the only option for transportation today. There were Segways too. Now THAT would have been cool to try.
Next Stop? Rum Runners Rum Cake Factory. The hubby bought some Newfoundland Screech Coffee. It smells divine...and I don't even like coffee all that much.
At Bishop's Landing we stopped in at Bishop's Cellar and tried the new Nova 7. It was quite nice.
Also at Bishop's Landing we went to Maples Gallery and after sampling the maple salad dressing we proceeded to buy a bottle.
This is new on the Waterfront this year. Yes, mis-shapen light posts. Really cool! Yeah...it was just a little bit foggy out there today. No rain though!!
A little further down we found Lost Cod Clothing Co. Their special for Open City were $10 I Love Local HFX Tees. There's my shirt getting pressed.
Love it!
At this point we were starting to get hungry. Hmmm...Lobster Poutine from Grill at CUT? Sure!
This was my husband's lunch. It was the best poutine ever. The fries were to die for! Before today we had never heard of this restaurant. Guess what - Open City works. We now have plans to go to this restaurant for a meal because we were so impressed.
My daughter's lunch was found at 2 Doors Down (2 Doors Down from Chives on Barrington St. haha). They had cheeseburger sliders and kettle chips. Perfect serving size for her.
After her lunch we walked up Spring Garden Rd. and then to Dresden Row. Susie's Shortbreads was having Cupcake Bingo. Choose a cupcake and if there's a sticker underneath you get it for free. We had to pay for ours. She could not wait to dig in.
Now for my lunch. Still on Dresden Row I ended up getting Fid Resto Back Door Pad Thai. This is a typical offering for them, not just something they do for Open City. Isn't it the coolest setup ever? There was a bit of a wait since they were so busy but it was worth it. My Shrimp Pad Thai was delicious. It's too bad this restaurant is closing its doors later this month though. Bummer!
Still on Dresden Row again we stopped at Pete's and got the $3.00 Mango Tango Smoothie. Refreshing!
At that point we moved on to South Park St. and visited P'Lovers and Halikids.
In Ontario I had been to the P'Lovers in Stratford and in London (before it closed) but not to this one. What a beautiful store! We bought a really cool reusable mason jar takeaway lid. I'll go back again and buy some more stuff another day. I loved their book selection. So many books that I'll have to add to my must-read list.
Initially I had hoped to have my lunch from Envie Halifax located just outside the P'Lovers but after checking Twitter I had seen that she had completely sold out of the lentil burgers and kale salad. That's okay. I loved my Pad Thai.
Back on Spring Garden we visited a few more shops and ended up at Bookmark. Lots of great books here. I could have spent a lot of money here. Too bad I'm too busy studying to read any books right now. So many cookbooks on my list too. I need more money (and more time to cook).
We took a break on Queen St. to watch this guy break down some rocks. Sounds a little dull but we could have really watched this all day. Machine makes it look like the rocks don't weigh a darn thing.
At Queen and Morris we went to Atlantic News for a free fruit slushy for the kid. She got one of the last ones before they ran out.
To be honest, I never would have walked into this shop before. I had no idea what was inside. Turns out they carry pretty well any magazine or newspaper you could be looking for. Again, if it wasn't for Open City I probably would have never known.
That was our last stop.
Although I had a huge list of places to see I think we visited half of them. It was starting to get a little chilly and we had to get back to Dartmouth and pick up our other car that had received an oil change while we were out. I'm upset that we didn't make it to the North End. I have yet to spend any time there and this would have been a good opportunity. I had wanted to go to Julien's and pick up my loaf of Spelt Bread that I usually get at the Seaport Market, to Liquid Gold to try their olive oils, to Local Source because I'm just plain curious about the place, and mostly, to Hair I Am for a free bang trim. My bangs are really, really long right now and could have used the free trim. Shucks!
Overall it was a productive day. My goal was to visit some shops and restaurants that I never visited before. I think we fulfilled that goal.
Back at home we were chilled so had some leftover soup to warm up and a salad on the side using the maple syrup dressing I had bought at Maples Gallery and our first taste of asparagus for the season.
Did you make it out to Open City? What place did you learn about you didn't know about before? What place will you go back to again?