How actor and director Don McKellar would spend a perfect Saturday on Dundas West

By Meaghan Binstock | Portrait by Derek Shapton

I live close to Little Italy, but I like to think of my neighbourhood as Dundas West. Most of my favourite places are within four blocks. The first thing I’d do on a Saturday is let my cat, Pinky, out in the backyard, and pour a coffee. Next, I’d go to Saving Grace (907 Dundas St. W.) for brunch, and since it’s always busy, I’d have another coffee and a berry scone outside at Ella’s Uncle (916 Dundas St. W.) while I wait for my table. I also often go to The Palmerston Café (800 Dundas St. W.) for Eggs Blackstone—like a Benedict but with pancetta, tomatoes and hollandaise. Then I’d pick up a plant at The Dundas Street Supermarket (878 Dundas St. W.) and go home to put it in the garden with my cat. I’d pick out a catnip toy for her at the Dundas Euclid Animal Hospital (840 Dundas St. W.). At home, I’d have a bath and do the cryptic crossword in the Globe, listening to opera on the CBC. Then I might get a sandwich at Porchetta and Co. (825 Dundas St. W.), and then browse the furniture shop Made (867 Dundas St. W.), buy a cool pillow or some unique locally designed object and go to Trinity Bellwoods Park to watch the hipsters. Later, a companion and I would try to have dinner at the Italian restaurant Campagnolo (832 Dundas St. W.), but it’d probably be full, so we’d have a glass of wine at the bar, then go to Eastern Legend (771 Dundas St. W.) for pork dumplings and chili beef, then a drink at Magpie (831 Dundas St. W.). I’m embarrassed to say the beer I order there is called the Sex Panther.

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“I’m embarrassed to say my beer is called the Sex Panther”

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(Images: Magpie by Eugen Sakhnenko and Porchetta & Co. by Ryan Szulc)