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Anthony Bourdain on Toronto

diminutive said:
One day Calgary's going to top Toronto on this list and then all the Torontonians who quote it like bible will denounce it as ridiculous.
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I don't know of too many Torontonians who pay too much attention to those rankings. In fact, I didn't even any Canadian cities, besides Vancouver, made the top 10 list. Anyways, Calgary is an amazing city. I just visited this past summer for the first time since 1999, and what a transformation! It's beautiful, clean, and vibrant. Why would a Torontonian have an anti-Calgary agenda, specifically?

Tacoma said:
I'm not sure if you're serious
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The part before the smiley was sarcasm.
 
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MTown said:
I've said this many times in my life and I'll say it again: Toronto is only boring if you're boring....or an ultra-outdoorsman.
I'm not denying that there are places that are more frenetic, but Toronto is deffo not boring.
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Thank you so much for stating this.

I don't know why this is such a foreign concept to a lot of people. Achieving things takes effort. Anecdotally, a lot of my acquaintances who complain that Toronto is a provincial backwater with no cultural weight are people who happen to live in the suburbs and watch a lot of tv. "No shit, Sherlock" is what comes to my mind. Regarding Bourdain's take on Toronto, I had the feeling his main point was that Toronto was anything but boring. He covered a ton of ground and I'd say he did our city justice.
 
It's deffo a foreign concept to those who don't go out much, as you stated, but it's also foreign to people who judge a city's fun factor by traffic volumes and being able to (legally) buy booze at 5 in the am.
 
This is a shitty comparison, I know, butit illustrates my purpose brilliantly:

Two weeks ago, a friend and I spent a night in Vegas (worst place I've ever been) and couldn't understand the allure of the place. People were telling us about how exciting a place it is. Drugs? Hookers? Gambling? Booze at all hours? Thanks, but I can get all that here so why on Earth would I want to go to a cesspool like Vegas? Some people need to be led around on a string to find the fun things to do in a given place is what it comes down to.
 
^ So true. Vegas is probably the most overrated tourist destination on the planet. I'd much rather go to Monaco or Macau (or Panama, if I wanted to avoid jet lag) to gamble.
 
As he imbibed more alcohol and consumed more artery clogging food, he liked the city a lot. Architecture is a personal taste for many...either you like it or you don't. Anyone who wants to visit a city to see its skyline isn't going to listen to a chef. I can count on one hand the number of places that totally turned me off. I can usually find something beautiful in any place I visit. His show seems to be about eating weird stuff and being trashed doing it. Remember the adage....whether he vilified our city's architecture OR loved our restaurant/bar scene....."There's no greater love, than that of a drunk". We've all been drunk at some point in our lives...and know exactly what that means.
 
My god, a chef came to Toronto to eat and drink? Alert the media!!
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I noticed the criteria on his show is pretty specific...hook up with the local hipsters and run with it all the way....no touristy shite or *fancy* restaurants.

I like the camera work, and I bet they shoot a ton of material and then go back and edit the crap out of it and add the after-the-fact commentary/narrative. It works pretty well, and probably appeals to the demographic they had in mind the whole time.

Even though he is your basic middle aged, smoking/drinking, slightly uncouth American, he seems to not quite cross a line, and therefore likeable, considering he is a reality tv character.
 
MTown said:
This is a shitty comparison, I know, butit illustrates my purpose brilliantly:

Two weeks ago, a friend and I spent a night in Vegas (worst place I've ever been) and couldn't understand the allure of the place. People were telling us about how exciting a place it is. Drugs? Hookers? Gambling? Booze at all hours? Thanks, but I can get all that here so why on Earth would I want to go to a cesspool like Vegas? Some people need to be led around on a string to find the fun things to do in a given place is what it comes down to.
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There is more to Vegas than Drugs, Hookers, Gambling, Booze. You're just as bad as the people saying Toronto is boring.
 
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Vegas has some truly nice restaurants, the desert is breathtaking, and the local nightlife has a whopping 4 non-tourist establishments in downtown Vegas. The hotels feature big-ticket performances and I saw one art gallery. The entire city is many shades of suburban beige. I'd say the ratio of crap to great is way too high to make Vegas worth a second visit, even for the seasoned urban explorer. In Toronto, one just has to put in a bit of effort, and the whole thing unfolds wonderfully. I'm with MTown on this one.
 
Just outside of the strip you wil lfind some of the most beautiful places in America to hike. It's amazing the amount of people who visit Vegas and don't even know about the canyons, wildlife areas, and geologic formations, that surround Vegas like... Valley of Fire State Park, Lake Mead,Hoover Dam,Red Rock Canyon, Mt Henderson, Black Mountain Trail just to name a few.

People are just stupid. They don't do any research before they travel. I've met people who travel to Toronto and only visit Dundas Sq and the CN Tower and then say there isn't much to do.
 
I'm sorry, excuse me? We were in the southwest for three weeks of camping and hiking. Vegas was our last night and point of return via flight. Vegas HAS NOTHING going for it.
 
California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. Thank you very much. Vegas is a hole. Zion, now there ya go. But we're talking about cities, not their surrounding hinterland. So, try again to convince us that Vegas is not a hole.
 
MTown said:
I'm sorry, excuse me? We were in the southwest for three weeks of camping and hiking. Vegas was our last night and point of return via flight. Vegas HAS NOTHING going for it.
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So why is Vegas one of the most visited cities in America? Because It's a cesspool like no other. Where else can you shop at Tiffiny's while drinking out of a plastic football shaped cup of beer?
 
gabe said:
So why is Vegas one of the most visited cities in America? Because It's a cesspool like no other. Where else can you shop at Tiffiny's while drinking out of a plastic football shaped cup of beer?
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Amazing. Quelle joie de vivre to be able to shop at Tiffany's while drinking beer out of gimmicky plastic cups! I'm in love.

It's heavily-visited because unfortunate people are fond of unfortunate gimmicks.
 
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