Nineties Throwback: Boyz II Men in T.O.

Someone explain to me why I am awake right now. If there’s a medical condition that causes one to wake up before 7:00 a.m. no matter how late they stayed up the night before, I definitely have it.

Last night, Josh and I met up with some friends for dinner and drinks at Czehoski, then headed to Kool Haus to see Boyz II Men ($20 per ticket – thanks Teambuy).

I made two key strategical errors last night:

1. Thinking two appetizers at a trendy restaurant would add up to a sufficient meal

Last week, I blogged about the dangers of dining out. Here’s the solution – ditch the chain restaurants and opt for trendy hipster joints instead. While the chain restaurant will load your plate with enough food to feed a small family, the hipster joint takes pride in its meagre yet exorbitantly priced portions, serving them on ginormous white plates as if to rub it in your face that you just paid $20.00 for a handful of arugula and a few goat cheese crumbles. I’ve been to enough trendy hipster restaurants to know this, yet for some reason, figured I could order the roasted beet salad and crab cakes and call it a meal.

(Excuse the poor photo quality. That’s the other characteristic of the trendy hipster joint - terrible lighting for all of the obnoxious foodies who like to photograph their food and blog about it)

As soon as I got my crab cakes, I knew my makeshift meal would not be enough to tide me over for a long night of kicking it old school, so I ordered the charcuterie and cheese platter. After polishing that off, I was pleasantly full. The only problem – all of this, plus two glasses of wine and half a dessert cost over $70.00.

It probably would have been cheaper to get an entrée, but nothing looked appealing. I sampled a bit of other people’s food (beef ribs, braised pork belly and poutine) and nothing really stood out. Actually, the best part of the meal was the dessert I shared with Josh, which was basically just a small serving of cookie dough topped with soft serve ice cream. I could probably make this at home:  

Oh well. I did enjoy the restaurant’s atmosphere, especially the live piano music. After Czehoski, it was off to Kool Haus to see Boyz II Men. This is where I made my second strategical error of the evening:

2. Wearing high heels to a standing room only concert

I was in agony by the end of the night. The stupid thing is, I actually had a pair of flats in the car but when we arrived at Kool Haus, I was slightly buzzed from my second glass of wine and figured I’d be just fine in my heels. By the time my buzz wore off and I realized I’d made a huge mistake, the car – and my flats – had disappeared into some unknown parking lot a few blocks away thanks to the enforced valet parking.

Still, I had a good night. Boyz II Men gave an amazing performance; vocally, these guys are still at the top of their game. The set list included all of the classics (“Motownphilly,” “End of the Road,” “I’ll Make Love to You,” “Mama” and “On Bended Knee”) as well as a nice little Motown tribute (dance moves and all). My inner nineties child was happy. My feet and calves were not.