HeraldSpurr reviews a golf club restaurant–c’mon Bill, how many of your readers will eat there?  You’re not getting lazy are you? Whilst over at the Coast, Craig Pinhey writes about Canada’s antiquated border booze laws that restrict consumer choice and put us at the whim of the NSLC.
Which kind of fits right in with Halifax, in general. I live here because I must, but as I get older and crankier, I have less and less patience with the small town mentality that’s so rampant (especially in the mayoral office, currently).
I moved here from Newfoundland years ago; all starry eyed and full of excitement about moving to a “mainland city”. After all, the closer you are to Toronto, the more progressive and advanced the city, right? And there was nowhere more east than NL, so surely moving anywhere to the west would bring one closer to a more  cosmopolitan culture, right?
Yeah, not so much. When I moved here, you couldn’t shop on Sunday–or on Monday, Tuesday and Saturday nights (unless you headed over the bridge to Dartmouth).  No beer in the corner stores, and good luck finding an open gas station on Sunday. More confusing was the inability to get both a beer and a mixed drink at most drinking establishments, and the early hour at which everything downtown closed.
But one area in which Halifax has managed to excel has been in the fantastic culinary culture. Nothing small town about the array of restaurants and the global tastes the city offers; we do all right for a city this size. Without thinking too hard, I can come up with Indian, Iranian, Italian (the “I’s” have it). South Asia is well represented with Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, Japanese and of course Chinese. Greek, Mexican, Turkish. Ethiopian. And so it goes.
So while the liquor regulations are archaic, at least we have freedom of food!