Sometimes you can do all your research, call ahead, get excited about a place, and then be completely let down when you arrive. That was one unfortunate experience I had while trying to get breakfast in Boston. Every time I visit the US I'm (for some reason) still shocked at how prevalent butter is. It's everywhere! I swear butter is not this popular in Toronto.
Last September for my 25th birthday my pal Karrie and I went to Boston for 4 days. One evening I ordered pasta in a high-end Italian restaurant and they told me that they use butter in the tomato sauce. I have literally never heard of this before and thus, I was shocked. Luckily they were super nice and made me a fresh sauce that was delicious and so plentiful. The next day I was looking up places for brunch and came across a restaurant that was named one of the best in the city, The Paramount. It was located in Beacon Hill so it was a 20 minute walk from our hotel, The Langham, which was in the financial district.
Karrie and I were both starving by the time we arrived. What we had not accounted for was how packed The Paramount would be, or how much butter was literally everywhere. Usually I can get away with ordering fruit and boiled eggs if it seems like fried foods aren't an option, or a lot of places in Toronto just happen to use canola or vegetable oil anyways so there's no substitution required (is canola oil a Canadian thing?). But at the sight of the bowl full of butter and the butter wheel where toast was quickly rolled through, I realized that this was not a Mandy-friendly place. It was all over the grill, the utensils, and the chances of cross-contact were about 100%.
The problem was that we were frigging starving and had plans to go to Harvard before catching our flight back to TO and we couldn't find another brunch place close by. Luckily when you're with one of your best friends you can communicate through eye signals and ESP. We were standing in the huge lineup watching the line cooks fly through orders at an impressive speed and just as I was thinking it Karrie said OMG they literally have a frigging wheel of butter, you can't eat here. So we came up with a compromise, she would order from The Paramount since their food did look really delicious and she was going to faint, and I would pick up some fruit and have one of my Enjoy Life bars. And then the butter thing became kind of hilarious, as we watched the equivalent of about 5 sticks run through in the 15 minutes we waited in line. And then her plate arrived... like this...
With extra butter. Just in case.
