Lorenzo Bar and Grill: the Edge of Hip

Super cool news: I'm about to take a backpacking trip to Iceland with some of my best friends. Actually, by the time you read this I'll already be there (spoiler alert: it's awesome).

However, before I left, Margot, Glosette Girl and I went out for one last dinner together as a family - sortof a pre-Father's Day celebration. As I've mentioned on a couple of occasions before, there aren't many family-friendly restaurant options in our neighbourhood. In the end we opted to leave what most many people consider to be the "cool" trifecta of Westboro/Wellington West/Hintonburg and headed slightly further west to the decidedly un-cool area of McKeller Park. There we found Lorenzo's Bar and Grill, a Greek slash Italian place.

My fresh new vacation haircut

Why there? Because Glosette Girl was in the mood for Greek and I wanted Italian of course! Apparently this is a common problem in Ottawa because there are quite a few Greek/Italian combos. Hahaha that's how we roll here in the North. (We the far north!)

Lorenzo's Bar and Grill really is a good mascot of this area. More suburb-ish, less branding, more  family restaurants, and not slick or hip at all. That's why I liked it! The owner even came out to greet us, explained what dishes she recommended, and gave Margot a treat in the end.

There were some negatives of course: Glosette's Girl's Chicken Souvlaki wasn't very flavourful and Margot's spaghetti wasn't too wow either. On the plus side, the appetizers (dolmades and bruchetta) were really yum. And yes, dolmades and bruchetta do go together! Finally, there was a live guitar player after 7 pm. Normally I'm not a fan of live music while eating, as it tends to drown out conversation, but the musician at Lorenzo's played at just the right noise level.

One of these days I'll review one of the many hipster restaurants that Glosette Girl and I occasionally go to. But the day before leaving my family for a week, this decidedly uncool place hit the spot.