I found myself filled with memories as we drove with friends up Ossington Ave to Pizza Libretto for lunch. Look, there, I used to live in that storefront back in the 80s. Yeah, right in the store. It used to be a hardware store and had pegboard walls. We made a little kitchen and had a couple painting studios. It was good.

King, a husky that ruled the neighbourhood used to get on the bus right there every day, go up two stops and then get off. The storefront church with the rockin gospel music was right there. There used to be a Vietnamese tough guy who parked his car right there in front. It was a Monte Carlo with mag wheels and a jacked up back end and the words Monte Carlo painted on the trunk. And the Portuguese bakery, look it’s still there. Up there, that’s where Mendelson Joe lived. Sometimes he would sit on the stoop and play the guitar. Up there around the corner. I remember the Lakeview when it was a real old-school diner, before it was designed and redesigned into a retro vintage old-school diner.

Now Ossington is home to trendy galleries and restaurants (I hardly recognized parts of the street) and Pizza Libretto is one of them. Nice design, nice menu, very good pizza with a unique crust, and fabulous, fabulous bruschette.