On Saturday we wandered around downtown; we tried out a restaurant we'd never been to before, dropped into an art gallery, and checked out a local weekly market!
Outside the Water St. Variety Community Market
Since it was a long weekend, it was tricky to figure out what was open and what would be going on. We started the afternoon downtown by walking to Mohamed Ali's, a new middle-eastern restaurant, however we were greeted by one of the employees at the door saying that they weren't opening until 4 pm. Disappointing. So we decided to try out another restaurant that we hadn't been to before - Shalimar Restaurant. We didn't know what we were getting into when we walked into the mostly empty restaurant, but we got into something good.
They have a lunch buffet, with mostly Indian food, for $16 per person. The place has a homey feel, with one woman cooking the food and a man (who we would imagine is her husband) sitting at a table balancing the books. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Plus, all-you-can-eat Indian food is nothing to complain about!
Then we made our way to the Eastern Edge Art Gallery because we heard that they had two new exhibits opening. Unfortunately when we arrived there, the gallery was closed and we realized that it must have just been open that evening. So we decided to check out another gallery in the area, The Leyton Gallery. They had quite a few impressive pieces and the gallery even continued into a back room, which was unique.
Then we made our way to the Eastern Edge Art Gallery because we heard that they had two new exhibits opening. Unfortunately when we arrived there, the gallery was closed and we realized that it must have just been open that evening. So we decided to check out another gallery in the area, The Leyton Gallery. They had quite a few impressive pieces and the gallery even continued into a back room, which was unique.
By this point, it had changed from ice pellets to snow outside (oddly enough it was 17 degrees earlier on in the week) so we decided to take shelter in the Water St. Variety Community Market. It had quite a mix of local vendors, and we ended up buying some peanut butter and pumpkin home-made dog treats. Then we checked out the Water St. Variety shop downstairs which is a convenience store that also has a bunch of vintage collectibles and interesting little knick-knacks. We were especially intrigued by the old camera equipment.
At the beginning of the day, we didn't know where the afternoon would take us but we're pretty pleased about where we ended up!
We didn't take many pictures, but here are a few more pictures from our Random Downtown Saturday:
We didn't take many pictures, but here are a few more pictures from our Random Downtown Saturday:
