zoë siskos

I’ve said it before but one of my favourite things is just wandering around cities and happening upon cool places I’ve never been before. When you’ve just moved to a new city there are tons of places like this.

One Sunday afternoon, Hubby and I were driving home and as he was sending subliminal messages of pints and food into my head I saw a sign and screamed “STOP”.

He didn’t slam on the brakes but he did pull over (isn’t he smart) I pointed out the most curious sign. It read ‘PUB’.

Yes, I understand it doesn’t sound like much of a curious sign. What was so curious was it’s placement. At first glance, especially while driving by, it looks like just a wall. Then there is this sign that reads ‘PUB’ and has a big arrow to a hole in the wall.

Now, upon closer inspection you see it’s a wrought iron fence that surrounds a stone patio which leads to the Pub. It kind of reminded me of the Secret Garden because, like I said, it really looks like just a wall. And we’ve driven by it many-a-time.

What a Pub it turned out to be. We chose the seating next to the fireplace. Two big, beautiful, stately chairs and one dark wooden table. We discussed how decor like this might work in our home and even jotted down the layout on a napkin. But I digress.

The plan was to enjoy one pint and head out but we quickly learned that there was going to be live music. And what another hidden gem that was.

It was my favourite kind of live music – one guy and a guitar, specifically one guy, a guitar and a good sense of humour. We were also sitting quite close to him so he was kind enough to take many requests and we even got a good look at his set list (he even let me put a star next to the songs that I really liked. There were a lot of stars).

‘He’ has a name: Chris Chambers. And Chris Chambers also has a web site, Chris-Chambers.com. Chris Chambers even has some videos on You Tube (what a great self-promoter).

Chris was kind enough to do a mini-interview for my blog:

Now we stayed because we love live music but what was even more enticing was that the waitress said that he had Stevie Ray Vaughan skills…and she was right. I tried to catch some video of it; the lighting sucks and the sound doesn’t do him justice but check it out anyway. (I’m sure his You Tube videos are a bit better

Better yet, why don’t you do check him out live, as we all know how much better live music is. If you live in the Ancaster/Hamilton/Dundas area he plays at the Coach & Lantern every Sunday at 7:00pm. Or, you can check out his other live events on his website.

* i just read on thier website that the Coach & Lantern has wireless internet which means next time I could write my blog post from there!