QuikOrder Holiday Party at Harry Carray’s

 Rachelle, Janet, Vickie

 Umesh, Jatan, Madhan

 Jerry, Mayur

 Filet Mignon

 Umesh won a basketball signed by Grant Hill

 Madhan won a trip to the Pro Bowl

 Samantha won a limited-edition Pizza Hut Parka that is made from the same materials the pizza delivery carrier is made from.

Madhan and Umesh with our new boss, Carol

The QuikOrder holiday party this year was at Harry Carray’s, one of Jim’s favorite restaurants in Chicago. It was bittersweet, since Jim is retiring, having sold the company to Pizza Hut. There were a lot of sentimental speeches and a lot of hope for the new year and beyond.

Real Sports Bar & Grill, Toronto

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When Becky and I landed in Toronto we dropped our things at the hotel and then headed back out to Real Sports Bar & Grill at Maple Leaf Square. Becky is a huge Blackhawks fan who even used to have season tickets. She did some research on good sports bars nearby so we headed to Real Sports to watch the game. This place was pretty crazy – they had a 39-foot HD big screen that was pretty much as big as a movie screen. If that wasn’t enough for you, they also had 199 HD TVs, so 200 total, I guess. And the place was huge! 25,000 square feet. They had a pretty good beer list with 114 taps. I tried the Canadian beer, King Vienna (toffee malt flavour & crisp bitterness taht dries smoothly on your palette), and the somewhat similarly tasting Canadian beer, Granville Island‘s English Bay Pale Ale (caramel malt flavour & light hop bitterness, balanced with a dry roasted finish). I thought both were really great.

The Blackhawks won, that was awesome. But the really weird thing was that the Pro Bowl was on that night… and I can understand how they’d show it on a few TVs, but they put it on a ton of TVs including the huge 39-foot screen. Not only that, but they turned the audio on when it started. All this while there was still Canadian hockey going on. Do Canadians really love the Pro Bowl that much? Not even the Americans watch it!

I enjoyed watching the sports at Real Sports and I liked trying the different beers, but the food was “meh” at best. Becky and I both had a couple different appetizers and they were way underwhelming. Disappointing since I ordered my first Canadian poutine there.