Karen & Michele
- 1 years
“I
prefer Jodie Foster in Contact”
When
35-year-old Ottawa girl Karen Halliday (right) moved to Toronto, she needed
to meet some gals. So she started Chickitas, a now-defunct monthly lesbian
party at the now-defunct Winchester Pub in Cabbagetown. “We had up
to 300 women showing up to dance,” recalls Karen, who used her Chickita
charm one night to woo a particular shaker, 30-year-old Michele Hammerton.
But it wasn’t until four years of friendship had passed (and they were
both single) that the ladies officially lip-locked.Today they cohabit in their North York condo, but spend most of their time on Church Street running their sexy loft-meets-martini-lounge restaurant Slack’s (formally Slack Alice). According to Michele, a full-time real-estate appraiser, Karen designed 90% of the restaurant’s exposed brick interior of metal countertops and plasma TVs, which air The L Word weekly. “We’re just two regular chicks [running a restaurant],” says Karen, a full-time insurance broker.
A recent vacation to Florida with Karen’s family allowed the pair to flee their usual 65-hour work week, and get inked. “My 62-year-old mother and 57-year-old aunt decided to get tattoos,” says Karen, who, after watching her family get pricked in a “hole-in-the-wall parlour,” caved for an “H” tattoo (for Halliday) on her lower back. Michele got an ocean wave symbol on her ankle. The pair’s Hollywood heroes are as different as their tattoos. A “ Star Wars junkie,” Karen is crazy for Harrison Ford as Han Solo. But Michele gushes, “I prefer Jodie Foster in Contact. I’m the true lesbian here!”
- Michael Pihach
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