About Toronto

I booked an overnight for Valentine’s weekend to celebrate my wife Beth’s birthday in Toronto.

Then she saw the AirBnb I booked and looked at reviews. There weren’t enough good ones so she found one with a better rating and booked that one. Our accommodations ended up being a bit of a nightmare but that is an entry unto itself.

We looked at the weather forecast from Environment Canada and stuck to our plans to drive to the Burlington GO train station. Free ramp parking halfway to Toronto and a $10 pass would give us all the bus, train and streetcar we needed for the weekend.

First mistake: It was a pass for the train, there was no way to use it on the bus or streetcar.

Second mistake: Not listening to Environment Canada. We should have parked in Niagara Falls, Canada and taken the bus from there.

We parked in Burlington, became disoriented in the train station and almost got on in the wrong direction before finding our way.

We exited into a snowstorm outside Union Station and headed to the CN Tower.

At the ticket counter, the clerk showed us a camera image of the view from the top of the tallest building in North America. She wanted to be sure we knew the view was compromised. We bought in any way – $75.07 USD for two tickets.

At the top, we hiked up one more flight of stairs and took a look out into the snow covered city. I will have to visit again to see if we can see Fort Grey, Youngstown or Buffalo from the top but it’s one of those things you have to do once. A 2nd visit would be an indulgence.

Weather changes in an instant. 15 minutes into our visit, the view went white. It’s still cool, and very disorienting, to stand on a glass floor and look down.

We walked to the Kensington Market neighborhood and wandered through thrift shops. I was intrigued by a classic blue and gold No. 9 Gilles Hamel jersey. I still think the Sabres won the Scott Arniel trade.

We stopped at a cheese shop and sampled several imported offerings but when we went to check out, they would not accept a US-based debit or credit card and I had fumbled at the border and missed the currency exchange.

There were ebikes everywhere in the snowstorm. Every street had a narrow bikelane worn down to slush by passing cyclists who mostly seemed to be immigrants working to deliver food and other items in a snowstorm. The resilience was impressive. I do not understand why people scorn, rather than celebrate immigrants.

It’s bad luck when traveling to pass a used book store, even if you don’t buy anything. It is the karmic equivalent to passing a little kid's lemonade stand. So it was we found ourselves in Sellers and Newell on College Street. We picked up “A Thousand Mornings,” a volume of Mary Oliver poetry and had a nice chat with Peter Sellers, the owner.

At another small bookshop we shared a laugh with the proprietor about American politics. It seems odd feeling embarrassed to admit you are from the states because of the nonsense going on at the federal level.

We headed to check into our AirBnb and get a quick nap before dinner in Little Italy where we had reservations at ZittoZitto Taverna. It was Barry good, if you get the reference to the junkball lefty. OK, Zito was the pitcher and had one T,  but . . . still.

We arrived on time to the crowded restaurant. It was still snowing hard but the place was packed. We would not have been seated if we didn’t have a reservation.

It was a romantic setting with snow falling outside, mood lighting, quiet, classy, gently music in the background.

We shared wild mushroom polenta with gorgonzola cream sauce. It was fantastic.

Then we had a salad of grilled romaine with crostini, capers, pancetta and creamy vinaigrette.

For a main course, we had linguine bronte with black tiger shrimp, pistachio pesto and orange zest. Perfectly cooked shrimp and pasta and well plated.

We finished by sharing a chocolate mousse dessert. Beth had a glass of wine. I had a cocktail. Our server was perfectly attentive, checking in on us in a timely fashion.

They brought us two plates and clean silverware with every course.

The bartender was on his game as well. Our server was off helping other patrons when the bartender had our beverages ready. He looked into the dining room from the bar. I gestured him over. It was seamless and made us feel important.

Even the hostess came over to suggest Beth’s purse should go on the window sill rather than floor which was a bit wet. She carried herself like an owner, professionally dressed and watching every detail.

All in, our dinner was $88.40 US, with a tip. Not bad for two drinks, an appetizer, a salad, a seafood main dish and dessert.

Contrast that with our first visit to Two Forks Up on a recently for what should have been my birthday dinner.

The parking lot was icy and full. There was one spot open. We were seated immediately in the noisy restaurant set with silverware rolled in paper napkins.

Our server was at our table immediately.

I had a cocktail. Beth had water. Our drinks came in less than two minutes.

We looked at the menu, which had small, hard-to-read type, and ordered, letting our server know we would be sharing.

Our Caesar salad arrived almost immediately with one extra plate and no extra serving utensil. I swear the croutons were store bought. The creamy Caesar dressing tasted like packaged stuff from the 90s. It was nostalgic but not gourmet.

We ordered seafood scampi over linguine. It showed up before we even finished our salad. We didn’t have a chance to pause or enjoy our meal. The focus was on turning tables. Our server never checked on us.

The pasta was OK, with scallops, shrimp and generous clumps of lobster claw meat in a lemon garlic sauce. Again, one extra plate and one tablespoon to serve our food. They served one dinner roll with a plastic butter packet left on the plate so the butter melted. No Italian bread or flavored butter served separately.

No attention from the staff, hostess, just pretty much a paper-napkin fast food experience. Our server offered us dessert – the display in the entry looked awesome but it was obvious they needed the table for the next patrons at this faux Darden restaurant. I couldn’t decide if it was Olive Garden or Red Lobster (there may be no difference).

When our check came, it came to $78 US including tip. For $10 more in Canada, we had an extra glass of wine, dessert, cloth napkins, as much tableware as we ever needed and an attentive, well-timed, patient and attentive wait staff. I know the exchange rate makes a $1 US $1.3 Cdn but their GST is 14%.

We left ZittoZitto back into the snowstorm, perfectly sated and grateful for an idyllic meal which would have still been perfect at twice the price. It shines even more in comparison to Twin Forks.

We churned our way through the storm to our AirBnb and called it a night.