Toronto - For a burnt down restaurant, Sassafraz is boiling hot. We decided only recently to try out Summerlicoius - not because we are poor - but that we are relatively poor. If one can pay $35+ for dinner one could hardly go to the street-people and honestly pat him/her on the shoulder in camaraderie. In any case, the place doesn’t need an effort to be snobbish, and I’m sure no one is immune - this was definitely not your mom-n-pop bistro. No matter how rich you are, the whole point of being there is to gently stroke the ego and whisper that you’ve “made it”, whatever the hell that means. All around us Mercedes and Maserati’s, the scantily-dressed and formerly scantily-dressed sat leisurely waiting to be served. We were 10 min. late (by no means trying to show our dark-side), and was still well-received - waited for ~ 3 min. to be led in, but I was wholly distracted by the Audi R8 to notice anything else…

The humidity of the day did not help. I wanted to sit outside - but after a look skyward I changed my mind. We had just ordered when the Lake Ontario seems to be teleported right above Yorkville. Rain was pouring and you could see the valets and servers running with umbrellas - to protect the shiny utensils and gourmet food. Ours was of course without rain water - I ordered a shrimp gazpacho with jalapeno to start - this or a watermellon salad, in very generous portions, I might add. If tomatos were blue, my shrimp would be Moby Dick and the jalapeno would be Ahab’s rum. It made the soup. Main was a piece of grouper. OK, after Bluenose II’s atlantic salmon no cooked fish really tastes adequate, but this one was good. The best part turned out to be the mash potatoes and spinach. I don’t know what was in it, the flavouring was very different and different is what I wanted out of a Summerlicious meal. The other choice was risotto - I laughed when our Italian waiter tried to explain to us what it is, and laughed some more inside when I got a taste of it from my friends - sweet and cheesy and probably with saffron. My banana tart dessert reminded me of a certain candy that I had before. Tart was a little dry but that custard was creamy enough. Washed down with a cup of coffee served in cute ceramic cups and the dinner was at an end. So to sum up: nice ambience, good food, throne seat view of the jesters in Yorkville. What’s not to like - the fact that I owe them 2 months worth of dishwashing.