Oh what a night – anniversary dinner at Briscola

It can be hard to take me out for dinner.

If it’s a neighbourhood joint, family run with a napkin dispenser and plastic tablecloths, I’ll be happy. It’s when you get to the finer joints that it’s difficult.

Being a restaurant reviewer, I have either:

- been to the place

- given one of the owner’s other places a bad review

- know something about it that will affect our dinner

Or it’s completely out of our price range.

So celebrating any occasion out at a “nice” restaurant can be a challenge for me and my fella. So for our anniversary dinner last night, I chose a bunch of new places neither of us had been yet and let him make the decision.

Because I eat and critique for a living, I decided not to look at the menus too closely or decide in advance what I was going to have. I didn’t look around the website to get a feel for the place or read this history of the owner and chef as I normally would. Normally, I’m the go-to person, the girl friends email or call to ask for recommendations of places to go, so it was nice to let go and be in the dark for once.

We got dressed – me in a tight fitting grey wool dress, he in a pair of jeans with black long sleeve tee – and made our way down to three-week old restaurant, Briscola, on College Street.

Owner Taufik was there, serving as host and party thrower extrodinaire. E-Talk’s Tanya Kim strode in with bouncy tresses and Chanel purse. Because it’s new, it had that feeling of the place to be on a Saturday night. Not something my fella and I are about, but it was nice to be somewhere brand new (I usually wait a couple of months before I review a new resto, so I’m not one of those people dying to be the first one in).

We got the window seat, which allowed for a romantic meal while still enjoying the excited voices and laughter from the bar and tables in the back.

The Salumiere plate was a nice starter, but the Deep-Fried Olives with orange and parsley are not to be missed. We shared a small Spaghetti Pommodoro that was fresh and vibrant and I tucked into a voluptuous Osso Bucco Classico, while Mr. Right has breaded veal. That’s all I’ll say because this is not a review, but simply a sharing of my experience.

That’s why you won’t find any pictures of our meal. Or what I would have added or taken away. I wanted this dinner to be about the 9 years my fella and I have shared, about the love that has developed and flourished and about all the opportunities that lie ahead for us.

A meal is about the food, yes, but it is about the things said in between bites too.

It’s also about whom you meet – I met a guy coming up from the bathroom, who in 2 minutes told me what he did for a living and introduced me to his friends in the back (we work in the same field). In between courses, our server Jamie told us about his life back in the Bahamas, his studies at school and his chocolate lab puppy that he raised and sent back home.

I’m going to remember this night forever. I have the images burned on my brain, so no need for pictures or notes about the basil or kale.

That’s what I love most about food – the memories it creates that you carry with you for the rest of your life.