Capri Ristorante Italiano 25 John Street North
The Baltimore House 43 King William Street
We strayed from Breakfast Month, took a little a detour, if you will, and met up for dinner to kick off, as we kept calling it, “SPRING BREAK!! WOOO!!” Carly, Avishka, and I had a cozy little reunion at Capri Ristorante Italiano, the Italian restaurant that was established in downtown Hamilton in 1967. It was lovely to regroup with Carly, who has been away for school and was home for Reading Week. In Spring Break fashion, Avi was about to jet-set to Mexico for the week, so we had to squeeze in a visit and a tour stop. With so many options on our ever-growing list, we chose the elegant Capri.
As my eyes flickered about and took in the romantic decor, including little heart accents that were left over from Valentine’s Day, I looked at Carly and Avi and deadpanned, “Yeah, it’s going to be an Acclamation kind of night.” We burst out laughing, being reminded of our hilarious dinner there, which was one of our first tour stops. Much like that night, it was the kind of tour stop where we set foot in a classier establishment and proceed to laugh a little too loudly, drop some cutlery, elicit strange looks from the server, and generally draw a bit of attention to ourselves. Not to say that Capri is all elite and upscale – it’s a family restaurant as well; there were some kiddies there enjoying some pizza at a nearby table. Still, we couldn’t help but feel like we needed to be on our best behaviour.
We were definitely ready for dinner, so after divvying up the various types of breads in the basket, we dug into our food. Avi and I both chose the Pasta Shells, which came neatly presented in a star shape, as Avi noted, and Carly had the Spaghetti and Broccoli. We marvelled at the bright green colour of it! We had some fun dinner conversation that consisted of catching up on events from the last couple of months, filling Carly in on some of our recent tour stops, comparing notes from our respective Young Rival shows we attended recently, some inevitable boy talk, and giggling over various things that only we would find funny.
After dinner, we strolled down the street to what has quickly become one of our favourite spots, The Baltimore House. Carly got to see The Parlour for the first time and we immediately beelined for the back, the “library,” and made ourselves comfortable. We had fun looking at all the books, oohing and ahhing at the different titles, and examining the Phrenology bust. Bust? Yeah, let’s call it that. The brain thing! We ordered some after-dinner drinks – Carly had some peppermint tea, while I went with the Earl Grey, and Avi had a cappuccino. Each was delightfully presented on a silver platter with a glass of water and a little square of chocolate, which we always look forward to.
It was an ideal way to end off our night and we felt cozy and at home at Baltimore. We also couldn’t help but notice that the two establishments complimented each other with their rich colours and brocade walls. It was an inadvertent discovery, but the pairing worked out well and made for an enjoyable night out.
– Kristin
