The First Restaurant

Oliver and I started the tradition of father-and-son March Break vacations when he was 9 years old–shockingly, almost half-his-life ago.

I cannot recall what prompted the idea in the first place, and, in retrospect, the idea of heading to farthest Slovakia as a temporarily-single parent seems foolhardy: what if I’d turned the other way and Oliver had run off into the sewers?

But he didn’t, and so the template was set and it’s a tradition we’ve continued ever since, with only one exception, in 2015:

• 2009: Kosice, Vienna, Nuremberg, Paris, London
• 2010: Düsseldorf, Wolfsburg, Berlin, Mälmo, London
• 2011: Florida
• 2012: Florida
• 2013: Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka
• 2014: Toronto
• 2016: Halifax

While getting to all of the above has involved different degrees of arduousness, it’s not really been the journey that’s switched “vacation mode” on, but rather the first supper out on the town of each trip.

The first time out, in 2009, it was a smoky Mediterranean second floor pizza-and-beer joint called Amir in downtown Kosice.

In 2010 we arrived so late in Düsseldorf that we missed supper altogether, so the suppertime portal to vacation had to wait until the next night where we ate more ćevapčići than I ever thought possible at the Lika Grill.

In 2013, we arrived in Tokyo late at night after an exhausting day of travel halfway around the world, so our first supper was at 7-11 (we made up for it the next night with an excellent sushi supper, the first of many).

This year, like last, we’re more modest in our ambitions, and have again come to Halifax for our vacation.

But the meal we had tonight, at Edna, ranks among the best we’ve had anywhere: it was simply fantastic on every level. Good food, great service, a comfortable room.

We’re here in Halifax until Wednesday, and plan to engage in all manner of father and son fun. It may not be Osaka, but that won’t keep us down.