25
Toronto 1961
The Russian Tea Room wasn’t situated in Russia and it didn’t specialize in tea. They served a tasty cabbage borscht and freshly baked black bread to dip in, stacked in baskets along with a better than average brisket and heaps of roasted potatoes with portions large enough to feed a troop of Sumo wrestlers. Needless to say, Birdie had gone several hours without eating and this needed to be remedied. I liked the atmosphere of the place, dingy red leather booths along with fake photographs tarted up to look like Czarist Russia. The waiters wore dirty white aprons, puffed shirts and black satin vests marking the sartorial splendor envisioned by the Tea Room’s management. We grabbed a booth. A waiter with slicked back hair neatly parted down the middle like a seam of white go
