Jernie's Hub

Herbert's colleagues from US and Germany were in town for a short business trip. I was given the task to search for a decent restaurant for yesterday's dinner. They were basically here for just a day and a half.

I scanned through the brochures and run a search in the internet. I had the idea of taking them to a revolving restaurant. I had two choices on hand; one is the Toula Restaurant at Westin Castle Hotel at the harbour area and the Canoe Bar and Restaurant at Wellington St., not far from where we live. After a few calls, I found-out that the Toula Restaurant is an Italian Restaurant and is closing at 10pm. I thought it was too early if they are going to spend time for discussions. With the Canoe Bar & Restaurant, I wasn't sure if it is appropriate to have some talks over dinner knowing that it's also a bar. Then I remembered the 360 Restaurant at the CN Tower. There they can dine at the same time visit one of the most important site/landmark of the city since they didn't have the luxury to go around the city: it's hitting two birds at a time. I asked Herbert to check with the guests if they would welcome my idea. Well, they liked it.

So, I made the reservation with the restaurant. I was given few information such as; the kitchen is closing at 10pm but the guests can stay as long as they want, elevation ticket will be free of charge if the guests will order of at least 1 main dish per person, allows access to the look-out floor and to the glass floor, a ticket to go to the Sky Pod is available at the look-out floor.

Since our reservation was at 6:45pm, we agreed to meet at the lobby of the CN tower at 6:30pm. We were so lucky to have a perfect weather: clear sky and fairly warm. After few minutes’ walk, we met-up the group at the lobby. After the short introduction and handshakes, I lead them to the elevator area.

Along the path to the elevator area, on both sides were TV screens mounted on the wall highlighting the stages and timeline of the construction of the CN tower. Every screen represents a year and displays the progress made on that year in terms of height.

At the end of the path were few scanning machines where everyone should stand in for a few seconds. I was wondering what exactly they are scanning because it was not the usual X-ray scan, it was like air blowing from various points of the machine to my body. For a second I was thinking if it was a sort of disinfectant or a weapon scanning machine. As I have expected, the guests who are all engineers in various disciplines were curious too about the machine. They really took time to look at the machine and asked few questions from the security staff but she was too busy to take all the questions so we had to cut it short and proceed to the elevator area.

Before we were allowed to get into the elevator, we were asked to pose for a souvenir shot.
As we started to elevate, the engineers' mind were again working. They were looking at and talking about the things around us: the materials and the mechanics of the high-speed elevator. In 58 seconds we were lodged at the level 4 where the restaurant is located. We were received well by the staff, no waiting time and took us to the table reserved for us. The guests were so happy to see the view outside. They were grateful for such a very good choice of restaurant. Of course, I was happy to that they appreciated it.



We were attended immediately: orders taken, drinks and dishes were served accordingly. It was a nice time with the gentlemen. The view up there was fantastic. I was just looking forward to get dark so I will see the aerial view of Toronto at night.

The restaurant completes its revolution every 72 minutes so we had a good view of the city. From there, the power plant site at the harbour was very visible. I took quite a lot of pictures for them. The food was fantastic. They offer 8 various summer 2008 menus. Check their website for details. http://www.cntower.ca/portal/SmartDefault.aspx?at=1691

After dinner, we went down to the look-out level; it was very nice because the lights were changing and the fresh air outside. Then we went to the glass floor. There were still quite some visitors up there thought it was past 10pm. Later on, we descended to the lobby. Outside, we spent again sometime watching the CN Tower as it changes its colors and we took another bunch of pictures. It seemed they hadn't had enough time talking about this massive structure: how deep is the foundation, the technicalities of it, the engineering concepts applied on it.

Because it was getting late, we have to call the night-off. We wished them a safe drive to their hotel and safe flight back.

For us, we enjoyed the walk back to our apartment. Along the way, we passed by many restaurants and bars. The streets are still busy with pedestrians. I just hope that this weather will stay for good so we could enjoy strolling around the city at night too.