September 2018.

You won’t be going to this little place unless you happen to be staying in a particular Palermo neighbourhood, but it’s probably emblematic of several hundred such bistros in this fascinating city. First day in town, we walked a few blocks from our AirBNB, looked into three or four little spots but immediately identified this one as what we wanted: relaxed atmosphere, small families and couples, big windows on a corner, great smell.

Nobody speaks English here. But no problem, with hand signals including pointing and Google translate we ordered a simple Mendoza rose, and then ordered a large Roquefort calzone (pizza flipped over to form a semicircle like a pasty or chausson aux pommes) to share.

What we got was delicious but a bit different from expectation. The cheese tasted and felt more like provolone than Roquefort, but was improved by lots of little green olives (with pits), tomatoes, ham, and a wilted green probably arugula. We’ve had better pastry, but weren’t complaining. Nobody would have understood anyway.

Conversation was at a tolerable decibel and music was latin easy-listening, not pounding rock.

When I went up to pay, the guy was all apologetic indicating he was adding a 10% service fee to the price of approximately C$24. I got out Google translate and let him know that for the service, the food, wine and the price, which would have been four times as much in Vancouver Canada, I would be paying him a much bigger tip than that. He happily made it 15% and deferentially gestured to the smiling young middle-aged waitress who was the soul of efficiency.

Food 8.1, service 8.6, ambience 8.9, value 9.5, peace and quiet 7.9.