CIBO CIAO CHOW

Wednesday night Cibo Wine Bar opened its third Toronto location at 133 Yorkville Ave. with a tasting-menu dinner where the Italian food was washed down with yummy Ripasso. The sautéed mushrooms were especially rhapsodic. OMG! The food just kept coming and we just kept eating. I have a food hangover.

Our genial server was a ringer for a mini Greta Gerwig. And how much did we love the red Chuckies on the wait staff? Rob wore his black ones, just to be more formal.

Major kudos to Nadia Di Donato, creative director of Liberty Entertainment Group, who designed this resto and all of Liberty’s venues since Rosewater Supper Club. The décor is fabulous -- from the industrial light boxes on the banquettes to the cool curtain of wine bottles. Imagine the hours of fun with a curtain of wine bottles!!!

It’s a Traci Melchor sandwich at Cibo. Or should I say a Traci panini? Cibo is Italian after all.  I suck face with Traci while legendary event planner “Party” Barbara Hershenhorn manages to restrain herself.

Here I am toasting Cibo owner Nick Di Donato, president and CEO of Liberty Entertainment Group. Why is this man smiling? Because he gets to go south in winter. He is opening a third Florida Cibo location next month.

Mr. Cibo, Nick Di Donato, catches up with fashionista Suzanne Boyd, editor of Zoomer mag, for whom black is always the new black. 

Patrick Di Donato, executive vice president of Liberty Entertainment Group, talks Blue Jays with elated fans (fresh from the winning game) Tanya and Steve Anthony.

With apologies to Dean Martin, here’s pizza pie in your eye. A Cibo chef flips pizza dough in the kitchen. Ever tried to shoot a pie in the sky? Not easy (as pie.) Sorry, I’ll stop now.

Here I am trying not to look dowdy beside celebrity stylist Cristina Ehrlich whose red-carpet clientele includes Penelope Cruz and Greta Gerwig (see intro above). Ehrlich was in town to deliver styling tips for fall/winter dressing keyed to items available at Marshalls. Her five top trends: pussy- bowed blouses, over-the-knee boots, oversized boyfriend coats, culottes and fringe. Sorry, but I just can’t do the pussy-bowed thing (my cats won't let me).

These are two cool dudes we encountered on the subway en route home from Cibo. They could have been Straight Out of Compton. TTC can be very interesting at night. Getting off the Main Street bus, a passenger who looked somewhat hippie-dippyish, asked the driver to give him extra time to exit because his backpack weighed 200 pounds. I just had to ask him why it weighed 200 pounds. He responded, “Because it is full of lead.” Before I could ask him why he was carrying 200 pounds of lead, he heaved the backpack on his shoulders and scurried away as fast as one can with 200 pounds of lead can scurry.