It goes like this. A few years back. We live in Ha...

It goes like this. A few years back. We live in Hamilton, Ontario, and were taking some time as a family in the Finger Lakes area. A rare occasion suddenly presented itself--the in-laws took the kids and my wife and I went out.

We were in nearby Canandaigua, so went to quaint and stately Pittsford for a drink at Jo-Jo wine bar, where we discovered six swanky well-heeled couples fashionably attired as though without trying and sitting and standing around the front patio--laughing at each other's witticisms.

I felt--geesh--a little intimidated, and asked my wife if there was a Gallo or Turning Leaf commercial shoot going on. Like where are the cameras, I said, looking around. They looked so magazine good--and happy. We had to go in.

We approached and they said something like that to us, like we were a good-looking couple and what's the occasion. We laughed and explained that we thought the cameras were on them. (we regret that we didn't just sit down with them, it felt so natural. Aside: these were good, cool people, the kind that are confident and friendly--we love New York).

Inside we sit at the wood and a young guy comes over and introduces himself as Bud, like the beer, he says. He was great. Asked us where we're from. I say Toronto. Oh, Tor-on-to, he repeats with what sounds like a stilted Japanese intonation. I say it's pronounced Trawno to the natives; he corrects my overly crisp Rochester pronunciation to Rawchestah. We laugh. He says he saw Radiohead in Trawno. We drink and enjoy. Would've stayed for dinner, but we needed to see more--the night was magic and we don't get out often.

We need a place for dinner. Bud says good luck. Pardon, I say. Good Luck, he repeats. You should go there--in Rawchestah. But it's Saturday night and you don't have a reso, he says. But I know a girl, he continues, who used to work here and who might get you a table. He calls. Comes back nodding and smiling. Scribbles directions on a napkin (which I kept). We move on to Good Luck in Rochester. See my review there. It was fab. Thanks, Bud, the bartender, not the beer, you were great.

(And to the Turning Leaf couples--hope to run into you again on set).