Amy Cooper portrays the winter Dinners at The Country Trader, an antique furniture and interior design showroom located in the PYD Building, Waterloo. THE SUN-HERALD May 17, 2009. Page 25.

GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER - Country Trader Winter Dinner
Country Trader Store, Waterloo.

HIT. When Geoffrey Clark throws a dinner “at home”, you find yourself surrounded by, sitting on and eating from the French antiques in his huge showroom. Eight of his good friends, including Catherine Martin, Skye Leckie and Simon Johnson, hosted tables and put on aprons to serve their buddies porcini soup with beef Wellington prepared by chef John Wilson. Tables were draped with fresh foliage and Hessian tablecloths, each guests perched on a different antique chair, and we restrained ourselves from shoplifting.

MISS. Eating from a 200-piece antique Limoges dinner service was a treat for this IKEA gal but also a cause for anxiety. Although Geoffrey doesn’t mind antiques being “weathered”, I was afraid to scrape too hard or –yikes-drop a platter.

AMY COOPER

THE SUN-HERALD May 17, 2009. Page 25 Back