Real Places in the Sasha Jackson Mysteries

They always say "write what you know..." and I know several fine restaurants and watering holes around Toronto.  In the Sasha books, I often send the characters to places that I frequent in real life, and that I really do like, such as:

• The Pilot Tavern
• Cafe Diplomatico
• The Wheat Sheaf Tavern
• The Rooftop bar of the Park Plaza
• Tundra (at The Hilton hotel)
• Horseshoe Tavern
• Kilgour's
• Brownstone Bistro

Two places that have been mentioned in the Sasha books have gone out of business since the books were published: Monsoon (fine dining, downtown) and Myth (resto-bar, on the Danforth).

I don't always use real places, some are entirely fictional and a few are fictionalized versions of actual places, including:

• Bartholomew's
• Penelope's
• The Danforth Cafe
• Moishe's
• The Purple Door

Generally, I use a fake place if my portrayal of it is negative (i.e. bad food and service), or if I need to invent a bar-restaurant-cafe somehwere in order to move along the plot.