Spoon #40: Canyon Creek

As I alluded to in the last post, Ms. Dish and I recently spent some time in Niagara Falls, Canada.  A little road trip such as this was sure to present plenty of swaportunities!  International swaportunities no less!

Never having been to Niagara Falls, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Personally I had it in my mind that these falls were off in the woods somewhere... maybe we'd take a tram to get there like at the Grand Canyon... As it turns out it's right in the middle of town, surrounded by hotels, restaurants and casinos.  Here's a view from the Canadian side:

So, with a "when in Rome" mentality, Ms. Dish and I decided to join the throngs of tourists and head to the local casino for a steak at Canyon Creek.  Unfortunately we forgot to take a picture, and since Canyon Creek is in a casino, we can't resort to our usual practice of using Google Streetview.  You will have to use your imagination.


Turns out there are half a dozen Canyon Creeks throughout Ontario, but I wouldn't label it a "chain restaurant".  The food was quite good, and the service had a very "professional" feel to it.  We counted the number of times we saw the manager walk past to make sure everything was in order, inquiring at each table if the guests were having a good time.  This is great for your dining experience, but a bit nervewracking for a Spoon Swapper.  Surely a man such as this will notice a foreign or out of place spoon!  Luck was with us, however, and we escaped unharmed carrying a brand new Spoon #40 to the casino floor:

Spoon 40 is marked "Oneida Barcelona" and "24-12" near the bowl.

Here's a picture of a Barcelona spoon with the rest of the gang:

And here's what Oneida has to say about their offering:

Smooth, rounded curves taper to slender shafts, giving Barcelona a warm, comfortable feel. The perfectly polished, tear-drop shaped handle feels as good in the hand as it looks on your tables.

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Now what to make of this 24-12 marking?  Number markings such as this have been seen on many Oneida spoons, and in the past I have speculated that it could be a date, but 24-12 blows that theory right out of the water! 

Final order of business, in researching Spoon 40, I discovered Oneida has created an online "Virtual Table", which customers can use to mock up potential table settings.  Real cutting edge stuff!