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27 | W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,June 24,2021 w aterloochronicle.ca Check out the answers on page 28 Like puzzles? Then you'll love sudoku. This mind-bending puzzle will have you hooked from the moment you square off, so sharpen your pencil and put your sudoku savvy to the test! Here's How ItWorks: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle! Cr oss wo rd & Su do ku CLUES ACROSS 1. Overly curious 5. Contend (with) 9. Car fuel 12. Initial stake 13. Healthy 14. Mouth edge 15. Ring 16. A long way off 17. Verse type 18. Ship's pole 20. Barked shrilly 22. Fire residue 24. Showy flowers 26. Iced 28. Talks wildly 32. Manner 33. Society miss 35. Coil 36. Damp 38. Pie ____: 3 wds. 40. Wedding routes 42. Presently 43. Taken wrongfully 46. Blemish 48. Loiter 49. Miss 51. Comedians 54. Building section 55. Levee 56. Exude 57. Little 58. Slipped 59. Declare untrue CLUES dOWn 1. Catch 40 winks 2. Dollar 3. Hiding 4. Dog's cry 5. Scorched 6. Blockhead 7. Stage dramas 8. Spookier 9. Gooey stuff 10. Camp worker 11. Hastened 19. Become sick 21. Biblical song 22. Drama divisions 23. Go away! 25. Perfect 27. Permissible 29. Lunch hour 30. Fuss: hyph. 31. Pour forth 34. Sacred 37. Produces 39. Type of snake 41. Shell dweller 43. Large quantity 44. Parable 45. Stare at 47. Unpaid 50. ____ lodge 52. Pie pan 53. Farm pen Level: Beginner On June 11, evening while visiting a downtown Kitchener restaurant pa- tio, a customer at a neigh- bouring table watched as a book-store employee tidied up a window display just before closing time. She jumped from her ta- ble, crossed the sidewalk and knocked on the win- dow asking if she could purchase the biography of music icon Neil Young in the display. "It's for Father's Day, but I'm reading it first," she said when I commented that the store had made a patio sale even without a patio. Curbside pickup, in- deed. A few moments later, as my wife and I tried to set up a first-time-back-on-the- patio selfie, the woman came over and used my phone to take a few pic- tures for us. With a light rain begin- ning to fall as the evening rolled on, I popped open an umbrella and we joked with another nearby table who had fashioned nap- kins into rain hats, until TWH Social staff brought them umbrellas. For everyone, reopened patios represent pure de- light. Earlier in the day, I hap- pily devoured some spa- ghetti and meatballs on a patio a few blocks west -- a bowl of comfort food on the first day back to restaurant dining. At the table beside us were some workers from a telecom company, resplen- dent in orange. When a BIA representative with a cam- era asked to take their pic- ture for a social media post, we joked around as they said no. "The boss doesn't need to know about our lunch break," they said, tucking into their meals happily, a cool breeze blowing in the warm sun. The jesting, the friendli- ness and the camaraderie among strangers are the very spirit of a casual res- taurant experience. If there are complaints about patios -- too hot, too windy, too many bugs, too many Harleys -- they are certainly not in play this early summer. With this long-antici- pated reopening, it's very a very different feeling on patios after a winter of de- livery discontent and a long and stultifying pan- demic sequestration. I sense general excite- ment, a euphoria almost. From two metres or more of distance, tables are jok- ing and chatting with each other. Restaurants need that energy. They need to be full with laughing, happy peo- ple enjoying food and drink and friends and family. Although they can only have patios with limited seating and no indoor din- ing, staff are glad to be back at work too. But there are a few things to be aware of. We need to be on guard against the nasty Delta variant, which is digging its heels in here in Water- loo Region. Let's keep that under control. Remember too that it's important to be a patient and understanding restau- rant guest on the patio. Like any of us if we've been off the job for some time, restaurant staff are bound to be a bit rusty after a long period away from serving customers and cre- ating a fluid and relaxing dining and restaurant ex- perience. It's entirely likely that there are new staff mem- bers in both front of house and in the kitchen; that means communication and team work are bound to be slightly off as we reopen. Meals don't magically appear: they result from a chain of events, a process, that requires co-ordination between taking an order, cooking multiple dishes, and getting the food to the table -- which is likely many steps further away on the patio. One other point to con- sider: not all restaurants have patios, so they need our support with contin- ued takeout orders. It's good to be back, but we're only at the beginning of the pandemic's end and have a long way to go. Be patient. Be kind. Continue to tip well. Andrew Coppolino is a Kitchener-based food writ- er and broadcaster. Visit him at www.andrewcoppo- lino.com. OUTDOOR PATIOS ARE A BEAUTIFUL THING The Walper Hotel patio in Kitchener. Andrew Coppolino photo OPINION ANDREW COPPOLINO Column