Sal Fiorino was trying to explain the concept of snowbirds to his parents. Seniors go to Florida for a few months each winter, he said, and they relax. When the weather's better, they come back home.

"That's not us," Anna and Gennaro told their son. "We'd rather work."

And work is the Capri, the oldest restaurant in downtown Hamilton.*

So there was a problem. A deal had already been struck to sell the three-storey 1800s Capri building, on John near King William.

The sale price was good — $2.5 million. The deal was with LiUNA/ Hi-Rise Group, who plan to build two 30-storey residential towers on the old Kresge site behind the Capri — a $300-million project that's set to get final approval from city council tomorrow.

Sal, 45, was a busboy and dishwasher at the Capri in his teens. He's a project manager in construction and juggles that with duties at the Capri.

He had wondered if the tower developers might be interested in his property. Turns out they were.

Sal thought that with the proceeds he could find another place for the Capri. But it had to be an old building with character. He looked around, couldn't find anything quite right.

And there were his parents telling him they didn't want to be snowbirds. They grew up on farms in Calabria, and work is in the blood. Anna started cooking at the Capri in 1969.

So there was a serious case of seller's remorse. Sal talked to the developers again. The deal hadn't yet closed, but it was too late to trash it altogether.

The two sides, however, did reach a compromise. The Fiorinos are selling off a strip at the back of the property, that runs from an alley to King William. Purchase price — $1 million.

Shawn Marr, vice-president of Hi-Rise, says this will let them stretch the project a little further east, and not leave an empty hole in the King William streetscape. "It's fast becoming an interesting and important street," he says, "like Toronto's Yorkville."

But the Capri's big kitchen, added on some decades ago, sits on that back strip of land. The developers will knock it down, maybe as early as spring.

So things will change, and quickly, at the old Capri. Sal says the family will use up to half of those sale proceeds to make the restaurant new again.

"Plumbing, electrical, this building needs everything," he says.

First off, a new kitchen. He'll locate it in a group dining room at the back, where the original kitchen used to be. It's only half the size, but Sal's thinking of putting a showpiece pizza oven right up front by the windows on the street — the way it used to be in the Capri's early days.

And he wants to show off the historic building more. Some plaster will be coming down to expose that older-than-Canada rubble-stone wall.

On the second floor, no changes are planned for the eye-popping Blue Grotto room, a soft-lit space where concrete stalactites hang from the ceiling. Closed for decades, Sal refurbished it in recent years and stages dinner shows up there. Sinatra nights are a favourite.

And there's a third floor, unused for generations. With generous windows onto the street, Sal thinks open-concept office space could work there.

One more thing. The original neon-era Capri street sign stays. "It'll be refurbished," Sal says. "I want that sign to shine and twinkle. I love it."

* The Capri opened in 1963. That makes it four years older than the Black Forest, six years older than Shakespeare's. While not downtown, The Trocadero on Barton East tops all three, opening in 1944. There is The Corktown, established in 1931. But it was more tavern than restaurant, had other names, and hasn't always served food. And even though it doesn't call itself a restaurant, we must not forget Denninger's deli and grocery, with that bountiful hot-foods counter and big-windowed seating area. The King East store opened in 1954.

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Paul Wilson's column appears Tuesdays in the GO section

PaulWilson.Hamilton@gmail.com

@PaulWilsonInHam