It wasn’t a bad joke, but the exchange was instantly and inescapably deflating. “Sorry, I didn’t recognize you.” Del Duca smiled slightly and said, “I changed my hair.” Soon after Del Duca took his seat, one of the café’s co-owners sat down at an adjoining table. He told me that he feels comfortable at this café, that it’s a particularly meaningful place for him-he had coffee with his younger brother, Michael, at Vici on the day in 2018 that Michael, then just 33, died in a car crash. He spotted four or five customers he knew-guys from the construction industry, he said-and chatted briefly with one of them. Del Duca, who is 48 years old and of Italian and Scottish descent, ordered an espresso of his own, and took a table near the front door. That morning, it was crowded, especially around the coffee bar, where a throng of middle-aged men, most of them Italian-Canadian, stood around gabbing and sipping espresso. It’s a small, sunny place, located in a strip mall on Weston Road, beloved for its breads and pastries. On a Saturday in early April, Steven Del Duca stopped by Vici, one of his favourite cafés in Woodbridge.
