Taking the LEED: Cactus Club Readies English Bay for January 2012 Launch

December 8, 2011

As a long time West Ender, I like to think I have a vested interest in what happens at English Bay. For me, it represents the very heart of the city. In a way, it’s the ‘essence’ in Vancouver’s quintessence. To put it mildly, there was quite the kerfuffle when Cactus Club landed the Park [...]

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Having a Ball at Bel: Hawksworth Mini-Bites at Rosewood Hotel Georgia

December 2, 2011

The buzz at the Rosewood Georgia Hotel is mainly all about Hawksworth, and rightly so. But now newly unveiled “little sister” Bel Café, named after chef David Hawksworth’s wife Annabel, and which wraps around the corner of Georgia and Howe, is also causing a stir. We found time for a bite the other day. Verdict: Pretty [...]

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Montreal Smoked Meat (at least the really good stuff) Comes to Vancouver. At Last!

November 23, 2011

For a city too long deprived of seriously good smoked meat, the good news is that Dunns (just opened up the street from the Orpheum stage door) makes amazing smoked meat sandwiches. No question about that. A pretty good Reuben, too. I had a fun chat with owner Elliot Kligman at last week’s opening. The [...]

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Skaha Meets Sidecut: Painted Rock Rules at Four Seasons Whistler

November 15, 2011

It’s entirely possible that the impressive Sidecut / Painted Rock 4 x 5 course winemaker dinner (that’ll be four courses each of five plates or accompaniments) that we enjoyed at just concluded Cornucopia entailed the most food we’ve seen at one sitting! Much like the winery with whom they partnered, it’s apparent that Sidecut, the Four [...]

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In Vancouver’s Yaletown, this Newbie Pig is Really Flying

October 30, 2011

It just goes to show; you can never know what to expect on a Vancouver Monday night. One recent, still dry October soirée, you could have fired a proverbial cannon down most of Yaletown’s narrow streets, so who knew that we’d only just manage to score the last two seats at The Flying Pig? Yes, [...]

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Tales of Tawny Port, Marmalade and Lawn Roller Stiltons at Les Amis du Fromage

October 24, 2011

A sure sign that Christmas and the holidays are right around the corner is the seasonal deluge of wine tastings, including not a few Port and Sherry offerings. The other night we went to one with a difference, put on by Vancouver’s Les Amis du Fromage. Full disclosure: I’m a longtime friend and customer of [...]

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Pop! Goes Prosecco

October 22, 2011

From the ‘everything old is new again’ department comes this nifty little (200 ml.) bottle of Prosecco that has us thinking back a decade, to when Pommery Champagne launched Pop!—the cute mini-bottle that came complete with a straw, so you could look really trendy. (Of course the fact that sucking bubble through a straw was [...]

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Okanagan Winery Helps Hatch a Bird of a Different Feather: Napa’s Plume is More Than Just Plucky

October 12, 2011

Two long established wine families have reached across the border to produce a new Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. The Stewart family, which owns Quails Gate Winery in Westbank, BC, and the Zepponi family of Sonoma, California, have a history of similar if distant beginnings, in that their forebears settled and started farming at around the [...]

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On Vancouver’s Robson Street, (and on West Broadway) Everything Old is Nu Again

October 5, 2011

It’s a tasty irony indeed that Nu Greek Robson (542 Robson St., Vancouver) is right next door to Japadog (530 Robson St.)  Somehow the notion of having a direct descendant of the city’s original souvlaki mainstay side by side with east-meets-west hotdog heaven adds up to perfect bookends: a capsule of Vancouver’s ethnic culinary evolution [...]

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In Vancouver, BC, Chef Meets Grape. And Sustainable Pink Salmon too

September 28, 2011

Maybe it’s a tipping point. A few things occured to me concerning the winner we picked at last week’s Chef Meets Grape Small Plates Challenge, organised by the BC Wine Institute. First of all, congrats to O’Doul’s executive chef Chris Whittaker for his well conceived Pinot Noir cured Pacific Provider wild Pink Salmon, warm chanterelle and bacon salad—that [...]

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