Toptable Group has announced that award-winning West Restaurant + Bar will close at year end. It will not be renewing its lease. It's by no means official. But I'll hazard a pretty good guess that the cost of the new lease didn't make sense to continue. The building is also possibly slated for development. The closing [...]
It's a very Canadian trait that we rarely confer praise on our own until validity is confirmed from the outside. But the fact that British wine expert Steven Spurrier is taking time to visit the Okanagan and Vancouver does mark another major milestone in the still young history of the industry. I'm reminded of the first time [...]
ChocolaTas: Looking as good as they taste UPDATED, Sept 9th, 2015 CHOCOLATAS OWNER WIM TAS NAMED TOP ARTISANAL CHOCOLATIER There is plenty of gold for ChocolaTas THE NEWS Master Chocolatier Wim Tas, with his wife and business partner Veve, are positively beaming GOLD. Named Top Artisanal Chocolatier and Most Gifted Chocolatierat the recent International [...]
Raincity Grill owner Harry Kambolis, at Nu, 2005 Raincity closes Whatever the circumstances, I was saddened by last week’s shuttering of long-running Raincity Grill and, not that long before, of C Restaurant, owned by Harry Kambolis. In the fickle world of dining there are any number of reasons as to why restaurants come [...]
2014 Lieutenant Governor Award winners for Excellence in BC Wine The winners of last week’s keenly contested Lieutenant Governor’s Awards for Excellence in BC Wine are announced by Government House this morning. As always, the final outcome was interesting because somehow we managed to select (from 436 entries between 119 wineries) just 12 wines [...]
Golden Mile Bench member and Fairview owner Bill Eggert talks soil: ultimately, it really is 'all about the dirt' My notice regarding yesterday's news about the Golden Mile Bench arrived too late for me to add anything to the release. Here's what I've written for the North Shore [...]
A plethora of rosés It’s always interesting to see what pops out at the end of major competitions. And this past week’s All Canadian Wine Championships proved no exception. Fourteen judges from across Canada (plus one from Michigan) were hunkered down in cosy 100-year-old Angeline's hotel, in Bloomfield, Prince Edward County. It’s the [...]
I remember quite vividly the first time I tasted Synchromesh. It was at Okanagan Falls Wineries Association’s (OFWA) inaugural Vancouver tasting.
Central City's Imperial ... you might want to share Often as not, the best tastings are spontaneous and even unstructured. The other night I got together with my great friends and neighbours R & B. They’re very much part of our Real Person (Wine) Tasting Panel. But this was more of a last [...]
Unsung Heroes creator, and Blue Water executive chef, Frank Pabst It was a decade ago that Frank Pabst rolled out his first Unsung Heroes seafood festival. Interestingly, at the time, it was considered to be not only cutting edge but a risky proposition. Pabst served ingredients such as sea urchin, jellyfish and poached [...]
