John Bishop Closes But His Legacy is Monumental
After 36 years, a period in which he was instrumental in transforming the Vancouver scene, John Bishop leaves a monumental legacy.
West Restaurant to Close after 20 years
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 [...]
Lot185 Café + Wine Bar: 5 Reasons to Go
Lot185 is a new spot downtown with plenty of promise. If you look back a while, there wasn’t a whole lot happening around what’s now Jack Poole Plaza. Then along came Cactus Club, followed by Tap & Barrel. And now, perhaps not surprisingly, Vancouver Trade & Convention Centre has thrown its hat into the [...]
Lure: Ned Bell’s Definitive Sustainable Seafood Cookbook
Lure is the latest project from Chef Ned Bell. He’s the founder of Chefs for Oceans, who, in 2014, cycled across Canada. He took time out from his post as executive chef of Vancouver's Four Seasons to raise awareness for seafood sustainability. Since then he’s been even busier with a big career move. And spent [...]
Nightingale: Hawksworth Latest Truly Sings
Nightingale is the latest undertaking from David Hawksworth, Vancouver’s acclaimed culinary star. Hawksworth first arrived on the scene when he opened West Restaurant. At the time he was a virtual unknown. The West Van raised chef had been busy polishing his skills elsewhere. He worked in such esteemed kitchens as Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons [...]
Unwrapped: Beach Bay Café and Patio
Beach Bay's fresh feeling and bright interior, across from iconic English Bay The wraps are off Beach Bay Café and Patio, across from English Bay, in the West End of Vancouver (1193 Denman St., 604-685-7337). I was in for an informal meeting and wine tasting and—while the restaurant is still very much in [...]
Cactus Club Wine Matches: Try this at Home
Cactus Club exec chef Rob Feenie and sommelier-service director Sebastien Le Goff Scratch the surface of a Cactus Club wine list and you’ll often find what constitutes an unlikely line-up of wines—for what we now refer to as “Casual Fine Dining” restaurants. Much of the reason for more interesting than usual selections (especially [...]
Goodbye Raincity Grill & C: Agents of Real Change
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 [...]
Hail forage! Where Caesar Rules!
The well foraged Caesar, TP photo If you're a regular visitor here (and if you're not, why not subscribe?!) You'll know that I have a lot of time for what goes down at forage. (1300 Robson St., Vancouver, 604-661-1400) Right now they're in the midst of Dine Out madness—serving upwards of 200 customers [...]
Blue Water Café Unsung Heroes: the 10th Anniversary Edition
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 [...]