Updated July 31st, 2020
(Press release)
Earlier this year, John Bishop announced that he was closing Bishop’s on August 1 after 35 years as one of Vancouver’s most popular restaurants. But COVID-19 has changed all that and Bishop’s will now remain open until the end of the year.
“Just before COVID arrived, we announced that we were closing after 35 years and I wanted to give our customers the chance to dine with us one last time,” said Bishop. “We were even going to organize special theme nights as a way to celebrate and thank our customers. Then along came COVID-19 and suddenly, like everyone else, we were closed. Now that we’re open again, albeit with social distancing, we want to give our customers the chance to join us and say good-bye. In fact, our customers have said the new social distancing with fewer tables is more romantic with just 20 guests rather than our usual 40. Who knew there could be a silver lining to a pandemic, but there you go, love always seems to find a way.”
Bishop said his iconic farm-to-table restaurant in Kitsilano now offers two 20-person sittings, open Tuesday to Saturday 5:30 to closing. Take-out is also available for those who are more comfortable enjoying Bishop’s at Home.
“We’re going to make the most of the next five months so that when we finally close our doors at the end of the year, we have absolutely no regrets,” added Bishop. “We’re going to have a great time, we’re going to cook some fabulous food, and we’re going to enjoy our customers and show them how much we appreciate their friendship and business over the past 35 years.”
Updated May 2, 2020.
From today’s CBC story…
After 35 years at his eponymous fine dining restaurant, John Bishop was going to retire in August.
But amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Bishop has delayed his retirement. He is planning to offer take-out in the next few weeks.
While his landlord is waiving his rent, Bishop still finds himself in the same boat as most other restaurant owners, needing to lay off staff — some of whom have worked with him for decades — and relying on federal and provincial relief.
Bishop says he is hopeful that customers will return to dine in. He is already considering how to seat customers safely when he eventually reopens.
Read the full story here.
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John Bishop has announced plans to close his restaurant, to write and spend more time with his family.
Arguably no other Vancouver restaurateur has had such a prolonged—and profound—impact on BC’s culinary scene as John Bishop. He was among the very first to appreciate the possibility of true regional cuisine—when it was barely conceivable for most to imagine. Along the way he championed small producers, well before farm to table became a reality. And he has likely mentored more young chefs—many now successful restaurateurs themselves— than anyone else in the city.
He also enjoys a well deserved reputation as, truly, the ‘consummate host’, a low key, always modest provider of impeccable service, unswerving detail and high quality ingredients.
Here’s what I wrote in last year’s Essential Vancouver:
Land of the Locavore
The Flourishing of Farm to Table Cuisine
Once decidedly Eurocentric, Vancouver has changed radically since the millennium, especially on the plate. Not only does its cuisine reflect our broader ethnic diaspora. We now utilize far more of the bounty that belongs to British Columbia. But it wasn’t always so.
Celebrated locavore John Bishop reflects on the mid-1980s, back when he established his eponymous restaurant. “When I started in fine dining,” he recalls, “you wouldn’t ever change your menu—in fact seasonality really didn’t play into it at all. You might get strawberries from Richmond and you might get apples from the Okanagan…” Rarely was interest shown in local ingredients, other than shrimp (served as scampi), Dungeness crab and salmon. The latter, ironically, which was available in abundance then, was essentially considered “low-brow”, according to Bishop.
The pioneering restaurateur, who says he gained some inspiration from California’s Alice Waters and Jonathan Waxman, decided the time was ripe to use, wherever possible, solely local ingredients. After a few slim months post opening, his hunch proved correct. And within a few years Bishop’s had became a fixture, and also a beacon for others, as its owner connected with an array of growers, fishers and farmers, some who delivered to his kitchen.
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Thank, you, John, for all that you have given us.
Oh, and here’s Renée Doruyter’s 1986 review…
Vancouver Province critic Renée Doruyter gave Bishop’s an early thumbs-up
Here’s the release:
VANCOUVER, BC: Bishop’s, one of Vancouver’s best-loved restaurants, is closing its doors August 1st, as proprietor John Bishop retires to write and spend more time with his family. Opened in 1985, a year before Expo 86, Bishop’s is synonymous with farm-to-table ingredients, west coast hospitality, and great food.
“It has been a terrific run,” said Bishop. “After 35 years, our customers have become good friends, but now I want to spend more time with my own family and get to work on another book. I also want to use these next few months to say thank you to my customers and our entire team, the people who made all of this possible. My name may be on the door, but Bishop’s is all about a team effort, and that includes the dozens of local farms and suppliers who provide us with the incredible seasonal ingredients we prepare for your plate.”
Bishop, 75, began his career at 15, filling creamer jugs and delivering breakfast trays at the Elephant & Castle Hotel near his home in Newtown, Wales. A year later, he was accepted into the Llandudno Hotel and Catering College. In 1973, Bishop left Britain for Canada, becoming a Canadian citizen in 2000.
“I fell in love with Vancouver immediately, and that’s never changed in 47 years,” added Bishop who has authored four cookbooks on everything from the importance of fresh, local ingredients, to favorite family recipes from his own home kitchen, but for his customers and staff, Bishop’s legendary hospitality is his hallmark.
“John Bishop treated his staff like family,” said Chris Stewart, who is the owner of Sorella, La Buca and the Sardine Can, and a Bishop’s alumnus. “If you needed something to do your job better, it was there the next day.”
Iron Chef Rob Feenie, who did a short stint at Bishop’s in 1988, added that John Bishop remains “the best host in town.”
Vikram Vij, who opened the original Vij’s Restaurant on Broadway after four years at Bishop’s, said Bishop “has a subtle way of making every customer feel like they’re the most important person in the room.” James Barber, Canadian cookbook author and celebrated TV host wrote, “Bishop’s defines what a small restaurant ought to be.”
Recognized with a lifetime achievement award in 1997 by Vancouver Magazine, and again in 2016, Bishop is characterized by food critic and restaurant awards judge, Lee Man, as a pioneer who transformed Vancouver’s restaurants. “He helped us understand that our food ingredients have worth and value, and that they are just as good as anything else around the world,” explained Man in a Vancouver Magazine feature about Bishop.
Bishop said he will be organizing some special nights before he turns off the lights for the last time.
“I want to find some special ways to celebrate and thank our customers,” adds Bishop. “I might even try and get some of our alumni chefs back together for one incredibly memorable meal that hits all the high notes of the past 35 years.”
About Bishop’s Restaurant
Opened in 1985, located on 4th Avenue in the heart of Kitsilano, Vancouver, Bishop’s showcases fresh local seasonal menus in an intimate fine dining atmosphere.
http://bishopsonline.com
Hamming it up, John Bishop: one of regional cuisine’s most effective and vocal supporters, TP photo
[…] was wishing it was ‘au revoir’ rather than ‘adieu.’ However, Bishop had planned originally to close at the end of 2019. He stayed open longer, mainly to help keep his staff employed through an immensely challenging […]