REVIEWS
THE DEETS
Autostrada
GLASS ACT
1481 Continental St., autostradahospitality.ca
Love it or loathe it, Vancouver House’s facade is part of our urban landscape—but does the troika of new restaurants located there elicit the same sort of emotions? Neal McLennan
It was mid-April and social media was hopping with news about a flood on the 29th floor of Vancouver House gushing downward to the levels below. But instead of the usual heartfelt expressions of sympathy one normally associates with such events, there was an evident and disconcerting vein of glee: “I love the water feature!” wrote one real sweetheart. The incident was par for the course for Westbank’s flashy tower, the twisting metal rising up from a formerly dowdy stretch of North False Creek. The project was greeted with oohs and aahs when it was announced with architect-ofthe-moment Bjarke Ingels back in 2016. But a sizeable portion of that goodwill soured as rumours of it being marketed to offshore owners first and its overtly luxe leanings began to appear increasingly out-of-step in a city where the divide between the haves and have-nots seems to grow each year. Even hiring Rodney Graham, one of the most acclaimed artists the city has ever produced, to do a public art installation elicited a backlash. But does this animus apply to the restaurants that have moved into the new zone? A stroll through the compact area—they’re trying to brand the microhood “the Beach District,” notwithstanding the lack of, you know, beaches—reveals a very slick, modern little footprint clad in metal and glass that wouldn’t feel out of place in London’s Kings Cross. And the restaurants appear to be hopping.
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The cozy Autostrada
The menu is recognizable to anyone who has been to either of the other two Autostradas— there are a few dishes missing and a few new additions—but for the most part it’s an exercise in “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” (The spot briefly had acclaimed chef Stefan Hartmann at the helm, but they amicably parted ways last spring.) And it’s a wonderfully tight menu anchored by classics—tuna crudo, bucatini cacio e pepe— that allows the willing to branch out into more esoteric shapes (the fazzoletti, or kerchief pasta, has quickly become a signature) and daily specials that skew more adventurous.
The vitello tonnato is an exercise of restrained perfection.
But it’s the two pillars of execution and value that have this place perpetually slammed. On that first pillar, all I can say is that, over the course of four years and now three Autostradas, I’ve not only never had a bad meal, I’ve never had a bad dish. The vitello tonnato is an exercise of restrained perfection—not mucked up with any “signatures” Syme might want to impart on an iconic dish, just perfectly cooked, thinly sliced veal topped with a tuna sauce that’s exactly briny enough to provide balance without being showy. The duck and anchovy ragu is a Venetian-inspired wonder—there’s not a tomato in sight, and the anchovy quotient is aggressive but perfectly offsets the duck’s richness. And then there’s the service. Even in the teeth of the staffing crunch, all three Autostradas seem to engender a rare devotion among their workers and the service is the beneficiary. An example: I order a glass of Castello di Albola Chianti— at $14, it’s near the top of their reasonable by-the-glass prices—and I spy the bartender grab the three-quarters-full bottle, uncork it, give a quick sniff and then reach down to open an entirely new one. It was refreshing in the face of my ongoing pet peeve toward so many wine-by-the-glass programs—namely, that “not gone bad” is not the same as good. It speaks to a place that is intensely customer focused: from
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2022-01-10 9:00 PM
ÇA MARCHE: JUNO KIM; LINH CAFÉ: SUE-LEE WIGHT
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My guess is that when Westbank was plotting their commercial tenants, they assumed that the outpost of David Chang’s Momofuku empire would be the catalyst that drew people to the area. Well, thanks in part to COVID, there’s still no Momofuku and with both the restaurant and the developer staying mum on the status, I think it’s fair to say it ain’t opening soon, if ever. In its place (figuratively, not literally) is a different outpost—Lucais Syme and Dustin Dockendorf’s third Autostrada—that has filled the void and proved such a draw that I’m eating at the bar, by myself, on a rainy Tuesday at 5 p.m. I tried for weeks and weeks to get a reservation but it proved impossible. Seriously, even shooting long into the future and opting for Mondays and Tuesdays, I was still relegated to either the before-5:30 or after-8:30 time slots. But even at 5:00, the place is already half full, and by the time I leave 75 minutes later, it’s packed. The room isn’t huge—it seats 74—but they’ve clearly captured the attention of the locals: one fellow solo patron is clearly here for his weekly spot and a family with young kids is in one of the banquettes for what also looks like a standing reservation. It feels like the potential of Coal Harbour as a neighbourhood is finally being realized here—20 blocks to the south.
AUTOSTRADA INTERIOR: HAK AN BURCUOGLU; AUTOSTRADA FOOD: BRITNE Y GILL
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