Vancouver magazine, October2016 by NextHome

Is Restaurant Design More Important Than the Food? WE FOUND THE CITY’S BEST FRIED CHICKEN THE NAKED TRUTH BEHIND W RECK BEACH // HOT FALL LOOKS: EMBR ACE YOUR INNER GOTH // & MORE

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SPEAKER

POWER

EVENT

SERIES

WITH GREAT POWER, COMES GREAT CONVERSATION It’s been 30 years since Expo 86 changed the face of this city—so what will the next 30 look like? The M Power Speaker series brought real estate marketer, entrepreneur and art collector Bob Rennie in to share his wisdom on the subject with a rapt audience of 150-plus attendees at the extravagant Brian Jessel BMW dealership on June 14. Watch the highlights at BrianJesselBMW.com/EventSeries.

Guests admire the BMW Alpine B6, conveniently coloured in a snowy white.

Brian Jessel BMW managing partner Jim Murray, real-estate mogul Bob Rennie, and marketing manager Diana Zoppa pose for a quick snap.

Guests take advantage of the opportunity to learn about wine.

Between the speeches that evening, guests marveled at the luxury cars on the showroom ﬂoor, including this BMW 3 Series with M Sport Package.

VanMag.com/MPower | Seating is limited.

VA N M AG . C O M

O C TO B E R 2 0 1 6 // VO LU M E 4 9 // N U M B E R 8

FE ATURES

Cheap Eats The ultimate guide to the burgers, tacos, noodles, dumplings, sandwiches, drinks, deals and dives to keep you well fed for less.

Working the Room

THIS PAGE: KNAUF AND BROWN; COVER: CLINTON HUSSE Y

In a design-obsessed, Instagram-everything era where restaurant designers are the new rock stars, has the look of a space become more important than the food?

Feast Your Eyes Kissa Tanto serves up Japanese-Italian fusion foodâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and a slick, Jazz Ageâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; inspired look.

VA N M A G . C O M O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6

City

Taste Play

23 At Issue MLA Sam Sullivan’s bold plan for disrupting a broken city council.

32 Reviews Juke does fried chicken right, Lucky Taco sets up shop in Kits and Fanny Bay Oysters gets the party started.

26 City Informer You asked, we answered: how did Wreck Beach get naked? 28 Modern Family A ragtag group of gardeners finds common ground in Nelson Park.

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34 Sips The hop-forward beer you should be drinking right now. Plus, your new go-to mixed-drink whisky and the case for year-round rosé.

61 Model Citizens Five fashion-forward individuals make our first annual Best Dressed List. 64 Hot Take Black is back, so add a little bit of gothic drama to your look with these key pieces.

GARDENERS AND SAM SULLIVAN: CARLO RICCI; SHANNON HETH: EVA AN KHERA J; JUKE: LUIS VALDEZON

Snack Attack The star of Juke’s menu may be fried chicken, but the Dirty Fries win best supporting role. Review, page 32.

ed-1 1

Editorial Director Anicka Quin Art Director Paul Roelofs Executive Editor Stacey McLachlan Senior Editor Trevor Melanson Food Editor Neal McLennan Associate Art Director Natalie Gagnon Associate Editor Julia Dilworth Online Coordinator Kaitlyn Gendemann Videographer Mark Philps Contributing Editor Amanda Ross Editorial Interns Julianna Sontag, Willem Thomas Art Intern Megan Patrick Editorial Email mail@vanmag.com

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Letters

@VA N M AG _ C O M

A R O U N D TOW N

Letters, etc.

Tweet, message, ’gram or email us at mail@vanmag.com —we love to hear from our readers!

Patti Bacchus vs. Private Schools

Celeb Spotting Vancouver’s citizen paparazzi took aim at Owen Wilson, spotted filming here in August.

Readers had a lot to say about our Q&A with the outspoken Vancouver School Board trustee, who says taxpayer dollars shouldn’t help fund the private school system. Lwilliams: Private schools often have much more land or grounds than public schools. With the public funding of these schools, should the public not benefit when the land is sold? @SpeakOut_BC: Private schools save #bcpoli $. Your issue is with student funding. @MLAplaydate: Thx for tackling issue of #specialneeds kids head on. Nailed it: it’s kids’ human rights not being funded.

Find these web exclusives at vanmag.com CIT Y

The Real Reason Parents Are Abandoning Vancouver Why former Vancouverite Aaron Scott Hildebrandt and his family fled the Lower Mainland (and this time it isn’t about real estate).

@gibzy3: On the way to work this morning...this wise guy! @kavn_: Spotted him in Gastown today on his bike, too! Guess I wasn’t seeing things. @eddie_mac7: By the way, the director standing beside him (Stephen Chbosky) is equally amazing! @simonlovesdiamonds: Yeah, riding a bike at Kits Beach yesterday. @Steelyspringham: Yup, saw him in Yaletown!

Night Lights @vanmag_com: Ah, vanity.

CULTURE

How Expo 86 Changed the City VanMag spoke with highprofile Vancouverites (including award-winning news anchor Gloria Macarenko) about their time at Expo 86 and the legacy it left behind.

@ivana_kintsukuroi: Ha ha. @lee.f.man: Rather fitting, actually. @ellex2: Aw, my old workplace! Makes me sad (ah, the memories!). Better get that fixed soon! LOL.

Make Fast Work of the Patchwork Trend We chat to top Nordstrom stylist Michelle Addison about the patches we’re seeing pop up on denim, designer bags and everywhere in between.

VA N M A G . C O M O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6

OWEN WILSON: @GIBZ Y3

PL AY

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ED NOTE

We’re all looking for a sense of community and connection. i’ve had a plot in the Nelson Park community garden for three summers now (after a five-year wait—not surprisingly, many West Enders want a little green space to call their own). It’s been a mostly excellent experience—less excellent when a horror show of aphids engulfed my squash plant or when a just-about-to-be-glorious flower was snapped off by a stranger—but the biggest surprise has been how much of a conversation starter it is. During any late-afternoon weeding-andwatering session, people walking by feel compelled to slow down and talk to me, asking questions about what I’m growing, complimenting me on what’s looking great. (Really, I know they’re being kind. It’s all chaos—a tidy gardener I am not.) It’s a space that connects me to my neighbours in a way that a day at the beach or a stroll down Davie Street rarely does. Back in 2011, the Vancouver Foundation embarked on a study to determine what mattered most to people in the city, and the results were surprising. It wasn’t housing (though I suspect that climbs each year) or poverty or affordability. It was loneliness, a growing sense of social isolation felt within our streets. We all seek community as part of the human condition—and I’d like to believe that our magazine has the power to contribute to that as well. We’ve introduced a few changes with this issue of Vancouver magazine, getting a little quieter with the design to let the photography and writing shine (a look that our art director, Paul Roelofs, designed to better reflect our city: open, airy, sophisticated, natural). And we’ve introduced a few new columns—one of my favourites, Modern Family, captures groups of people who are overcoming

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our tendency to be insular, and finding connection with their neighbours in common interests: first up are my fellow gardeners in the West End, who are working to beautify Nelson Park. Our second new column, City Informer, looks behind the curtain to reveal the workings of this city and to answer the questions you’ve always pondered. In this issue: why is Wreck Beach naked? Questions of your own? Send us a note and our intrepid sleuth, executive editor Stacey McLachlan, will find the answer. Neal McLennan joins the team as our food editor, and, with him, the return of restaurant reviews (inside: our new favourite fried-chicken joint, Juke) and, after a four-year hiatus, the best Cheap Eats in Vancouver. Neal’s the kind of practical foodie who’s often outraged by the price of a club sandwich in this city yet enamoured of quality ingredients, so expect the selections to be legitimately inexpensive (not “$20-is-a-great-deal-forlunch” cheap) and to die for. But what I hope you’ll notice most is the return to more people in these pages—a reflection of the city we are, and the connections we all want to make with each other. Be part of the community of readers who join us each month, and let us know what makes this city great (and, oftentimes, not so great). We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, looking forward to hearing what you think of the new issue—and of this city we all share.

Coming Up Next Issue Astronaut Families Forget commuting. In a global city like Vancouver, work and home are not always in the same country. How the spouses get by. House of Spirits A church in the Fraserhood transforms into a live/work space for a philanthropist.

Anicka Quin editorial director

anick a . quin @vanmag . com

PORTRAIT: EVA AN KHERA J; ST YLING BY LUISA RINO, MAKEUP BY MEL ANIE NEUFELD; DRESS COURTESY NORDSTROM; WATCH COURTESY TIFFANY & CO. PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE AVIARY, THEAVIARY.CA . CHURCH: CARLO RICCI

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O U R N A K E D B E AC H / C O M M U N I T Y G A R D E N E R S

VA N M AG .C O M/C I T Y

City

AT ISSUE

Judge & Executioner

CARLO RICCI

Former mayor Sam Sullivan wants to change the way business is done at city hall.

Sam Sullivan remembers it like it happened yesterday. It was the late ’90s and the former mayor and current BC Liberal MLA was a rookie city councillor. After gathering data that showed the public was broadly supportive of so-called neighbourhood centres—pockets of density along major arterial roads—the city embarked on pilot projects in Dunbar and Kensington–Cedar Cottage to find out where residents wanted their neighbourhood centres j

VA N M A G . C O M O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6

City

LOCAL C U LT U R E

AT I S S U E

It would be like if an MLA were the judge in a court case enacting the law they just passed.” — c ou nc i l l or a n dr e a r e i m e r to be located. That, Sullivan says, was where it all went sideways. “Residents said, ‘You don’t understand. We think the neighbourhood centres are good for their neighbourhoods, but not our neighbourhood. In fact, we want to downzone.’ We lost more than a thousand units of housing on our very first attempt to densify.” That setback shaped Sullivan’s aborted term as the mayor of Vancouver, one that saw him push for more density on the basis of its ecological and economic merits. Ironically, the EcoDensity Charter was passed by city council just two days after he was deposed by Peter Ladner before the 2008 election. But EcoDensity didn’t exactly spell the end for the single-family home, and Sullivan never stopped believing in his vision—or the willingness of Vancouverites to support it. “My belief is that the citizens of Vancouver are comfortable with density,” he says. “It’s just that the system is designed to magnify the voices of those who are naturally opposed to it.” That’s why he’s now pitching a change to that system’s design, one that would see the legislative and judicial functions at city hall separated from each other. As it stands, city council does both, a vestige of the Baldwin Act of 1849 (which laid the legal groundwork for cities in Canada). He’s not the only one who finds the arrangement unusual, either. “It is the weirdest thing in the world that councils sit as a policymaking body in the day, and people will come and make presentations to them on that basis,” says Vision Vancouver councillor Andrea Reimer. “But then, at night, they come and it’s the same people sitting there, and suddenly we’re a regulatory body.” 24

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That dissonance, she says, can create confusion and cynicism among the public. “It would be like if an MLA were the judge in a court case enacting the law they just passed last week. That’s weird, right?” Sullivan thinks the two jobs should be split apart, with councillors like Reimer setting the policy direction and an independent judicial body charged with enforcing it. “The council should have the role of determining where we’re going, what the vision is and what we want from our city,” he says. “As for the details, a judge would be able to take the description from council and interpret it in reality.” According to Sullivan, the current arrangement makes the conversation around development very difficult.“It’s easy to bully the council,” he says. Beau Jarvis, a local developer who’s been the target of disgruntled residents, says the city is stuck in what he calls the “paradox of planning”—that the people who are most likely to come out to public meetings and be vocal about planning decisions are the ones least likely to be affected by them over the long run. It’s older residents—“people who don’t have kids in the house any more, people who are retired”—who have the time to show up, he says, whereas young parents and busy professionals do not. Sullivan knows his idea won’t be popular with everyone, but he isn’t exactly a stranger to controversy. Max Cameron, a political science professor at UBC, thinks Sullivan is uniquely poised to bring this particular pitch forward: “He’s been the mayor, he knows what city government is like, and now he’s an MLA. I would think that a creative idea from Sam could well get the ear of the premier and the cabinet.”—Max Fawcett

READ

Table Manners

How to Behave in the Modern World and Why Bother Veteran chef Jeremiah Tower (whose career began at San Francisco’s worldfamous Chez Panisse) has been a frontrow witness to the decline of civility among diners. This illustrated guide aims to gently correct our collective indiscretions, whether while eating a burger on a bar stool or a multicourse tasting menu among dozens of strangers. Available October 18

LISTEN

Rick Astley 50

The eternally baby-faced British crooner, whose “Never Gonna Give You Up” forever defined a particular strand of late-’80s pop, returns with an album (his first in 11 years and already a chart-topper in his homeland) whose title tips a hat to his most recent birthday. Yikes! Available October 7

WATCH

Fight Night Originally produced by Belgian theatre collective Ontroerend Goed, this interactive play requires audience members to repeatedly vote, via a keypad, for a series of political candidates. In doing so, their moral convictions—as well as long-held certainties about their lack of prejudice and inability to be manipulated—are put to the test. The Cultch, October 18 to 29

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City

INFORMER

How Did Wreck Beach Get Naked? A brief history of dropping trou on our sandy shores. by Stacey McLachlan

illustration by Byron Eggenschwiler

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The difficult-to-access Wreck Beach seemed like the way to deter the lazier perverts in the city. in letting it all hang out increased in the ’60s, hippies flocked to its shores. Complaints were filed—I’m just going to assume it was Ol’ No-Fun-dy, up to her usual tricks—and, in 1970, the police raided the beach, arresting 13 people for “committing an indecent act.” (And yet no one does anything about those Third Beach drum circles. Where

are my tax dollars going?) The Georgia Straight retaliated by promoting a “nude-in” protest, and 3,000 very naked people showed up in support. The police left the revellers alone, charges against the arrested were dropped and nudity at Wreck went on to exist in a no-harm, no-foul zone until 1991, when it was officially ratified as

Canada’s first clothingoptional beach. Now, with or without a bathing costume, there will always be a place to enjoy the simple pleasures a day at the seaside brings: the sun on your skin, the breeze in your hair and pork buns served by a man with no pants. Got a question for City Informer? Tweet @vanmag_com

PORTRAIT: ROB DOBI

ok ay, rich Uncle Pennybags, with your fancy special “bathing costume,” you’d best check yourself: clothed swimming isn’t a privilege afforded to everyone. The prohibitive cost of beachwear during the Depression is actually what spawned Vancouver’s first reported nude beach— poor, unemployed, very naked young men would gather on the rocky beach by Siwash Rock in Stanley Park and presumably get horrendous sunburns. But a complaint reported in the Vancouver Sun by a Mrs. Grundy (more like Mrs. No-Fun-dy, right, guys?) just increased interest in nude bathing until, in 1947, a peeping Tom hid in the woods for three days straight and ruined everything for everyone. Nude sunbathers decided to head somewhere with a little more privacy, and the difficult-to-access Wreck Beach seemed like the way to deter the lazier perverts in the city. It stayed a quiet spot for decades, but when interest

94 POINTS 2014 DILEMMA ~ John Schreiner

4790 Wild Rose Street, Oliver BC 250.498.0789 info@culmina.ca culmina.ca

A Flawless Design by Palladio

Palladio Ad for Vancouver Magazine x 4.9375"

Untitled-2 1 Size: 7.125"

Insertion: Oct. 2016 2016-08-16

5:03 PM

1 “We’re such a diverse group, each with a love for raising food. I’m always learning more about gardening, even though I’ve been doing it for over 65 years. I would just like the mason bees I release each spring to stay home with me for once.”—Shirley Shirley Etter, retired United Church minister

2 “We lived in Hong Kong for 20 years and used to stay nearby when we visited Vancouver. I thought, ‘If I ever move back here, I’d love a plot.’ Now here we are... but [my husband] Jeff ’s doing all the work.”—Christy Webb-Gibson, theatre director, executive producer of Christy Webb Productions

3 “Tourists always stop to look and ask questions—I get to practise my French and Spanish!”—Jeff Jeff Gibson, retired airline pilot

4 “I love gardening because it’s something Stuart [boyfriend] and I can do together, and it’s brought us closer together. I used to garden with my grandma and love that it’s something I can carry on as an adult.”—William adult.”— Ramos, Ramos hotel worker

5 “I was the very first person to get a plot. I saw the ad, jumped on applying for it, and they let me pick any plot I wanted.” —Stuart Stuart MacKay, MacKay horticultural technician

6 “I’m originally from Chicago and always had a garden back home because I had a yard, but I can’t afford a yard in Vancouver. I love to garden; I have a passion for it. I’m thrilled to have a plot here.” —Mark Regalado, maintenance manager at Times Square Suites Hotel

2 4

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7 “I’m a florist,

which is why I grow flowers in my garden, not vegetables. Originally I did it because my mom was sick and I made her bouquets, but she’s gone now. It’s a great feeling to see things grow...it’s meditative.” —Susan Tsuruta, florist

9 “I’ve been

8 “It’s about

expressing oneself and sharing with the neighbourhood! But I am envious of my neighbour’s beets.”—Kirk beets.”— Olson, Arts Club Olson Theatre Company box office staff

here since the beginning. It was really neat to see the garden grow from the community ‘grass roots’ movement... pun intended.” —Sarah Sarah Newton, Newton travel manager, and Lenny the pug, garden goodwill ambassador

10 “I started

out with brown thumbs and they’re slowly getting greener, day by day!”— Elizabeth Kidd, Kidd gardener, gardener botanical illustrator and communitybuilding teacher

City

M O D E R N FA M I LY

Garden State

There’s a reason the city’s community garden plots are so coveted: places like the West End’s Nelson Park are a place to grow veggies, sure, but they create ideal conditions for cultivating community and relationships, too. as tolD to Catherine Roscoe Barr PHoto by Carlo Ricci

Group portrait taken at Nelson Park, August 3, 2016

6 10 8

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featuring

MILLIONAIRE’S CUT 7oz chargrilled AAA filet mignon, white wine sautéed creole jumbo prawns.

U N B I A S E D R E V I E WS/ B E E R H O P PR I M E R / C H E A P E AT S

VA N M AG .C O M/ TA S T E

Taste THE DISH

IMAGE CREDIT CLINTON HUSSE Y

THRIFTY FOODS news flash! This city can be a mighty expensive place to live in. And while the obscene cost of our housing grabs all the attention, it shouldn’t be forgotten that our booze and our food are generally no bargains either. Generally. But this issue we find the exceptions: the sandwiches and pints and steamed buns and highballs that are there for the economical taking—if you know where to look. Like starting on page 36.

$8.99 Lin Chinese Lunch special

The last time we surveyed cheap eats was in 2012, when the hulking portion of Shanghainese food that is Lin’s lunch special was $7.99 and the average price of a house on Vancouver’s east side was $864,000. Today, that same house sells for $1,511,000 . . . and Lin charges a buck more, but you now get free soup. You should really think of the offerings—lemon chicken, Mongolian beef, ma-po tofu—as a group order, as one person can’t finish the special alone, but three dishes might feed a small-sized office. The soup—either hot-and-sour or chicken corn—isn’t great, but that sort of seems beside the point. 1537 W. Broadway

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Taste

REVIEWS

IS THE JUKE JUMPING? Has our fried-chicken saviour arrived in Chinatown?

by Neal McLennan

photographs by Luis Valdezon

like man y emerging food destinations, Vancouver has a walk-before-you-run approach to cooking. It’s why we had so many places trumpeting their fried chicken and waffles before we ever had a legitimate fried chicken restaurant. It’s also why so many of those spots use boneless white meat (a.k.a. chicken fingers) in said dishes, a lapse of judgment on par with marrying a Yankee south of the Mason–Dixon. But riding in to right our historical wrongs is Juke, the much-anticipated, much-delayed Chinatown spot that aims to be our fried-chicken salvation. The restaurant’s starting lineup is promising: former Chambar G.M. Justin Tisdall is a wellloved presence out front, former Hawksworth sous-chef Bryan Satterford is overqualified in the back, and Meat and Bread co-owner Cord Jarvie is a backer. The 48-seat room, designed by Ply Architecture, is a gorgeous blend of low-fi (cinder blocks, polished concrete) and organic (plenty of

VA N M A G . C O M O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6

Please don’t enable a couple who goes to a fried chicken spot and orders the fish.”

Chef Bryan Satterford

natural wood) and the branding by Glasfurd and Walker is even sexier—I actually saw several people stop and gaze into the garbage bin to ogle my beautifully designed takeout container. All of which means squat if the fried chicken restaurant doesn’t nail fried chicken, which, for the most part, it does. It’s gluten-free, which poses a serious red flag until the explanation comes that it has nothing to do with

health and everything to do with texture. The result is an exceptionally crunchy skin that will be a pleasant shock to anyone raised on the steam bath that is a KFC takeout bucket, and which also does a bang-up job of sealing in the Rossdown Farms chicken’s juiciness. It’s a hair underseasoned— and I’d love to see a Nashville-style spicy version in the future—but that’s nothing that can’t be easily remedied with the accompanying house-made

THE DEETS

Juke

182 Keefer St., 604-336-5853 jukefriedchicken.com Hours 7 days a week, 11 a.m.-late Prices Great value if you navigate the menu properly. Sides ($6$10) are a tad pricey; chicken (less than $3 per piece if you order enough) is not. The ribs (side-cut at $28 for a full rack) are merely fine but the takeout menu and the cocktails (starting at $9) are a steal.

AMUSE-BOUCHE

Lucky Taco 1695 Yew St. 604-739-4677 luckytaco.ca

When it became undeniable that their one-year-old seafood restaurant, Supermarine, was flailing, owners James Iranzad and Josh Pape closed shop and, with impressive haste, reopened it in July as a colourful taqueria. The menu is reportedly the result of one and a half years of development (originally intended for another location), but its public debut nevertheless seems premature. Despite a nicely succinct number of items—seven tacos and seven appetizers (or “snackos”)—flavours are tame, occasionally to the point of nonexistence. The three commercial hot sauces (plus a good housemade chipotle concoction) at each table should feel like an option, not a necessity. Churros—the sole dessert offering—arrived under-fried and immediately broke upon contact with a too-stiff chocolate dip. Props, at least, for an authentically tart (albeit small) margarita and some other inventive tequila cocktails.—Michael White

Fanny Bay Oyster Bar 762 Cambie St. 778-379-9510 fannybayoysters.com

You may arrive at Fanny Bay’s buzzy Crosstown location with the intention of grabbing some oysters to go from the fresh market bins, but if it’s happy hour, you’d best take a seat. Because here, the phrase “buck-a-shuck” is treated with reverence (see page 42) and the selection is impressive: plump Royal Miyagi and buttery Kusshi are served up by the platterful. If you grab a spot at the bar to watch the high-speed shucking in action (you might even luck out and get a spare Kumamoto thrown your way), it won’t matter that you can’t really hear your dinner date over the cranked Motown jams and chattering of a packed house. You’ll find the usual seafood-house suspects on the menu—fish and chips, fried oysters, calamari—but Fanny Bay is at its best when it skews toward the simple: a classic prawn cocktail with housemade sauce beats out the overly bready crab cake, and the platter of smoked fresh-catch fish and pickled vegetables outshines the acidic seafood chowder. The cocktail menu is an inventive one (the Black Pearl utilizes charcoal soda water), but again, your best bet is to keep it simple. A cold Fanny Bay Oyster Stout or two is all you need to keep your night out at the bar going strong. —Stacey McLachlan

BRITIE (2½ – 8½)

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MASTER

sauces (and maybe that’s the idea). But the best thing may be the price: in a city that takes great plebeian movements like food trucks and then delivers them to us at patrician prices, Tisdall and friends deliver two pieces of chicken for $6.50 (and an amazing $5.50 for takeout), five for $14 (easily enough to feed three) and 10 for $26, and the chicken comes with a crunchy, acidic slaw that cuts through its richness. Other elements don’t quite live up to the chicken’s heights: the biscuits have a slightly flat texture that’s saved by a huge portion of the rarely seen but welcome schmaltz (rendered chicken fat, if you must know what’s in everything), but three of them for $6 is a tad pricey. And while dirty fries (gravy, cheese sauce, chervil) are fantastic, they should be at $9. But then you have the $5 crispy chicken sandwich (two for $9) at the takeout window, the $11 saison and shot of mezcal combo and you feel the love all over again. The menu is still coming together—the fried whole fish for two wasn’t yet available, and here’s hoping that it never will be: please don’t enable a couple who goes to a fried chicken spot and orders the fish. The wine list likewise was still arriving, but I love the completely disproportionate emphasis on bubbles, which will pair like a dream with the chicken. No plans yet on whether they’re working on a chicken and waffles dish, but if they want to, they’ve definitely earned the right to do it.

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Taste

SIPS

by Neal McLennan

TA S T I N G N OT E S BEER

WHAT IS SORACHI ACE? IT’S A STRAIN of hop developed in Japan by Sapporo in the 1970s and popularized in North America by Brooklyn Brewery a few years back. Why do I care? Because its unique characteristics of lemon and dill make it both very complex and relatively easydrinking, so it’s a quick path to beer-nerd street cred. And it can work with a wide variety of beer styles. Where do I find it? In the aforementioned Brooklyn saison, but also locally in Central City’s Ace of Hokkaido Golden Ale (right) , Main Street’s Belgian Bonsai and Parallel 49’s Crane Kick Pilsner.

Double Duty Not many beers can satisfy the beer nerds and claim to be easydrinking. But this big boy ($5.60) does.

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SPIRITS

Well, That’s Odd

Kuchh Nai Scotch Whisky $25

It’s a whisky made in Scotland by a company headquartered in England, it has a Hindi name (which translates as “nothing”) and it’s distributed in India, Canada and Australia. Plus, the company also makes a Spanish cava. Any two of the above would be a red flag, but against all odds… it’s not half-bad, given the price. The nose is sweet, and there’s a slightly funny aftertaste that’s reminiscent of those plastic six-pack holders that sometimes get stuck on the necks of Canada geese. We’re not in Ardbeg territory here, but we’re not anywhere near Ardbeg’s price range, either. Let’s call it an oddball that’ll work fine in cocktails and leave it at that. WINE TREND

Pink Is Still the New Black Let’s just think about pink wine for a moment. Our thirst for rosé seems to be insatiable: global consumption has risen by a whopping 20 percent since 2002. It’s wine’s fastest-growing segment, comprising almost 10 percent of all still wine made today. Looks like we’ve locked on to rosé’s secret (and clearly enduring) weapon: versatility. Rosé spans the style spectrum from fizzy to bonecrunchingly dry, boldly fruity or slightly tannic, adapting to a serious dinner, a sunny patio or fireside sipping. Just do the sensible thing and accept that there is not a date on the calendar when it stops being fun to drink rosé. B.C. rosés in my fridge: Bench 1775 Glow, Emandare (right, $30), Little Engine, Poplar Grove, Haywire, Sea Star, Moraine.— DJ Kearney, Director of Wine at newdistrict.ca

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$1.99

Fat Mao Noodles

Soft-boiled egg

I know you don’t want to be that person, but while there’s little doubt that the team at Fat Mao are expecting you to add the perfectly cooked egg to their noodle dish, there’s no saying you have to play by their rules. A toonie snags you a sweet little pick-me-up in an increasingly headscratchingly pricey part of Chinatown. 217 E Georgia St.

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C OV E R STORY

Cheap Eats Let’s get this out of the way right now—it’s not about the price. We’ve had $28 grass-fed steaks that were unbelievably cheap and $3.50 donuts that were obnoxiously expensive. We’re here to rehabilitate “cheap” from a casual slur to a badge of pride for those who expect eating out to be a source of joy. If you’re with us, here’s the road map to redemption. CoMpILED by The Editors

FooD photography by Clinton Hussey styLINg by Lawren Moneta

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Cheap Eats $8.75 Bún Chả Cá Hoàng Yến

Bún chả cá đặc biệt, small $7.75, large $8.75 Really, a dollar more to upsize slices of handmade fish cake and fish balls with vermicelli in fish broth? Restaurant Awards judge Joie Alvaro Kent swears by this dish: “There’ s always a lineup out the door, and you’ll see more than half the tables in the restaurant chowing down on this particular soup. This northern Vietnamese take on broth is light and clear, accented by dill.” 5083 Victoria Dr.

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Now that chefs have become the rock stars of the culinary world, we fear their cheap cred is suspect. But not so for the unsung sous-chefs: these folks still feel the toil for not nearly enough cash, and this is where they go to feed their passion on a budget.

$1.80

New Town Bakery Steamed pork bun

Oddly, the main dishes have gotten quite pricey at this Chinatown staple, but the steamed buns—from the $1.50 plain to the $2.50 Chicken Deluxe—are still paragons of hand-held affordability. 148 E Pender St.

ASK A SOUS CHEF

A CHEAPSK ATE’S FIVE COMMANDMENTS FOR THE WHOLE FOODS SAL AD BAR by Graham Templeton For well-heeled sorts, the Whole Foods salad bar is a nice, easy lunch—for others, it’s a nerveracking exercise in maximizing fiscal and nutritional efficiency. For the latter, fear not: here’s a guide to navigating a good deal while keeping our bones good and strong.

Ciaran Chung sous chef at L’Abattoir — Annie’s Dairy Bar (722 6th St., New Westminster) I go for the legit casse-croûte-style menu. Québécois staples: two steamies (steamed hot dogs), fries, drink—$6.95.

Thou shalt know what’s expensive Nothing is better-tasting (or more nutritious) than victory, so we’ll need to take into account the overall price of each salad component. Some things are easy—compared to market prices, brown rice is very expensive, candied salmon generally quite cheap. But consider less exaggerated examples: Greek salads are often a great source of yummy and relatively expensive feta or goat cheeses, and quinoa salad mixes almost always include something odd or expensive like goji berries or pomegranate seeds. Thou shalt consider mixed salads Some salads are much tastier than others, and this is almost always reflected in the weight. Beet salad is delicious (this is a scientific fact) but also heavy with beet water and other dense components. You want 300 grams of salad, but that’s so little beet salad! Solution: take a cheap, nutritious green salad and toss it with a bit of beet salad for extra taste. Thou shalt not be tricked by heavy carbs or lots of water If there’s one trick to running a profitable food bar, it’s the use of water. The contents of a smartly done salad bar will always skew toward things like tomatoes and watermelon, which are basically

nature’s sponges. But fruit fibre isn’t the only thing that carries absurd amounts of dense, and thus expensive, water—certain carbohydrates do it very well, too. That pasta salad? Not only will the simple carbs leave you hungry again before long, but it’s largely water puffing up those delicious macaroni elbows. Pass right on by—we’ve got better things in store. Thou shalt source some actual salad Okay, so I know you see the grilled chicken over there—just put your hands in your pockets for a second. Before going further, we need to make a quick and very small concession to nutrition: throw on some leaves. It doesn’t have to be a full green salad, but it does have to be there in some form, providing iron, zinc, magnesium and dietary fibre to the meal. Seriously, take some lettuce, pick it up and drop it back down—as long as you avoid the water-filled ribs on iceberg lettuce, you’ll barely notice the price increase. Over time, however, your doctor may notice the difference. Thou shalt not go nuts on the strong veggies Carrots. Bell peppers. Radishes. For those of us unused to the freedom of the salad bar, these individually delicious veggies provide just enough (hemp) rope to hang ourselves. They’re heavy and, more importantly, they absolutely dominate the taste of almost anything they join. For many, it takes a few runs to acquire the discipline to hold back, but in the right hands these strategically used taste grenades can make even the most boring plate a true joy to consume.

$4.50 Russet Shack Baked potato

You can look at this slice of a restaurant on Robson Street in two ways. You can say: $4.50 for a potato? Are you crazy? Or you can say: where can I get a healthy, filling (the potatoes are gargantuan) lunch on Robson for under $5? Veggie toppings—from carrots to zucchini— are 50 cents each and loaded potatoes, like the one here, go for a whopping $6. 288 Robson St.

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Cheap Eats

$6.25

Vancouver School Board Cafeteria Single club

Having your office in South Granville is no treat, culinarily speaking. There are too few restaurants and the ones that exist are godawfully pricey. That’s why most days you’ll see a steady flow of staffers head to the “restaurant” at the Vancouver School Board HQ. Skip the weirdly pricey daily special and head to the sandwich bar—for $6.25 you’ll get a solid club sandwich with a heaping handful of Rip-L chips and carrot and pickle. Jaw-dropping, yes, for these parts. 1580 W Broadway

$4.75 Shishinori

Wasabi mayo beef avocado sub The bustling Cambie corridor seems an odd spot for anything cheap, but tucked between Winners and Save-On-Foods, this small spot offers 10 Japanese takes on a sub and none of them are more than $5. Our current fave: the $4.65 curried beef, piled high with potatoes and peas, with Glico curry on top of shredded beef. 2328 Cambie St.

$4.75

Mr. Red Cafe Chicken bánh mì

In many ways the bánh mì—that French-Vietnamese hybrid of a sandwich—is the Holy Grail of a cheap eats list: they’re rarely over $6, they’re filling and they deliver a wallop of multicultural umami. And while Vancouver has some classics (Au Petit Café’s may be the long-running gold standard), this year it’s the sub-$5 offering from the new Mr. Red in Kits: always perfectly fresh baguettes, topped with crispy fried shallots and served by the nicest people on Broadway. Dinner for four is $18? Sold. 2234 E Hastings St., 2680 W Broadway

$10.00

K&J Food Truck

Wiener schnitzel sandwich At first blush, the idea of a $10 sandwich from a food truck sounds like exactly what’s wrong with food in Vancouver. But then Baron Klaus Erich von Hochgotz (a real baron, by the way) hands you a made-to-order sandwich with enough schnitzel to feed Kaiser Wilhelm und Angela Merkel with enough left over for Helmut Kohl (it’s technically Austrian food, but Franz Klammer didn’t have quite the same ring). It’s a titan of a sandwich—easily enough for zwei Herren oder drei Damen. Und it’s delicious.

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Wine List Hidden Gems While every oenophile posits that there’s more to a well-crafted wine list than just price, every cheapskate will say “balls.” Restaurateurs will tell you that you need a minimum 2.5 times markup to make a go of it in this high-tax jurisdiction. But every so often, they throw an outlier on the list for the eagle-eyed sipper (the high-volume chains have the most flexibility here). Taittinger Comtes De Champagne 2005 Chambar: $380 BC Liquor Stores: $245

2014 Secateurs Chenin Blanc Bao Bei: $62 Everything Wine: $32

Il Poggione Brunello 2009 Bufala: $120 Everything Wine: $88

THE CHEAPEST DRINKS IN THE NICEST NEIGHBOURHOOD A slow roll down from the mansions of First Shaughnessy sits the sliver of a bar that is the Marquis, and while the name sounds elevated, the classy red sign out front delivers a more plebeian message: “Gin and Tonic $3.25.” Some days it says “Tequila $3.25,” sometimes “Rum & Coke $3.25.” These aren’t happy-hour specials, expiring just as the truly thirsty arrive, but an all-day, everyday offering to a time when having a belt after work didn’t mean taking out a mortgage.

Unsworth Rosé Joey Bentall One: $40 Everything Wine: $23.50

Tantalus Rosé Salt Tasting Room: $50 Everything Wine: $26

Synchromesh Riesling Cactus Club: $36 Winery: $19

Poplar Grove Merlot West Oak: $55 Everything Wine: $30

Cheap Groceries Young Brothers Produce The heart of Kits seems an odd place for a deal, but this greengrocer is consistently cheaper than reigning Downtown Eastside legend Sunrise Market and the food quality is significantly higher. Bring cash and expect to be jammed in the narrow aisles, but if it’s deals you’re after, it doesn’t get better. 3151 W Broadway Persia Foods This local chain keeps it pretty real on all prices, but it’s their price on the suddenly-so-expensive-I-can’t-believe-it almonds that’s worth the trip: $5.99 a pound. For reference, the bulk at Safeway is $15.90 a pound. And while you’re there, you may as well grab a six-pack of thin pitas for 99 cents. 2827 W Broadway; 6437 Main St.; 1730 Commercial Dr.

The Thrifty Liquor Cabinet Good Company Lager ($8.29/6) The hipster cred of PBR meets the hipster cred of craft beer and that might be too much hipster, were it not for the fact that this will cost just over eight bucks for a sixpack and it tastes pretty darn good.

Beefeater ($22.49) There are newer gins and there are hipper gins, but this remains in many ways the standard bearer for the London dry style. At fully half the price of Hendrick’s, there’s zero shame in Beefeater.

Metaxa 7 Stars ($25.49) Nothing strikes fear into the heart of the thrifty bartender than the line “add brandy.” With a cheap bottle of VS Cognac still in the $50 range, this slightly sweet Greek import steps in when mixing is involved—and it’s cheaper here than in the U.S.

ASK A SOUS CHEF

Alberta Premium ($21.49) There are a few slightly cheaper whiskies on the market, but none of them will give you the instant credibility with the barkeep community that buying a bottle of this national treasure will.

Mike Tuangkitkun chef de cuisine at Maenam — Osaka Supermarket (2200 Park Royal S., West Vancouver) There is a variety of other good, quick eats in this Chinese grocery store, but the made-to-order sticky rice rolls are cheap ($3.49), quick, filling and make the perfect grab-and-go meal. You can choose what type of rice you want (white sticky, purple sticky or half and half) and then choose up to four fillings (pig ears, seaweed, spicy jellyfish, preserved vegetables, marinated mushrooms, pork floss, soy egg, Taiwanese sausage, Chinese donut, et cetera).

Cheap Eats Hall

of Fame You know the places: perennial lines, dedicated fans, headscratching finances. Year in, year out, they’re the ones that deliver an oasis of value in a desert of high prices.

ASK A SOUS CHEF

Allegra Jimenez Flores chef de partie, Mamie Taylor’s — El Pulgarcito (2522 E Hastings St.) The pupusas revueltas ($5.50) in this little restaurant are delicious and cheap; they’re really great when in need of some comfort food.

Jian Hui Cheng sous chef at Osteria Savio Volpe — Guangdong Flavor (2430-8260 Westminster Highway, Richmond) Individual clay pot rice. My favourite is the one with Chinese sausage, bok choy and poached egg—it’s less than $5 per clay pot and it’s made to order.

photographs by Page and Paper

Let’s Stop This Trend A buck-a-shuck happy hour where the oysters are more than a buck? C’mon guys, it’s in the flipping name! While we wait for you miscreants to do the right thing, here’s a list of spots that honour the meaning of this happy-hour stalwart. Fanny Bay, Crosstown Boulevard, Downtown Bao Down, Gastown Coast, Downtown The Fish Shack, Downtown Joe Fortes, West End Lift, Coal Harbour Ebisu Robson, West End Edible Canada, Granville Island

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Jethro’s Fine Grub

Wakwak Burger

If you check your pride—and we’re not condoning this, mind you—three can dine on the $10 full stack of four hubcap-sized pancakes. 3420 Dunbar St. 3455 Fraser St.

Yes, it’s no longer the $2.85 that gave birth to its original name (it’s a whopping $3), but this Japanese-influenced bunand-patty combo is still a steal. Granville and Pender

Jack’s Place at Army and Navy A lunch counter in the original Gastown pioneer that’s been selling grilled cheese sandwiches for a goofy low amount (they’re now $1.75) since about the time Gerald Ford was president. 36 W Cordova St.

The Capital

Duffin’s

Save on Meats

An entire menu at $4.95 can either be a siren call (crispy chicken wafflewich) or a warning to heed (the blackened-fish tacos), but this place is a West End temple of cheap eats. Parking will cost you more. 1178 Davie St.

Random word generators couldn’t come up with a menu as eclectic as the one at this Kensington spot. A machaca torta ($4.24) with a slice of banana cake ($1.70) washed down with a single espresso ($1.75) and a dozen old-school donuts to go ($8). 1391 E 41st Ave.

The Icarus of Vancouver cheap eats never quite fulfilled its promise, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. And the $4.99 traditional breakfast (eggs, hash browns, toast) allows one to dip their toes into the Gastown brunch bonanza without breaking the bank (or waiting in line). 43 W Hastings St.

Cheap Eats ASK A SOUS CHEF

Michael Paolino sous chef, Chambar Restaurant — Damso Korean Restaurant (867 Denman St.) The Korean tacos at Damso are only $2.50 each and they’re delicious— and it’s open late enough that our team can go after service.

THAI RESTAURANT

Immerse yourself in the great tradition of classic and authentic Thai dining. Catering, Take-out and Delivery orders available. Fully Licensed. Semi-Private & Private Room Booking Options. 102-888 Burrard Street 604.683.7999 www.salathai.ca Friday-Saturday 11:30am-10:30pm Sunday-Thursday 11:30am-10:00pm 44

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Is CaliBurger our In-N-Out? Um . . . not quite. There’s cheap eats, then there’s In-N-Out Burger, the legendary SoCal chain that’s impossible for Canadians to visit and not Instagram their meal. The main problem: their dawdling expansion plans leave not only us but everyone east of the Rockies on the outside looking in. Enter CaliBurger, a born-in-China chain that aims to satisfy people’s In-N-Out craving. . .by shamelessly copying them (there have been lawsuits). We stopped by the new CaliBurger near Thurlow and Robson to see how they did. Food-wise Not bad at all—the CaliDouble has the same retro goodness as In-N-Out’s Double Double: very melty American cheese, crisp lettuce, fresh tomato. Plus, it’s even a little bigger. The fries, likewise, are a very close approximation and the milkshakes are better. Value-wise There had to be a catch. Burger, fries and a shake? $6.60 ($8.82 Canadian) at In-N-Out. At CaliBurger? $14.48. Not that close, fellas, although you can buy a Stumptown coffee, a glass of craft beer or get a shot of bourbon in your shake at CaliBurger. 830 Thurlow St.

LIFE, MADE DELICIOUS Do you want the best quality cookware, and cooking lessons from great local chefs? We can help your kitchen become the setting of special moments for years to come. Our friendly, kitchen-savvy staff are here to help, head into one of our four stores and prepare to be wowed.

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At the crossroads of classic winemaking and California innovation lies Sonoma’s legendary La Crema. Long known for producing some of the finest Sonoma wines, La Crema’s Chardonnay and Pinot Noir set the bar for California’s

operated winery has focused exclusively on cool-climate coastal appellations, where grapes ripen slowly and develop complex flavours each possessing of a unique personality, consistent flavours and silky mouthfeel.

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beloved coastal appellations. For more than 30 years, this family-owned and

WORKING THE ROOM

In a design-obsessed, Instagram-everything era where restaurant designers are the new rock stars, has the look of a space become more important than the food?

EMA PETER

by Jim Sutherland

For Bauhaus, designer Andrea Greenway looked to the design movement that gave the restaurant its name, bringing sleek minimalist style and a palette of concrete and leather to the Gastown room.

r aig stanghetta is just out of a meeting at a big downtown hotel. The beautiful landmark restaurant there has great food and service, but even so, too few people are finding their way in, and the hotel hopes that Stanghetta can perform some kind of alchemic magic—a hope that’s not without foundation. Pretty much every room that Stanghetta’s ever touched debuts to city-wide buzz. By something approaching a consensus— accompanied by a big dose of surprise, given his unconventional resumé—Stanghetta is the reigning master of restaurant design in Vancouver just now. It’s doubly impressive considering his cohort and the moment that restaurant design is enjoying. Partly, people are just a little more design-conscious (aren’t we all on the hunt for Instagram fodder?) and live inside increasingly smaller private spaces that have us spending more time in public ones, like restaurants. Partly, the ascendance is simply due to the frantic pace at which eateries have been opening during these recent, economically unstable times. True, designers of all types have been busy. But those focusing on residential and most kinds of commercial projects are generally tasked with preserving property values, and this promotes a conservative approach. By contrast, says David Scott of Scott and Scott Architects, one of Stanghetta’s competitors (and sometimes collaborator), “Restaurants want to stand out.”

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Most restaurants are fairly casual in nature, with design philosophies rooted in notions of authenticity and really good lighting.

A few of these higher-profile recent openings are on the luxe side, including the fetching new Nightingale restaurant, from Toronto-based Studio Munge (also responsible for chef David Hawksworth’s first, eponymously named spot), and Bauhaus Restaurant, from locally based interior designer Andrea Greenway. The new location of Chambar, from Carscadden Stokes McDonald Architects, is a more grown-up version of the original, retaining all of the brickwalled character and rudimentary exoticism while eliminating the faint sense that the place might not look quite as terrific in the harsh light of morn. Another progressive architectural firm, Acton Ostry, designs the massive and surprisingly minimalist locations of the Cactus Club Cafe. Then there is the impending arrival of a local outpost of the Mott 32 chain, to be designed by Hong Kong- and London-based interiors superstar Joyce Wang, which promises to draw people inside the doors of the Trump Hotel Vancouver (despite Trump). A person might expect a certain amount of glamour and cigar connoisseurship at highprofile and relatively expensive spots such as these, but nope: most are fairly casual in nature, with design philosophies rooted in notions of integrity, authenticity and really good lighting. Meanwhile, a little farther down the food chain, spots like Bestie and Torafuku (designed by Scott and Scott Architects), and Savio Volpe

David Hawksworthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest venture, Nightingale, owes its casualglam design to Toronto-based Studio Munge. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a playful contrast to the historic facade outside.

Clockwise from top: Homer Street Cafe pairs casual bistro style with a roast-chicken menu; Forage is designed with natural and local materials to reflect the regionally focused menu; Chambarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s warm vibe extends out onto the patio; Kissa Tanto champions Japanese-Italian fusion and takes design inspiration from the Jazz Age.

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HOMER STREET CAFE: CARLO RICCI; KISSA TANTO: KNAUF AND BROWN; CHAMBAR: EMA PETER; FORAGE: WELBERT CHOI

WORK ING THE ROOM

and Kissa Tanto (a double whammy of Stanghetta) are so damn indie they make the designs of 10 and 15 years ago look like pop acts groomed by David Foster. This is where Craig Stanghetta and his Ste. Marie Design comes in, along with Scott and Scott, David Nicolay and Robert Edmonds and their Evoke International Design, and Marc Bricault and his Bricault Design, to name just a few of the interlopers (almost none are interior designers) who are dominating the scene and winning seemingly unlikely converts to their work. “I don’t know who they are, but I love what they’re doing,” says veteran designer Juli Hodgson, whose Hodgson Design Associates has worked on dozens of high-profile projects, like the Aritzia chain. The Vancouver restaurant scene has had its design moments before. Beginning in the early 1980s, both David Vance and the late Werner Forster, the latter an architect with fingers in many pies, managed to simultaneously absorb advanced outside influences and develop a uniquely local style while turning out a large proportion of the city’s landmark restaurants. Forster is indelibly associated with Umberto Menghi and the original Il Giardino, but he did just as much, and just as well, designing restaurants for Jack Evrensel’s Toptable Group (now owned by the Aquilini Group), notably Blue Water Cafe and West. Meanwhile, Vance contributed to the success of Bud Kanke, operator of restaurants including Joe Fortes and the Cannery, but he’s best known as the designer that helped set Earls far apart from other chains during its first two decades of operation with a blend of playfulness and polish. The Fuller family, Earls’ owners, credits him with bringing a sophistication to the operation that went well beyond the casual-luxe interiors. Still, when in the late ’90s a young architecture graduate named David Nicolay arrived home to Vancouver from Los Angeles, he didn’t find a

lot of restaurants to his liking, so he and a partner opened one that was. Tangerine, on Kitsilano’s little Yew Street strip, helped pioneer two innovations that now seem givens. Like the West End’s Tapastree (replaced now by Tavola) and downtown’s Bin 941, Tangerine served small plates instead of full-on meals. And, perhaps more significantly, Tangerine was the first Vancouver restaurant in at least a decade to be designed in a strippeddown, modernist style. Today Nicolay co-operates Evoke, responsible for such recent openings as Main Street Brewing and Forage (not to mention lots of Noodle Boxes). In addition, the company owns restaurants and bars, mostly along Main Street, including the Union and the Cascade Room, which gives them a leg up when figuring out how other people’s restaurants are going to work. The firm also takes on other commercial projects and singlefamily residences. “With houses, we’re pure modernists,” Nicolay says, but not so with restaurants. Evoke’s restaurant designs are generally modernist-influenced but eclectically so, because, of course, restaurants need concepts. By nature such establishments are fashion victims, too, and have to be redesigned and renovated often—which is definitely good for business. Recently, says Nicolay, he’s noticed a lot of chefowners designing and building their own places, something that’s been facilitated by the existence of specialist contractors who can steer them away from egregious mistakes. “There’s a lot of DIY right now,” he says. “And that’s not a bad thing.” About the time that Nicolay was opening Tangerine, Marc Bricault broadened the scope of his Granville Island furniture shop after connecting with a young restaurant owner named Vikram Vij. Vij, who was operating a hole-in-the-wall on Broadway, had secured bigger premises on 11th Avenue and needed a restaurant inserted. Bricault proved

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David Vance was the first vanguard of Vancouver restaurant design, with a portfolio of thoughtfully executed spaces like Joe Fortes.

Five Designs That Made a Difference Il Giardino 1976 Werner Forster and Umberto Menghi reconstitute a slice of Tuscany; sightlines, mingling, al fresco dining: all are on point.

Distinctly West Coast inspired chicken and waffle burger, house made pretzels, crispy tentacles, paired with a Molson Canadian on tap.

Bridges 1980 Inside a Granville Island warehouse, designer David Vance defines “West Coast”; Earls and others take notes. Tangerine 1999 David Nicolay reintroduces modernism to a city entrenched in the traditional. Chambar 2004 Goodbye, white tablecloth. “Casual” and “glamorous” aren’t mutually exclusive. Bao Bei 2010 In his offstage debut for this modern Chinese restaurant, Craig Stanghetta creates a narrative; diners applaud.

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to be something of a double threat, providing not only a characteristically intricate design but personally fabricating and installing big chunks of it. As Vij has expanded his empire, Bricault has expanded with him, designing (and fabricating portions of) Rangoli, My Shanti and the new Vij’s location on Cambie Street while also doing locations for Thomas Haas and others. The new Vij’s, he notes, incorporates “moments of lantern-ness” that hearken back to a lantern motif designed into the original location. Other important additions include a much bigger bar and—crucially, to anyone who’s ever endured the lineup during a Vancouver November—awnings. Bricault’s designs are notable less for upfront aesthetic impact than for their intricate detailing and a plenitude of ingenious touches. Scott and Scott Architects, consisting of husband-and-wife team David and Susan Scott, have a similarly tight focus, but there’s no lack of wow factor in their ultra-minimalist restaurant designs. The couple’s very first job (apart from a barn on Pender Island), after years spent working separately in other architectural firms, was Bestie, a German currywurst café in Chinatown for which the primary design mandate was ease of construction by the owners and a volunteer brigade recruited partially through social media. More recently, they did Torafuku, currently shortlisted for London’s international Restaurant and Bar Design Awards. There, a communal concrete table rises seamlessly out of a concrete floor. The room’s extreme spareness, they point out, is a product of preference and philosophy (such as the way their concern for materials mirrors the restaurant owners’ obsession with ingredient quality), but also of more practical considerations, such as the small amount of money the food truck magnates behind it had to spend. “I look at restaurants where there are a lot of elements,” David says. “And I admire the budget.”

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So local, you can almost hear it complaining about bike lanes.

Client: C|Prime / Size: 4.6” X 4.9” / CMYK / Vancouver Magazine

A NEW YORK ITALIAN STEAKHOUSE IN THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER Reflected in its carefully crafted menu, C|Prime puts a premium on locally sourced and curated ingredients. Using the finest cuts of BC-raised meats, fresh seafood, vegetables and cheeses paired with innovative, rich sauces and salts, the restaurant offers incomparable dishes that showcase both Italian and New York inspired flavours.

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One of the Scotts’ recent projects is the facade of a storefront on Kingsway, near Fraser Street, that contains a restaurant called Savio Volpe. The design is minimalist, of course, but seems more in keeping with Italian-style futurism than any current Vancouver interpretation. That’s appropriate, given that the hit restaurant inside is owned and designed by Craig Stanghetta, his first foray as a restaurateur rather than purely the designer. Indeed, only a few years ago, Stanghetta was waiting tables and working as an actor, mostly in theatre, but also with film roles including “grey man” in the Jon Hamm/Keanu Reeves stinker The Day the Earth Stood Still and “Pete” in the better (but still less than consequential) Flicka 2. Then in 2010 he was connected to Tannis Ling, an original Chambar bartender intent on opening her own place. Stanghetta grew up in a restaurant family in Toronto and had watched countless places succeed and fail. “What I observed,” he says, “is that they all Untitled-3 had their systems and protocols, but if there was a disconnect between atmosphere and the narrative and the creative direction—they just couldn’t overcome that. They didn’t offer a full dining experience.” He calls this missing factor a “binding narrative,” citing the work of Anton Chekhov and Tennessee Williams as examples, and makes it his central design principle. With Ling’s Bao Bei—in retrospect, a harbinger of much of what’s gone on in the restaurant world here and elsewhere—Stanghetta drew from the stories of the proprietor’s Chinese-Canadian upbringing, rendering the restaurant, he says, “very home-like and personal; people would settle in.” Next he turned his hand to Meat and Bread, another influential hit, but with a very different narrative. “Meat and Bread was a bit of theatre in its own way,” he says. “But very pared back.” Instead, the rapid pace of service contributed to the attraction, and it was people—

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both the staff and the customers sitting at communal tables—who created the environment. A snapshot of Stanghetta’s subsequent projects includes Homer Street Cafe and Bar, Revolver, Ask for Luigi, Killjoy, the Blackbird Public House and Oyster Bar, Clough Club, Pizzeria Farina and Pidgin. In the past year there’s been Ling’s second restaurant, the Japanese-Italian mash-up Kissa Tanto, and his own place, Savio Volpe, with a menu styled after an Italian osteria, although granted more breadth and scope for creativity than its typical European counterpart. Lately, his designs have become quite theatrical, and often surreal or dreamlike. At Kissa Tanto, a jumble of mostly unfashionable colours, finishes and fixtures compete for attention within a lounge-like setting that is nevertheless cozy and inviting. At Savio Volpe, the faces on two portraits of a hooded figure are obscured by the bases of protruding lighting fixtures, and the hands of a clock tick around on a blank wall. Whisking one into another world has always been part of a restaurant’s appeal, but Stanghetta’s worlds are becoming very different indeed. Stanghetta’s most recent projects seem, at first glance, a surprise. Earls, recognizing that its style and brand was beginning to lag behind some of the premium casual competitors, gave him something approaching carte blanche to be a contemporary David Vance and imagine what an Earls would be like had the chain launched in the present day. The result is the recently opened Earls 67, located in Calgary’s downtown Bankers Hall and explicitly tailored to millennials, with a variety of distinct moods and functions (a lounge, a beer patio, a sunny atrium). He’s currently working on another new Earls, this one in West Vancouver, set to open next year. But it will be very different from the Calgary location, he says. Different, he adds, because the creative process—the quest for a narrative—is exactly the same.

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