Vancouver Magazine - April 2015

THE NEXT LEVEL IN TRAVEL

THE NEXT DINING HUB

LUXURY CRUISING

CHINATOWN

PLUS

HOW REALTORS SHOP US TO THE SUPER RICH WHY I SOLD MY MAIN STREET FIXER-UPPER & MOVED TO A RENTAL IN SHAUGHNESSY

IMPROVE YOUR GOLF SWING UPGRADE YOUR WINE CELLAR 2015

REAL TE E S TAth Update

ALL HAIL THE FUTURE OF TAXIS

The New Westside What do East and West even mean when a house in this city now averages $1,093,113?

APRIL 2015 // $5.99

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T H I S I S C U R R E N T LY N O T A N O F F E R I N G F O R S A L E . A N Y S U C H O F F E R I N G M AY O N LY B E M A D E B Y W AY O F A D I S C L O S U R E S TAT E M E N T. E . & O . E .

VOLUME 48

NUMBER 3

APRIL ADVANCE TO PARK PLACE The sylvan charms of First Shaughnessy

F E AT U R E S

Cover: Lucas Finley; this page: Kamil Bialous

REAL ESTATE 2015 46 If This is Our

New Urban Dream...

51 Boulevard

of Dreams

52 The One Percent

Having moved from East Van to a rented house in tony Shaughnessy, a family discovers the coveted community’s fundamental lack

By Guy Saddy

A veteran Vancouver realtor weighs in on the shifting geography of the city’s home-ownership goals

By Fiona Marrow

There’s no better way to find out what wealthy foreigners want in a local property than to ride along with someone whose job is to host them

By Fiona Morrow

Solution

A P R I L 2 O 15 | VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E

5

APRIL

***

“WHILE WE ARE REVITALIZING, WE MUST NOT LOSE SIGHT OF WHAT IS SO VALUABLE. WE DON’T WANT TO TURN INTO YALETOWN OR GASTOWN”

—pg. 24

THE

THE

32 TASTE MAKER

62 PERSONAL SHOPPER Revel in

12 FROM THE EDITOR The cross-

the arrival of spring with bright new buys for yourself and your home

city migration of a dreaded garden pest offers a tragicomic metaphor for the changing face of Vancouver real estate

BRIEF DISH 16 VANCOUVER LIFE Why this

cab-crunched city is still trying to keep Uber out; the latest meeting place for our creative elite; fine dining’s unlikely new benefactor 20 ON THE RECORD Park

board head John Coupar talks about defending his turf as part of the NPA minority PG.32

22 URBAN FIX

International Village has long been viewed as a symbol of its neighbourhood’s slapdash image. But does Chinatown’s recent evolution portend the mall’s future?

26 THE ESSENTIAL 8

PG.18

A rejuvenated rock band, an annual celebration of seasonal beauty, our largest gathering of health nuts— a huge variety of goings-on all month long

A strange name, an unconventional location, and an oddly concise menu somehow add up to a very promising restaurant 36 FRESH SHEET

No matter how you slice (or scrape) it, Tête de Moine is a cheese worth getting to know 38 MOVEABLE FEAST

Thanks to an influx of eager entrepreneurs, eating and drinking in Chinatown is fast becoming more diverse than ever

GOODS PLUS 64 MODEL CITIZEN Optician

turned eyeglasses designer Sara Moshurchak applies her lessis-more aesthetic to everything she puts on

74 SNAP CHATTER Nights

out at a hospital charity event, a cultural celebration, and a film competition

69 SWEAT EQUIT Y PGA Tour

winner Nick Taylor defies the assumption that golfers don’t aspire to peak fitness 70 FIELD TRIP

40 DECANTER

It may be hard to resist opening a bottle as soon as you get it home, but these wines reward a few years’ patience 42 MIX MASTER

Vodka, the bridesmaid of the spirit world, takes a turn in the spotlight with these premium distillations

All sea cruises are not created equal— as we learned on a recent butlerassisted (!) Mediterranean jaunt 72 MY SPACE

An up-and-coming furniture designer and her filmmaker husband flourish in a home that radiates creativity

Va n m a g .co m See hundreds of winners from past Restaurant Awards, with chef videos and more PG.22

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VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E | A P R I L 2 O 15

Luis Valdizon, Carlo Ricci, Ian Azariah, Evaan Kheraj

THE

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EDITOR-IN- CHIEF

John Burns ART DIRECTOR

Paul Roelofs SENIOR EDITOR

Michael White ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR

Naomi MacDougall TRAVEL & STYLE EDITOR

Amanda Ross ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR

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Frances Bula, Christina Burridge, Mario Canseco, Petti Fong, Kerry Gold, Michael Harris, DJ Kearney, Neal McLennan, Malcolm Parry, Guy Saddy, Jim Sutherland, Timothy Taylor, Daniel Wood CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Tracey Ayton, Clinton Hussey, Evaan Kheraj, Joe McKendry (contributor illustrations), Andrew Querner, Carlo Ricci, John Sinal, Milos Tosic, Luis Valdizon EDITORIAL INTERNS

Ginger Jefferies, Danielle Tsang PHOTO & ART INTERNS

Andrea Fernandez, Max Hirtz PROOFREADER

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26TH ANNUAL RESTAURANT AWARDS

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FROM THE EDITOR

The Big Picture

THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE MAGAZINE. DISCOVER THE CITY’S TOP EATS ON APR. 21, IN PRINT AND ONLINE

My own yard looks like the aftermath of a chafer beetle Coachella: a field of mud ruined by hedonists bent only on eating and mating—then moving on before they’re caught

On the Move

JOHN BURNS john.burns@vancouvermagazine.com

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VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E | A P R I L 2 O 15

3

NAMES YOU WON’T SEE IN THIS ISSUE

WANTING QU Curious to hear from our city’s tourism ambassador to China, now First Girlfriend, we approached her label for an On the Record interview (pg. 20).

Sure, said Nettwerk, if they okayed our questions first. No thanks SAMUEL LO For “It Takes a Village” (pg. 22), Frances Bula approached the International Village manager for comment. He declined: “While there is gradual improvement in the vacancy rate, there is still work ahead. It is not the time for a story” RAMEN KOIK A Our review of the Davie Street soup shop was squeezed out at the last minute. Look for it in a future issue

Portrait: Evaan Kheraj; styling: Luisa Rino; clothing courtesy Holt Renfrew

on the news this morning, i heard that chafer beetles have finally reached Stanley Park. Do you know those grubs, the ones that tunnel through the soil all winter, chewing up grass roots, attracting raccoons and crows, which in turn tear through lawns in search of lunch? Chafer beetles (also called June bugs or, for the scientifically minded, Rhizotrogus majalis) are gross to look at, and so is the devastation they leave behind. My own yard looks like the aftermath of a chafer beetle Coachella: a field of mud ruined by hedonists bent only on eating and mating—then moving on before they’re caught.

The arrival of chafer beetles in Stanley Park is worrying not just because of all that vulnerable ground cover they’ll mess up.

The park was one of the city’s last bug-free bastions. Chafers first appeared in East Vancouver and have been pursuing their manifest destiny ever since, infesting one West Side neighbourhood after another. (I thought it was an urban myth, by the way, that they started on the East Side and have been moving ever westward, but the park board’s pest division assures me it’s true. And while we’re on the subject, I highly recommend punching your postal code into the outdated but still fascinating chafer map at Communitylawncare.ca.)

For those of us who enjoy metaphors gifted by nature, there’s a pleasing symmetry in this chafer onslaught. Even from the edge of Dunbar it’s not difficult to see the difference in street life that exists between Point Grey or Shaughnessy’s high streets on the one hand and, say, the Cambie Corridor or South Main or even pockets of Fraser. As those eastern areas invest in density, a critical mass of residents kick-starts commerce; enticing boutiques, espresso joints, markets, and arts spaces follow. That leaves the aspirational apexes of the West Side on the outside looking in, for once. So it’s a race now: will a stubbornly low-rise West Side attract more amenities? Or will interesting architects continue to reinvent east of Cambie? The winner, as we suggest in this issue’s real-estate update (pg. 46), will define the home-buying mecca of tomorrow. VM

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VA NC O U V E R L IF E

ON THE RECORD

URBAN FIX

THE ESSENTIALS

THE The month in politics, real estate, business & culture

“We’ve got other stupidly expensive things to spend our money on, but council is stalling while it figures out a way to keep everyone happy” PG. 16

Moving Pictures with the proclamation that starchitect firm Herzog & de Meuron (the Beijing Bird’s Nest, London’s new Tate Modern) would design the next Vancouver Art Gallery, director Kathleen Bartels hoped donors would be inspired to pony up some or all of the money still needed to effect the gallery’s second move in 84 years. When Vancouver council offered up Larwill Park, that derelict lot at Cambie and Georgia, it was contingent on the VAG sourcing $150 million by the end of this month. With the deadline threatening, it’s increasingly clear private money will have to accomplish what provincial and federal ministries have not. When the gallery falls short on April 30 (as seems inevitable), the city’s true plans may yet become clear for the gallery, and for all that land adjacent to the courthouse.

Stuart Thomson/City of Vancouver archives

In 1983, the VAG outgrew its birthplace at 1145 W. Georgia St. (shown here in 1931), now the Trump Tower. Its current home, the former provincial courthouse, was renovated by Arthur Erickson to accommodate the collection

A P R I L 2 O 15 | VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E

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RIDE-BROKERING EXISTS IN 220 CITIES AROUND THE WORLD, BUT VANCOUVER

THE

AIN’T ONE. MAD AS HELL? THE PETITION

BRIEF

VA N C O U V E R L I F E

Tr e n d i n g S t o r i e s

AT ACTION.UBER.ORG/VANCOUVER AWAITS YOUR NAME, ALONGSIDE 24,488 OTHERS

THIS CITY HAS ONLY 600 CABS, WHICH PUTS US LAST IN THE COUNTRY PER CAPITA. WHERE WE’RE FIRST IS ON THE METER

T R A N S P O R TAT I O N

brokerage; we’ve got rules to follow.”

Uber proclaims itself to be a tech firm, not a taxi company (and thus exempt from those rules), but Mary Polak, then the province’s transporWill the city’s cabs finally face competition, tation minister, sent it packing in or be shielded from their own customers?

2012 with a threat of $75 minimum fares. Older, wiser, and richer, Uber i’m at my destination, but my has now set its sights on a 2015 cabbie won’t let me out. He’s got return to the city, and my cabtoo much to say about Uber. To be bie isn’t the only one who sees the fair, I provoked him, asking if he $50-million, San Francisco-based planned to make the move from company as a threat. The Vancouver Yellow if the ride-sharing company Taxi Association declined requests sets up here as planned. Almost half to comment, but its stance has been of Uber’s current drivers formerly made clear elsewhere: they’re not worked for cab or limo fleets, after happy. And why would they be? all, but some drivers (like mine, it With a monopoly on taxi licences seems) are wary. “You hear so much that allows them to dictate pricinfo—some good, some bad. But ing, of course they’re alarmed that how can you compare? Cabs and an outsider might provide what Uber are like apples and oranges,” Vancouverites so desperately want: he laments. “They’re an unregulated cheaper rides that are easier to get.

A Fare Fight

I

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VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E | A P R I L 2 O 15

This city has only 600 cabs, which puts us last in the country per capita. Where we’re first is on the meter: it costs 15 percent more to take a cab here than elsewhere in Canada, according to a recent SFU study. We’ve got other stupidly expensive things to spend our money on, but council is stalling while it figures out a way to keep everyone happy. (It put a hold on issuing vehicle-hire licences last year; that study period is expected to end this month.) In the meantime, the VTA is seeking an injunction to bar Uber from the city, and the Provincial Transit Association has stated its commitment to maintaining “industry health” and preventing “destructive competition.”

If you want to operate a taxi in Vancouver, you need a vehiclesfor-hire licence (plus a passenger

Kate Inglis

transportation licence, a chauffeur’s permit, a TaxiHost Pro certificate, a background check, and, duh, a driver’s licence). The city’s cab companies—Yellow Cab, Black Top/ Checker Cabs, MacLure’s Cabs, and Vancouver Taxi—buy these, then resell them, packaged with company shares, for up to $800,000; shareholders turn around and lease the licences to drivers for an upfront fee and a percentage of all fares.

The issue with Uber challenging these oligarchs of transportation, say my well-informed driver and the VTA, is that if Uber starts pricing cab companies out of business, it could become the next for-hire monopoly itself. But Jeff Welsher, the company’s general manager for regional expansion, argues Uber may actually increase business for cabs. The Toronto-based Welsher has helped the company set up shop successfully in all of its Canadian markets. (Prior to that, he worked in the private-equity field.) He believes Uber could supplement existing transportation modes— transit, car-sharing programs like Car2go, and yes, taxis. “If you make it easier for someone to get around and get a ride when they need one,” he argues, “some people no longer need to own two vehicles, and it grows the market for everyone.”

In other cities—Ottawa, for example—Uber has carried on despite threat of penalty, but it’s unclear if it will muscle its way into this market without approval.

“We’re always looking to collaborate with officials,” says Welsher coyly. “The important thing to note is that over 24,000 signed our petition to appeal to council.”

The other 96 percent of Vancouver residents are presumably too busy waiting on a corner in the rain, trying to hail a cab, to add their signatures.—Stacey McLachlan

E D U C AT I O N

LEAN WAAAY IN SAFETY FIRST It’s Uber’s twoway accountability (both drivers and passengers are tracked through the app) that can be credited with making this unregulated rideshare system feel like the safest late-night option.

There may be no better evidence of that sense of comfort than the surprisingly high number of female Uber drivers. In major markets like New York, women make up just three percent of the cab driver workforce, yet they account for 14 percent of Uber’s drivers in the U.S.

A new city-based institute of creative leadership takes the super-bright to their happy global-problem-solving place  Half the ground floor of the Sun

how to make carbon-neutral cities.

Tower is painted perfectly white, graf-

You’re thrown into a place where your

fi tied over with white-board-marker

knowledge base is off and your acco-

mind maps and Venn diagrams. There’s

lades are irrelevant, but your skill set

a bookcase wall that pushes back into a

is valuable.” Guided through hands-on

hidden boardroom, a detail in step with

experiences enabled by partnering

tonight’s jazzed crowd. Totalling 24,

organizations (United Way, the City of

this mix of corporates, filmmakers, and

Vancouver, the Digital Finance Institute),

social entrepreneurs from across the

participants meld social intelligence and

globe is Vancouver’s inaugural class of

business strategy to propose scalable

Thnk, a school launched in Amsterdam

resolutions to global issues. (Tuition

in 2010 to “accelerate the development

starts at $13,500 for nonprofits.)

of next-generation creative leaders.”

During four weeklong modules

The first module is housing. “We try to take a new perspective; a lot of the

over six months, students develop

process is design thinking and human-

skills applicable to their professional

centred problem solving, so we’re

lives (free-form thinking, storytelling,

foremost interacting with the local

self-awareness—the whole cerebral

community,” explains Sarah Dickinson,

toolbox). They won’t just attend forums

Thnk Vancouver director, over the head

of higher learning, like tonight’s (led by

of her two-month-old daughter in a

Jer Thorp, a youthful NYU professor

dim classroom. (Dickinson previously

of data representation who transitions

worked at local marketer Blast Radius

anecdotes of his childhood nerdiness

with Thnk Vancouver cofounder Lee

into observations on ethical data col-

Feldman. After graduating from the

lection and the functional intersection

Amsterdam program, the two decided

of science and art), they’ll also learn

to start a campus here; Lisbon’s next.)

unconventionally by, say, being dropped

Citing Vancouver’s openness to

into wilderness and told to figure it out.

the “positive disruption” of cubicle-y

What’s class like? “Days run from

corporate culture as embodied by the

7 a.m. to 10 at night and are filled with

soulful capitalism of, say, Hootsuite or

everything from extremely intensive

Lululemon, Dickinson feels the program

corporate consulting to Buddhist prac-

has found a good home here. “Thnk’s

tice,” explains New York participant

goal is to guide a generation of leaders

Ted Wallach, 36, who has worked as a

who are genuinely connected to their

time-bank strategist, filmmaker, and

cause, not just espousing BS or trying

corporate advertising spy. “One moment

to drive profi t.” Its participants are

you’re talking to a guy who worked with

primed “to consider what is their calling,

Nelson Mandela and is using Bitcoin to

what is the nexus point between what

enact social justice, then suddenly a

they love and what they are really great

gong rings and you can’t believe you’re

at.” She pauses as her newborn yawns.

unable to keep this once-in-a-lifetime

“Ultimately, you’ll be miserable if there

conversation up and you’re moved to a

isn’t a connection between head and

new group led by someone who knows

heart.”—Adrienne Matei

A P R I L 2 O 15 | VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E

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NOTED FOR LOW-BUDGET TIE-INS TO GORY

THE

SEVERAL FILMS BASED ON REAL-WORLD

VA N C O U V E R L I F E

ATROCITIES, INCLUDING DARFUR (2009), AUSCHWITZ (2011), AND WALL STREET (2013)

Tr e n d i n g S t o r i e s

H O S P I TA L I T Y

Bomb Appétit A reviled film director (and discerning gourmand) brings haute Euro-cuisine and personnel to Gastown uwe boll is stomping around, waving his arms in this direction and that. “The kitchen was too small,” he proclaims. “And I hated the two-tier floor, so we got rid of that.”

The German B-movie director (Capital Punishment, BloodRayne), who bears with admirably blithe spirit the rather harsh epithet “worst filmmaker on the planet,” is transforming the original Boneta space at the corner of Cordova and Carrall streets. It’s February, and the room has been taken back to the studs.

With an opening date set for the middle of this month, Bauhaus brings upscale German cuisine to Gastown. Boll named the restaurant after the German art movement because “nothing in Bauhaus doesn’t make sense: it’s effective, simple, and high-end.”

A long-time foodie, he has—in typically bullish fashion—done his research in Vancouver, eating around the city and posting his often brutal judgments on YouTube. His dessert at chi-chi

18

VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E | A P R I L 2 O 15

Gastown spot Secret Location was described as looking as though “the dog had diarrhea.”

Black + Blue’s side dishes were “disgusting”; even Le Crocodile— which he recommends—is castigated for “horrific” spaetzle.

Ten years ago, Boll was convinced a proper pizza joint was the way to go, but he was only in Vancouver six months of the year, having fallen in love with the city while shooting Sanctimony in 2000. By the time he settled here permanently in 2013—he lives in Kitsilano and names La Quercia as his favourite local eatery—an influx of Neapolitan-style pizzerias had already solved that problem.

“I asked myself what it was that I really missed,” he recalls. “And that was the food you can get in New York and Europe—the really high-end food.”

To that end, he has recruited a chef from his native land with an impressive pedigree: Stefan Hartmann has worked in several Michelin-starred rooms in Europe

PLANET HOLLYWOOD: Boll isn’t alone in ploughing his residuals into more victuals. Last May, Ivan Reitman (Meatballs, Ghostbusters) opened Montecito in Toronto with global name Jonathan Waxman.

In October, that city also welcomed the first Canadian outpost of Wahlburgers from brothers Mark (Ted), Donnie (Saw II through V), and chef Paul

and earned a star of his own for his Berlin restaurant, Hartmanns.

The timing was serendipitous.

Hartmann heard that a German filmmaker was looking for a chef here just a week after closing the doors to his own room and its larger sibling, where, he admits, he “made every mistake possible” and found himself saddled with debt.

At Bauhaus, he will present an à la carte and a chef ’s menu, as well as a simpler lunch menu.

The goal, he says, is to bring the highest-quality cooking to each dish—whether it’s an elaborate dinner plate or a traditional German lunch item. “We will do the best-quality Wiener schnitzel, but we will also be cooking elevated German and European cuisine,” Hartmann explains.

“There is a lot more to German cuisine than sausages.”

The room will be overseen by Tim Adams, who spent 10 years managing operations across several London palaces, catering to the royals and their guests. Adams is here, he says, for the quality of life: an avid skier, he and his wife jumped at the chance to move close to the mountains. Despite his résumé, he insists Bauhaus will not be a toffee-nosed affair, but he does see a service gap ready to be fi lled. “We want to bridge that gap, bring a more European feel, with the core values we have in England,” he says. “It won’t be too straitlaced, though; no white tablecloths.”

Boll believes Bauhaus will kick standards up a notch all around.

“There’s a lot of good food in Vancouver, but not a lot of great food,” he insists. “Farm-to-table is more than just sourcing good ingredients; here, it often just feels like an excuse to present boring food.”—Fiona Morrow

Carlo Ricci

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 PET TI FONG

Newsmakers

Turf Warrior Newly elected on behalf of the minority Non-Partisan Association, park board head John Coupar says he’s ready to fight for green space, yield ground to community centre associations, and let the cetaceans be

PETTI FONG When did you realize that the NPA was going to lose at council but win at the park board?

JOHN COUPAR We had two seats, and it didn’t look like we’d get more. When we did, there was a sense of responsibility: the park board and city government have never come from different parties.

There were a lot of things I felt we could do better.

PF Like?

JC The big thing for me is putting fun and pride back in. Fifteen years

PF Why can’t you guys resolve this community centre fight?

JC We have a lot of issues that need to be resolved, a lot of tension around the community centres.

We’re trying to set a positive tone.

PF Who should run the centres?

And is that different from the question of who should manage them?

JC Those community boards are the eyes and ears. Their role is unique and important, and we can work together, as we did for many years.

But the board also wants to deliver services across all the centres— we’re able to deliver more equitably.

They’ve come around to that.

PF Many people want to bring the issue of cetaceans in captivity back to the table. Why don’t you?

JC The discussion about cetaceans was supposed to take place in 2015.

It got moved up and an attempt to pass a bylaw failed. It’s dealt with.

THE PARK BOARD’S WORK IS TO DELIVER A VANCOUVER LIFESTYLE, AND THAT’S REALLY KEY TO PEOPLE IN THIS CITY

IN BRIEF Coupar, 58, blamed the park board when his father’s life’s work, the Bloedel Conservatory, was imperilled in 2009. He was elected to the board soon after that, and again in November, one of four NPA commissioners (of seven)

ago, the park board represented about seven percent of the city’s budget; now it’s 4.9. The park board has lost capacity to do its work.

PF If a Vision Vancouver board couldn’t convince its papa council to increase funding, what argument could you use to get more?

JC Some of it has just been bringing out the information in a positive way. I had a very positive meeting with the mayor—there’s opportunity for us to do good work together.

The park board’s work is to deliver a Vancouver lifestyle, and that’s really key to people in this city.

PF Your father worked for the park board for 42 years. He was the first director of the Bloedel Conservatory and ran Sunset Nursery, the tree farm, so I have to ask: what’s your favourite tree?

JC The cedar. It represents the West Coast, it stands tall, and it’s strong.

PF Most misunderstood?

JC The boulevard chestnut trees get a bad rap. When you drive down some of those streets and look up, the trees are really magical.

But then you look down at all the chestnuts and the dents in the cars.

People aren’t happy. VM

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E L E M A M E TA L A R T E F O S C A R I N I S A N TA & C O L E G A N D I A B L A S C O K N O L L E X T R E M I S R O D A B O C C I M I N O T T I M D F I TA L I A K R I S T A L I A

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Betty and Roger Burr are two idlers killing time before a matinee of Selma. Burnaby residents, they know the area well. Betty, whose British accent speaks to growing The city’s oddest mall has a part to play up Chinese in India, still likes to in the development of nearby Chinatown.

That’s assuming anyone thinks to consult it come down to Chinatown to get herbal supplies, buns at New Town photos by ia n a zariah Bakery, and produce at T & T. They bought their wedding cake, way back when, at a Chinatown bakery. in the year of the goat, on an Like many in Vancouver, they unremarkable Tuesday, life at Intermake use of what they can in the national Village is spooling out in area while puzzling over all that a string of Vancouverist vignettes. is wrong with it. If you were to From a bench in the mall’s atrium, stop and look, you’d see that the two elderly Asian women oversee mall—with its ornate carved wall a pair of toddlers, one Chinese, frieze by then-local designer David one cherub-white. Adjacent sit the Hornblow, its arched skylights, kinds of people who need a resting its modernist floors—is one of the place at this forgotten crossroads: city’s more beautiful commercial older men from the Downtown buildings. But its oddball tenants Eastside, aboriginal and not; older (furniture store, shoe and cellphone men from Chinatown. Away from repair shops, boutiques of Chinese the circle of benches, a fellow in artifacts, kids’ books, jade jewela ballcap buys a six-pack of toilet lery, African crafts) plus all that paper from Rexall Drugs. Up on empty space on the second floor the second floor, a smattering of customers in the echoing food court don’t reflect its original intentions.

But then, only half a block away, study, listen to earbuds, or grab a quick Sri Lankan lamb roll or Thai Chinatown isn’t what it once was either. As a former nurse, Betty’s curry before heading up to the cinnot worried about walking the emas on the floor above.

It Takes a Village

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 FR ANCES BUL A

patchwork of streets—Chinatown and not quite Chinatown—west of Main along Pender and Keefer. She used to treat the kind of strung-out, sketchy-looking people she sees here—they don’t alarm her. The whole thing, she says, is “just sad.” there are places in vancouver that feel integral to the public empire. Robson Square. The seawall. Waterfront Station. Gastown. Official Chinatown is in that group, with its benevolent-association buildings and its overlay of non-Chinese memories of exotic family dinners. But this vague borderland—the mall, T & T across the street, the cluster of condos above? Not so much. It’s a fold in our space/time continuum.

A hundred years ago, this area— now called Crosstown by some, International Village by others— was pressed up to the edge of a selfcontained Chinese village inside Victorian Vancouver. The mall’s eastern wall borders what was once Canton Alley, a jammed double row of tenements. The Texas Lake Ice and Cold Storage shed stood where the mall’s northeastern doors are

From left: the no-man’s-land plaza beneath the oddly grand Keefer Steps; the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and adjacent Chinese Cultural Centre, oases among the towers; the 200 block of Keefer Street has so far resisted hipsterization; International Village, a symbol of Chinatown’s ongoing identity crisis

now, but Pender Street to the west didn’t even exist in city directories until 1928. In 1931, freight and warehousing operations started to populate that block. Later, the area became home to CP tracks—the diagonal orientation of International Village memorializes one of those lines—and a streetcar depot.

By 1967, the site was an empty lot.

The city sold the land to Li Ka-shing as part of the post-Expo 86 package, but it took 10 years of mulling, planning, public hearings, and rezonings before anything happened. Chinatown merchants worried the extension would eclipse the neighbourhood. Others hoped new residents and businesses would help revitalize it. Because by that point, the traditional neighbourhood—everything east of Canton Alley (torn down in 1949) to Gore— was suffering. At its height in the 1920s, the district crammed 13,000 into its few blocks. By the end of the war, that was down to 7,000, as new generations of Chinese migrated first to Strathcona, then to Oakridge, Burnaby, and southeast Vancouver; the new Chinese arrivals of the 1980s and ’90s didn’t even

stop in Vancouver, going directly to Richmond and Coquitlam. By 2001, the total population of Chinatown was 775, with only 300 who had Chinese as their first language.

International Village finally opened in December 1999. The name came from city planners’ idea that the area should become an all-nations market. A giant metal globe (another Hornblow creation) reinforced the idea. Six months before the opening, news broke that instead it was going to be a high-fashion competitor for downtown shoppers, but the owners, now Hong Kong-based Henderson Developments, backed away, leaving the place with a set of movie theatres and no distinct retail identity. It remains that way, even as almost 2,000 residents have moved into the towers within a block, a fifth of them Chinese speakers. tourists on guided trips generally don’t see west of the Chinatown gate that marks the intersection of Pender with the former Canton Alley. Bob Sung, a fourth-generation Vancouverite, does a four-hour food and history

VAULTING THE GREAT WALL 2011 The Chinatown Neighbourhood Plan and Economic Revitalization Strategy, decades in the making, wins buy-in 2013 A new wave of hipsters filling empty shops is cautiously welcomed 2015 Stakeholders (associations, pioneer families, academics) worry things have swung too far

tour. He starts at the Sun Yat-Sen garden and moves east, bypassing T & T, the Guangzhou bells outside the mall, and International Village itself. “There’s nothing of any interest,” says Sung. His clients are 20 percent Asian, almost exclusively from elsewhere in North America.

At Chinese New Year, the mall’s managers—ambivalent about whether International Village is an Asian-themed mall or not—throw themselves into the traditional parade and festivities organized by the Chinese Benevolent Association. But there the exchange ends.

They have been cut off from Chinatown’s business community, in part because of a decision among that group—worried about the mall being too dominant—to exclude it as a business-association member.

It’s also almost invisible to the people in Chinatown trying to figure out how to save the world they grew up in. Carol Lee is one.

In the East Pender headquarters of her successful Linacare company, Lee details her latest ventures.

Sometime before Christmas she is aiming to re-open Foo’s Ho Ho, a legendary restaurant at the corner

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of Pender and Columbia. She has the old menu and is studying it because she—with a group that works with her at the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation for Community Revitalization, which they kicked off four years ago—has decided that simply letting the market decide everything is not going to serve Chinatown. Among the founders: Carol’s father, Bob Lee; London Drugs chairman Brandt Louie; businessman and major philanthropist Robert Ho; and real-estate developer Caleb Chan. They want to encourage property owners to think about what kinds of renters will keep Chinatown from becoming little more than a stage set.

“We need to evolve, yes,” says Lee, “but what are those things we save? Chinatown isn’t Chinatown if you don’t have Chinese businesses, people, and culture. And once we change, we cannot go back.” The Chinatown in Washington, D.C., tried to adapt. It is now an area filled with chain stores whose nod to Chinatown is having Chinese-language signs. Everything else is gone.

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From left: East Pender, near Columbia (next door, a Vancouver Film School campus; across the street, the offices of Rennie Marketing Systems); the new Keefer Block condos rise just west of Main—remember, the crane symbolizes long life

VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E | A P R I L 2 O 15

FUTURE PROOFING When Doris and June Chow joined the Hoy Ping Benevolent Association two years ago, they became the youngest board members elected to any family society or clan association in Chinatown. To draw young Chinese people back to the area, the sisters, in their early 30s, are putting on cooking classes hosted by seniors, and working with the Wong association to bring back the oldest Chinese school in Chinatown. “We don’t just want to go back to the way it used to be here,” says Doris. “I’d rather invest in my future”—F.B.

“While we are revitalizing, we must not lose sight of what is so valuable,” says Henry Fung, a former science researcher who is Lee’s business partner in Linacare.

“We don’t want to turn into Gastown or Yaletown.” in a way, the problem for Chinatown parallels the one at International Village. Neither seems to have full control over its identity. Jordan Eng, vice-president of the Vancouver Chinatown Business Improvement Association and a broker who specializes in the area’s real estate, says International Village might confuse visitors used to western malls because its retail selection is so scattershot. “In a western sort of mall,” says Eng, “the landlord controls everything,” producing a curated set of stores that define the mall’s identity.

Chinatown, too, suffers from dozens of different property owners doing their own thing. The area has seen growing tides of new businesses in the last decade.

These have included a few ventures aimed at playful takes on traditional mixed with modern. Bao Bei,

riffing on 1930s Shanghai, is one.

A new venture, Sai Woo, is another.

(See “Gate Crashers,” pg. 38.) But there are also coffee shops that have replaced Chinese knick-knack emporia, a longboard shop, a currywurst restaurant. More ominously, there’s been talk of a tattoo parlour and a marijuana dispensary.

Chinatown has one dilemma that International Village doesn’t. The city’s Chinatown plan, finalized four years ago, opened the door to some taller condo towers along Main and Keefer. The first three projects have generated enough concern—bad architectural fit, apparent skimpiness of community benefits—that the city has slowed a fourth project by the Beedie Group (the tallest, at 120 feet) to have a long conversation about design and contributions.

The ideal might be if someone could buy all 12 blocks and legislate the right mix of old and new, adding in International Village as well to make everything jibe. Improbable. So trying to preserve and grow Chinatown means integrating evermultiplying perspectives.

Jessica Chen is a planner who worked on the future of Chinatown

BLACK ROCK GRAND GETAWAY for more than a decade. Merchants and property owners used to represent the area at council. She tried to add voices: International Village, area residents, the benevolent association families, young Asians from UBC clubs. “With International Village, I was convinced that the relationship with Chinatown is critical,” says Chen, who’s since moved to Montreal. “It was 10 years to get people together, to broaden people’s views.”

Stakeholders came to understand the diversity of those few blocks: historic buildings needing a huge cash influx; small lots to be redeveloped with buildings enhancing the existing area; big lots, for potential major projects that need sensitive handling; International Village. “They require balance,” says Chen. The city’s new plan for Chinatown “is not a blank cheque to say everyone can go to the limit.

If rezoning is the only focus, the rest of the neighbourhood will be left behind. It’s so easy and so tempting to go for the quick solutions.”

Councillor Raymond Louie is normally a numbers and policy guy.

But not when his own family association had to decide whether to rent to a marijuana dispensary. (It didn’t.) Louie insists that the city’s development plan is a good one, that the mix of businesses is starting to bring people back, but he concedes that politics and city policy have limits when it comes to this bit of history-soaked Vancouver.

“We’re all trying to capture an emotion. We have a romantic notion of what Chinatown was, what it could be,” says Louie. “What we don’t have is a road map of how to get there. And it’s not just the buildings. It’s the experience. That’s what many of us are trying to re-create for the next generation. Somehow we’ve got to knit that together.” VM

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A P R I L 2 O 15 | VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E

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CRITICS VS. GRIMSLEY “MORE VISUAL

THE

THAN VOCAL SUCCESS” (CARMEN, 1996); “ROUGH-AND-READY” (TRISTAN AND ISOLDE,

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THE ESSENTIALS

1998); “VITAL PRESENCE” (MACBETH, 2006); “FORCEFUL AND RESONANT” (SALOME, 2009)

S t u f f You Should Do

F E S T I VA L S OPERA

PRETTY IN PINK

Fade to Black SWEENEY TODD, QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE.

As if we needed a reminder to stop and smell the cherry trees

APR. 25 & 26, APR. 30 TO MAY 3

CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL

Dark doings animate this operatic tale of revenge

stephen sondheim’s sweeney todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street may loom largest for the mugging of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in the breakout fi lm, but the story has been staged, nearly continuously, since it opened (then tanked) at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 1980. A tale of revenge and obsession, the Victorian melodrama—is it opera? musical theatre?—appears in English with English surtitles for the first time on local stages, starring real-life spouses

Greer Grimsley (in his fifth Vancouver appearance, last seen as Jochanaan in Strauss’s Salome) and Luretta Bybee in her debut both in the role and this city. Grimsley, a Wagnerian bass-baritone, has received many complimentary reviews not just for his singing but for his leonine looks and his acting, qualities that can only help him break in this spoken/sung “black operetta” (Sondheim’s words) directed by the evercompelling Kim Collier. Vancouveropera.ca

VARIOUS LOCATIONS. APR. 2 TO 29

 Owing to new weather patterns we’re still struggling to understand, fruit trees were bursting into bloom in early February. Will blossoms still be hanging heavy along our boulevards come the vernal equinox?

We’re assuming the city’s official bloomapalooza will fête the florals either way with this month-long celebration, including everything

POP MUSIC

from themed free concerts, community picnics, and bike rides to organized walks and talks. The rest of the country should have such troubles.

Vcbf.ca

ON A KAISER ROLL Oi! It’s a night with the lads from Leeds  A decade after their bestselling album Employment roused chorus-chanters everywhere to yell “Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby” at the top of their voices and relive youthful hopes of burning up the town by screaming “I predict a riot!” the Kaiser Chiefs are still happily cashing in. Never the lyrical sophisticates of Britpop’s best

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(Blur, Pulp), the Chiefs nonetheless offer appeal in their bullish bombast, cast from the same mould as Scottish indie rockers Franz Ferdinand.

A fallow period—the band all but broke up—ended with the 2014 release of Education, Education, Education & War, which debuted at the top of the U.K. charts. Slimmed-down,

VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E | A P R I L 2 O 15

souped-up frontman Ricky Wilson seized the moment, stirring up a total frenzy at subsequent live gigs, including a surprise turn at Glastonbury that prompted the Guardian to opine: “It’s clear that the Kaisers could lift spirits in a collapsed mine and start mosh pits at a G8 summit.” We predict a riot.

Ticketmaster.ca

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T H E AT R E

Hollywood Plays Itself

For Farewell, My Lovely, Graham Percy and Jamie Konchak update Murder, My Sweet (1944)’s Dick Powell and Claire Trevor

A return to the mean streets of L.A. between the wars FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, ARTS CLUB GRANVILLE ISLAND STAGE. APR. 2 TO MAY 2

the movie versions of raymond chandler’s pulp fiction Farewell, My Lovely may have boiled down the original text to make it screen-ready, but Vancouver-based writer Aaron Bushkowsky found himself paring away even more in an effort to successfully translate it for the stage.

“Chandler was paid by the inch,” he notes of the original pulp serialization. “There was a lot of plot and characters to distill.”

The idea to bring the novel to the theatre was not his originally, he admits. Rachel Ditor, Arts Club literary manager and dramaturge, suggested it, having spotted that the rights to Chandler’s books had become public property in Canada.

Considering some of Hollywood’s most iconic actors— including Robert Mitchum and Humphrey Bogart—have immortalized detective Philip Marlowe on-screen, one could

have forgiven Bushkowsky for balking at the task. But once accepted, the biggest challenge, he says, was reworking some of the novel’s language and themes—now considered somewhat dated, both in tone and world view.

“We had to bring a more modern feeling to bear,” he says.

“To do that, we changed a major character from white to black, and created three strong female parts.” He also sought to connect Marlowe with the audience by making some of his more noirish remarks witty confidences the audience could laugh along with, rather than sniggering at the anachronism.

Created in partnership with Calgary’s Vertigo Theatre, the play premiered there last fall to terrific reviews, impressed with West Coast director Craig Hall’s effective handling and the play’s “slick and sexy” mood. Artsclub.com

VISUAL ARTS

KARMA CHAMELEON The sculptor and pop-culture commentator brings her wry sensibilities to the new age MYFANWY MACLEOD, CATRIONA JEFFRIES GALLERY. UNTIL MAY 2

 With a show made up entirely of new material, Vancouver-based Myfanwy MacLeod continues to pursue a vibrant interest in popular culture. Previous delvings spawned The Birds—the huge sparrows (a once-startling, now beloved Hitchcock homage) in the Olympic Village—and a series of

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works based on murdered Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten.

For this show, yet untitled (her second in a year, following last spring’s VAG show inspired by Led Zeppelin and JRR Tolkien), MacLeod turns her attention toward all things new age, including crystals, psychics, and theories of

healing—exploring their physical manifestations in society, both visually and as commodities.

Symbols of the movement (those ever-present chakras, eyes, and palms) will be integrated with neon. Also look for largescale photographs of crystals and sculptural forms of incense burners.

Catrionajeff ries.com

WORLD BEATER APPETITE WHETTED? THE DEBUT VANCOUVER WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL (APR. 3) FUSES LATIN, AFROCUBAN, ARABIC, AND SERBO-CROATIAN INFLUENCES. IMPERIALVANCOUVER.COM

SPORTS

CL ASSICAL MUSIC

THE RITES OF SPRING A month to bask in one of the greatest lights of the classical era VANCOUVER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA,

Kris Krug; Jorge Bispo

ORPHEUM THEATRE. APR. 10 TO 18

 If spring is a time of regenesis and wonder, of hope and light, then it makes perfect sense that the VSO should choose to trumpet its arrival with a celebration of one of music’s most wondrous creators. Mozart Plus heralds a string of all things Wolfgang, launching with a screening of Milos Forman’s vibrant biopic Amadeus (Apr. 10). The myth, upheld in the movie, that Mozart was eventually poisoned by his rival court composer, is revisited through a performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s one-act opera, Mozart & Salieri (Apr. 11), featuring internationally acclaimed baritone James Westman, paired with Mozart’s own Symphony No. 39 in E-fl at Major.

The theme of viewing Mozart through others’ eyes continues with a concert that centres on that legendary ladies’ man, Don Juan (Apr. 13). Westman gives voice to Mozart’s celebrated Don Giovanni, but also to the Don Juan of Mozart worshipper Richard Strauss. Later, on a night to climax with the Jupiter Symphony, the influence of Haydn on Mozart, as well as both of their influences on Brahms, will be explored (Apr. 16). The festival concludes with Tchaikovsky’s own homage to Mozart, Suite No. 4 in G Major (Apr. 18), written to celebrate the centenary of Don Giovanni, and Mozart’s unfi nished, masterful Requiem, which also proved to be a requiem for his own life.

Vancouversymphony.ca

THE RUN OF THE CITY Cozy up to the starting line with the equivalent of the entire population of Penticton

WORLD MUSIC

VANCOUVER SUN RUN, APR. 19

 Now in its 31st year, Canada’s largest 10km road race has grown from just over 3,000 participants in 1985 to more than 45,000 today—testament, surely, to this city’s obsession with fitness (and fitness apparel and selfies and mat-time boasting). Starting in the

The Bossa Boss Once an outlaw, now a living legend, Gilberto Gil embodies more than half a century of music-making GILBERTO GIL, CHAN CENTRE, APR. 12

downtown core, the route is designed to motivate contestants, taking in English Bay, Kitsilano, and views of the North Shore from the Cambie Bridge. On your marks!

Vancouversun.com/sunrun

most north americans’ knowledge of Brazilian pop is limited to “The Girl From Ipanema,” the sun-kissed ballad that achieved the feat of temporarily distracting the masses from Beatlemania in 1964. But during that same decade, the country spawned some of the most innovative and enduring sounds of the 20th century. Emerging as part of the Tropicália movement (alongside the likes of Caetano Veloso and Gal Costa), Gilberto Gil subjected his indigenous music to the influences of psychedelic rock and anti-establishment folk lyrics. The results remain so beautiful, it beggars belief that Brazil’s then-government briefly imprisoned Gil and Veloso in ’69 before exiling them. The onetime dissident is now a national treasure, having served for five years as Brazil’s minister of culture and released dozens of albums that encompass bossa, rock, reggae, and more. At 72, Gil still sings like a bird and, on his latest album, 2014’s Gilbertos Samba, he grooves like a 20-something. Chancentre.com

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SPONSORED REPORT

The 12 th Annual Big Night Our evening of Vancouver’s best cuisine paired with award-winning wine set an attendance record this year

4 5

2

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Attendees soak up the wonderful Ballroom at Vancouver’s Coast Coal Harbour Hotel.

2.

Stile Brands serve Broker’s Gin & Tonics.

3.

Frank Pabst of Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar prepares lobster sausage paella with calamari cracker and safron aioli.

4.

“Best Rich White Wine” from Vancouver magazine’s 2015 Wine Awards: Wolf Blass Gold Label Chardonnay 2013.

5.

Coast Coal Harbour restaurant, Preston’s, serves Pacific octopus with smoked potato, mushroom and chorizo aioli.

6.

Flower Factory’s stunning arrangements on display at the event.

7.

Event guests entering the hotel are treated to Mile’s End Motors Lamborghini on display.

8.

Crystal Head Vodka provides guests with mixed cocktails.

9.

Wine Awards Chief Judge DJ Kearney with Chef Vikram Vij.

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10. Vancouver magazine’s Sommelier of the Year 2014, Mike Bernardo, pours Fontanafredda Barbera Briccotondo from the 2015 Wine Awards top 100 list.

11. David Hawksworth personally hands his prepared plates to guests.

HOST SPONSOR

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On ry 6th, Friday, February zine gathered Vancouver magazine med celebrity the city’s most acclaimed ctions from our chefs and winning selections rds program to International Wine Awards ening of food and host an exclusive evening drink att the Coast Coal rbour Hotel. More than Harbour 00 guests mingled 400 th chef royalty like with b Feenie of Cactus Rob Club Cafe, and The Farmer’s Apprentice’s head chef David Gunawan, all while enjoying their gourmet bites p wines and sipping on top from around the world.

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FLORAL SPONSOR

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR PARTICIPATING RESTAURANTS AND WINERIES Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie, Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar, Burdock & Co., Cactus Club Cafe, Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill & Enoteca, Hawksworth, Prestons, Tableau Bar Bistro, The Farmer’s Apprentice Restaurant, Vij’s, Zest

Bodegas Muga, Champagne Le Mesnil, Fontanafredda, Louis Latour, Graham’s, La Chablisienne, Laurenz V., Mission Hill Family Estate, Okanagan Crush Pad Winery, Telmo Rodriguez, Thorn-Clarke, Wolf Blass

TA S T E M A K ER

FRESH SHEET

MOVEABLE FEAST

THE DECANTER

MIX MASTER

“So how come one product is regarded— and priced—like spirit royalty, while the other is perceived as the booze equivalent of Kesha?”

THE

PG. 42

Hot restaurants, food trends, wines & chefs

Andrew Querner

The Empire Steps Up

the forthcoming telus garden is emblematic of Vancouver’s whirlwind growth as a creative and economic force, so it makes sense that the complex’s food service should largely be the work of Emad Yacoub, whose Glowbal Group is among the city’s great culinary success stories of the past decade. Having closed his first restaurant, Yaletown’s Glowbal Grill, at the beginning of the year, the name will be reborn here as a vast notion of “North American cuisine—from Mexico all the way to Alaska,” alongside Nosh, a market-style café with sandwiches, salads, and more, plus an alley bar named, simply, Alley Bar. While construction frenzy continues, Yacoub is aiming for Nosh to Caption open in July, with Glowbal Grill following in September and Alley Bar in 2016. “I’m never late,” he says, hopefully.

Glowbal Group’s Emad Yacoub in the midst of construction at Telus Garden

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Recently Reviewed

What’s in a Name?

Invitro is a troubling appellation for a restaurant no matter what it might be serving. Fortunately, the food here puts diners’ fears to rest by timothy taylor || photos by luis valdizon

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during a recent conversation about restaurant names, a friend and I agreed that local chainlet Liquids + Solids lays claim to the city’s worst, conjuring such unpleasantries as the “Worst Toilet in Scotland” scene from Trainspotting. You could make the case that Invitro—or, in full, Invitro Food Labs and Eatery—is awkward in a parallel way: chilly and scientific and physiological.

But you would only say so before eating there. Once you do, a warmer personality emerges.

VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E | A P R I L 2 O 15

The project of Sarah Kashani, a two-decades-plus veteran of the restaurant industry, Invitro (in New Latin, it translates as “in glass”) looks and feels nothing like the beakers and test tubes its name evokes. Located inside an old house at the southwest corner of Manitoba and West Sixth, where local lunch favourite Our Place Cafe used to be found, the dining room is in fact quiet and homey, with dark wood floors, chunky bronze cutlery, orchids in glasses, and chandeliers.

The menu, on first read, matches the room. There are four appetizers and half a dozen mains including two pastas and a chef ’s special, all of which scan like dishes you could tackle at home: baked Brie, prosciutto-wrapped melon, a Bolognese, chicken rubbed with Tuscan herbs, beer-glazed pork chop. All of this turned out to be restaurant-grade delicious. Among my party of six, we pretty much ate the entire menu and everyone was happy. Nothing we had was designed to shock the taste buds

CHEF/OWNER SARAH KASHANI GREW UP IN EDMONTON, SETTLING IN VANCOUVER AFTER HER PURSUIT OF AN ACTING CAREER TOOK HER TO NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES. AT INVITRO, SHE WORKS THE KITCHEN SOLO

nor make one look at an ingredient in a new way. But Kashani’s cuisine is artful, precise, personal, and flavourful. The aptly named Typical Caprese salad—that warhorse found at every neighbourhood Italian joint—arrived prettily stacked with microgreens, buffalo bocconcini, smoked prosciutto, and balsamic reduction; the Brie (billed as The Payoff ) came with crostini and a superb quince preserve. Notably, the proteins were perfectly cooked and seasoned: chicken crisp outside and moist inside, steak richly caramelized and bang-on medium rare. The pork chop, meanwhile, was glazed golden brown, vibrantly flavoured with basil and thyme, and without a hint of dryness.

If you were to criticize Invitro, it might be for not quite living up to that experimental-sounding name.

Kashani nails everything, but she doesn’t push too many boundaries.

The meats are injected (the pork with olive oil and beer, the chicken with a white-wine reduction), and one dessert in particular—a flight of chocolates and whiskies—while in no way visionary, showed very chef-like instincts in terms of its brilliant pairings. But is all of this

INVITRO (“IN GLASS” IN NEW LATIN) LOOKS AND FEELS NOTHING LIKE THE BEAKERS AND TEST TUBES ITS NAME EVOKES

Opposite page: the Typical Caprese salad; chicken breast rubbed with Tuscan herbs. This page (clockwise from left): chef/owner Sarah Kashani; a unique take on pasta Bolognese; the intimate 25-seat dining room

THE

TICKET INVITRO 2211 Manitoba St. 604-992-6224 HOURS 6pm-midnight (closed Sundays); lunch by reservation only PRICES At press time, all but one of the mains were $20 or less NOTES Thursdays and Fridays bring a happy hour from 4-6pm, offering a daily pizza, an antipasto platter, and featured wines and craft beer

A P R I L 2 O 15 | VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E

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Recently Reviewed

B R I E F LY N O T E D

Feast 2423 Marine Dr., West Van, 604-922-1155  Dundarave Village, West Vancouver’s postage-stamp-sized equivalent of Anytown, USA, seems to roll up its sidewalks after sunset. Indeed, they were deserted one recent Saturday night when we walked into Feast, the self-billed “neighbourhood table” whose arrival last year brought a sliver of metropolitan bustle to the commu-

not playing it much too safe? Do the mains—accompanied by only a small Persian salad of pistachios, goat cheese, and greens in rosewater—in any way suggest they were the product of a “lab”-like mind?

Depending on your mood, your answers to those questions might vary—or might just be beside the point. The room was warm and inviting. Kashani herself came out from the kitchen and engaged with diners. And the servers were pleasant, informed, and, for the most part, prompt.

But if on another night you were looking for something more edgy, more original—more foodie, basically—then Invitro might not push all your buttons.

Having said that, it’s noteworthy that Kashani doesn’t consider Invitro a finished product. It’s early in what she sees as a developmental process. She put her life’s savings into this venture (selling a Yaletown condo in the process), and the menu when I visited was meant to be a base on which she’s looking to build. Expect more gastronomic techniques and experiments going forward, she told me. And crucially, expect surprises in the form of weekly guest

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nity’s suburban somnambulance. The dining room—an immaculate Restoration Hardware fantasy of dark woods and foraged antiques—was worryingly underpopulated upon arrival, but it quickly filled up with couples, families,

appearances. Starting in March (I visited in February), Kashani’s plan was to devote Mondays and Tuesdays to lesser-known or perhaps entirely unknown cooks from Vancouver’s vast culinary world—people who maybe don’t lead the brigade in their own place of work but who have culinarily innovative and interesting things to say. Bring your quietly talented sauciers, your unsung grillardins.

One night, one kitchen at their disposal, one expectant room— that idea sounds great to me, like a one-chef version of Food Network’s Knife Fight.

In its present guise, Invitro is very much Kashani’s room. And even in these early stages, it was evident that the place was full of regulars. Kashani’s personality and vision are key to the evolution of the concept. And with increasingly original ideas in play, I’ll be keen to visit again to see how the Invitro name will be reimagined and reinterpreted. VM

and girlfriends enjoying a night away from their men.

They had all come out for an evening of civilized conversation and some of chef Kayla Dhaliwall’s unpretentious yet elevated comfort food. The former Top Chef Canada contestant understands her audience here, so the menu brims with familiar names (baked oysters, beef cheek bourguignon, fried chicken) among a few gentle flights of fancy (avocado and beet “fries,” a shepherd’s pie made with braised lamb shank).

Plating is artful without tipping into avant-garde, while flavours are honest and rich, albeit rarely fireworks-provoking. A $22 appetizer of two miserly One of Invitro’s dessert offerings is a trio of chocolateand-whisky pairings; the bar offers many exclusive cocktails, some of which feature egg whites left over from the kitchen’s pasta preparations

crab cakes aside (to be fair, seemingly absent of filler), decent value abounds— only one main surpasses $30.

Combined with very good cocktails (Goodbye, Manhattan is a bracingly strong variation on the classic), a shockingly deep wine list, and the fact that normal conversation is possible even at peak busyness, downtowners might wish they had Feast on their side of the bridge.

ADVERTIS E ME NT

NEIGHBOURHOODS E

Bâtard Boulangerie Café Moderne 3958 Fraser St., 604-506-3958  A welcome addition to the burgeoning charms of Fraser Street, this French-style bakery and deli joins the block already home to Graze and Earnest Ice Cream. Manning the ovens is Vancouver’s original artisan baker, Chris Brown (Rise, Ecco il Pane), here in partnership with Bruno and Sally Born, owners of Finest at Sea. Mix-and-match furniture, including a couple of large farmhouse-style communal tables, creates a welcoming, casual vibe.

The bread—as expected—is the star, whether as part of an open-faced tartine (with roasted vegetables and goat cheese, or piled high with Ocean

VERY CONVERSATION I HAVE WITH CLIENTS ABOUT EAST VS. WEST, inevitably leads to the question of North. When looking to buy a home in Vancouver, is North Vancouver a third option?

One only has to take a look at the official community plans to see that it is. Significant development in the lower and central Lonsdale areas have caused an influx of people, businesses, restaurants and culture. North Vancouver is not a remote island. A 12min Seabus ride gets you downtown faster than most commutes and access to Highway 1 is fast and easy from nearly all areas. With its proximity to the mountains and beaches, NV offers an incredible lifestyle just minutes from the city.

The hot spots for years have been Edgemont, Capilano, Canyon Heights and Delbrook. The hot spots at the moment are Upper Lonsdale and Lynn Valley where old houses on big lots are sold over asking. Whether you go East or West in the city, you are not going to find a 9,000SqFt lot with mature trees for a million dollars or less.

It used to be that North Vancouver was more expensive than the East Side, so many young families would go East. However, since parts of the East have gentrified creating neighbourhoods that are highly attractive for people who want walkable urban living, many Vancouverites have been priced out of the trendy East Side market.

North Vancouver has evolved its communities to offer similar walkable urban living with great villages and good transit, a top-notch public school system and incredible community resources making it very appealing and currently more affordable than the East Side. If you want a house with a yard on a quiet street in a great neighbourhood, it is, for the time being, more value for your money.

North Vancouver offers a huge variety of property type and lot size. The options are very exciting for growing families, young couples and investors and while Lynn Valley is a hot spot for project homes, Edgemont is stimulated by the high-end market where a house that may have sold for $800,000 in 2011 is now selling for $1.4M+ Many different opportunities exist and prices vary greatly.

When I bring someone through a listing in North Vancouver who has been house shopping elsewhere, they are always amazed by what they can buy. North Vancouver has done a really good job of creating and protecting distinct neighbourhoods. It is, without a doubt, a third contender in a debate between two sides.

Wise shrimp) or wrapped around an excellent coffee-crusted roast-beef dip. Carb controllers can’t go wrong with the house-made soup (the small size is served in a proper cup and saucer) or the wild-salmon Caesar salad.

Patisserie, too, is top-notch, including a lemon tart to die for, and, in place of Andrea Fernandez

the ubiquitous croissant, Breton’s finest: the buttery kouign-amann. Eat in, or picnic at home with a loaf or two to go. (And grab some Oyama charcuterie and Les Amis du Fromage cheeses while you’re at it.) VM

m: 778.386.0771 o: 604.620.6788 christina@christinaerl.com christinaerl.com A P R I L 2 O 15 | VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E

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FRESH SHEET

Star Ingredient

Holy Roller

THE RECIPE

French Toast With Toasted Walnuts, Brandy-Soaked Prunes, and Tête de Moine

Tête de Moine—the savoury Swiss comestible brought to you by some lofty monks by murr ay ba ncroft given that its name means “monk’s head,” it makes sense that this pungent semi-hard cheese was originally made at a monastery in the Swiss Alps. I first tried it atop slices of delicious house-cured ham at the venerable Le Vin Papillon in Montreal; dispensed from a girolle (a rotating knife that removes circular shavings from a wheel of cheese) in little rosettes, it added umami and a surprising mushroom-like texture. While you likely don’t have access to such a contraption at home, you can easily enjoy Tête de Moine with a regular kitchen blade or vegetable peeler. Try it with this recipe from chef Andrey Durbach (the Abbey, Pied-à-Terre, the Sardine Can). VM

 Serve this as a slick brunch for two, or a sophisticated dessert for four

INGREDIENTS 12 pitted prunes

¼ tsp nutmeg

3½ oz boiling water

pinch of salt

3½ oz brandy

2 slices challah

2 eggs

4 tbsp butter

½ cup whipping cream

¼ cup crushed toasted walnuts

1 tsp vanilla extract 1 tbsp sugar ¼ tsp cinnamon

4 large curls Tête de Moine

Place the prunes in a Pyrex measuring cup or nonreactive bowl. Mix the boiling water and brandy together, and pour over the prunes, letting them stand until all liquid has been absorbed. Meanwhile, whisk together the next seven ingredients. Soak the challah in this mixture for about 10 minutes, turning over once.

In a nonstick pan over medium heat, melt half the butter; when it’s hot, cook the soaked challah for four or five minutes.

Add the remaining butter and flip to cook the other side. Plate and garnish with the walnuts, prunes, and Tête de Moine.

TOWN

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7100. Abbeyvan.com)—another monk connection!—chef Durbach adds Tête de Moine to a salad of local beets, poached pear, hazelnuts, and ginger dressing. Buy it for home cooking at Benton Brothers Fine Cheese (2104 W. 41st Ave., 604-261-5813; Granville Island Public Market, 604-609-0001. Bentonscheese.com).

Clinton Hussey

 At The Abbey (117 W. Pender St., 604-336AROUND

PROMOTION

TASTE THE CITY CONTEST Visit vanmag.com/Taste-the-City from March 16th - April 30th and ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN an opportunity to dine out at each of these Vancouver restaurants

Specializing in fresh seafood since 1981, The Boathouse is the best on the West Coast. Enjoy seasonally selected Ocean Wise fish, Certified Angus Beef and daily happy hour at seven scenic waterfront locations.

boathouserestaurants.ca Cactus Club Cafe delivers an unparalleled experience through exceptional food quality, world class design and a personal approach to service.

With a culinary program led by Chef Rob Feenie, the menu exemplifies West Coast living, focusing on fresh, local, quality ingredients that are Green Table and Ocean Wise™ certified.

Various locations cactusclubcafe.com

Tuc Craft Kitchen is a restaurant and bar in Gastown, Vancouver. Our vision was to create a gathering place that feels like it has always been here. Our food is elegant, rustic, honest…from classic, nostalgic flavours to new inspired dishes. Paired with authentic cocktails, craft beer and a carefully curated wine list, it is dining at our family table.

60 West Cordova Street 604.559.8999 tuccraftkitchen.com Temper is a gourmet chocolate and pastry shop that offers only the finest in culinary delights. Using only the highest quality of ingredients, Temper offers the richest, handcrafted chocolates, flakiest pastries and melt-in-yourmouth desserts, as well as a selection of gourmet sandwiches, quiches, and roasted Stumptown coffee.

2409 Marine Drive 604.281.1152 temperpastry.com

“We Plate Authenticity.”

Focused on bringing the heart of Thailand to your Vancouver doorstep, Sala Thai is where you will find traditional, hearty fare. We are excited to share the distinct taste of authentic central Thailand.

Featuring private rooms, catering options and happy hour.

SHURAKU is Vancouver’s very first SAKE BAR offering the widest selection of sake by the glass with fresh SUSHI and IZAKAYA style comfort food in a casual atmosphere.

The “Daily Specials” sheet features seasonal and unique finds as well as traditional dishes inspired by Chef Tomita’s culinary roots in Japan. Centrally located in DT Vancouver.

102 – 888 Burrard Street 604.683.7999 salathai.ca

833 Granville Street 604.687.6622 shuraku.net

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MOVEABLE FEAST

Neighbourhood Bites

C H I N AT O W N

Gate Crashers Controversial it may be, but off-Main’s recent culinary gentrification has wrought some delicious new attractions by michael white || photos by a ndrew querner when bao bei chinese brasserie and the Keefer Bar opened within weeks of each other in 2010, their unlikely locations—along a forlorn patch of Keefer Street between Main and Quebec—drew almost as much attention as the edibles being served.

They proved to be early adopters in what’s since become one of the most desirable neighbourhoods for chic new businesses. While the contrast between Chinatown’s decades-old character and its so-called hipster interlopers is troubling to some, others are praising the development as long-overdue new life for what was an increasingly derelict community.

223 E. Georgia St., 604-806-4646

Propaganda Coffee

Arriving almost in tandem with the Ramen Butcher, Propaganda offers further proof that proximity

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TA S T E T H I S

ASIAN NOODLES FAT MAO 217 E. Georgia St. The Victoriaspawned Noodle Box chain has long had the monopoly on quick-service noodles here in Vancouver. But the imminent Fat Mao (scheduled to open this month) takes the concept and applies chef Angus An’s golden touch.

(Our preview taste had us swooning.)

To-go orders come in a classic Chinese takeout box.

to good coffee (and a pleasant space in which to consume it) is now one of the truest barometers of what makes a neighbourhood desirable to the masses (such as those who will soon be occupying the condos and apartments under development at Main and Keefer).

Within a block or two, you’ll also find Musette Caff è and Matchstick Coffee Roasters. At Propaganda, the beans are locally roasted, and the menu’s brevity underlines the seriousness that owners William Wang and Winfield Yan afford them: emphasis is given to pourovers, the most time-consuming yet rewarding method for brewing a cup.

by Salli Pateman, formerly the owner of Yaletown’s defunct Section (3). With the help of chef Douglas Chang (whose résumé boasts spells at West and New York’s Eleven Madison Park), the new Sai Woo—which was aiming for an early March opening as we went to press—will offer Asianmeets-West Coast dishes made with ingredients largely sourced from neighbourhood markets.

160 E. Pender St., 604-568-1117

Crackle Crème

Sharing the eclectic 200 block of Union Street with restaurants the Union and the Parker, this diminutive space, presided over by 209 E. Pender St., no phone owner Daniel Wong, distinguishes itself from other dessert spots by Sai Woo specializing in unusual flavours of Once the home of Sai Woo Chop crème brûlée (matcha, Earl Grey, Suey, which endured for decades salted caramel). Seating is very after its opening in the 1920s, this limited, and it’s closed Mondays historic address has been acquired and Tuesdays—which makes it

Taste This: Andrea Fernandez

The Ramen Butcher

The debut North American outpost from Japanese ramen empire Menya Kouji (whose founders trained under Kazuo Yamagishi, the subject of the doc), the umentary The God of Ramen), Ramen Butcher drew long lines from the first day of its soft opening in early February. The raucous, high-ceilinged 40-seat room is arguably the most attractive of its kind in the city, but patrons save the greatest attention for their colourful bowls. (Four ramens are named after their respective hue: Red, Black, Green, and Orange.)

This restaurant single-handedly doubled the bustle of Chinatown’s fastest-evolving block.

The Ramen Butcher

AN’S CHOICE OF LOCATION FOR FAT MAO—ON EAST

Mamie Taylor’s

E . G E O R G I A S T. London Pub

Caffè Brixton

Phnom Penh

C HIN AT O W N

E. E AV

M A I N S T.

Fat Mao

GOR

Matchstick Coffee Roasters

GEORGIA BETWEEN MAIN AND GORE—HAS PLACED HIM IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO MANY OF CHINATOWN’S HOTTEST RECENT ARRIVALS (AS WELL AS PERENNIAL FAVOURITE PHNOM PENH)

Q & A

Following the success of Maenam (in Kitsilano) and Longtail Kitchen (in New Westminster), chef Angus An is opening his third restaurant, a noodle bar named Fat Mao Why a noodle bar, and why in Chinatown?

I think Chinatown is a very interesting neighbourhood— the area was really the first cultural melting pot in our city. I wanted to do something casual, and I’ve been looking at Chinatown for some time. When this space became available, I felt the noodle concept was a perfect fit.

especially good that everything is available to go.

245 Union St., 778-847-8533

Mamie Taylor’s

taxidermy, and offering highfalutin versions of southern comfort food (fried chicken, shrimp and grits), Mamie’s seems to have set up shop here after getting lost on its way to Gastown. But no, this is exactly where it means to be.

Although casual eatery Caff è Brixton arrived years earlier, Mamie Taylor’s, which opened in summer 251 E. Georgia St., 604-620-8818 of 2013, portended the look and Bestie feel of the new East Georgia we see The result of an online crowdcoalescing today. Narrow, dark, funding campaign, Bestie’s very stylishly appointed with myriad

specific concept—German street food (sausages, pretzels), bottled and draft beer, and not much else—has proven popular enough to keep this small, bright room filled most nights with a young clientele that has deemed it both destination- and linger-worthy. The owners’ savvy command of social media ensures it remains front of mind for its many fans.

105 E. Pender St., 604-620-1175 VM

How do you see new businesses like yours coexisting with Chinatown’s long-standing tenants?

I believe in community. To me this means working together as a whole to add to the diversity of Chinatown, rather than creating a different clientele to compete with it.

A P R I L 2 O 15 | VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E

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 DJ KE ARNE Y

Wines Discovered

Time in a Bottle

T H R E E T O S AV O U R W YNNS BLACK LABEL COONAWARRA CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2012

What’s the rush? Patience is a virtue when it comes to these wait-worthy wines various studies have it that 30 minutes to four hours is the average lapse between when a consumer buys a bottle of wine and when its first pour is enjoyed. Good news for the industry, but proof that most drinkers aren’t cellaring. While it’s true that most wines are made for instant gratification, many modestly priced bottles, aged for a few years, could morph into something wonderful.

What happens to wine as it ages? For one, its colour changes: whites get darker, then browner; reds turn from bright ruby-purple hues to garnet-brick. Aromas transform from obvious fruit to something much more complex. And flavours become more intricate and textured. Oak-barrel compounds, if present, start to melt into the wine, lending a much more integrated harmony. All wine styles can age, as long as they’re well made and balanced from the start, and have high amounts of phenols (just a fancy word for stuff in wine like esters, flavours, tannins, acids, and colour).

Emiliana Coyam 2011, an honouree in the Rich Red category of our 2015 Wine Awards, is a prime example of a mid-priced candidate that stands up to bottle development. Biodynamically farmed and skillfully made by genius winemaker Alvaro Espinoza, it’s rich in phenols, gaining cigar-box aromas and velvet smoothness after a few years’ repose in a cool, dark place. VM

($26.99) This acknowledged cellar star displays all that is unique about Wynns Coonawarra: signature cassis, mint chocolate, and floral fragrances, gloriously bright acidity, smooth tannins, unobtrusive oak, and claretlike refreshment

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2015

WINE AWARDS FINALIST

DAMILANO LECINQUEVIGNE BAROLO 2009

J.L. CHAVE SAINT-JOSEPH OFFERUS 2011

($42.99)

($49.99) Made from a blend of 30- to 50-yearold nebbiolo vines from five cru villages, this Barolo smells of leather, roses, and tar, with complex flavours of dried berry and licorice. Robust tannins and substantial acidity provide lasting architecture

From an elite wineproducing French family, this expressive granite-grown syrah combines perfume of violets and briary fruit with firm, polished tannins and a distinct mineral length. A riveting example of power and grace gliding into harmonious balance

EMILIANA COYAM 2011

($29.99)

 Syrah leads the charge in this brooding six-grape blend, from which violet and dark fruit detonate on the nose and palate.

Grown in Chile’s elite Colchagua Valley, this cool vintage ensures balance and slowripened refinement.

BEST

CELLAR

 Sommelier Bryant Mao, who trained in B.C. but earned his stripes at London’s Michelin-starred Chez Bruce, runs an impressive cellar at Hawksworth Restaurant (801 W. Georgia St., 604-673-7000). A quarter of the cellar is kept back for aging, so that wines like Barolo, Bordeaux, and Burgundy can be popped onto the list when they’ve revealed their latent complexity.

7TH ANNUAL

ON SATURDAY, JULY 25TH THE MOS T S T YLISH EVENT OF THE SUMMER RETURNS, EXPANDING ONTO THE CONCOURSE FOR OUR BIGGES T YEAR YET. IT'S TIME FOR A GOOD OLD FASHIONED DAY AT THE RACES.

TIC KETS AVAIL ABLE BEGINNING MAY 2ND

WWW.DEIGHTONCUP.COM

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MIX MASTER

 NE AL MCLENNAN

Spirit Guide

Clearly Superior Long dismissed as the poor relation of the spirit world, vodka is undergoing an upmarket makeover is any vodka worth $100?

It seems so simple to make: get a starch (any starch), convert it to sugars, ferment the sugars, then distill, fi lter, and bottle the result. Voilà!

But you know what? Making Scotch isn’t much more complicated; you just use a different still and let it sit in barrels for a while. So how come one product is regarded—and priced—like spirit royalty, while the other is

perceived as the booze equivalent of Kesha? A chef who serves a simple meal, prepared with meticulously sourced ingredients, is a savant; a liquor seller who does the same is a mass-market hack.

François Thibault, the maître de chai of Grey Goose, is hellbent on erasing this double standard.

For starters, the brand for which he works does things like use the term “maître de chai”—heretofore the province of Cognac makers.

(It means “cellar master.”) Grey Goose, which sources only the softGREY GOOSE V X est winter wheat from northern ($100) France, recently released VX, a The addition of $100 bottle that takes its alreadyCognac gives a pricey vodka, blends it with a slightly grapey boost of body to small amount of unaged brandy the fulsome feel of from its own estate (in the Grand regular Grey Goose Champagne region of Cognac), and bottles it in a presentation-worthy STOLICHNAYA vessel that, frankly, looks like it ELIT ($60) should hold an expensive Scotch.

Before VX, this premium offering Thibault and his colleagues suggest was top dog. It’s you sip it with a single ice cube. leaner and more Is it worth it? Probably not if grainy than Grey you’re using it to make Caesars.

Goose, but likewise But if vodka’s your drink and it very smooth only costs $100 to buy the best, it seems like a pretty good deal, all MEDEA VODK A ($90) things considered. VM THE BOT TLES

Wait! Didn’t Medea kill her own kids?

Whatever. That’s a crime not quite so severe as charging $90 for this average spirit, whose programmable bottle (yes, really) displays messages like the computer in WarGames

THE DRINK

Élixir de Vie From Wendy McGuinness, Chambar, 568 Beatty St., 604-879-7119

1½ oz Grey Goose VX 1 oz Lillet Blonde ¼ oz Yellow Chartreuse 3 dashes Regans’ Orange Bitters

 In a mixing glass, stir the first four ingredients. Finely Wendy McGuinness, Chambar

strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with peel.

Luis Valdizon

grapefruit peel

the latest release of

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Illustration refects the artist’s interpretation of the project and may be noticeably different than what is depicted.

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2 RIVER GREEN waterfront living at it’s fnest Coming soon. A rare and exclusive opportunity to be a part of Richmond’s most sought after private residences in the renowned River Green Community. Presenting 2 River Green, an unparalleled luxury living experience along Richmond’s signature waterfront.

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REAL ESTATE / 2015

If This Is Our New

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VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E | A P R I L 2 O 15

ing

REAL ESTATE / 2015

Shaughnessy was invented to be a sanctuary for the wealthy, removed from the bustle of city life. But in the midst of a Vancouver that increasingly values community and convenience, its greatest virtues now appear more out of step than ever

story: Guy Saddy photogr a phs: Kamil Bialous

Through It?

A P R I L 2 O 15 | VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E

49

REAL ESTATE / 2015

In our backyard, my son’s soc it went missing a few days ago when he kicked it into the neighbour’s yard. A hedge and fence separate our properties, and we had no idea where it landed. My wife went over and rang the neighbour’s bell, hoping someone was home, but no. She left empty-handed.

That nobody would be around to answer wasn’t surprising. In the year and a half we’ve been living here, we have yet to meet the people next door. I’ve occasionally seen a white Mercedes in the driveway.

I’ll sometimes notice a light in one of the second-floor rooms. Recycling and garbage bins appear in the alley on the appointed day. And improbably, a ball will return to our yard days after it goes missing.

A similar situation exists to the other side of us. In the summer, when it’s very hot, I’ll note an upstairs window open in the morning; inevitably, it will be closed at night by some unseen hand. For a time, I entertained the notion that the window was adjusting automatically. The other explanation—that we were living next to people so painfully shy that they never dared set foot outdoors—seemed no more far-fetched.

It is only when darkness falls that you can see. A silhouette darts past a blind-covered window. The occasional light from a TV flickers behind a curtain. A block south of us, in the window of a well-maintained home, there is what seems to be an intricate shrine.

Illuminated by spotlight, it is a proud display. But although the window coverings are almost always open to reveal the scene, I’ve never seen anyone tending it.

Like some eerie script by Rod Serling, direct evidence of any human presence is not forthcoming. There is no laughter drifting through the air, no voices raised in anger or joy. No life seemingly exists beyond the hedges and fences, even though errant balls are being returned as if by magic. Allow this to sink in: it’s not that we haven’t met our neighbours in the 18 months we’ve lived here. We haven’t seen them.

This, to me, is Shaughnessy.

when we moved here, we thought we were the only people who actually lived on our block, but that’s not the case. Of the seven homes on our side of the street, today only one is clearly empty—a large Dijon-coloured house with an indoor swimming pool.

Another newly completed “heritage” house—like so many new builds in the neighbourhood, it was designed

by Loy Leyland—was, I’ve found, recently rented. It sat on the market empty for close to a year, even though its

50

VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E | A P R I L 2 O 15

$6.888 million asking price assured potential buyers the home was freighted with good luck.

At last census, there were approximately 9,000 people living in Shaughnessy. In the 2014 civic election they voted overwhelmingly for the party of Kirk LaPointe. It is home to three private schools, two of them Catholic.

From a Google Maps search, I count about 160 outdoor pools, which is not surprising considering that the benchmark price for a single-family home in Shaughnessy hovers just over $4 million. The average household income is $177,604 (or $777,184 in a very specific area cherry-picked by Canadian Business magazine).

We don’t belong here, not really. Our child and his friends make loud and disruptive kid-type noises in our backyard, probably a breach of area protocol. We do drive a German automobile—but our 2007 Volkswagen Jetta looks a little ratty compared to the BMWs and Mercedes coupes that clog the nearby arteries.

We are interlopers in this neighbourhood, but we have been interlopers before. Fourteen years ago, when we purchased a certifiably crappy, rundown shack near Main Street for slightly less than the price of a used Ferrari, South Main was hardly the hipster paradise that it has since become. Once a working-class, largely Asian community, the neighbourhood was just beginning to change when we arrived. This, we newcomers agreed, augured well—having missed out on previous surges in real estate, we had been pushed east to areas where no respectable West Sider would (then) venture. Aside from a few outposts—Eugene Choo, the Front Gallery, the Reef—there was not much on tap for people who knew their Matchbox Twenty from their 3 Doors Down.

The place was, as they say, “in transition.” Which, we all know, means “shitty.” Nevertheless, it was lively, social. Lot sizes were modest, barriers between properties—and people—porous. Within weeks of moving in, we knew most of our neighbours, even those who spoke barely a lick of English. They would stop us on the street and, as best they could, tell us about their children, about how they came to be here. When we did sell and move west, it was with more than a little regret.

The decision, we thought at the time, was solid.

We were outgrowing our minuscule arts-and-craftsstyle house. We’d already maxed out what we could do within the small footprint by repurposing our lowceilinged attic as an office space. The basement had previously been converted into a rental suite, so any lower-level expansion would come with a double hit:

*

The more things change. In 2000, Guy Saddy wrote “Moving East: Tidying Up SoMa” about “People like me, people new to a neighbourhood not too long ago considered undersirable or, at best, a poor second choice to the Dunbars and Kerrisdales, the Kitsilanos.

But it’s really changing, isn’t it?” A separate story rhapsodied about the quiet values of desirable Shaughnessy

*

cer ball has reappeared.

We would sell our well-loved but unsuitable Main Street home, then use the money to rent a better, larger, more modern place on the West Side the cost of putting in a staircase to the basement, plus the loss of $1,200 a month in income.

But there was another factor. In 2011, we decided house prices in our area had reached unsustainable heights. The city was ripe for a correction, if not an allout equity-killing crash. We would sell, we concluded, and further our family fortunes by sacrificing our wellloved but increasingly unsuitable home for its bloated value, then use the money to rent a better, larger, more modern place—on the West Side, where such were more plentiful. There, we would wait out the apocalypse and buy again once property values collapsed. There is a reason why I am a writer and not a hedge fund manager.

Looking back, Main Street was hardly a panacea, but it was an actual “neighbourhood,” which is, oddly, a slippery term. Of course, any definition must encompass geography, but a figurative proximity is also implied: a loose camaraderie, a sharing of something, however nebulous, among those who cohabit a space.

On Main, there was contact; there was intersection (and on our block, at least one long-standing feud).

Walking the streets of Shaughnessy, it’s hard to imagine anyone feuding—at least, not without counsel from their respective legal proxies. My biases, I’d wager, are hardly just my own. With its woeful dearth of craft beer outlets and its anemic walk scores, Shaughnessy has only lost lustre over the years while

by fiona morrow

Boulevard of Dreams Location is no longer the only factor “For the longest

the northeast of Kits,

complicated reasons).

time, Main was a

where schools have

Likewise the East

very unsophisticated

yet to achieve the rep-

Side—Strathcona, the

street. But it’s been

utation that’s helped to

Drive, and, now, Hast-

gentrified into a hip,

drive prices elsewhere.

ings Sunrise—is still

“Densification has

considered too edgy

vibrant, and safe neigh-

for some. Traditional-

bourhood. People like

to happen,” Wilson

the schools, the energy.

insists of the city’s

ists who can’t stay in

The huge gap that

onetime dream haven.

the neighbourhood

existed in perception

“There are still good

they were born to and

between East Side and

options for buyers with

are priced out of the

West Side is closing.”

$1.5 million who want to

likes of Dunbar and

buy a home. People find

Point Grey are, instead,

one of Vancouver’s

a way if they really want

crossing the inlet.

most recognizable

to.” But that may no lon-

“North Vancouver is

realtors. Her face

ger be the single-family

becoming the go-to for

smiles down from bill-

detached home; there

many. Lynn Valley in

boards around town:

need to be alternatives,

particular is very popu-

“Faith moves houses.”

so people whose prior-

lar right now,” she says.

“The pull of the

ity is to send their kids

“It has the schools, the

Cambie Corridor is

to Lord Byng or Queen

security, and the ame-

strong,” she contin-

Mary have that option.

nities people want.”

ues. “All the way from

“There are 52 acres to

the south side of the

be developed at West

spot for those who

bridge to Southwest

Fourth and Discov-

want to stay close to

Marine Drive, and

ery—it’ll probably take

town but avoid the grit

across to Main Street.”

20 years, but hopefully

of city living?

That’s Faith Wilson,

All these lifestyle

it will provide mid- to

And the next hot

“One neighbour-

amenities, notes

high-rise condos, town-

hood that argued very

the 20-year vet-

homes, and supporting

strongly against the

eran—transit, walk-

amenities.”

city’s densification

ability, boutiques,

Densification is not,

plans—and won—is

streetscapes—come

she notes, to every-

going to be able to

thanks to density,

one’s taste. European-

start leveraging that,”

something common

style city living has

she confides. “Marpole

now across the city but

been slow to develop in

is an area I think is

not really available far

Gastown, for exam-

about to receive a little

to the west, save for

ple (for obvious and

bit of cachet.”

A P R I L 2 O 15 | VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E

51

REAL ESTATE / 2015 by fiona morrow

The One Percent Solution

E vs W

Curious how the other half lives? Here are your options…

Lifestyles of the rich and global There are worse

relaxed bylaws here

property that recently

ways to surveil

mean, “You can build

went for $5,562,000—

the city’s next ruling

your palace.” Every-

almost a million over

class. I am being driven

body aspires to U. Hill

asking. The home

around select Vancou-

secondary, he says.

provoked a bidding war

ver neighbourhoods,

“And the proximity to

with 15 offers due to its

taking in the city’s most

UBC is a plus. It’s felt to

proximity to West Point

exclusive real estate.

give off good vibes.”

Grey Academy.

And I’m travelling in

In Shaughnessy,

$5 million, but proper-

Carros points out the

managing broker and

ties can go for four

homes that have gone

vice-president with

times that. And a high

out of style: the “mon-

Sotheby’s International

price doesn’t guaran-

ster homes” of the ’80s,

Realty Canada, and he

tee you’ll be moving

with their high porticos

drives a Jaguar XJ.

straight in: a teardown

and glass bricks. The

While he takes

can be a great lot with

new buyer, he says, is

pains to point out that

a merely spectacular

“more sophisticated”:

many different cul-

$12 million house. Two

out with the gold, in with

tures are represented

master suites upstairs

cool modernity.

in the high-net-worth

are often needed;

category who come

to offer grandpar-

the immigrant inves-

to Vancouver, today I

ents bedrooms on a

tor program last year

am standing in for the

lower level is seen as

was no disincentive,

group most enamoured

disrespectful.

insists Ross McCredie,

of the city’s charms:

Driving east along

The cancellation of

president of Sotheby’s

Chancellor Boule-

International Realty

vard, then south, we

Canada. “We’re talking

the Vancouver market

pass homes once the

about people with a

for 35 years. Unlike the

preserve of the city’s

net worth of perhaps

Hong Kong specula-

middle class—doctors,

$75 million. They’re

tors of the ’80s, today’s

lawyers, professors—

not looking for citizen-

buyers intend to live

but now the prize of

ship.” What they do

here—at least, wives,

successful entrepre-

want is a future for

children, and often

neurism. Across West

their families—some

grandparents are set-

16th, the bucolic long-

put their children’s

the Mainland Chinese.

Carros has worked

ting down roots while

time equestrian area of

names on private-

the head of the house-

Southlands is gaining in

school waiting lists

hold continues his busi-

popularity. Large lots,

two years before they

ness interests back

plenty of golf courses,

plan to move.”

“The buyers who

home. That makes the

and fresh air—highly

priorities very clear:

prized by a community

come here know what

a safe neighbourhood

coming from appalling

they want,” Carros

with good schools.

levels of pollution—

says. “They’ve done

allow a country-estate

their research, and they

Lands, it feels like

feel. Tacking back east,

have networks in place.

whole streets are in

we pass through Point

I just ask how many

flux. Unlike in other

Grey, where Carros

bedrooms they need,

tony areas of town,

points out a rela-

which schools they are

Carros notes, the

tively modest-looking

keen on, and off we go.”

In the Endowment

52

Lot value is around

style: Greg Carros is a

VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E | A P R I L 2 O 15

the East Side’s edgy, convivial sexiness has increased.

But even a cursory inspection reveals a Shaughnessy that is more complicated and diverse—architecturally, at least. At Cypress and West 37th, a block of modest smaller houses on equally modest lots inexplicably shares the vicinity with far more substantial places.

There is the odd modern condominium development, like on the 1800 block of West 35th, while a new build at 1562 West 40th, with its copper-topped cupolas and chandeliered gazebo, provides welcome comic relief.

Yet there is one consistency across the area: in-thewild encounters with actual human beings—usually a staple of any neighbourhood—remain rare. “does a chinese family live here?”

This is the fourth time people have called at our door and found, to their disappointment, that I have failed them, ethnically speaking. The first time, I was amused; the confusion on the face of one woman, an evangelist, was palpable. The next two, I smiled through. This time, I’m annoyed.

“Excuse me?” I ask, a little less civilly than I should.

“Does a Chinese family live here?”

“No. Just us.”

“Oh, sorry…”

“Can I help you?”

“No, no. We were inviting to a dinner for Chinese community.”

“Maybe I’d like to come.”

Drawn west by a desire to create a better life, we were less enamoured of the area than resigned to it: this would be a short-term move, a place to park our aspirations

EASTERN PROMISES What The Independent Where 285 E. 10th Ave. Price $269,900 (497 sq. ft. studios) to $1,699,900 (2,024 sq. ft. penthouse)

“Haha. Do you speak Chinese?”

“No. But I can sit and listen politely.”

“This dinner is only for Chinese. Canadians have their own dinners.”

Constituting approximately 37 percent of the neighbourhood, the Chinese presence in Shaughnessy ranges from a low of about 21 percent in First Shaughnessy to around 60 percent in the pocket south of VanDusen between Oak and Granville, where we live. (Across Vancouver generally, 18.2 percent of residents identify as Chinese.) But these figures—the numbers have likely changed since 2006, when they were compiled—include only naturalized citizens and those who are Canadian-born.

Hands have been wrung over the impact of the new Chinese super-rich investors, a class many suspect— but with no official tracking process in place, can’t prove—are buying up this area yard by exquisitely landscaped yard. Most of what passes for evidence is far from scientific: a 2013 Sotheby’s report claiming that in the first half of that year almost half the homes they sold were to non-Canadians is about as close as we get to a verifiable foreign-ownership statistic. Instead, we must consult other clues. Like, for example, the advertising that comes to our door.

Some of the mail we get has dropped any pretense of catering to English-speaking residents, but most of it still makes a show of inclusion. A Hudson’s Bay flyer featuring Estée Lauder cosmetics is in English and Chinese, for instance. But it’s the real-estate ads that are most plentiful. If offshore money, specifically from China, is not behind the changing face of Shaughnessy, then what passes through our mailbox is testament to the most spectacular misdirection of advertising dollars in the history of this, or any other, universe.

“I have an international network of wealthy buyers for your property,” claims realtor Julia Lau, whose “local expertise, global connections” hardly soft-pedals offshore associations. Victor Kwan assures he’s “working with many wealthy new immigrants, investors and builders,” while Denny Deng can hook you up with “immigrant rush buyers.” Allie Hu has “qualified buyers who are new immigrants from China.” When agents Caroline Hong and Fred Zhang say they’re “bridging the gap between east and west,” it’s a fairly sure bet they’re not talking about the cultural differences that separate Commercial Drive and the Cambie Corridor. Sutton Group’s Vivian Li and Peter Saito have helpfully provided a “shopping list” on one of their flyers. What do their clients want? An older home on a level 8,000- to 15,000-square-foot lot that isn’t located

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT What 6-bed mansion on a third-acre lot in First Shaughnessy Where 1428 Devonshire Cres.

Price $13,880,000

on a busy street or at a T junction. Oh, and please: no “heritage designated” properties, thanks very much.

DEMO BAIT Gentrification must someday spell the end for these beloved East Side eyesores

KINGSGATE MALL

The VSB-owned grotto is a totem of commerce past

SMILE DIINER

The greasy spoon has kept it lowrise for decades

GRANDVIEW LANES

Off-Commercial alleys established in 1947

vancouver is a beautiful city—a thriving deepwater port, a popular site for TV and movie shoots. By all accounts, it is a wonderful place to live. But nothing about its economy explains why—in a city where the median income is only around seventy grand— single-family houses now sell for close to a million dollars apiece.

I didn’t write that. It’s from the New Yorker, which discovered to its surprise last May that the most obscene North American real-estate values weren’t found in New York, Orange County, or San Francisco—all places where industry of some sort could at least partly explain stratospheric housing prices—but rather here, in what writer Allan Fotheringham once referred to as “the little village on the edge of the rainforest.” (Before they paved paradise, of course.)

In the article, local demographer Andy Yan described Vancouver as a “hedge city”; wealthy international buyers are drawn, he says, to our “social and political stability.” In other words, Vancouver is Plan B for the rich foreign buyer, a place to hunker down and regroup when the yuan hits the fan. And Shaughnessy, with its sprawling estates and perfectly manicured lawns, has increasingly become ground zero for Plan B. In a very different way, Shaughnessy is our Plan B, too. Drawn westward by a desire to create a better life, we were less enamoured of the area than resigned to it: this would be a short-term move, a place to park our aspirations until the housing market became rational. But reality has a way of interfering with dreams. Mortgage rates, which were poised to rise, never did; housing prices, which were poised to drop, continued their dizzying ascent. Has it worked out?

It’s hard to say. For a variety of reasons it’s not easy to rent in Vancouver, and in this era of rock-bottom interest rates our monthly nut has increased substantially from when we owned. With the profits from our house, at least we’re now financially diversified, although the markets haven’t been particularly kind.

We do live in a much nicer house. It is located, however, in an enclave that is existentially apart from the city that surrounds it. It is even apart from those of us who live here. What I know about Shaughnessy is that I do not know Shaughnessy at all. My neighbourhood is an enigma, largely impenetrable, its desires and devices hidden behind wrought-iron gates and metal security blinds. It is beautiful, clean, quiet. It is where I live. It would be a stretch, though, to call it home. VM

A P R I L 2 O 15 | VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E

53

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2. Willow Steam Spa suggests packing

Neroli water, which features a unique floral foundation that hydrates and freshens the skin, whether leaving the country, continent or just the neighbourhood.

3. Now you can take Mother Nature’s West Coast influence in your carry on with the SeaFlora product line: skincare made with kelp sourced from the Pacific Ocean available at the Black Rock Oceanfront Resort.

4. The experts at Carruthers & Humphrey

CHI, The Spa at Shangri-La, draws inspiration from the origins of the Shangri-La legend, a place of personal peace, enchantment and well-being.

CHI offers a “spa within a spa” environment.

Each suite comes with its own fireplace, private bath, shower, relaxation lounge, changing and vanity areas.

Signature treatments, such as the Aroma Vitality Massage, use authentic Asian wellness philosophies to promote personal vitality, and include a traditional foot soaking, tea service, and aromatic steam to start.

recommend anti-aging SPF moisturizer Intellishade for daily use, but propose a high SPF broad spectrum sunscreen when travelling to sunny destinations. As they say, your skin never goes on holiday!

5. ST Media Spa offers take home whit-

ening kits, so that you can continue your whitening progress even while you’re out of town.

Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver 1128 West Georgia Street, Fifth Floor 604.695.2447 chi.vancouver@shangri-la.com

6. CHI, The Spa understands how jetlag, stiffness and other travel side effects can inhibit your return to routine. That’s why they offer the Travellers’ Retreat: over two hours of massage from head to toe, designed to help you overcome the bumps on the road.

Temples Nasolabial Folds

Cheeks

Dr. Shannon humphrey, Dr. alaStair CarrutherS & Dr. Jean CarrutherS Chin

answer your questions about today’s cosmetic advances & issues

Marionette Lines

Jaw

I am almost 40 and I am beginning to notice some early signs of aging especially smile lines and loss of definition along my jaw. I am looking for something to freshen-up my appearance in a natural looking way?

- heather m, Vancouver approach isis the the most most effective effectiveand andnatural natural A combination combination approach looking way way to to address address the the early early signs signs ofof aging. aging. Your Your looking expert cosmetic cosmetic physician physician can can recommend recommendaa personalized personalized expert treatment plan plan which which may may include include optimized optimized skincare, skincare, treatment energy based based devices devices (Photorejuvenation, (Photorejuvenation,laser, laser,Thermage®), Thermage®), energy neuromodulatortreatment treatment (Botox®, Xeomin®) and soft neuromodulator (Botox®, Xeomin®) and soft tissue tissue (Sculptra®, fillers (Sculptra®, Juvederm®, Restylane®, Radiesse®). fillers Juvederm®, Restylane®, Radiesse®).

Noticeable results that emerge subtly

SCULPTRA® helps restore your youthful appearance with natural-looking and long-lasting results.

Sculptra is ideal for patients who want to freshen their overall Sculptra is ideal for patients who want to freshen their appearance in a very natural looking way. It is an injectable overall appearance in a very natural looking way. It is a softtreatment derived from fruit acids that stimulates the body tissuefiller derived from fruit acids that stimulates the body to produce its own new collagen. The result is a gradual to produce its own new collagen. The result is a gradual and natural looking improvement in your appearance in and natural looking improvement in your appearance in the months following your treatment. Anywhere between the months following your treatment. Anywhere between 1-3 treatments may be given to achieve desired results and 1-3 treatments may be given to achieve desired results results typically last 2 years. This treatment is ideal for and results typically last 2 years. This treatment is ideal for patients with early signs of aging who are looking for a patients with early signs of aging who are looking for a natural looking and long lasting improvement. natural looking and long lasting improvement.

– Shannon Humphrey, frcpc – Alastair Carruthers, frcpc – Jean Carruthers, frcsc

www.sculptra.ca

Suite 820-943 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC 604.714.0222 reception@carruthers-humphrey.com www.carruthers-humphrey.com

PERSONAL SHOPPER

MODEL CITIZEN

SW E AT EQUI T Y

FIELD TRIP

THE

MY SPACE

“I love a good cat-eye for the ladies and a round panto shape for the gents” PG. 64

The best shops, fashion, beauty, design, travel & fitness

New Flame in the spirit of this issue’s focus on neighbourhoods, we’re down with the local and the handmade, but the Brooklynization of the whole movement (felt brooches, letterpress jewellery) sometimes has us a tad jaded. So when we lit upon the Vancouver Candle Co.’s modern and sophisticated offerings, we knew we’d found our crafty muse. The local soywax torches evoke six neighbourhoods (like Gastown, with notes of leather, tobacco, amber, and black pepper) and are all made by a single artisan, numbered in batches of 50, and hand-poured—naturally.

Launched on March 9, Vancouver Candle Co.’s Mount Pleasant scent (from $32) features notes of fig, bergamot, and anise.

For a list of retailers, visit Vancouvercandleco.com

Eydis Einarsdottir

Caption

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PERSONAL SHOPPER

Best Buys

Scene Stealers If spring is nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!” these picks will help you get in gear by a ma nda ross

Thirty percent of each purchase of Melanie Auld’s gold-plated Afla mismatched studs ($59) goes to Canuck Place.

Various locations.

Blueruby.com

Skip the salon with Lush’s four shades of all-natural henna hair dyes ($25.95): brown,

Stop the hands of time with Verso’s No. 7 Super Facial Oil ($234), packed with Retinol 8 and vitamin A. Sephora, 701 W. Georgia St., 778331-3942. Sephora.ca

red, black, and chestnut.

Various locations. Lush.ca

Fresh from new Chanel perfumer Olivier Polge: Les Exclusifs collection’s Misia (from $180), with notes of violet and Turkish rose. Holt Renfrew, 737 Dunsmuir St., 604-681-3121.

Holtrenfrew.com

Install Weiser’s Kevo smart lock ($250), download the app, and presto! Your iPhone becomes a wireless key. Various locations.

Futureshop.ca

Based on its signature watercolour paintings, Joue Design’s Zoe B pillow in cotton linen ($269) hits stores April 1.

Mint Interiors, 1880 Fir St., 604568-0422. Mintinteriors.ca

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***

ICONIC ITALIAN EYEGLASS MAESTRO PERSOL OFFERS THE TYPEWRITER EDITION, CONSTRUCTED WITH VINTAGE CHARM

($455; Persol.com)

H&M’s David Beckham Bodywear offers up men’s sweats ($39.95) that double as comfy womenswear.

609 Granville St., 604-692-0308. Hm.com

Spot the bunny: Lladró’s porcelain figurine ($340) is camouflaged thanks to a complex geometric pattern.

Atkinson’s, 1501 W. Sixth Ave., 604-736-3378.

Atkinsonsofvancouver.com

SCHOOL’S IN Joe Fresh’s spring lineup looks smart and sassy with the Varsity dress ($39) in classic navy, red, and white. 1165 Robson St., 604-694-0041. Joefresh.com

Spring is all about the clog; enter Cougar’s Regal rubber slip-on in Blossom ($50). The Bay, 674 Granville St., 604681-6211. Thebay.com

Canada Goose’s quilted Hybridge Lite skirt ($250) in Spirit and Aurora Green amps up après-ski but keeps you toasty-warm.

Canadagoose.com

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locally conscious drinking

r e i m e y r Pr e l l i t is d o r Mic es tival F Sat, apr 18 4pm-6pm & 7pm-9:30pm

MODEL CITIZEN

Personal St yle

SARA MOSHURCHAK

OWNER, E Y EL AND FR AMEMAKERS

becoming an optician was just the logical choice for Sara Moshurchak, who’s been wearing glasses since she was seven. Hailing from a family of creative types who even made their toys by hand, the designer channelled that resourcefulness to launch Canada’s only handcrafted eyewear, MOSHdesigns. Made of small-batch materials from Italy, there are no computerized machines or assembly lines to be found. Of her style? “I like simplicity and designs that stand on their own without a lot of distraction.”

CBC STUDIOS STUDIO ONE

gin, vodka, whisky & other spirits from 22 local micro-distilleries

What are the three pieces you’ll be buying this season? A dapper fedora, a devastatingly hot pair of booties, and a pair of sassy teal-coloured cat-eyes.

What’s your favourite style of eyeglasses? I love a good cat-eye for the ladies and a round panto shape for the gents.

TICKETS $ STARTING AT

39

.99

Which eyeglass frames never go out of style? Anything iconic. Cat-eyes, round shapes—they have surges in popularity but are always present in collections.

bcdistilled.ca @bcdistilled PARTNERS

What’s your favourite piece of clothCatch the full interview with Moshurchak at Vanmag.com

ing? My plethora of Periphery dresses.

Favourite gift? A journal from my best childhood friend. Throughout the pages, she’s written notes about

Best food in town? I’m going to assume that a cocktail is a food, right?

The Cameron House bourbon cocktail at Pourhouse in Gastown. VM

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Evaan Kheraj

the silly things we used to do.

sponsored report

road trip!

Spring across the border As the fog lifts this spring, Washington State shines bright—with the best of the American West Coast. seattle, Bothell, Bellingham and Lynnwood are all just a quick drive away, whether you’re craving great shopping, world-famous sights or epic culinary experiences.

Bellingham

SEATTLE

SEE If you can’t wait until December to get your next dose of a galaxy far, far away, then you’re in luck: a quick trip across the border should satisfy the craving. The EMP Museum is the world premiere venue for Rebel, Jedi, Princess, Queen: Star Wars and the Power of Costume, now open until October 4.

The exhibit is a perfect fit for EMP—a mecca for geek culture—as anticipation rises for the release of the third trilogy.

The exhibit includes everything from Darth Vader’s infamous black mask, to C-3PO’s beloved suit, with a whole spectrum of robes, gowns, and even Wookiee hair, mixed in. Concept drawings illustrate the transformation from idea to invention, showing George Lucas fans how their favourite fictive world came to be.

If Star Wars isn’t your story of choice, EMP is still worth a visit this spring. With a science fiction exhibition and an indie video game gallery recently added to the interactive site, this Seattle staple is only getting better.

Lynnwood Bothell

Seattle

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sponsored report BOTHELL

Lynnwood Bothell

r

ke

Gil

ma

n Sammamish T rai l

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SIP You had better get an early start on your weekend escape to Washington Wine Country; the area is home to over 90 world-class tasting rooms. If wine isn’t your thing, both Bothell and Woodinville are fast becoming brewery and distillery destinations with local gems like TripleHorn Brewing, Foggy Noggin Brewing and Woodinville Whiskey Company. EAT Once you’ve worked up an appetite, it’s time to check out Bothell’s latest foodie favourites. If you’re a fan of Seattle’s Il Bistro, then enjoy the same taste of Tuscany at sister restaurant Amaro Bistro in downtown Bothell. Or if you’re looking for good old-fashioned American pub food, John Howie’s Beardslee Public House puts a culinary twist on the classics and fills your glass with local drafts.

STAY Consider Washington Wine Country’s Sip & Stay Tasting Packages to bundle an affordable stay with your beverage aficionado status. Featuring special dining offers and complimentary wine tastings, it shouldn’t be a difficult decision. PLAY Hit the Burke-Gilman Sammamish Trail Sunday morning to work off some of your weekend indulgence. Boasting 27 miles of Northwest beauty, it’s also the fastest route to Red Hook Brewery for an afternoon picnic.

Or cool down with WhatsSup stand-up paddle boarding at the Park at Bothell Landing right on the Sammamish River. SEE You might as well mark your calendar now for Saturday, October 17. After a visit this spring you’ll want to return for the Bothell Beer Festival.

The annual event showcases the best of local breweries and includes live music and tasty food to fuel the fun.

You Pack. We Plan.

Enjoy a weekend in Bothell.

Your destination for Northwest fun! Save with a Sip & Stay package designed for beer and wine tasting or a Play & Stay package to take your Washington adventure outdoors. All packages include dining ofers at local restaurants and special rates at Bothell hotels. Book today at exploreBothell.com!

sponsored report BELLINGHAM

Bellingham

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Lynnwood Bothell

Fair

haven Historic

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Chr

ysa

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In

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pa &S

BUY Cross the line mid-morning to enjoy a lunch of local splendours at the Bellingham Farmers’ Market. Saturdays now through December, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., the Depot Market Square plays host to local farmers, bakers, artisans and chefs: a fine substitute for your customary trip to Trader Joe’s. SEE Once your stomach—and suitcase—are full of treats, head to the Spark Museum of Electrical Invention. The collection spans from Galileo papers a ’s C re p e ri e n e l a gad to Edison light bulbs, but weekends prove Ma particularly buzz-worthy as the MegaZapper sets off a 4-million volt blast at 2:30 p.m.

Then, wind down in the Fairhaven Historic District perusing independent shops, galleries and restaurants and enjoying a waterfront walk. STAY Settle in to the nearby Chrysalis Inn & Spa for the night, where a visit to the Relaxation Area lives up to its name and helps you decompress—this is, after all, a vacation. EAT Roll out of bed and into Magadalena’s Creperie Sunday morning.

Sweet or savoury? Why choose? But do keep an eye out for nalesnik—traditional Polish crepes and a local favourite. PLAY Let loose a little before you leave at the Dirty Dan Seafood Festival.

The annual event held Sunday, April 26, celebrates Fairhaven’s favourite pioneer with outdoor events, beer gardens and live music, revealing the not-so-secret excitement this subdued city is known for.

UPSCALE DINING | ROMANTIC STROLLS ELECTRIFYING EVENTS | LUXURIOUS HOTELS

800.487.2032 bellingham.org

sponsored report

Lynnwood Bothell

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To those who have looked to the stars, and wondered.

Alde

OPEN NOW / EMP MUSEUM

OPEN NOW AT EMP MUSEUM JANUARY 31 — OCTOBER 4, 2015 PRESENTED BY:

EMPMUSEUM.ORG SUPPORTED LOCALLY BY:

Rebel, Jedi, Princess, Queen: Star Wars™ and the Power of Costume was developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in partnership with the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and in consultation with Lucasfilm Ltd. © & ™ 2015 Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved. Used under authorization.

5

Lynnwood/Seattle North Just 15 miles north of Seattle and moments from beaches, mountains and wine tasting.

Home to the region’s upscale retail center Alderwood and historic Heritage Park. 1000+ hotel rooms priced 40% below Downtown.

Lynnwood the perfect staring point for your Northwest adventure.

www.LynnwoodTourism.com 425-670-5040

LYNNWOOD

STAY No matter where your Washington road-trip takes you, plan to stay in Lynnwood; the perfect launching pad for your Northwest adventure. With more than 1,200 quality hotel rooms offering convenient access to all major freeways, Lynnwood is just minutes from Seattle and Bellevue at a fraction of the cost. BUY Whether staying for the weekend, or just passing through, the Alderwood Mall is worth a visit.

And with more than 175 shops, seasonal live music, excellent restaurants and a 16-screen cinema with IMAX movies, there is something for everyone!

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THE COPPER MOTIVATE WRAP BY MOMENTUM ATHLETIC JEWELRY WON’T RUB, CHAFE, SQUEEZE, OR SLIP

(US$20; Designsthatmoveyou.com)

S W E AT E Q U I T Y

Workout Plans

THE

GOODS

Swing Time Hit the clubs this spring athleticism is the new buzzword in pro golf, but a pudgy “Lumpy” Herron can still beat an ultrafit “Spiderman” Villegas. And Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor, who in November pressure-putted his way to a PGA Tour win at the Sanderson Farms Championship?

If Herron’s a 1 and Villegas a 10, “I was once a 4 or 5,” Taylor says.

But that was before the world’s topranked amateur-turned-pro started working with Florida-based trainer Craig Davies, who now has him at a 7 or 8. “We’ve been concentrating on my legs and core,” says Taylor. “And my shoulders, for a more athletic posture.” He works with exercise bands, not weights, since a golf swing depends on balance, rhythm, and speed as much as strength.

That and learning the correct body movements, says Taylor. “You have to have them.”—Jim Sutherland

WHERE TO GO BRING GRANDMA

With their repetitive motions and potentially painful contortions (plus, you know, be the ball), golf and yoga have plenty in common. CPGA pro Holly Beal teaches both out of the University Golf Course ($65/30 minutes).

Hbgolf.ca

John Sinal

BRING A BUDDY

A personal trainer and golf fi tness coach certified by the Titleist Performance Institute, Colin Westerman

begins by assessing the biomechanical deficiencies that limit a golf swing ($85/60 minutes).

Cwgolfit.com

THE BURN

320

CALORIES/HR* * 155-pound person walking a course

BRING A DEFIBRILLATOR

The fastest-rising local golfer after Nick Taylor is Adam Svensson, currently a world top-40 amateur. Rob Houlding has coached both, and with Ken Hsiao incorporates a rigorous fi tness element (from $75/ 60 minutes). Robhouldinggolf.ca

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Nex t Destinations

Confessions of a Rookie Cruiser If you’re going to run away to sea, enlist the services of a butler to stow your steamer by a ma nda ross “i’m going on a cruise.”

How you react to that statement very much defines what sort of traveller you are. If you think, “You lucky dog! I went to Alaska last year with my whole family,” you’re a cruiser. If not, you’re everyone else in the world—a category I was in myself until a few months ago. In my mind, cruising was the purview of those who take walks for exercise, eat dinner at 5:45, and rock pleated slacks and roomy pantsuits. It wasn’t bike rides in Sardinia. It wasn’t magazine executives wearing fitted Tom Ford suits. And it wasn’t zipping into Florence’s Uffizi Gallery for the day.

But it turns out it can be none of the former and all of the latter.

My path from skeptic to acolyte was greatly helped by the word “Portofino.” The famed Mediterranean destination was to be the second stop on an seven-day cruise that started in Rome and ended in Barcelona. This wouldn’t be Gavin MacLeod taking weekenders to Ensenada, nor would it be a cattle call with thousands packed in. I would be voyaging on Silversea’s Silver Spirit with another scant (by cruise standards) 539 passengers.

Such stats meant little to me, but the news turned hard-core cruisers’ eyes into envious saucers.

Riding with Silversea is like pulling up in a Bugatti; 540 passengers is the equivalent of flying private. And when the personalized

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luggage tags and monogrammed Travel Journal arrived by courier several weeks pre-departure, my worries softened.

The journal had useful advice on the ship’s amenities, what shore excursions to pick, and an introduction to my personal butler.

Butler? I wondered if I’d clicked the wrong price box when I booked until I learned all the rooms are suites. The journal offered more clues: my butler’s duties would include unpacking and packing my luggage (one formal outfit required) and serving 5 o’clock cocktails in my 376-square-foot cabin—or on my 65-square-foot teak veranda, if I preferred. He would also be shining my shoes, and as I surveyed my scuffed collection of footwear, I saw that some face-saving pre-cruise shopping might be in order.

After an overnighter in Rome

FIELD NOTES WHAT Cruise line: Silversea Ship: Silver Spirit Built: 2009 Speed: 19.5 knots (36kph)

WHO Guests: 540 Crew: 376

HOW MUCH Seven-day Mediterranean voyage from Rome to Barcelona on the Silver Spirit from US$2,950 (airfare not included)

we were ready to hit the high seas with a quick transfer to Civitavecchia, Rome’s port some 80 kilometres away. Thanks to Emanual—oh, did I mention Emanual, my butler?—martinis were waiting, dinner reservations booked (Le Champagne, the only Relais & Châteaux restaurant at sea, fills up fast), and bags unpacked in walkin closets. I was tempted to write home on my personalized stationery to alert everyone I’d arrived safely, but decided an email would do the trick and still allow me to bring my note cards home as proof of my new station.

If days were spent on land, evenings were devoted to bespoke idyll. I ditched the Show Lounge (a tad too Pirates of Penzance) for the Observation Lounge, where the real stars came out to play each night. Here, on top of the ship, I considered a clubby cigar

***

NO FLIGHT REQUIRED: LAURA MERCIER’S PORTOFINO RED LIPSTICK IS A TASTE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN ALL YEAR ROUND

($32; Lauramercier.com)

WHITE GLOVE

Get your sea legs with your personal butler, who helps unpack and pack your luggage, and refreshes your wine fridge daily SIZE MATTERS

The newest ship in Silversea’s fleet, the 200-metre Silver Spirit, also features its largest suites ON THE HOUSE

There are plenty of places to imbibe onboard; The Bar in the reception lobby serves up complimentary cocktails

Silver Spirit bar: avidcruiser.com

RIVIERA RULES

and cognac lounge with low-slung leather chairs, or maybe the casino, but the ship’s gentle rocking had me in dreamland just like that.

Daytime stops along with Portofino promised choose-yourown adventures in storied places like Livorno, Tuscany, where we could opt for truffle hunting, Super Tuscan wine tastings, or a jaunt to Lucca (more rewarding than touristy Pisa). I opted for Florence, only an hour by transfer.

The Ponte Vecchio, the Uffi zi— check. And to escape the crush of the medieval city’s relentless crowds, a perfect little wine shop discovery, Enoteca Pontevecchio, run by Tony Sasa, who, as it turns out, exports wine to Blue Water Cafe here in Vancouver.

Alghero, a small town on Sardinia, yielded 20 pounds of hand-woven geometric carpets from Gioie di Sardegna as well as

Once an ancient Roman colony, Portofino was also ruled by the French, English, Spanish, and Austrians, as well as bands of marauding pirates in the 16th century

the purchase of a second suitcase, while Porto Mahon on Menorca, the northernmost Balearic island in Spain, offered a biking tour that was fast, steep, and breathtaking.

A van trailed us for backup like we were in the Tour de France (sans the doping).

End-of-day respite always included hors d’oeuvres and drinks in our room. (Emanual stocked our wine fridge daily.) One last dinner at the ship’s Asian fusion

restaurant, Seishin, for spider lobster (where I met the publisher of Condé Nast’s Mexican bureau), and soon I would wake up in Barcelona for my unwelcome exit.

Ah, back to the grind of unpacking my own bags, shaking my own drinks, and waking up each morning to drive the kids the same route to school, head to the office, then do the whole shebang in reverse at day’s end. Cruising, it turns out, is better than life. VM

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Storied Homes

Design Within Reach For artist Lisa Turner, furniture is her medium, the outdoors her inspiration by a ma nda ross photos by ash ta nasi ychuk

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art for art’s sake was always designer Lisa Turner’s ethos. That is, until the VAG board member and great-niece of Maria Altmann (whose heroic story is dramatized in this month’s Woman in Gold with Ryan Reynolds and Helen Mirren) became an artist herself. “As a designer, I was always ‘Form follows function’; now, doing my furniture, it’s the reverse,” she says, referring to her Quake Furniture, which debuted to great acclaim at Toronto’s IDS design exhibition in January.

And while Turner’s pieces are,

A

yes, functional (tables, seating, carpets), their provenance is a purely aesthetic moment in time. Stones from Qualicum Beach, organically striated bark from the Endowment Lands—intended use comes second.

Turner and filmmaker husband Terrence Turner (whose Parviz Tanavoli: Poetry in Bronze is on the festival circuit) honed their long tradition of artistic pursuits starting with crafting each other’s Christmas gifts. Their yearly endeavours provided a training ground for the creative output that now permeates their Shaughnessy home. VM

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THE NEW INDOOR/OUTDOOR JERICHO TABLE IN RED ALUMINUM DOES DOUBLE DUTY AS SEATING

(To the trade; Quakefurniture.com)

ALL SHOOK UP

Turner’s Juan de Fuca coffee table mimics one solid piece sundered by a lacquer-finished fault line; the side table in wood and metal is called Quake LOVE, ACTUALLY

A pair of laser-cut steel legs (named “Lisa in Bed”) are just one of Terrence’s handmade Christmas gifts to his wife DOOR STOP

Inherited antique chairs flank Turner’s filigree marble Jericho table and a custom handwoven silk-andwool Cedar carpet IN THE RED

The kitchen’s mood board is an everrotating Pinterestlike snapshot of daily family life LOFT Y IDEAS

An upstairs loft studio serves as creative HQ for sketches, materials, and carpet fringe

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BACK

PAGE

S N A P C H AT T E R

 M A L COLM PA RRY

A b o u t To w n

“Network as much as possible—you always need the help of a community to make a film”

— Crazy 8s Film Society director/producer Paul Armstrong on making movies long or short, quick or slow

Thomas and Amy Fung

H E A LT H

Lilian Du and Angel Chan

Angelina Wu and Emily Li

FOR CHILDREN WE CARE Jan. 24 Wings chain-restaurant owner Angel Chan served up close to $700,000 for BC Children’s Hospital when she chaired the Chinese-Canadian community’s 20th-annual gala in the Vancouver Convention Centre, where hospital foundation chair David Podmore conferred the event’s name on a new oncology in-patient unit

COMMUNIT Y

INDIA REPUBLIC DAY Jan. 26 Kamal Sharma organized a celebratory banquet at Fraserview Hall with performances

by Devika Vishwanath, the Shiamak Davar International dancers, and more; speeches by diplomats; and an appearance

by Miss World Canada finalist and SFU healthsciences student Dharinee Bhatt

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Sharai Rewels and Hannah Chornoby

Neesha Hothi and Kamal Sharma

Auteurs Aubrey Arnason, Mo Soliman, and Angie Nolan

C U LT U R E

Devika Vishwanath

VA N C O U V E R M A G A Z I N E | A P R I L 2 O 15

Hema and Dharinee Bhatt

Scott Belyea and Jem Garrard

CRAZY 8S KICKOFF Jan. 29 For the annual match (six teams shooting films on Feb. 13 for screening 15 days later), directors, producers, actors, crew, and friends filled the Rio theatre for a showing of 2014’s winners and a party that could have been the subject of a movie itself

Opportunities Such As This Are Rare.

T H E U LT I M AT E W E S T C O A S T A D D R E S S .

A W E S T VA N C O U V E R L A N D M A R K FEATURING H OMES W I T H U NOB STRU CTE D O C E A N V I E W S A N D U N PA R A L L E L E D AT T E N T I O N T O D E TA I L . T H I S I S A N O P P O R T U N I T Y U N L I K E A N Y OT H E R .

98 Beachside Homes In West Vancouver Register Today at GrosvenorAmbleside.com The developer reserves the right to make changes to the information contained herein without notice.

Rendering is representational only and may not be accurate. This is not an offering for sale. E.&O.E.