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Archive for September, 2006
Where tacos are a religion
Thursday, September 7th, 2006The idea for the Taco Shack took shape for Benefield while growing up in California
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Daved Benefield (left) and Noah Cantor show some of the tacos that are available at the Taco Shack on Cornwall. Photograph by : Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun
If the guy making your tacos looks like he could tackle a Volkswagen Beetle, that would be Daved Benefield, who, until recently, was a defensive end for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and before that, the B.C. Lions.
In fact, this little patch of Cornwall Avenue has got gridiron action goin’ on. Noah Cantor of the Toronto Argonauts is involved not only in Taco Shack, but in the next-door Vera’s Burgers. (Cantor and partner Gerald Tritt have been opening up Vera’s Burgers like men possessed. The seventh will be opening on Main Street soon.)
Taco Shack was Benefield’s idea. He feasted on tacos as a kid in California, and all the way through university. “It was a religion with him,” says partner Tritt. “You practice [football] and you have tacos. He’s the chief cook and bottle washer.” Taco Shack has become something of a Lions’ den, attracting players like Brent Johnson and Javier Glatt from the team.
Like the taco trucks he’s used to, Benefield kept this place simple. Really simple. There’s chicken, steak or fish tacos — three for $6.89. Or, you can opt for a quesadilla or a mitt-ful of burrito, also $6.89 each. That’s it. That’s the menu.
The tortillas taste nice and fresh and that’s because they’re made every day, from scratch.
Simple, simple, simple. You roll up your sleeves and dig in. I added another step: splatter sauce on clothing.
The popular little place has had lineups since they opened in July. It’s open every day from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and in January, Taco Shack will be swapping places with Flying Wedge Pizza, at 1915 Cornwall, a couple doors east.
– – –
TACO SHACK
1935 Cornwall St., 604-239-5102
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
Gourmands find a bit of France in West Van
Thursday, September 7th, 2006Recently opened, but with a family link to La Regalade, this is a true discovery for lovers of rustic bistro cuisine with a seafood speciality
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Owner and chef Steeve Raye, seen here with lobsters, returned from Europe to open his West Vancouver restaurant. Sometimes his mother and father help out. Photograph by : Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun
Fans of West Vancouver’s La Regalade will be thrilled. There’s a sequel.
La Regalade Cote Mer concentrates on seafood, but like La Regalade the first, the rustic French bistro food divines the mysteries of deliciousness. It’s not perfectly groomed and refined food; it’s honest and straight-forward with seductively assertive flavours. It makes my heart pound and my mouth water.
Upon finishing a meal of tuna tartare, beef cheeks in a dark, glassy, wine sauce and ile flottante, my husband declared, “I’ve reached nirvana. This is bliss.”
La Regalade Cote Mer is buried deep in West Vancouver, almost at Horseshoe Bay, across from Thunderbird Marina in a location where restaurants come and go with such regularity it should be a lesson to the next taker. That is, unless it happens to be the Raye family. This second Raye venture is operated by son, Steeve, 25, who returned from cooking at a restaurant in Belgium to oversee the operation.
The restaurant was open for a couple of weeks when I visited and I was astonished at word-of-mouth velocity. I tried to reserve the same day a couple of times and couldn’t get in. And when I did, the place was packed with West Van’s older, well-established demography. One night, I saw Douglas Coupland walk in, only to be turned away.
It was a little early to be critiquing the place, but I could not wait. And yes, there were some service glitches but I’m aware that it was freshly opened and they were slammed. There was French music; servers were dressed in the striped French mariners top, jeans and long waiters’ aprons. There was plenty of staff and there’s lots of hustle and bustle.
One Sunday evening the senior Rayes were pitching in on their day off from the Ambleside restaurant. Mom Brigitte Raye contributed immensely to the convincingly French feel of the place. “Bon soir!” she says in that singsong French welcome. Dad Alain was cooking like mad with Steeve.
The menu changes frequently and about two thirds of the menu had changed from one week to the next. On my first visit, one of the chalkboard menus (quaintly, but awkwardly lugged from table to table) was almost exclusively seafood; on the second, there were three meat dishes, at the request of diners.
On our two visits, we enjoyed a dish piled high with lightly deepfried white “baitfish”; crab and avocado salad; a beautifully grilled snapper with skin crisply seared, served over braised fennel; a helmet-sized bowl of bourride (fish stew); scallop carpaccio and onion tart (delectable); a velvety tuna tartare in mustard mayo; fillet of salmon with creamed leeks and bacon; beef cheeks in red wine with potato gnocchi. Most of the dishes come with a cone of perfectly cooked french fries. The potato gnocchi was the best I’d had with an incredible lightness of bearing. My only criticism was of the creamed leeks and bacon, which I felt was too heavy; my husband completely disagreed, with a countering “Mmmm,” upon tasting its richness.
Meals are big and burly, leaving only room for shared desserts. We had plum tart and ile flottante (absolutely sumptuous). Food is served in hefty portions, sometimes in rustic pots or Le Creuset ovenware.
If you’re thinking, yeah, but, it’s so far to drive, just remember, people go all the way to France for food like this. In fact, sitting on the patio, if it weren’t for the blue buses roaring by on Marine Drive, you’d swear you were there, in France.
LA REGALADE COTE MER
Overall: 4
Food: 4 1/2
Ambience: 4
Service: 3 1/2
Price $$/$$$
5775 Marine Dr., West Vancouver, 604-921-9701. Open Wednesday to Sunday for dinner; Friday to Sunday for lunch.
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
Skype poised to go mobile thanks to innovative Richmond company
Thursday, September 7th, 2006Peter Wilson
Sun
Raymond Chow, director of business development for Richmond company Ascalade, displays the firm’s portable Skype phone. Photograph by : Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun
Skype users now have nothing to lose, except their computer.
The popular and constantly growing free Internet phone service will soon be built right into home phones designed and manufactured by Richmond-based technology innovator, Ascalade Communications.
Thirty thousand of the new phones — which connect directly through their wireless base station to high-speed cable or telephone company modems or to your home network router — will soon be flowing from Ascalade’s factory in China.
Bearing the Philips and Netgear brand names, with a third brand to be added later, the phones, which can be carried throughout the home, will be headed in the latter part of 2006 to the United States and European markets, said Raymond Chow, Ascalade’s director of business development.
Canadians may have to wait a while, or they can order them on the Internet, said Chow.
A third brand will soon be announced. Each of the phone brands will have a different external appearance, but will have the same Ascalade technology internally.
Users will also be able to set up a Skype account themselves, or use an old one, with the phones without the need for a computer.
Skype, which is owned by Google, is said by Forbes.com to have an amazing 113 million users worldwide, but these can come and go and use is often sporadic, with the less technically astute often turning to cable firms and various telcos, such as Vonage and Primus, for VoIP.
“For Skype to be used on a truly wide level, I think it really has to be detached from the PC,” said Chow. “Most people, if they’re talking on the phone, if they had a choice, wouldn’t be doing it from their computer room.”
Chow said he first began talking with Skype back in early 2004, when it had some 20 employees, and finally signed a deal in January this year for the phones, designed in Richmond.
The new Skype phones, with the software built in, have a personal resonance for Chow, who likes to keep in touch with his parents while he’s on the road.
“My father is pretty good with computers, but it would be a laborious job for him to set up a Skype account,” said Chow, whose company already makes a USB Skype phone that uses a computer connection.
“But to use that he has to go down and turn on the computer and it’s a bit of a hassle, so he says, aw, you can just call me at home and I’ll pay your long-distance bills.”
Now, with the advent of the new phones, all that a tech-savvy relative has to do is buy one, program it and send it off.
“You can ship it to your grandmother,” said Chow. “Sure, you still have to teach her how to hook it up, but that’s a lot easier than telling her how to set it up on her computer.”
Chow said this is another step in Ascalade’s moving towards phone devices that are a little more powerful and smarter than the average phone.
Chow wouldn’t predict where Ascalade would move next in phone technology, but it’s likely the most logical area would be into home phones that download music and videos.
“You’ll actually be able to start receiving some extended content,” said Chow.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
Growth in home prices show sharp slowdown in 2Q
Wednesday, September 6th, 2006USA Today
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Home prices continued to rise in the second quarter but showed the biggest slowdown in three decades, federal regulators reported Tuesday.
The figures released by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the agency that oversees the big mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, provided the latest indication that the housing market is cooling substantially.
Average home prices rose 1.17% in the April-June period, compared with 3.65% in the second quarter of 2005 — the biggest decline in price growth since OFHEO started keeping track of home prices in 1975, the new report showed.
The agency cited higher interest rates and rising inventories of homes for sale as possible factors in the slowdown in price growth.
“These data are a strong indication that the housing market is cooling in a very significant way,” OFHEO Director James B. Lockhart said in a statement. “Indeed, the deceleration appears in almost every region of the country.”
Data issued last month provided proof that the housing boom is over. The Commerce Department reported that sales of new homes dropped in July by 4.3%, the largest amount since February, while the inventory of unsold homes climbed to a record high.
And sales of previously owned homes fell 4.1% in July to a 2 1/2-year low, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Sales of both new and existing homes set records for five consecutive years as the housing industry enjoyed a boom powered by the lowest mortgage rates in four decades.
But rates have been steadily rising this year as the Federal Reserve tightens credit conditions as a way to slow the economy and keep inflation under control.
Analysts expect home sales to drop by some 10% this year.
Still, the OFHEO report noted, home prices grew faster from the second quarter of 2005 to the same period this year — by 10.06% — than did prices of other goods and services, which rose 4.41%.
The second-quarter figure is derived from an average of home prices in April, May and June. Prices in that April-June period were up 1.17% from the first quarter of the year — the smallest rate of quarterly price growth since a 1.12% gain in the fourth quarter of 1999, OFHEO said.
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Change in house prices through Q2 |
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State |
1-Yr. |
1-Qtr. |
5-Yr. |
Since 1980 |
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Arizona, (AZ) |
24.1% |
2.9% |
96.7% |
323.3% |
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||||
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Florida, (FL) |
21.3% |
2.5% |
112.6% |
377.5% |
|
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||||
|
Idaho, (ID) |
20.1% |
3.8% |
55.3% |
229.2% |
|
|
||||
|
Oregon, (OR) |
19.5% |
4.0% |
63.8% |
333.7% |
|
|
||||
|
Hawaii, (HI) |
18.1% |
0.4% |
111.2% |
427.6% |
|
|
||||
|
Washington, (WA) |
17.4% |
3.7% |
60.2% |
363.6% |
|
|
||||
|
Maryland, (MD) |
16.2% |
2.3% |
102.7% |
422.1% |
|
|
||||
|
District of Columbia, (DC) |
15.9% |
1.3% |
120.0% |
534.9% |
|
|
||||
|
New Mexico, (NM) |
15.5% |
4.2% |
50.3% |
215.4% |
|
|
||||
|
Utah, (UT) |
15.2% |
3.8% |
33.4% |
229.3% |
|
|
||||
|
California, (CA) |
14.4% |
1.3% |
111.9% |
543.3% |
|
|
||||
|
Virginia, (VA) |
14.2% |
2.0% |
83.4% |
360.3% |
|
|
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Wyoming, (WY) |
14.0% |
2.9% |
55.6% |
149.6% |
|
|
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Alaska, (AK) |
12.9% |
2.8% |
53.0% |
169.3% |
|
|
||||
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Montana, (MT) |
12.7% |
3.1% |
55.8% |
254.3% |
|
|
||||
|
Louisiana, (LA) |
12.5% |
2.7% |
37.9% |
134.1% |
|
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||||
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New Jersey, (NJ) |
12.4% |
1.9% |
85.0% |
475.3% |
|
|
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|
Delaware, (DE) |
11.8% |
0.6% |
70.8% |
392.0% |
|
|
||||
|
Nevada, (NV) |
11.4% |
0.3% |
104.8% |
312.0% |
|
|
||||
|
Vermont, (VT) |
11.3% |
2.5% |
66.0% |
351.0% |
|
|
||||
|
Pennsylvania, (PA) |
10.7% |
1.6% |
55.6% |
299.2% |
|
|
||||
|
United States |
10.1% |
1.2% |
56.5% |
298.9% |
|
|
||||
|
New York, (NY) |
9.9% |
0.9% |
72.8% |
554.7% |
|
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||||
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Mississippi, (MS) |
9.6% |
2.9% |
27.6% |
138.6% |
|
|
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North Carolina, (NC) |
9.3% |
1.9% |
28.4% |
221.5% |
|
|
||||
|
South Carolina, (SC) |
8.9% |
1.7% |
31.5% |
205.0% |
|
|
||||
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Alabama, (AL) |
8.9% |
1.9% |
30.2% |
174.3% |
|
|
||||
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North Dakota, (ND) |
8.9% |
3.0% |
39.6% |
141.0% |
|
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|
Connecticut, (CT) |
8.5% |
0.8% |
63.0% |
377.0% |
|
|
||||
|
Tennessee, (TN) |
8.1% |
2.0% |
28.1% |
191.1% |
|
|
||||
|
Arkansas, (AR) |
8.0% |
2.0% |
32.3% |
153.7% |
|
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||||
|
Illinois, (IL) |
7.8% |
1.1% |
42.8% |
270.6% |
|
|
||||
|
Rhode Island, (RI) |
7.4% |
1.2% |
94.0% |
513.9% |
|
|
||||
|
West Virginia, (WV) |
7.4% |
0.2% |
34.7% |
127.0% |
|
|
||||
|
Oklahoma, (OK) |
6.5% |
1.8% |
26.8% |
97.8% |
|
|
||||
|
Texas, (TX) |
6.5% |
1.9% |
22.6% |
111.9% |
|
|
||||
|
Maine, (ME) |
6.3% |
-0.2% |
61.7% |
405.8% |
|
|
||||
|
Georgia, (GA) |
6.1% |
1.1% |
28.0% |
230.5% |
|
|
||||
|
New Hampshire, (NH) |
6.0% |
4.0% |
61.0% |
404.2% |
|
|
||||
|
South Dakota, (SD) |
6.0% |
2.1% |
31.2% |
176.0% |
|
|
||||
|
Missouri, (MO) |
5.8% |
0.5% |
33.3% |
196.4% |
|
|
||||
|
Wisconsin, (WI) |
5.6% |
0.3% |
36.0% |
226.6% |
|
|
||||
|
Kentucky, (KY) |
5.3% |
1.2% |
24.9% |
183.5% |
|
|
||||
|
Minnesota, (MN) |
4.9% |
0.3% |
46.6% |
271.4% |
|
|
||||
|
Iowa, (IA) |
4.3% |
1.3% |
23.6% |
146.8% |
|
|
||||
|
Colorado, (CO) |
4.2% |
1.0% |
23.7% |
263.1% |
|
|
||||
|
Kansas, (KS) |
4.2% |
1.0% |
24.1% |
138.9% |
|
|
||||
|
Nebraska, (NE) |
3.6% |
1.0% |
21.6% |
155.3% |
|
|
||||
|
Massachusetts, (MA) |
3.4% |
-0.4% |
57.0% |
631.7% |
|
|
||||
|
Indiana, (IN) |
2.8% |
-4.0% |
17.0% |
154.7% |
|
|
||||
|
Ohio, (OH) |
2.1% |
-5.0% |
18.4% |
172.3% |
|
|
||||
|
Michigan, (MI) |
1.0% |
-0.7% |
19.0% |
222.1% |
|
Source: OFHEO |
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Vegas firm bets on Vancouver casino
Wednesday, September 6th, 2006Bruce Constantineau
Sun
Las Vegas-based casino operator Paragon Gaming — the new owners of the Edgewater Casino in downtown Vancouver — will endeavour to reverse the financially troubled casino’s fortunes by taking several steps over the next few months to boost attendance at the 18-month-old facility, Paragon vice-president Yale Rowe said Tuesday.
Paragon paid $42 million to buy the casino last week from original owners Gary Jackson and Len Libin and become the first foreign owners of a B.C. casino. The Edgewater operation, located in the Plaza of Nations, was about $30 million in debt when it filed for court protection from its creditors four months ago, and the sale means creditors will be paid in full.
Rowe said Paragon plans to increase business at the casino by:
– Enhancing exterior signage.
– Upgrading food and beverage operations.
– Ensuring casino facilities reflect the city’s multicultural makeup.
– Improving the mix of gambling options.
– Increasing parking facilities.
– Increasing casino entertainment. options by adding comedy festivals, concerts, and community and cultural events.
Rowe said Paragon is already working with city officials to find a way to improve signage at the casino without being gaudy or overbearing.
“They really don’t want to see some casino come in and start blasting these big Vegas signs all over the place,” he said in an interview. “But they understand the need to hang your shingle out front so folks will know you’re in business. Right now, there’s very low curb appeal.”
Rowe said the new owners plan to change the casino kitchen so they can improve food offerings and create more of a destination food environment than the “quasi snack bar” that exists now.
They also plan to increase the number of table games at the casino, and increase the number of poker tables from four to 10.
Paragon has a lease to operate the casino at its current location until 2013, but it could relocate sooner than that if it decides to expand into more of a destination-resort complex, with a hotel and other facilities.
“We haven’t mapped out our long-term plan yet, but we’d certainly like to expand on what’s there,” Rowe said.
Paragon chief executive officer Diana Bennett, daughter of the late legendary Las Vegas casino operator and Circus Circus co-founder William Bennett, said she wants to make Edgewater the “premier destination casino” in the Vancouver market.
Paragon operates casinos in the western U.S., and is currently developing two projects on First Nations properties in Alberta — the River Cree Resort & Casino in Edmonton, and the Alexis Casino and Travel Plaza in Woodlands County.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
New West mayor lauds 1,000-home scheme
Wednesday, September 6th, 2006$500-million project will redefine gritty area
Bruce Constantineau
Sun
Artist’s rendering shows three of the nine styles of detached homes for the project
Aragon Group president Lenny Moy answers questions about Port Royal development in New Westminster
Construction is in the early stages at the Port Royal development in the Queensborough area of New Westminster that will involve a total of 1,000 new homes
A new $500-million, 1,000-home development on the eastern tip of Queensborough will transform the New Westminster industrial area into a vibrant residential community that attracts more business, New Westminster Mayor Wayne Wright said Tuesday.
“Queensborough has location, location, location,” he told a news conference where developers provided an update on Port Royal — described as the largest master-planned development in the city’s history.
“With the base of new people that will live here, it will bring in a lot of new . . . businesses.”
Aragon Group president Lenny Moy said his company’s project will be built in phases over the next five to six years, and should eventually house up to 2,500 people in a mixture of single-family homes, courtyard homes, row housing, lofts and condominiums.
He said the project will introduce two new housing concepts to B.C. — freehold courtyard homes that share a common courtyard driveway, and freehold attached row homes. The freehold status means owners will not deal with strata or maintenance fees because they own the land.
Developers have built a ferry dock on the 20-hectare site in hopes of attracting a ferry operator that will run a water transit service from Port Royal to Westminster Quay. The project also features more than five hectares of riverfront walkways and parks.
Sales begin this fall, with single-family homes ranging from 1,600 to 2,300 square feet, expected to sell in the $500,000 range.
Queensborough was known in the past mainly as a low-to-middle-income housing area, with a history tied to industrial functions such as shipyards, salmon canning, and a sawmill.
But the area has attracted a lot of new commercial real estate development in recent years, including the 2004 opening of Queensborough Landing shopping centre featuring Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Home Outfitters. Gateway Casinos also plans to build a major new casino and hotel development in Queensborough.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
Fewer house sales reported in August
Wednesday, September 6th, 2006Selling price of a typical city house jumps 19% in a year
Derrick Penner
Sun
Source: Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley Real Estate Board VANCOUVER SUN
Housing sales across the Lower Mainland dropped in August, compared with the same month a year ago, the third month in a row that real estate transactions remained below 2005’s record highs.
For the month, Greater Vancouver recorded 2,998 real estate sales, a 17.8-per-cent decrease from August, 2005. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver also saw an increase in the number of listings for the fourth month in a row.
Single-family home sales dropped 25.4 per cent to 1,167 units, the biggest decline. However, the benchmark price for a so-called typical single-family home in Vancouver hit $649,042, a 19-per-cent increase from a year ago.
In the Fraser Valley, August sales dropped 26 per cent to 1,692 transactions compared with 2005. And while the average price of a single-family home in the Valley has climbed 18.5 per cent over the past year to $483,752, the average condominium price fell 2.3 per cent to $191,451.
Fraser Valley listings also climbed to 6,474, a 14-per-cent increase in the inventory of unsold housing units compared with a year ago.
“I’m not surprised that there has been a year-over-year decline,” Helmut Pastrick, chief economist for Credit Union Central B.C., said in an interview.
Pastrick started sensing a slowdown in sales last fall related directly to the inching up of mortgage rates, which “hasn’t been . . . precipitous, but has been fairly steady.
“This is more an affordability-driven sales decline . . . but not enough [of a decline] to really trigger a significant downturn.”
Pastrick does foresee fewer first-time and low-equity buyers entering the market.
However, Pastrick does believe that employment and income gains that British Columbia is experiencing will help support the real estate market. He expects sales to begin increasing again in 2007, unless harder times befall North American economies.
Dave Rishel, president of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, said August sales were still at high levels, and the drop does not represent “quote, ‘the beginning of the bursting of the bubble.’ “
The increase in listings, Rishel added, should give buyers more selection and more time to rationally contemplate purchases.
“I think we are all in agreement that there will be adjustments in the market,” Rishel said. “We’d be fooling everybody to say that there will be a steady cycle all the way up to wherever. We all anticipate these slowdowns from time to time, but [overall] I don’t envision anything radical.”
Rick Valouche, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s president, said pressure on prices will start easing when there are more listings available than buyers in the market.
“When that’s going to happen, I don’t know,” Valouche said. “At this point it’s just not happening.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
New Westminster adds 1,000-home community
Wednesday, September 6th, 200622-storey condominium tower part of Aragon’s Queensborough plan
Wendy McLellan
Province
South-facing and surrounded by the Fraser River, Port Royal’s development will be complete in about six years.
The sleek condominium tower could fit into any urban centre, but it will dominate the skyline in Queensborough.
Set at the river’s edge, where the Fraser River splits into the south and north arms, the 22-storey tower is part of a huge new development on 20 hectares of former industrial lands at the eastern end of New Westminster’s Queensborough area.
Although highrises have been in the area’s official community plan for at least two decades and zoning for residential development includes as many as six highrises, the tower planned at Port Royal is the first.
It is also the only tower in the $500-million development by the Aragon Group and is higher than the maximum set out in the permit.
Aragon’s request for a height variance of about 12 metres will go before New Westminster’s city council Sept. 18.
The new residential community includes 1,000 new homes in various forms with riverfront walkways along two sides.
The tower is the last phase of the development, which is expected to be completed in about six years.
“When I first saw this land, I thought, ‘Wow, what a place.’ It is so beautiful,” said Aragon president Lenny Moy. “It’s south-facing, surrounded by river. What more could you ask for in a community you can put your imprint on?”
The development includes traditional single-family homes, garden apartments, lofts and the residential tower as well as courtyard homes and row houses. The row houses, which are attached freehold townhomes, rather than strata-titled, are a very recent style of housing for B.C., although they are common in eastern Canada.
The courtyard homes, which are more familiar to Californians, have four single-family homes sharing a common courtyard driveway with the garages tucked behind the houses.
Moy said the site, bordered by a railway that connects to Annacis Island, was a challenge to prepare for construction. After two years of preparation, construction is underway on the first two phases of the development and the sales office officially opens later this month.
Jim Hurst, New Westminster’s senior planning analyst, said that Aragon’s request for a height variance for its single tower has the support of the city’s design panel, which decided a slimmer profile and extra height will give the tower a more attractive look for what will become a landmark on the property directly across the river.
But some residents of the developments along New Westminster’s waterfront are less enthusiastic about the tower.
“This has been a green peninsula — just grass and trees,” said James Crosty, president of the Quayside Community Board, which represent nearly 2,000 strata unit owners.
“We knew it wasn’t going to last, but this is right in your face. It’s very artistically designed, but it’s the height. And it’s right at the closest edge of the river.”
© The Vancouver Province 2006
