Mia Stainsby
Sun
Brian Fowke, owner/chef of Rare restaurant on Hornby, displays his duck appetizer. Photograph by : Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun
I’m sure Vancouver’s howling winds and biblical rains deterred diners, and the boil-water advisory created snarls in restaurant kitchens, but all in all, 2006 was a very fine year. Restaurants rode in and out of the year on the back of a strong B.C. economy.
“There’s a high level of optimism,” says Ian Tostenson, president of the B.C. Restaurant and Food Services Association. The boil-water advisory had an up side as far as he’s concerned.
“One thing we learned was how quickly and professionally this industry responds. It showed we can prepare ourselves for the Olympics or a crisis. It was pretty cool,” he says. (Apart from some coffee shops, most restaurants stayed opened during the water advisory.)
The Olympic Games looms large in his mind as a challenge to the industry.
“In 2010, when we invite the world and when they leave, what they’ll remember are their experiences in restaurants. I’m going to make sure it’s good. Restaurants are the driving culture in cities and communities throughout B.C. That’s my personal opinion,” he says.
BCRFA is working on getting restaurants on board by showcasing B.C. products, being superhosts and offering advice and resources to restaurants. Productivity and technology issues are huge, too, with worker shortage. “We have to learn how to do more for less,” he says.
One of the optimists, Sean Heather, sees his flagship restaurant, Irish Heather, as something of a barometer for the industry. Readings were so good, he opened a couple of new places and another one is on the way in a couple of months. (His restaurant Salt opened last year. Lucky Diner squeaked in at the end of December. Pepper opens at the end of February.)
“We’ve been doing exceptionally well, breaking all previous records and we’re not doing anything different than before,” he says of the Irish Heather. “There’s way more money and a lot more people are eating out now.”
The fact that people spend $20 on a glass of whisky “without batting an eye” is a pretty good indicator, he says. “And we’re not talking tourists.”
Many Irish Heather customers are local architects and graphic designer types — when they’re flush, the economy, and thus restaurants, are A-okay, so long as the basics are covered.
As usual, hundreds of new eateries opened in Greater Vancouver last year, and they met with varying degrees of success. One restaurant, Century, started out as a vibrant newcomer early but by year’s end the chef with the sexy Latin moves in the kitchen had moved back to the U.S., the food slid downhill and the Latin American theme was left to the music and Che Guevara mural.
A couple of highly anticipated restaurants didn’t sprint fast enough to cater to the lucrative December trade — Fuel and La Buca will be opening soon.
And of course, some newcomers stood out from the rest. Here, then, are my picks for the top 10 best new restaurants that opened in 2006.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
