The newest Gastown restaurant has a short and sweet menu that changes weekly according to the market
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Mackerel Esca beche, smoked fingerling potato salad, chorizo oil and confit cherry tomatoes, served in style at Boneta in Gastown. Photograph by : Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun
Boneta values sentimentality over shock. It’s named after the mom of one of the owners and on the back wall, there’s a mom-like quote.
“There are two types of people in this world, Mark — those who wait to talk and those who listen,” it says, referring to Mark Brand, a co-owner. Much nicer than a quote from the Ramones, say.
Boneta is a diamond in the rough but the quality of the stone is good. Just a little more polish should catch the sparkle.
It is yet another restaurant to open in Gastown’s second coming and is owned by a pedigreed trio. Neil Ingram is an ex-Lumiere sommelier, Brand was Vancouver Magazine’s 2006 bartender of the year when he was at Chambar, and Andre McGillivray has been in management at Le Crocodile, Lumiere and Chambar.
In the kitchen, a young chef is on a mad march to distinguishing himself. Twenty-five-year-old Jeremie Bastien’s father is a celebrated chef in Montreal, and cooking comes naturally to him. Already, he’s worked at Boulevard, one of San Francisco’s best restaurants, and as a sous chef at Lumiere, a Vancouver jewel.
His kitchen staff have been poached from Blue Water Cafe and CinCin and the pastry chef has worked at Lumiere and Fuel — an impressive team, all in all.
You’ll note the menu is short and sweet — five cold dishes, five hot and four desserts — but it will change weekly, guided by the local market. My first meal was fantastic and I saw glimmers of Lumiere brilliance. On a second visit, that quality and assurance was gone. Perhaps, it’s part of the elephantine struggle of a new restaurant getting to its feet.
The restaurant is in the solid stone building where The Meatmarket (restaurant) operated for 25 years, until 1988. The 1899 building was once the hub of Vancouver as a bank and hotel. The stone, I’m told, was quarried at Queen Elizabeth Park. “She’s a gorgeous old broad,” Ingram says.
The room, a kind of split-level, has been restored into a blend of funky and modern. The female servers, in never-say-die black, are down-to-earth and the one who served us on both occasions is knowledgeable and interested in food.
In Gastown, businesses share turf with the junkies and the jobless. One of them planted his nose in our window to get a good look at how the other half eat. There’s free valet parking but after a recent car break-in while covering another restaurant, I’ve been parking downtown and walking into Gastown.
My first meal started with a scallop tempura with soba, shiitake and lobster broth. “A good sign of things to come,” I scribbled surreptitiously. The scallop was lovely and the broth, a wonderful complement. Confit of tuna salad with quail eggs and Nicoise olive vinaigrette was an elegant take on the traditional Nicoise salad; lamb loin with English peas, potato gnocchi and arugula featured a lamb that was perfectly cooked, between rare and medium rare.
Seared Arctic char with sauce vierge (uncooked, or ‘virginal’) was lovely. The yogurt panna cotta with orange, passion fruit and grapefruit, so simple and uncomplicated, yet elegant and delicious. That dessert, Bastien says, is his father’s recipe and his grandmother’s favourite dessert.
The second visit didn’t yield home runs. A duck confit with smoked fingerlings and sunchoke froth was tasty but not moist; halibut with lobster gnocchi and rosemary sauce featured overcooked halibut and a jus so watery, it didn’t stand up to the fish.
Grilled tuna with green grape and caper sauce, mushrooms and peas was a tasty dish and I really enjoyed the green asparagus with comte cheese, paper-thin pear slices and vin cotto (flavoured, cooked wine).
Chocolate brownie with apricot compote came with apricot-pit milkshake. After the feat of removing the bitterness from apricot pit, the “milkshake” it yielded was something like almond milk and the apricot was too sharply intense, even against the might of high-quality Valrhona chocolate in the brownie.
The wine list is compact but that’s because Ingram keeps changing it to complement the menu. It’s not a list of the usual suspects. In fact, I didn’t recognize many at all because they’re almost all organic wines and some are made with biodynamic grapes. The cocktails have insider names — like The Scheurmans, named after Chambar owner Nico Shuermans and The Stearns, named after Chris Stearn, former Lumiere bar manager. His Negroni-style, orange-infused gin is wonderful.
The restaurant is part of the Green Table and Ocean Wise programs and buys locally as much as possible.
BONETA
1 West Cordova. 604-721-1564. Open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday from 5:30. Lunches on Fridays only, noon to 3. Free valet parking.
Overall: 3 1/2
Food: 3 1/2
Ambience: 3 1/2
Service: 3 1/2
Price: $$
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
