Deuce, North Vancouver’s newest, hippest eatery, doesn’t get too clever or carried away with tapas — and they sure are good
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Bottle rockets are a feature of Deuce, which has been open for about three months.
It’s a dash of cool on North Vancouver’s Lonsdale Ave. Deuce is a smart looker in a contemporary, straight-edged, minimalist way, although a little too starkly naked for my liking.
The feeling-est part of the room is splashed across the back wall where a crimson graphic swirl captures an in-joke. Owner Rob Gietl had a morning meeting with the designer after a late-night celebrating a friend’s 50th; the designer doodled the look of Gietl’s morning-after eye and that became became the feature wall. Just don’t stare too long — it does a Reveen number on you.
Gietl is familiar with hip — his other restaurant, Capone’s, though not minimal or modern, sits amid fashion-conscious Yaletown.
appreciate not having to drive across a bridge for a downtown feel.
Deuce has been open for about three months now and locals are figuring it out although hipsters might have found the grandparenty couple in the lounge one evening a bit of a buzz-kill. But it’s been busy enough even on the weekday evenings we visited.
To send out hip and au courant signals, one must serve tapas and that’s what chef Courtney Burham does. He wisely doesn’t get too clever and carried away in this cusp of cool project. The dishes are tweaked and styled comfort food, good for sharing. On the dinner menu, he shows esthetic control with a beet carpaccio and fennel salad, beautifully presented paper- thin and vibrantly hued.
I loved the crab risotto fritters, presented in little spoons; lamb chops with double bacon, lentils, cranberry and cardamom were juicy and delicious; the seared scallops with crispy pancetta, vegetarian caviar and vanilla mango purée shows he’s good with seafood — it was fresh and cooked just to the brink of doneness; salmon corndogs were hokey but good and they really resembled corndogs.
“Bottle Rockets” are marinated prawns wrapped in phyllo and cooked on skewers; they’re good, but one should be careful not to plunge the pointy end of the skewer down the throat while struggling for prawns. Remove the skewered prawns on to a plate, then eat.
The Surf and Turf, at $16 and the most expensive dish, didn’t excite, nor did the beef steak lasagne. The latter has the promise of down-home comfort food but it was preciously deconstructed and lacklustre.
Duck ‘Twofer,’ a duo of smoked duck with blackcurrant port poached pears, gooseberries and chives and shredded duck confit with caramelized apple, roasted onions, goat cheese herb tart sounds like explosions of flavour but the five pieces were diminished by their diminutiveness. The oomph went missing.
I like what they’ve done with the desserts. They come in small $2.50 sized pieces so you can order all five and share, or, sensibly, just have a nibble. The Parfait Duo, a layered affair in a cappuccino cup was the most memorable.
Deuce is also open for lunch and brunch.
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DEUCE
Overall: 3 1/2
Food: 3 1/2
Ambience: 3 1/2
Service: 3 1/2
1617 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, www.deucerestaurant.ca
Open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner (brunch on weekends)
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
