Foodies will flock to this simple Cambie Street venue
Mark Laba
Province
Tony Peneff serves classic French-bistro fare at Pied-a-Terre.
PIED-A-TERRE
Where: 3369 Cambie St., Vancouver
Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-873-3131
Drinks: Wine and aperitifs
Hours: Mon.-Thurs., noon-10:30 p.m.; Fri., noon-midnight; Sat., 5 p.m.–midnight; Sun., 5 p.m.-10:30 p.m.
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The French have always given me the willies. Any country that canonizes both Jerry Lewis and Jean Paul Sartre in the same breath provides a paradox in thought processes that leaves me scratching my existential noggin. They know something I don’t, is my underlying fear, plus their president wears Prada suits. I don’t know what that has to do with anything but it’s as intimidating as a French wine list.
Well, it’s the same with French cuisine. The simplest ingredients are elevated into cultural spheres that your average North American turnip or chicken liver can only hope for.
That was my lingering anxiety as Peaches and I hoofed it to this new venture.
It takes a certain amount of chutzpah to open a new business on the RAV line route where the earth is literally being ripped out from under your feet. But, when your reputation follows you like a bloodhound on the scent, as is the case with chef and restaurateur Andrey Durbach and business partner Chris Stewart, then success is imminent.
This new venture is classic small French bistro, only 30 seats total, simply done in black and white with a huge chandelier stripped down to its skeletal framework. Kind of a metaphor for the food here — simple by design, ornate in execution.
Peaches wet her whistle with a Kir Royale aperitif, a champagne and crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) concoction while I scanned the all-French wine selection and tried to appear like I knew what I was doing, going through a series of facial contortions that would’ve made Jerry Lewis proud.
Finally I asked for help and ended up with a fragrant red called Gres St. Paul Romanis ($11.25 glass, $32 half-litre, $45 bottle), smooth and with all the earthy depth of a Jacques Cousteau expedition in a Languedoc duck pond.
For starters we had the Alsatian onion pie ($8.50) and a Paysanne salad ($9.50), a wondrous construction of warm weenie potatoes, chorizo, endive and a twice-cooked egg with a crispy carapace. The onion pie was the highlight, a creamy coagulation of herbs, cheese and onion cooked until melting point and this alone is worth a return visit.
My main shindig was a real Gallic romp for the tastebuds. Beef short-rib bourguignon ($22.50) was a beautiful mire with a sauce richer than one of Brigitte Bardot’s many divorce settlements and meat that melted from the bone.
Peaches had a daily special veal chop ($30). Europeans have no qualms about eating baby animals, which may be why Euro-Disney never took off. This chop was perfectly grilled and slathered in a pungent sauté of two types of mushroom species. A baby cow frolicking in a field of fungus. What a beautiful painting that would make. It deserves a spot in the Louvre.
Not a big menu but the classics are done expertly, from foie-gras parfait to steak and frites, duck à l’orange to pork tenderloin with apples and Calvados. For dessert the lemon tart brulée is simple yet luxurious. And after a few more glasses of wine, Jerry Lewis and Jean Paul Sartre don’t seem that far apart.
THE BOTTOM LINE: No-frills French with a touch of finesse.
RATINGS: Food: A; Service: A; Atmosphere: A
© The Vancouver Province 2008
