It’s a great opportunity to try new trendy places, less expensive places and rediscover forgotten favourites
Joanne Sasvari
Sun
The best deal in town right now isn’t just the good — and cheap! — eats being offered through Dine Out Vancouver. It’s the fabulous wines that are paired with them.
“The great value of Dine Out Vancouver’s menus means that you can spend the money that you save on trying new wines that you might not usually try,” says Wendy Underwood, manager of travel media relations for Tourism Vancouver.
In case you somehow missed the news, the sixth annual Dine Out restaurant promotion organized by Tourism Vancouver kicked off Wednesday. This year, a phenomenal 182 restaurants are participating in the event, which continues until the last weary chef hangs up his toque on Feb. 3.
Thanks to Dine Out, what used to be the year’s slowest season has become its busiest.
It’s a great opportunity not only to try trendy new restaurants, but to discover smaller, less expensive places as well as forgotten faves.
There are three levels of prix fixe, three-course meals — $15 at casual joints like Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co.; $25 at mid-range trendsetters like So.Cial at Le Magasin; and $35 at high end eateries like Blue Water Café, Gastropod, Fuel and so on. Some restaurants — C is one of them — also offer even fancier $45 or $55 menus.
Dine Out is all about new discoveries, but that doesn’t always mean discovering new restaurants. La Terrazza and Raincity Grill, for instance, find that their regular customers show up for Dine Out just to splash out on the kinds of wines they might not usually be able to justify.
“Dine Out offers participants the opportunity to taste new wines that they not have been able to (a) find or (b) taste because they only wanted to try a glass,” says Lisa Cameron, communications manager for the British Columbia Wine Institute.
“It is a very good value in all the restaurants. It does offer you the opportunity to go, ‘The whole meal only cost $25 or $35,’ so it’s an opportunity to try a couple of great wines with the meal.”
While guests can use the savings to dig deep into the cellar for a pricy Bordeaux or extravagant Barolo, they can also explore some of the interesting wines B.C. has to offer. That’s because each restaurant also offers BC VQA wine pairings with each cours.
“If the restaurant has done its job and the sommelier has paired it really well, it makes both taste better,” Cameron says.
For instance, Yew Restaurant + Lounge at the Four Seasons has paired the light and lovely Le Vieux Pin Vaila rose with a delicate crab soup, while Metro is offering the beautifully bold Osoyoos Larose Gand Vin with its entrée of Nicola Valley Deer, Fraser Valley duck breast and certified Angus striploin.
You can order a single glass for, say, $15, or you can order an entire pairing list of three wines for only $35, which may be the best Dine Out deal of all. That way, you can sample a variety of B.C.’s best for less than you’d pay for a bottle of the cheapest plonk on any list anywhere.
“It shows you the kind of culture we have on the West Coast,” Cameron says. “It shows you how much we appreciate local food and that means local wine, too.”
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DINE OUT VANCOUVER
To view the entire list of participating restaurants, visit the Tourism Vancouver website at www.tourismvancouver.com. Reservations are essential throughout Dine Out, and most restaurants will take reservations online through Open Table, also accessible through the Tourism Vancouver website.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
