Hundreds vie for seats at the chef’s table behind the market’s closed doors
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Diners gather for a unique dinner organized by chef Eric Pateman of Edible B.C. in a corner of the Public Market. Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider, Vancouver Sun
Chef Eric Pateman prepares a feast for a hungry audience. Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider, Vancouver Sun
There’s life behind those locked doors. One source of nocturnal activity is the after-hours Market Dinners. Local guest chefs use ingredients from the market and cook multi-course dinners with wine pairings and cocktails.
These dinners for 20, organized by Eric Pateman of Edible B.C., take place in a corner of the Public Market with tables set in the aisle. The Vikram Vij dinners have been so popular (600 tried to get one of the 20 spaces) that seats at the table are won by a lottery system. These Market Dinners are $84.94 each and offer a unique perspective on the market.
“We host dinners in the market two, three times a week,” Pateman says. Some are private events. “We had dinners going almost every night in December last year,” he reveals.
Meanwhile, vendors are restocking shelves and organizing displays and janitors are cleaning, preparing for the relentless diurnal tides of humanity .
Over at La Baguette et L’Echalote Boulangerie, the bakers and pastry chefs are just beginning their work day. Every day, they sell 1,000 to 2,000 baguettes and 1,200 rolls as well as croissants, French pastries, patés and several varieties of bread.
“We’ve been in business for 30 years and I still love to go to work every day,” says Louise Turgeon, who runs the business with Mario Armitano. (They first had a French butcher shop, La Madrague, on Granville Island.)
Over the years, La Baguette developed a wholesale arm which sells to restaurants, Whole Foods and Capers. Trucks leave with bread deliveries about 4 or 5 a.m., and the shop, filled with heaven-sent aromas, opens at 7:30.
Over at Artisan Sake, on Railspur Alley, the only premium sake winery in Canada, sake maker Masa Shiroki might be tending to his sake in the wee hours of night.
“It is a very, very difficult process. The difficult part is the pressing,” he once told me. “I stay here to sleep and change the weights every hour, adding more each time.”
He makes the sake in the shop where tastings are offered for a small fee.
Pateman’s company also conducts tours of Granville Island.
“They’re led by chefs so they tend to attract foodies,” he says. They go year-round.
The tour often comes to a screeching halt at Granville Island Tea.
“They have 200 teas there and serve the best chai in the city. There’s no other chai that comes even close. It’s an organic tea with a blend of milk powder, Indian spices, sugar and butter,” he says. “Tourists are blown away by the matcha phenomenon here. Matcha doesn’t have quite the following outside of Vancouver.”
Edible Foods has some 800 B.C. food products for sale, with 600 available for samplings. “We have four fridges dedicated to sampling,” Pateman says. “You can try before you buy.”
Pateman says many of the vendors are so unique, visitors from cities like Chicago and Los Angeles often say they’re going back home to open a similar store. Stock Market (stocks, soups, dressings, sauces) and Oyama Sausage (450 sausages and cured meat products made by a fifth-generation sausage maker) are two such vendors.
As an insider, Pateman spills the beans on Go Fish, the outdoor great little fish shack at Fisherman’s Wharf, where a long line-up pops up just as your stomach starts gurgling its discontent. “At 11:20, you’ll be about fifth in line,” he says. It opens at 11:30. “You gotta hit the time right.”
His recommendation is the Daily Special. “It’s what they get off the fish boats that day. I love the Qualicum Bay scallops grilled and served on a bun. The oyster po‘ boy is good, too,” he says.
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