Chic sweets and savory Italian
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Giovane at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel boasts an array of both sweet and savoury items, from doughnuts, scones and cakes, to pizza, paninis and salads. Photograph by: Bill Keay, PNG, Vancouver Sun
AT A GLANCE
Giovane Cafe
Where: Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel,
1038 Canada Place, 604-695-5501 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 604-695-5501 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Info:www.giovanecafe.com.
Open daily from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Generally speaking, retail scones are profoundly disappointing. After a couple of bites they turn to sludge, so what could I do but start making my own.
Well, lately, I’ve been cheating on myself. Since the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel opened, I’ve hustled a couple of blocks from my office to Giovane, a Milano modern cafe. If I’m very, very bad, I’ll get a white chocolate-cherry scone. If I’m virtuous, I’ll get the buttermilk scone with butter and jam to compensate for the lack of cherry and chocolate.
A bit of a primer: You’ll know you’re at Giovane when you walk into the giant yellow “G” sculpture on the sidewalk. Enter and the first counter is more of a takeout or coffee quickie, with baked goods — such as scones, muffins, cinnamon buns, zeppoli (Italian doughnut with pastry cream and chocolate), cookies, artisanal cakes by the piece or whole, single panettone, and oh yes, those snipers, the sugar buns. They mesmerize until you surrender to them.
Further in, there’s a more substantial counter with savories as well as the baking. There are thin-crust pizzas, panini on very good bread and salads. But it’s nice to simply bask in the chicness of it all at Giovane, even if it’s just with a cuppa coffee (49th Parallel).
Soon, a bright yellow Vespa branded with their “G” will be scooting around the downtown, delivering the buxom sugar buns and other goodies to those in dire need. They’re just waiting for a sidecar appendage to be attached to the scooter.
The chef overseeing the food is the hotel’s exec chef, David Wong. The man behind the artful pastries is Arthur Chen, who competed at the World Culinary Olympics three years ago with his boss. He took top place for his petits fours and chocolate sculpture in the dessert competitions.
“His pieces,” Wong says, “were crazy. They looked like they defied gravity.”
I’ve tried a couple of Giovane pizzas. They’re expensive, at $9 a piece, certainly a heck of a lot more than the $1.99 floppy jobbies you see on the streets. But Giovane pizzas offer much better eating and the crust and toppings are way more interesting. (The breads and pizzas are made in a moisture-injected stone oven, overseen by Adam Chandler, the master of bread dough.)
I tried the cured pork with fresh arugula pizza; there’s one with hard-boiled eggs, anchovies and tomato sauce. “It’s a solid, classic preparation of pizzas from various Italian regions,” Wong says.
Some are kept in the display and reheated, but I’d recommend you ask for it to be made fresh. Pizza doesn’t sit well.
Grilled panini (about $9) are made with lovely breads (also for sale at the counter for about $5 a loaf). The Genovese with turkey, pear, taleggio cheese and prosciutto, basil and arugula is a sure bet.
Wong says when the weather smartens up, the sidewalk windows will open up; actually, they open down and it’ll be somewhat al fresco in the lower part of the cafe. Of course, if you ascend the Carrera marble stairs in the lobby, you’ll find the swish Oru restaurant with a menu that swoops through Asia.
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