Italian and Greek dishes made restaurant famous

Alfie Lau
Sun

ROMANA RESTAURANT

4660 Hastings St., North Burnaby

604-298-7252

Opening hours: 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for lunch on weekdays

Dinner: 5 to 10 p.m. Monday to Saturday, and for special catering parties, by appointment, on some holidays and Sundays

– – –

Rare is the small business that has survived 35 years with the same ownership but don’t try telling that to Poppy Siormanolakis.

In 1973, Poppy and husband Eugene started the Romana Pizza and Steak House at 4660 E. Hastings in North Burnaby, serving predominantly pizza and Italian dishes even though they were proud Greeks.

The eatery, now called Romana Restaurant, still serves pizza and Italian but there’s a healthy assortment of Greek dishes that come straight from Eugene‘s home kitchen.

“There weren’t a lot of people looking for Greek food in the ’70s and ’80s,” said Poppy. “We didn’t start focusing on Greek dishes until the ’90s. … What’s good for our customers is that our pizza and our steaks have been very popular, almost since the start, and they can still order that off our menu.”

If you don’t believe Poppy, then all you have to do is go to the restaurant’s website at www.romanarestaurant.com and see an original menu from 1973.

On a beautiful sunny night, an old schoolmate and myself decided to step back in time and see what has made Romana an enduring success story.

Poppy herself was working and she had us sitting in the back patio, where her own family was relaxing before the dinner rush.

We started with a couple of quintessentially Greek items, the calamari ($9 if deep-fried, $12 if grilled) and the lamb paidakia ($12).

When I asked Poppy what type of calamari I should order, she asked if I was a health-conscious eater.

When I replied that I’m not known for my marathoner’s body, she told me the deep-fried calamari was my only choice.

And Poppy wasn’t wrong, as the calamari almost overflowed on the plate she brought us. Crispy and not too-fattening — that’s what she assured me as I polished it off — the octopus was a great way to start the meal.

The lamb, which comes in three perfectly charbroiled chops, was exquisite, as Eugene‘s mustard-based sauce gave it a little kick. The lamb literally fell of the bone, it was so tender and juicy.

For our mains, we decided to go with a couple of old favourites that have survived the test of time.

The baked ravioli, once $3.50 per serving, is now $13 but it’s still as filling as ever. Eugene doesn’t skimp on the ravioli and having it surrounded with meat sauce makes it a pasta dish worth coming back for.

And we couldn’t not order the pizza that is famous in North Burnaby, so we went with the Super ($24 for a large 14-inch version and $15 for the small 10-inch version). The Super now features pepperoni, mushrooms, ham, onion, green peppers and olives, which is slightly different from the 1973 model, which had shrimp and bacon instead of ham.

The pizza was as perfect as you would expect. The crust was hefty enough to support the weight of all the meat and vegetable toppings but still crispy enough to be crunchy on first bite.

And unlike mass-market pizza joints, the Super wasn’t oily, with just enough cheese to give it flavour.

The pizza is so good that my nephew, who just finished Grade 2, insisted that he get three slices of the Super as his treat for a year of learning.

“I love this pizza,” he said. He likes it so much that when he first tried it several years ago, he would pull off the olives. Now, it’s an acquired taste and he can’t get enough. It’s a small wonder he can fit so much pizza in an eight-year-old’s stomach.

to hear that my nephew loves Romana’s pizza because both her daughters, who have worked in the restaurant since they were young, are pregnant.

Jenny is due at the end of August and Nora at the end of November.

“My daughters have worked very hard here and maybe we’ll have the grandchildren working here when they are old enough,” said the family matriarch. “I think my greatest pleasure in the 35 years we’ve been here is seeing our customers come back with their kids. I remember them when they came with their own parents and now they come with their own kids. It’s a great cycle, that’s the pleasure I get. It’s very satisfying to see generations of a family eating at our restaurant.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Shop recently moved to Gastown and still features yummy treats

Mia Stainsby
Sun

CANADIAN MAPLE DELIGHTS

385 Water St., 604-682-6175. wwwcanadianmapledelights.com.

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone.

As a belated happy 400th birthday to Quebec, I give you Canadian Maple Delight. There are three of them in the country — in Quebec City, Montreal and Vancouver. Why leapfrog from its home province, Quebec, to Vancouver without touching down in Toronto? Because the shop and cafe is all about maple syrup and goodies made with it. A big market for that are Japanese tourists who happen to also like Vancouver.

“They love maple syrup,” says Alida Bregant, manager and chef of the Vancouver branch.

More than 80 per cent of the world’s production is in Canada and of that, 75 per cent is from Quebec. I know Ontario produces some because when my sister visits from Muskoka, she brings a big whisky bottle filled with locally tapped maple syrup. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I. also produce small amounts.

Canadian Maple Syrup used to be on Hornby Street and it used to serve savouries as well as sweets. The shop/cafe recently relocated to tourist central in Gastown and no longer does savouries. But it still offers a lovely bunch of baking and gelato, all involving maple syrup. Since it’s near my office, I’ve stopped in rather too often for the maple cinnamon danish with roasted pecans. Bregant makes the baked goods as well as the French-style pastries and gelato. Everything in the store is made with the company’s organic maple syrup.

In the bakery case, alongside the yummy danish, are cookies, brownies, squares, tarts and mousse desserts. The gelato is made with a recipe from Italy, Bregant says.

There are a few tables in the front where you can enjoy the “maple delights” with maple beverages — ice maple latté, ice maple mocha, maple lemon tea, Grand Marnier maple coffee, for example.

And you’ll find good-quality maple syrup in elegant bottles. The syrup, Bregant says, is organic and kosher. It’s pricier than the “pancake syrup” you find at a supermarket, but remember, it takes about 40 litres of sap to make a litre of maple syrup.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Too-long menu has rewards, but leaves possibility for disappointment

Mia Stainsby
Sun

MANDALA IKI ASIAN BISTRO

Overall: 3

Food: 3

Ambience: 3

Service: 3

Price: $/$$

2394 West Fourth Ave., 604-734-3715.

www.brownricesushi.com.

Open for lunch and dinner, daily. Brunch available Saturday and Sunday.

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.

– – –

Give me a long and rambling menu and suddenly I need hip waders. I feel directionless and knee-deep in dishes. But if a restaurant offers good value for those dishes, sometimes it’s worth navigating your way around the too-big menu.

Mandala Iki Asian Bistro opened in Kitsilano a couple of months ago. It cast a big net with lures of Japanese and Chinese dishes and a Thai tom yum soup thrown in. On weekends, there’s a muddled brunch with smoked salmon bagel, sushi bowl beef “chunck” steak and sub sandwiches (one of them with smoked “soekeye” salmon) as well as regular brunch-style fare. Along with proofreading the menu, owners need to hone in on what it wants to be, at the very least, for brunch.

Basically, Mandala’s dinner menu evokes a Chinese and Japanese restaurant under one roof and the owners have tailored it to a health-conscious Kitsilano dining profile — their sushi is offered with a choice of brown or white rice, and they cut back on oil with the traditional Chinese style dishes; there’s no MSG in the kitchen and they also use local produce, bought at Granville Island Public Market. Shellfish is from Lobster Man at Granville Island but I did notice the salmon sashimi was farmed salmon, albeit quite good quality. I noticed the menu lists “salmon sashimi” and “sockeye salmon sashimi” so if you want the wild, ask for the sockeye.

We were happy with the sushi. We tried the Ruby Roll (crab, cucumber, avocado, salmon eggs and green onion) and the Lobster Crispy Roll (lobster, asparagus, avocado, tempura, lobster miso sauce) and the fish was fresh.

Tempura passed the crisp, light and delicate batter test. Agedashi tofu, too, was as good as I’ve had at finer Japanese restaurants. A papaya, mango and avocado salad (Thai?) was very good.

The one unforgivable breach was the octopus sunomono. The fishy smell arrived even before the dish was presented. Neither of us could get past the heavy past-due-date smell.

We tried a couple of dishes under the Mandala “Chinoise” section and felt they weren’t strong. I did get carried away, however, eating too much of the Szechuan Crispy Ginger Beef with its sweet, almost sweet and sour sauce. Vegetable Delights was a healthy offering of crisp-fried tofu, mushrooms and other vegetables but it didn’t stand out as particularly fresh.

The menu is too lengthy for me to pilot you through it but it seems from my two visits that the Japanese dishes are stronger than the Chinese; some dishes are very good, while while others might be surprisingly disappointing.

However, if brown rice sushi appeals, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed; it’s worth considering as a neighbourhood spot for an inexpensive lunch or dinner. Almost all dishes are under $10, making for that good value that most of us are in search of these days.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Take heart! It’s no-nonsense, filling and utterly satisfying stuff

Mark Laba
Province

THE DINER

Where: 4556 West 10th Ave., Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-224-1912

Drinks: Tea, coffee, soft drinks

Hours: Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sun. 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

– – –

I prepared for this place by first viewing 56 consecutive episodes of Coronation Street, which I watched while downing pot after pot of PG Tips and eating McVities digestives by the dozen and then ordering a slightly used Jarvik artificial heart off EBay. The guy told me he had jury-rigged the thing to act as a carburetor on his Chevy Impala but it would probably work just as well for human beings. “Just don’t try installing it yourself,” he e-mailed me.

The British Empire was a great empire and Britain today is a wonderful place, steeped in culture and history and of course fry-pan grease. How the hell they made it this far is anybody’s guess. When you think of the copious amounts of greasy foods and grisly internal organ meats they eat with only one head of broccoli and one stick of celery to share among the entire nation, it’s astounding that everyone in Britain isn’t outfitted with a Jarvik from birth.

Nonetheless, there’s something inherently pleasurable in a great British-style fry-up breakfast, a deep-fried binge at lunch or a mixed grill or classic steak and kidney pie for dinner complete with chips.

So welcome to The Diner, in business now for 50 years serving up that classic British no-nonsense fare. You may actually hear your wheezing heart surrender. Owner Stella is the consummate hostess with that cheeky British humour that should’ve snagged her her own BBC special. Helping her out is her daughter Jean, her son-in-law Tom and her husband Reg.

The interior looks like someone sprayed buckshot of knickknacks and British bric-a-brac across the walls. Pictures of the royal family are everywhere and behind my blue booth seat loomed an image of Prince Charles so big it looked like you could drive a double-decker bus through his ears. My dining companion Small Fry Eli was especially mesmerized by the marvellous and motorized wooden model of London Bridge that sits in the front window. Unfortunately the motor is on the fritz and the parts quite specialized but hopefully the thing will be up and running again.

Small Fry Eli was also taken with an early picture of the Queen. “She’s beautiful,” he said. “Mommy could maybe look like that.”

“You mean we should get her a crown.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

This place does a great traditional English breakfast ($7.95) served all day, a veritable ode to the fry pan with bacon, eggs, sausage, baked beans, fried tomatoes, hash browns and fried bread. As well there’s tasty bangers and mash ($9.55), steak and kidney pie ($10.95), Shepherd’s pie ($10.95) or fish and chips available with sole, haddock or cod.

Ironically, that day I opted for Salisbury Steak ($10.95), an American invention but this place does it up beautifully with lots of fried onions, brown gravy, steamed veggies plus some nicely browned potatoes. Nobody understands tubers like the Brits.

Small Fry Eli dug into his ham sandwich with gusto, probably due to the thick slathering of butter on the bread. If you’re there around teatime, try the homemade apricot or Devon oatmeal scones.

On the wall next to me was a photo of Reg’s mother and sister camped out in the London subway during a Second World War air raid. I could almost hear Vera Lynn singing “Hits of the Blitz” from a crackly radio. This eatery is built of memories for transplanted Brits. My favourite writer, P.G. Wodehouse, once wrote, “Memories are like mulligatawny soup in a cheap restaurant. It is best not to stir them.” Well, they serve said soup here and there’s no fear of stirring either the soup or the memories in this place.

– – –

THE BOTTOM LINE: Heart-warming, heart-stopping and thoroughly satisfying.

RATINGS: Food: B+; Service: A; Atmosphere: B+

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

Chain’s latest addition raises the competitive bar

Mia Stainsby
Sun

CACTUS CLUB

Overall: ***1/2

Food: ***1/2

Ambiance: ****

Service: ****

Price: $$

588 Burrard St., 604-682-0933. Open 7 days a week, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. www.cactusclubcafe.ca (No reservations except for large parties.)

It inhales 300 people at a time. Others patiently wait their turn, waiting up to 45 minutes on the adjacent plaza, tapping their high heels, straightening their business suits, talking on cellphones as they await a seat in this $6.5-million glittering glass prima donna of casual glam dining.

The optimistic owner (doesn’t he have to be, opening up the 19th, most expensive Cactus Club yet?) is astounded by how busy it’s been. “Basically, it fills up before noon and stays full until the end of the day,” says Richard Jaffray, owner of the downtown restaurant.

“It’s been spectacular to watch,” says Rob Feenie, the celebrity chef hired to steer the 19 kitchens. “I haven’t seen anything like this except in Las Vegas.”

It’s the West Coast chain dance of the casually chic restaurant chains (think Cactus Club, Earl’s, Joey’s, Milestones), where each new opening is ritzier than the previous. Jaffray says this market has become so competitive, it forces everyone to get better. “And maybe the people of B.C. are a little more sophisticated [than the East]. There’s a big interest in food, and customers here are demanding. They expect quality wherever they go.”

Inside, the soaring ceilings blunt the jagged edges of conversation; like many of the C.C. restaurants, the servers are uniformly young, pretty and exceptionally cheerful. Paintings by Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat, Sir Anthony Hopkins (yup, the actor) and Brent Comber (local wood-working whiz) hint at how all-grown-up Cactus Club has become since the first one opened in 1988 in North Vancouver. It’s not a place you’d go for a quiet dinner, though. It’s boisterous and high-energy, but, at the same time, incredibly well run. We expected a long wait for our food but the courses moved along without a wrinkle.

The hiring of chef Feenie (enough of his ‘food concept architect’ title) has been a big draw, although curiously, his exalted name is absent on the menu. His presence on the menu is becoming noticeable and I do mean “becoming” because this is a whole different gig for him and menu changes occur at a snail’s pace. “Instead of 20 employees, I’m working with 2,200,” says Feenie, “and consistency is important.”

About 10 of the dishes on the menu are his. One of them, the butternut squash ravioli, is as good as I’d had at Lumiere Tasting Bar and my heart flutters at the thought of it. “If we ran them company-wide, we’d have to be doing 15,000 ravioli a month,” Feenie says. (Currently, only the Burrard and Ash Street locations carry Feenie’s new dishes. They’ll be on all Cactus Club menus by the end of summer.)

Other Feenie dishes I tried were the barbecued duck club sandwich on pecan fruit bread (great flavour and combination of ingredients, but the thin-sliced bread split apart making it awkward to eat); calamari sandwich (would have loved it even more with a touch more seasoning); tuna tartare (gorgeous!); spinach salad (had heft and flavour, with balsamic figs, candied pecans, goat cheese, sherry vinaigrette and it was crisp and fresh). I’d love to try his spaghettini with prawns and scallops (and I do appreciate the restaurant’s support of the Ocean Wise sustainable seafood program).

Of the pre-Feenie dishes, some were good and others really need his attention. The pesto-crusted halibut, for example, didn’t trumpet freshness and the pond of Thai curry sauce encircling it was just wrong. A touch of pesto would have sufficed if the fish were nice and fresh. A trio of mini-burgers with red pepper relish was delicious as was the West Coast “pocket” (sushi rice and smoked salmon in tofu pockets). A key lime pie was superior to the usually sad excuses I come across; chocolate lava cake, however, didn’t erupt with oozing chocolate or heavenly chocolate flavour.

I’ve given this Cactus Club three and a half out of five stars for food, but as Feenie’s dishes start to dominate more, that would move to an easy four. Right now, the menu’s in transition.

Feenie’s much-talked-about departure from the high-end Lumiere earlier this year is behind him. “Honestly, I love it here because it’s such a great group of people. It’s fun to be here and for me, I feel like a kid again,” he says. “The price points are lower here and I love that part. The buying power is so huge, it makes it easier. A big part of what I want to do is give good value.”

And that, I would say, is the other good reason people are lining up, tapping their feet, and waiting 45 minutes.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Unassuming cafe has above-average coffee and food plus cheerful service — and it’s licensed

Mia Stainsby
Sun

THE EDGE CAFE

2450 Yukon St.

604-876-7228

– – –

The process of becoming a regular at a cafe for your morning coffee or for lunch is not just a matter of good coffee and food.

The clincher is the atmosphere, especially at that critical a.m. period before you have become fully operative and civil. A friendly place keeps you returning and is all the better if it cheers up your pre-coffee state of mind.

I found The Edge Cafe to be like that. This one on Yukon is an offshoot from the smaller starter cafe at the corner of Cambie and Smythe. Judy Reeves, formerly a sales agent for a clothing and footwear manufacturer, a retail store owner and a medical lab technician, is the high-energy owner. It was her waitressing job as a 14-year-old at Fuller’s restaurant (the family behind Earl’s restaurants) in Edmonton that steered her into this chapter of her life.

“There was something about the food industry that interested me. For me, it’s about feeding people good, healthy food. I like the creativity, talking about it, getting people excited about what you’re doing.”

As well as a cheery staff, you’ll find good coffee (49th Parallel), muffins a cut above the average, scones and other baking. And for lunch, there’s panini, salads, burgers (beef, chicken, veggie), a choice of soups and a pasta special. And how civilized — it is licenced. On weekends, she offers brunch in the form of eggs benedict, french toast, omelettes and baked items.

The first location has been open for three and a half years, and this one’s been going since last September.

There’s a nice selection of music, ranging from lounge to contemporary jazz, and if the sun should decide to grace us with her presence, there are patio tables that should help to minimize your time away out of the golden rays.

If you want a quick, uncomplicated dinner, The Edge is open to 8 p.m.

– – –

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Submit your listings via our website.

For Stage, Playground, Music and Visual Arts, please visit: www.vancouversun.com/listingsform

Deadline: Please submit listings the Friday before publication. Listings are included as space permits, and cannot be guaranteed. We regret that listings cannot be accepted or confirmed by telephone. The new online form requires you to include dates, times, addresses and prices.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Vancouver’s extra-special cocktail

Joanne Sasvari
Sun

Take a measure of style and an equal portion of substance. Add a pinch of history, a splash of creativity and a generous dash of hospitality. Shake it all up and serve with a garnish of something deliciously frivolous.

That’s how you make a great cocktail.

It’s also a pretty good recipe for a great cocktail city. And if it sounds an awful lot like this city, that’s because Vancouver is quickly becoming one of the world’s best places to get a decent drink.

“If you add up the number of bars here doing great, original, classic creations that are what you could call artisanal cocktails, there are probably more bars doing it here than there are in Manhattan,” says cocktail historian Jared Brown.

“This city has more passion about cocktails and it’s had it longer than most places in North America,” adds Anistatia Miller, his partner in both life and work.

Miller and Brown are just two of the many international cocktail experts to hit town recently, eager to check out the scene. They’ve come to teach techniques, share recipes, scout out talent and, above all, enjoy a cocktail or two.

“We were all really, really impressed by the cocktails we had here,” says Miranda Dickson, the U.K.-based head of brand education for Wyborowa Vodka. “It was one of the most exciting cities we’ve visited, in terms of a cocktail experience.”

“It was so evident that on every menu there were some serious drinks, and not just in the obvious places,” says her colleague, master mixologist Dre Masso.

Dickson and Masso visited Vancouver in March and returned this month to host a two-day seminar and competition called the International Cocktail Experience, which fea

tured presentations by Brown and Miller.

They’ve done these seminars in cities all over the world, including Toronto and Montreal, and what they found in Vancouver simply blew them away.

“It was such a stark contrast to Montreal, you wouldn’t even have known you were in the same country,” Dickson says.

But ICE isn’t the only major cocktail event that’s been held here in the past year.

Last fall, Bruno Giffard, head of the family-owned Giffard Liqueurs, visited town to host a competition looking for bartenders to participate in his company’s international cocktail contest, held each May in France.

And why not? After all, in 2007, a Vancouverite, Chris Brown of Beyond Restaurant and Lounge, surprised the Europeans by apparently coming out of nowhere to win the whole thing.

This year, Chambar’s Josh Pape placed second and Yew’s Brian Grant came in fourth, proving that our bartenders can hold their own against the best from France, Germany, England, Sweden and Poland.

“There’s a really serious core of cocktail bartenders in Vancouver who can compete with anyone, anywhere in the world,” Pape says.

There have been numerous other competitions in the past year, hosted by companies such as Grey Goose, Effen and Grand Marnier. And each time, the international reps remark on the quality, creativity and knowledge they’ve seen.

In fact, what our bartenders are doing is creating what celebrity mixologist Tony Abou-Ganim calls “destination cocktails.”

“How many places can you walk up to the bar and be guaranteed you’re going to have a great bartender experience?” asks Abou-Ganim, who was here in March, with fellow international bartending superstar Dale DeGroff, to lead the Finlandia Finnishing School for local bartenders.

“Would you go out of your way for that experience? Absolutely.”

And if the world’s bartending community is going out of its way to taste Vancouver‘s cocktails, the rest of the world can’t be far behind.

Although today’s craze for handcrafted cocktails is only a few years old, the city’s love affair with the cocktail blossomed in the 1950s, when the first cocktail lounge opened at the Sylvia Hotel. It came into full flower in the late ’80s at the original Delilah’s in the Buchan Hotel.

It was there that a bartender known only as Lola introduced the city’s first 60-cocktail list, which featured modern martinis with cheeky names like the Friend of Dorothy (Stolichnaya vodka, Midori melon liqueur and Rose’s Lime Cordial) or Martini Navratilova (Stoli and Gatorade).

“This city was the first in North America to start writing those deep cocktail menus,” says Brown, who believes Delilah’s may have started the continent-wide mega-martini trend of the ’90s.

He and Miller discovered Delilah’s in 1994 when they moved to Vancouver from the United States. They have since moved on to London and spend much of their time overseeing a spirits museum in the South of France. But they lived here for three years, and they credit this city with inspiring them to make cocktails their career.

It wasn’t just the ‘tinis at Delilah’s — or, later, at Lola’s own joint, Lola’s at Century House — that they loved.

“A big part of it was the lounge music,” Brown recalls.

It was also the swanky hotel lounges and the retro-funky hangouts like the Waldorf Hotel’s Blue Lizard Lounge and, of course, the tiki bar at Trader Vic’s, where they served fantastical drinks like the Scorpion, a rum-based concoction that arrived in a giant bowl garnished with a floating gardenia.

“Remember when they tried to close Trader Vic’s?” Miller says with a laugh. “There was this big protest, all these young lounge lizards.”

By now Lola has left to work in Hollywood, Trader Vic’s has long been closed and, even though Delilah’s still serves cleverly named cocktails at its new location, they aren’t, frankly, very good. No matter, because there are plenty of other places that are serving good cocktails.

And not just good cocktails, but epic ones, like Boneta’s bloody mary made with heirloom-tomato gazpacho, housemade Worcestershire sauce and a garnish of quail egg and bacon. Or Chambar’s bellini update made with sparkling wine, peach puree and a basil-peppercorn reduction. Or West’s retro-fabulous original-recipe mai tai with house-made orgeat (almond syrup).

In the best bars, the bartenders are following the city’s culinary trend of using only fresh, local, seasonal ingredients.

“We’re trying to balance drinks the same way a chef makes a dish. That’s how I approach a drink,” Chambar’s Pape says.

It’s not just the flavour and craftsmanship and balance of the drink that matters, but everything else, too.

“What impressed me in Vancouver was the impact when you went into places. Everything was 360 degrees thought out,” says Dickson, who compares Vancouver‘s scene to that of Sydney, Australia.

“The bars look good, they’re designed well, and the drinks are put together well. And it’s not limited to one or two places.”

Beyond that, there is the talent behind the bar. As Brown points out, “a bartender’s job is, first and foremost, to create the type of experience that ensures a customer’s impression is better when he leaves than when he came in.”

One of the great strengths of the scene here is that the bartenders are such a tight-knit community.

“We all kind of work together and bounce ideas off each other,” Pape says. “We don’t really compete with each other.”

So when West’s David Wolowidnyk (who is also the Grey Goose Vodka “arbiter of cool” national pour master champion) and Colin Macdougall won this month’s ICE competition, their colleagues ribbed them with good-humoured resignation.

And when the relatively unknown Brian Grant won the local Giffard competition last fall, a respectful murmur went through the crowd.

“There’s a very adult attitude among the bartenders,” Dickson observes. “They have a genuine appetite for what they are doing.”

Pape says: “We really do have something interesting here that I’m really proud to be part of.”

It’s a sentiment echoed time and again in conversations with the city’s best bartenders, from Ron Oliver at Bluewater to Mark Brand at Boneta to Nick Devine at the Cascade Room to Jay Jones just about everywhere.

Dickson, the been-everywhere, seen-everything cocktail expert who’s been tasting drinks around the world for the last three years, sums it up best. She says, “We were like, ‘Oh, my God, we love Vancouver.’ “

—

10 Great Cocktail Lounges

Vancouver has no shortage of places to try handcrafted, artisanal and classic cocktails. Here are 10 of the best:

– Anywhere cocktail consultant and mixologist extraordinaire Jay Jones is shaking a drink, training the staff or designing the cocktail list, including the Granville Room (957 Granville St., 604-633-0056), Fuel (1944 W. Fourth Ave., 604-288-7905, Fuelrestaurant.ca), and Donnelly Nightclubs (Dhmbars.ca).

– Bluewater Cafe, 1095 Hamilton St., 688-8078, Bluewatercafe.net

– Boneta, 1 West Cordova St., 604-684-1844, Boneta.ca

– Cascade Room, 2616 Main St., 604-709-8650, Thecascade.ca

– Chambar, 562 Beatty St., 604-879-8650, Chambar.com

– Chow Restaurant, 3121 Granville St., 604-608-2469, Chow-restaurant.com

– George Ultra Lounge, 1137 Hamilton St., 604-628-5555, Georgelounge.com

– Ocean Club, 105 – 100 Park Royal, West Vancouver, 604-926-2326, Theoceanclub.ca / Mountain Club, 40 – 4314 Main St., Whistler, 604-932-6009, Themountainclub.ca

– West, 2881 Granville St., 604-738-8938, Westrestaurant.com

– Yew Restaurant + Lounge, Four Seasons Hotel, 791 West Georgia, 604-689-9333, Fourseasons.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

The Iron Chef has landed on his feet and is loving his new job

Shelley Fralic
Sun

When we last left Rob Feenie — renowned Iron Chef, founder of Vancouver’s acclaimed Lumiere restaurant and Feenie’s bistro, cookbook author, Food Network star and, arguably, the most famous chef this town has produced — he had just been ignominiously turfed from Lumiere in the wake of an ugly brouhaha with his partners and had taken up with, gasp, a middle-class restaurant chain.

The Cactus Club, to be exact, the sports bar cum steak and burger joint that is home to big-screen TVs, peach schnapps bellinis and a menu featuring the kind of eclectic, casual rib-sticking fare that surely defines antipathy for a high-brow Food Concept Architect.

Which is the title Cactus Club president and CEO Richard Jaffray gave Feenie when he announced last February that Feenie was joining his senior team to help “shape the restaurants’ growth and product development, creating innovative new dishes and continuously improving long-time favourites.”

Food-loving eyebrows shot up all over town.

What’s a Food Concept Architect?

How will the maverick Feenie deal with so many cooks in so many kitchens?

Will the Jack Daniels ribs with garlic mashed potatoes be replaced by a dainty lamb chop and a sprig of arugula?

And what, exactly, is arugula?

But here we are, nearly five months later, and Feenie and his boss Jaffray are chatting amiably in a cushy booth at the new Cactus Club in the Bentall complex at Burrard and Dunsmuir.

The $6.5-million restaurant, which opened June 6, takes up the entire downtown corner and is stunningly chic for a Cactus Club, two storeys of soaring glass and open concept dining, with burgundy leather banquettes, satin walnut trim, shiny modern fittings, exposed wine racks, an upstairs deejay station and custom chandeliers covered in what look like opaque spiderwebs.

There is an elevator to the second floor, and a washroom waiting area furnished with a funky lounge chair and a floor-to-ceiling video screen spooling runway fashion shows.

It’s so hip you could blink and be in New York.

But then Jaffray is a sophisticated man, finely tailored and a collector of art — decorating his new restaurant are a Jim Schwartz marble sculpture, three pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat, a Louis Poulsen artichoke light fixture over the bar, three original Andy Warhols and a striking oil painting by actor Anthony Hopkins.

Jaffray oversees the 20-year-old firm’s 19 operations in B.C. and Alberta, and he is clearly chuffed to have snagged a culinary work of art like Rob Feenie.

“He’s just the best,” says Jaffray. “If I had to pick a chef that I was to work with, it’s him. We’ve been friends for a long time. I, of course, would go to Lumiere … and he was curious about the Cactus Club.”

For the past few months, Feenie has been busy in the chain’s Ash Street test kitchen, whipping up nine new additions to the Cactus Club menu (see sidebar for details).

He and Jaffray had taken a hard look at the Club’s trendy and diverse menu — from appetizers to entrees to desserts — and saw that much was good.

But they did see room for change, or evolution as they call it, which is not unusual but can be tricky when you already have a successful operation with a loyal clientele that likes the menu the way it is.

“We didn’t want to completely change the menu,” says Feenie.

“It’s a real challenge in a way for me. I just want to put the right dish out there.”

They agreed, for instance, that “we need to work on sandwiches,” says Feenie.

So the BBQ Duck Clubhouse was born, stuffed with duck, chicken and prosciutto, and served on pecan fruit bread.

Not exactly a BLT but, he says, “it worked out really well.”

And then there was Feenie’s new Spinach Salad, also made with prosciutto, and balsamic figs.

“I thought it was a little adventurous, too different,” Jaffray says of the salad. “I was 100-per-cent wrong.”

The pair intends to work slowly through the menu, keeping old favourites like the pesto quesadilla, which was taken off the menu for awhile but is now back, and focusing on that “evolution” thing.

“Maybe we’ll add some more entrees. Maybe some appies. Maybe desserts,” says Feenie.

“The thing I’ve learned is that you look at the clients. In the next few years, you’ll see an evolution, but I can guarantee you’ll still have your favourites.”

Feenie, who is 43, married and father of two (number three is due any day) says his new job is a perfect fit.

“I’m so proud of this place. The excitement level when I got here was there from day one, and now it’s huge.

“I believe firmly that we’re the best in our field in this country.”

All of which drives his legendary creative urge, which has him in the Cactus Club kitchens from early morning until late evening.

“I’m the gas pedal,” he laughs. “Richard is the brake.”

Says Jaffray: “He’s bringing knowledge like you wouldn’t believe. He’s just so passionate and works so hard.”

As for his previous life in the heady world of haute cuisine, Feenie clearly is a man who doesn’t look back, who doesn’t waste time on regrets.

“I don’t miss anything about where I’m not.”

He’s also happy to take a mentor role, working directly with the Cactus Clubs’ many young motivated chefs, including Bentall’s 30-year-old regional chef Eric Foskett and his kitchen staff of 40.

“I’ve achieved everything in my career that I could ever want. Whatever I can pass on to them … that’s my role here,” says Feenie.

“I just want to continually raise the bar here, day after day, month after month, year after year.

“Ask me where I’m going to be at 60?

“Right here.”

[email protected]

Sun restaurant critic Mia Stainsby reviews the new Cactus Club Thursday in Westcoast Life.

Here are the nine new Cactus Club menu items, developed by the chain’s new “food concept architect” Rob Feenie. Menus vary slightly

by location, however, and these new dishes may not

all be available at every restaurant in the chain.

New dishes

BBQ Duck Clubhouse

BBQ duck, pan-seared chicken, prosciutto, pecan fruit bread, sea-salted fries

Spinach Salad

Italian prosciutto, goat cheese, balsamic figs, candied pecans and sherry vinaigrette

Rocket Salad

Panko and parmesan breaded chicken, baby arugula, vine-ripened tomatoes, cucumber, lemon caper sauce

The Burger

Sautéed mushrooms, aged cheddar cheese, cured bacon and sea-salted fries

Calamari Sandwich

Curried calamari and herb-caper tartar sauce with seasonal greens

Short Rib Beef Dip

Caramelized onion, emmenthal cheese, beef jus and sea-salted fries

Prawn & Scallop Spaghettini

Pan-seared prawns and scallops, roasted tomato sauce, garlic and parmesan crostini

Albacore Tuna Tataki

With green papaya, mint and basil salad, oranges, avocado and yuzu dressing

Butternut Squash Ravioli

Truffle beurre blanc, fried sage, pine nuts and amaretti cookies

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Robin Delany just opened fifth outlet — the fourth on North Shore

Brian Morton
Sun

If you want to get your new retail business off to a great start, think hard about where to set up shop.

That’s the advice of businessman Robin Delany, who spends months — even years — scouting out and securing the perfect site of new Delany’s Coffee Houses, which now number five — one in downtown Vancouver and four on the North Shore.

“It’s fundamental,” Delany said in an interview. “It’s critical that you have a great, and not just a good, location. You have to pick the right side of the street, the sunny, ‘go-to-work’ side. And there should be complementary retailers beside you.

“I would always take six months on the site selection process. [In Lynn Valley] I worked with the landlord for two-and-a-half years to secure that site.”

Delany, who recently opened his newest coffee shop in Lynn Valley, keeps it all in the family. Wife Jennifer and sister Bitsy are co-owners of Delany’s and three of their children — Robin and Jennifer’s sons and Bitsy’s daughter — work at the coffee houses. Another son of Delany’s recently started up his own adventure recreation business in Whistler.

“It started out as a traditional small business, but it lent itself very nicely to involving the family,” added Delany. “That wasn’t the intention at the beginning. But my wife runs the financial end of it and she’s excellent at it.”

Delany, who had never owned a small business before, opened his first coffee shop on Denman Street in Vancouver‘s West End in 1993, when Starbucks was just getting off the ground in the city.

“I saw what they were doing and saw an opportunity to do it differently,” said Delany, who opened his first coffee shop with $250,000 obtained through refinancing the family home. “I have a retail background and I love great coffee. And I was downsized out of a job in 1992. It was the perfect opportunity to create what I always wanted to do.”

The business gradually expanded onto the North Shore and now has coffee shops in Edgemont Village, Park Royal, Dundarave and the newest one in Lynn Valley, which opened two months ago.

Delany said that, while it’s fine to have a great location with plenty of foot traffic, there are several factors that are critically important to running a successful business, especially in the highly competitive field of coffee shops. A cup of terrific Joe tops the list because it’s the coffee, after all, that draws them in.

“It’s a given that you have to have great coffee [and] I think our coffee is exceptional. And passion is also critical. I just love coffee.”

He said he puts in “60-plus” hours a week running his business. “You get consumed by it.”

Decor-wise, Delany said the coffee shops are also very “woody, authentic, with a non-corporate feel.”

Comfortable seating and great service help round out the package. “And we try to get to know our customers by their first name. We have lots of ‘Norms,’ he said, referring to one of the regular customers in Cheers, the pub-based TV comedy of the 1980s.

Delany said each coffee shop is involved in the local community. The Lynn Valley shop has a concert series, for example, while the Denman Street shop organizes fundraising activities for the area’s gay community. “In each community, we’re intimately involved in community activities.”

And the future? “We have no illusions of grandeur. Five locations is great for the time being. We’re not trying to be big. We’re trying to be great.”

Delany’s Coffee House

Year company founded: 1993

Start-up costs: $250,000

Number of coffee shops: five

Number of employees in 1993: 15

Number of employees in 2007: 125

Total number of clients in 1993: 110,000

Total number of clients in 2007: 1,450,000

Projected total number of clients in 2008: 1,600,000

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Mia Stainsby
Sun

SPLITZ GRILL

4242 Main St., 604-875-9711. www.splitzgrill.com. Open daily 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

– – –

After 20 years, he’s come down from the mount and, like Moses, he’s brought commandments.

Trevor Jackson cooked in Whistler for 20 years (10 years at Chateau Whistler, 10 years running Splitz Grill, his burger biz). He sold the Whistler Splitz and re-established another on Main Street about five months ago with his wife, Miriam, who looks after the front of house. Before he went to the mount, Jackson worked at Four Seasons Vancouver as chef de partie at the old Chartwell restaurant.

The Main Street menu, like Splitz Whistler, is dominated by burgers, but there’s also a jumbo hot dog, a smokie and chicken fingers which appeal to kids.

The commandments are posted, outlining the directions for ordering: You pay at the cash, declare an interest in extra cheese, bacon, onions or mushrooms which cost a little more, then move on to customize your burger with some 20 topping choices. There are a couple of interesting burgers — the Saltspring lamb burger and lentil burger which they make themselves, leaving whole pieces of lentils in the vegetable mash.

Splitz’s Main Street clientele is perhaps more varied than those sporty Whistlerites. Here, there are families with toddlers in tow, tables of teens, couples, singles. Across from us, two families have joined forces and a child is squealing.

While I wouldn’t say these are gourmet burgers (although I thought the lamb burger was very good), it’s many steps above McDonald’s. The burgers range from $5.20 to $6.75; combos, with fries and a fountain drink, are a few dollars more. I don’t know if our fries were end of the batch, but they were small and roughly hewn.

Splitz is a lively, hectic environment, and if that’s OK with you, a great spot for a fast, inexpensive meal.

Jackson has plans to open more Splitz Grills, so don’t be surprised to see a few more popping up.

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars. ([email protected])

© The Vancouver Sun 2008