Posts in OLYMPIC VILLAGE
OPHELÍA
OPHELÍA

Ophelia is authentically Mexican—something Higareda wanted to return to. The Veracruz-born chef has worked all over the globe: He honed avant-garde techniques as a sous chef at Michelin-stared restaurants in Spain and France, saw the explosion of TexMex while working as a chef in Al Paso, and grew a distaste for monoculture agriculture systems in Peru and Argentina—a time when chemical-company Monsanto (now Bayer) expanded its monopoly on the growth of corn. “I hate Monsanto,” he says with a grin. Higareda even took a three-year hiatus from cooking to play professional basketball in Mexico. (When the team sold him to a city he didn’t like, he returned to the kitchen to further explore his love for food.)

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OLYMPIC VILLAGETracy GieszCASUAL, PATIO, FARM-TO-TABLE, VANCOUVER, VEGAN, VEGETARIAN, OPEN-LATE, WIFI, COMFORT-FOOD, GLUTEN-FREEComment
NOOK
NOOK

At both the Olympic Village and Kitsilano locations of the casual-Italian restaurant, service is a blend of unaffected and exceptionally jovial. During dinner, classic rock lingers on the speakers—this is certainly a place that loves its vinyl—and there's a sense of cohesion between the FOH and kitchen staff. Frequently outfitted in KISS, Van Halen, or Fleetwood Mac t-shirts, servers and management rarely give off the sense that they're frazzled—even on incredibly high-volume nights.

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OLYMPIC VILLAGETracy GieszCOMFORT-FOOD, VANCOUVER, ITALIAN, CASUAL, LUNCH, OPEN-LATEComment