MODERN-CANADIAN — REVIEWS

BAR GOBO

After her first visit to Bar Gobo, a friend texted me facetiously that she could, "bathe in that anchovy butter," and couldn't "stop thinking about it like a toxic guy." Her words put into satire exactly what I'd been feeling after my initial visit to the Union street wine bar—except my daydreams conjured up the rillette I'd tasted and the wine list that accompanied each dish so masterfully. The 16-seat wine bar (a capacity of 25 seats post-covid) is the newborn sister of arguably the most ecologically-minded kitchen in the city: Burdock & Co.—Vancouver Chef Andrea Carlson's Main street restaurant just off of 11th Avenue. Burdock was the fertile grounds of the Bar Gobo concept which started as a natural wine, cocktail, and dumpling pop-up. Gobo is a Japanese variation of the Burdock root, an ingredient often used by Carlson and her team.

SAY MERCY!

It's a few hours before dinner service on a late summer afternoon. Antonio Cayonne and Andrew Jameson are seated in their restaurant's dining room, laptops open and chairs stacked around them. We begin talking about their early years, long before Say Mercy! even broached the horizon. The business partners—who speak to each other with evident admiration and clear respect—met in Toronto over a decade ago while working in the hospitality industry. It would only be a few years later when they both found themselves in Vancouver for different reasons: Jameson had family in the city and Cayonne, a talented actor and performer, wanted to further explore the West Coast film industry. But fate would have it that the duo soon meet a skilled chef named Sean Reeve.

FRASERHOODTracy GieszAugust 29, 2020CASUAL, PATIO, FARM-TO-TABLE, VANCOUVER, ITALIAN, MODERN-CANADIAN, COMFORT-FOOD, LUNCH, FINE-DININGComment

FLOURIST

Bishop and McDermott’s mission was to offer a dry-goods source that focused on traceability: the ability to track food through all stages of production, processing, and distribution. A plan for a café-bakery-mill-and-market amalgamation unfolded: the duo wanted a place where the public could find premium, entirely traceable dry goods grown by Canadian farmers—as well as purchase flour that is stone-milled each day and a treat or two if desired. "We never stock flour in our warehouse," the young women explain.

UBUNTU CANTEEN

There’s a special place in many Vancouverite’s hearts for anything David Gunawan does. His approach to thoughtful food—whether in high cuisine or through casual café fare—has always been something of an anomaly. With his first restaurant, Farmer’s Apprentice, the now-standard of farm-to-table cooking exploded in popularity. But Gunawan put forth his own philosophy which he tied to the locavore trend: kaiseki-style cooking. This more meditative food movement …

COQUILLE FINE SEAFOOD

It's always disheartening to hear about the closure of yet another prominent Vancouver restaurant. And it's all the more difficult to hear, when you know the restaurant's team put in the heavy lifting to keep up with the demands of maintaining sustainability, a healthy local ecology, and at-risk biodiversity. Coquille Fine Seafood is the most recent addition to that star-crossed list.

GASTOWNTracy GieszDecember 28, 2019FARM-TO-TABLE, VANCOUVER, MODERN-CANADIANComment

ROW FOURTEEN

At the back of Row Fourteen, a sous chef picks green leaves off a purslane stalk while another slices peaches. The Klippensteins aren't on site: like every weekend, they're in Vancouver. The duo has been selling their family farm's organic produce at the Vancouver Farmers Markets for over a decade: their children often by their side, running the cash (and market coin) tills. Yes, the Klippensteins are dedicated vendors, but from youth, their dream was always to start a restaurant. Today, they can do both.

ST. LAWRENCE

No one at St. Lawrence is trying to impress you. That’s not to say the service isn’t gracious, thoughtful, and even unrivaled at times; it’s to say that they know the food speaks for itself. There is no picking through the menu, carving out the gluten, meat, or dairy: dishes come as the kitchen intends them too. And for good reason. Having won multiple local and national awards in just the two years they’ve been open, the team—a combined experience of decades in Vancouver's most distinct establishments—can relax and just do what they do best: serve up French food and libations.

WILDEBEEST

Wildebeest Executive Chef Ian McHale connects with British Columbia-based foragers—Victoria’s Lance Staples, for example, who forgaes full-time—and sources from small farms such as the family-run Subtilia Ranch and Salt Spring Island’s 120-acre organic Foxglove Farm. Sourcing his nori from Haida Gwaii cultivators, McHale also aims to illustrate the centuries-old knowledge of Indigenous foragers. He spearheaded Wildebeest’s in-house canning routine—preserved fruits and vegetables sustain the restaurant’s menu through less foliaged winter months: Lady Fern fiddlehead vinegar, Grand Fir salt, and pickled wild strawberries, to name a few.

GASTOWNTracy GieszJune 3, 2019FARM-TO-TABLE, VANCOUVER, OPEN-LATE, FINE-DINING, COMFORT-FOOD, MODERN-CANADIAN, LUNCH

DACHI

That same idea eventually became the decree behind Dachi: a strong focus on locality, both in sourcing and in terms of place. Their commitment lies in large part to the community they've moved into. The word ‘dachi’ is a Japanese colloquialism for buddy or pal derived from the word Tomodachi meaning friend. Thus, Dachi is meant to be a place for neighbours; they strive to be a local haunt where one could stop by regularly to learn about the ever-evolving menu, unique selection of natural wines, and distinct sake program.

HASTINGS SUNRISETracy GieszApril 7, 2019CASUAL, PATIO, FARM-TO-TABLE, VANCOUVER, OPEN-LATE, MODERN-CANADIAN, COMFORT-FOODComment

HUNDY

When Their There opened just under a year ago, there was something suspicious about the large walls of light oak paneling that shut off the back part of the café. Perhaps an office for the very busy team behind the highly successful bakery-restaurant duo of Their There and AnnaLena? Or was something else brewing? Understanding proprietors Mikey Robbins and Jeff Parr, who together possess a seemingly unquenchable desire to create, you’d be correct to assume the latter. Fast-forward to December 2018 and a new project was born: an essentials-focused, straight-to-the-chase, late-night burger and fries joint called Hundy.

KITSILANOTracy GieszFebruary 21, 2019CASUAL, FARM-TO-TABLE, COMFORT-FOOD, MODERN-CANADIAN, VEGETARIAN, WIFI, OPEN-LATE, VANCOUVERComment

THEIR THERE

Confetti cruller, chocolate malt cronut, creme brûlée doughnut, honey matcha croissant. The unique pastry themes and flavours behind the ever-changing glass display at this Kitsilano vanguard are the subject of wide-spread buzz. In a city where bakeries seem to be both mushrooming all over *and* bursting at their seams, Their There manages to stand above the crowd. Where else can you get a glass of permaculture-cultivated, skin fermented, barrel aged, BC Pino Blanc with your Paris-Brest or pumpkin cronut?

KITSILANOTracy GieszFebruary 13, 2019VANCOUVER, COMFORT-FOOD, COFFEE, BAKERY, CASUAL, LUNCH, WIFI, MODERN-CANADIANComment

MISSION

Top Chef Canada's "All Star" alumni, Chef Curtis Luk constructs distinctive dishes using his philosophy of nose-to-tail and root-to-tip cuisine in this award-winning Kitsilano dining room. Showcasing the abundance of the vast Pacific Northwest region, Luk offers both share-plate and tasting-menu options to lead guests on a mouthwatering adventure through the province's fields and oceans. With virtuosity, mastery, and flare, each seasonally-changing plate at Mission delights. The kitchen's novel and ingenious tastes are never simply following trends, but rather, are creating them.

KITSILANOTracy GieszSeptember 25, 2017VANCOUVER, FARM-TO-TABLE, FINE-DINING, MODERN-CANADIANComment

NIGHTINGALE

Only recently has the term "Modern Canadian" become so reiterated. It's often offered up as an erudite way to describe a Chef's interpretation of their menu and where they draw inspiration from. Cooks across the country are seeking vision from traditional fare but putting a modern spin on each dish, while respectably trying to "keep it Canadian". The term is rooted in the mass Farm-to-Table movement that has taken restaurant culture by storm, championed by the likes of chef personalities like Dan Barber and famous food journalists like Michael Pollan. But Modern Canadian cuisine has rightly found that a focus on local produce--and a connection to the farmers they source their ingredients from--lends exceptionally to achieving the richest of flavour, texture, and succulence. Enter Nightingale.

FINANCIAL DISTRICTTracy GieszJune 24, 2017VANCOUVER, MODERN-CANADIAN, COMFORT-FOOD, LUNCH, WIFI, FARM-TO-TABLE, OPEN-LATE, ITALIAN, FINE-DINING, CASUALComment

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