M'd

Pork and Beans: - a very natural flavour combination.-imo I enjoyed one of the most memorable dining experiences of my life when my partner and I were at Cafe' Brio in Victoria. The Chef at the time was Jeff Keenliside and the dish was white beans and pork belly.--We framed the masterpeice with a bottle of Sanford Pinot Noir.--------BRILLIANT!! The "Pork and Beans" at Feenie' sounds like something I could really appreciate. --the wine prices DO NOT. I am attracted to unpretentious wine lists with more humble mark ups. -my 2 cents, M'd

All this quarreling is distracting attention from Chambar's opening. --uncharacteristic of you jamiemaw. M'd

The Mahle House is not within walking distance of Downtown Nanaimo (Cedar, BC)if I remember correctly, but their little farm house and subsiquent "farm garden", and "farm charm" fed me well and the beautifully clean food and amazingly diverse wine list provided me with one of the best dining experiences of my 2002 summer. As a true family/independent operation I trust it is unchanged but for seasonal offerings. One of my best experiences on Vancouver Island.--EVER. These are the gems that make food and wine such an important conduit between our earth and our souls. Enjoy if you can...........! Cheers, M'd

This travelling about to gain exposure to other's techniques and ideas seems like a great way to network, learn and motivate. Maybe some of our province's up and coming wine makers should take simular steps to expand their respective bases of knowledge. -just a thought..... M'd

Is the appeal of Feenie's the food, ambiance or the T&A factor? M'd

Paul Mitchell: Sorry for replying so late but I have been on the trails instead of in front of my computer.--this is a good thing. Yes, I am referring to the Wine Spectator when I say "the Dicatator". I am in agreement with yourself and your Sommelier. The Occulus '02 is in a similar state, but I doubt it will offer up the same level of complexity when it's time comes.---I may take a page from your book of cellaring techniques and begin to sware a bit at it when I pass it in it's bin. Maybe I can berate it into prematurely aging a bit. LOL Your facility sounds like an amazing experience. I have heard great things, and I can think of very few more moving dining experiences than those involving our awesome west coast wilderness and a great bottle of wine. Cheers, M'd

You can rest easy, as your choices are all good ones. If value is a concern I would lean towards Cru and Parkside. These little independents are offering amazing food quality and unique dining environments for a suprisingly reasonable price. How do they do it? --I would give the service vote to Cru, but you are going to have a great B-day dinner at Parkside!!--one of my faves. --Enjoy Cheers, M'd

From the server's perspective......... --will they be tipping on the plating fee or on the price of the cake (i.e. 9.95CDN at DQ?!?) LOL M'd

I have had the fortune of tasting the Osoyoos Larose many times since it's debut a month or two ago. In my humble opinion: This is an exciting example of what can come from our terrior! Although a little wound up and youthful at the moment, it offers a degree of complexity and hosts multiple layers of flavours that I have yet to experience from a Canadian red wine until now. I find it drinkable if a bit green when decanted.(--ideally the day [yes 24hr] before.) If I was in posession of some of this new blockbuster from BC I would "lay it down" but with an aggressive decanting technique I feel one can enjoy a glimpse of where this wine might be in a couple of years. It definetly seems to have the characters present to facilitate some prolonged aging. This wine was obviously crafted by a skilled hand and I beleive this property may hold more in it's depths than just the typical black sage sand. With wines like this, from people like these, BC's wine future just seems to be getting brighter. With the positive coverage in the Dictator and now a wine that Vincor can parade around to their international cronies we may possibly acheive some world wide recognition afterall. Cheers, M'd

I too can uderstand the dissappointment one experiences after reading rave after rave and then finding out that your tastes have nothing in common with those of the ravers. I found/find Cru to be a comletely different experience than Jerry A did. My partner and I gravitate to Cru because of the tight comfortable room and compared to our other dining favorites (West in Van. and Deep Cove Chalet on Van Isle. etc.) the crew at Cru offer equivalent and often superior professionalism, knowledge and character with much less fan fare and pretense. One of our favorit e things in the world is a night of silver service in a glamorous setting. But for most occasions we count on Cru or others like Parkside and Vij's etc. to provide a unique, comfortable and exceptionally satisfying fix for our dine-out-addiction. That said, is it not just awesome to have so many great options in Vancouver/BC to discuss and try?!?---some will fail us, but most will provide a pretty good to great experience. -thank you for accomodating my opinion... M'd

Thanks Jamie, --a very informative response. I appreciate it. I agree that Mark Taylor's list at Cru is innovative. They serve their wines in a great informed yet unpretentious style there too. I also think that Brent's work at Raincity has been brilliant as well. ---A great wines by the glass program and his mark-ups have been very fair (if I remember correctly) considering the effort and expense it must take to aquire some of the wines he has managed to get into BC. I just love dining at restaurants where I know I can find a good bottle of wine at a good price and being hosted by professional sommeliers and servers just makes for a great experience. --Assuming of course that the food is equally as brilliant. These men and the many other people practicing this "saintly craft" have probably trained A LOT of people as they have worked in the hospitality industry for the past years. I agree that they should be recognized for their contribution to the industry and to Vancouver/BC in general. Thanx again for the help, Cheers, M'd

Thanx eatbc, I was getting my events mixed up. My confusion stems from the two events awarding two different people. Does Vancouver Magazine have it's own Sommelier of the Year Award then? Cheers, M'd

Hello all, Can someone clear this up for me? I attended the awards luncheons at this year's ('04) Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival. On Thursday they announced that Mark Taylor of Cru Restaurant was the Festival's & Sommelier Guild's Sommelier of the Year, yet at Friday's wine list awards luncheon they announced Sommelier of the Year as Brent H. of Raincity Grill. Is there now two BC Sommelier of the Year Awards given at the same Wine Festival?---Didn't Brent win this award the year before last? I was enjoying the social aspects of the luncheon immensely so I appologize if I mearely heard wrongly. Thanks for any insight/clarification, Cheers, M'd

I agree with many remarks from EDM. I share the same frustration with our current social definition of success. Dining rooms are not places to get rich in, but they can be places to market your wears like any tradesman would. We should really get over "the big show" and learn to appreciate the artisan level of the business. But edm; There are indeed passionate waiters here in BC Sir. They are as rare as any greatly skilled professional is in any profession. It is good to give respect to those from whom you have learned from, but please do not forget from where your success will likely be propagated. You mention your distaste for "overly simplified wine lists" but maybe more words could be typed about how great the new world is in respect to leaving the garbled (and often fraudulant) labels for the under trained, passionless waiters and sommeliers to worry about. The Old World (unified by currency or not) has many things to teach us, but smoking in a tasting room and pre-war edicate are mistakes we can learn from too. Let's grow together, so that we can all experience your brilliance as you come of age. Cheers to all that care enough to bitch. M'd

My most memorable dining experiences have always been those where I was NOT "schmoozed". ---Perfect service, perfect food, perfect wine, and perfect company! A beautiful room or a view helps too. In a formal setting, with an "important" dining companion(s); I feel it would be completley classless and inappropriate for the Chef, or the Maitre 'd, or even the server to chat me up, or show boat at my table. Obviously if she/he is a friend of mine or of my dinner guest(s) that is one thing. And there are many other circumstances too, in which it would VERY appropriate or enjoyable to have the Chef address my table. But I do not beleive that we should be offended if the Chef doesn't come to our table just because he went to another table. Would that not defeat the purpose of making the "schmoozed" table feel special if the entire room received the same? I am not saying that I dissrespect Mr. Bishop for his skills as a host.--far from it. I am just saying that I would not consider Aurora's chef in the wrong for not visiting every table in the house. The food sounds awesome, and we are going to try it next week or so. This week we are going to Cru again!!!!!!!!!!!! Cheers, M'd

Thanks d.Hawksworth, Yes, I heard he was in Asia somewhere. Now I know.... Cheers, M'd

Lounge Lizard, Speaking of Okanagan chefs, I noticed you mentioned David Forestell. Is he back in Canada? He used to offer an incredible table d'hote at Hainle. Is he considering the Okanagan again? Cheers, M'd

Good choices Merlin. Sobo is Lisa Aheir's little enterprise. She was responsible for the Fish Taco that used to be served at Long Beach Lodge. When she left the lodge she took her fish taco recipe with her. The great food that she was known for at the Lodge can now be enjoyed outdoors in front of her snack truck kitchen and dining area. The affordable and completely unpretentious environment is perfect for her clean, slow cooked, treats. Enjoy!! M'd

I agree with the posts on Tofino in general. However; I would have to be critical of one property: The Long Beach Lodge Resort is a hit and miss indevour to eat at. The young chef appears eager and proud and the food can show this, but they have had numerous staffing changes/walk outs and an apparent tyrant of a General Manager has good staff leaving as quickly as they arrived. Lots of potential, but enter at your own risk. Cheers, M'd

Victoria has some very fine rooms to dine in. Young and driven local chefs are proud of the island's bounty and they show it off best (in my opinion) here: 1) Cafe Brio -Honest and unpretentious with a wine list that is much more interesting than the usual Wine Dictator/I mean Spectator influence all over it. Chris is the new head chef there now that Jeff Kennliside has moved on to help open Shelter restaurant in Tofino BC. I have been to Brio many times and as regulars we could not be more proud of how well Chris has stepped up from Sous to Head Chef. I am sure Jeff is happy to know that he left his kitchen in good hands. 2) Speaking of Brio; their opening chef Sean Brennan has opened up what is now one of the top dining spots in Victoria. Between his french fundamentals and his business partner Mark's french wine program you really can't go wrong enjoying some of the finest combos in town. Brasserie L'Ecole I think is the name. 3) If you can afford it (I rarely can) than a trip to Sooke Harbour House is worth a trip out to Sooke. Edward Tuscon and his brigade are some of the most innovative menu planners I have ever seen. Ps Zambri's and Paprika are AWESOME too but somebody already mentioned them and I beleive my wrists are beginning to cramp. Enjoy Victoria, M'd

Hello there all, I am a newbie to this forum, but I have something to say. Cru has the best feeling room I have experienced in a while. They manage to tread that fine line between "busling" and "calm". The conversation noise was just audible enough to put a BUZZ in the air (or was that the Dr. L Riesling) and it was subdued enough to expose a very pleasing flow of contemporary dining music in the background. I never had to raise my voice to be heard across the table even though the tiny room was PACKED. The two Tartars are so defined in flavour that we found ourselves discussing the vivid elements for long stretches between glassfulls and spoonfulls. I found the service to be a welcome break from the hippster fashion attack I have experienced at other "Wine Bars" and the such. Understated class and maturity makes this service staff stand out. Their confidence at the table never leaves you wondering,"Do you think they got that?" Our experience at Cru was obviously a very good one. As a fellow member of the BC Hospitality Industry and lover of all things FOOD and WINE I congratulate CRU and it's Crew on a great beginning. And hello to everyone here, I think this forum is a great concept. I can not wait to read some more threads! Cheers, M'd