eatrustic

I was suprised to read elsewhere (Chow via New York Mag) that Mozza (the Pizza part) has been open for almost a week. Sounds like lots of Otto has been grafted onto the menu (Lardo pizza etc.) and the pizza crust is great, more like Napoletana style? Has anyone been in yet? I plan to be in town for early December so look forward to fighting my way in for a slice!

I see over on the City Food Beta site there is a rumour of Gianni Picchi (one of her former chefs and ex Il Giardino, etc. chef) checking out the space. I had also heard he was looking up in Edgemont Village as well. Wonder which side of the positive or negative he held at Beachside? Ah the same old story with that guy. Probably negative. Another one of those titans of the restaurant scene that treated his staff like shit. I wish him a job as Pinos sous chef. They deserve eachother. Yeah, I sound bitter. I am. alienating staff and customers is their gig. Reminds me of another classic in Yaletown... ← ← Just to keep things straight: the comments above, starting with "Ah the same old story...." are from jahvay and not me although what he/she has to say is pretty well true. Old school emotional chefs (talented as they are) who both have added more behind the scenes drama than any unsuspecting restaurant patron could ever dream.

I see over on the City Food Beta site there is a rumour of Gianni Picchi (one of her former chefs and ex Il Giardino, etc. chef) checking out the space. I had also heard he was looking up in Edgemont Village as well. Wonder which side of the positive or negative he held at Beachside? What is it about West Vancouver that makes it so difficult for restaurants to do well? The money is definitely there and not having to bridge it into Vancouver would seem to be a huge plus for any restaurants on that side. (Or is that actually a thing of the past and Beachside is just an unfortunate circumstance?)

I jut checked it out a few days ago as well. They need to put up a little directional sign off of Boundary as it is hidden away. I like the exterior, especially as their modern take of an old fashioned Campanile/train station? (some one help me on the exact design homage) is unexpected in that neighbourhood. The interior is definitely an expansion of the selection at the old postage stamp sized store plus the meat couter. I'm not sure though whether I would trek all the way over from the West Side at this point unless the prices were way cheaper. The brand they have created -Itallisima- is everywhere as are a lot of the items they sell. The upper balcony area is slated for a demo kitchen and classes at some point in the future.

Oh! My bad, I obviously haven't been up there for awhile. What was there before?

Where Cabana was is slated to be the new William Sonoma.

I think it was $24. and apparently they plan to bring in more knives before Christmas as this batch has been out for about three weeks and is (suprise!) almost sold out.

Kind of a ways off but Williams Sonoma in Calgary has confirmed a May '07 opening date for one of their stores on South Granville.

I've been travelling around Edmonton and Calgary recently and found the Henckels Four Star and Professional S series chef knifes on sale as seconds at the HomeSense stores. (I would imagine there is similar stock in Vancouver.) The prices are amazingly cheap for what I believe are only cosmetic issues on the knives. (They are made in Germany.) The 8" chefs knife (4 star) with molded black handle is $19.!! and normally is closer to $80. The paring knives are $9.00. Of course different stores have different stock but one store had 10" Professional S chefs knives (more classic style of handle), bread slicers, tomato knives etc. In Calgary the one store I tried had less choice but at these prices I have backup knives for years to come. By the way, as I said, I do believe the problems are cosmetic (the finish on the handle looks a bit dull) but if anyone knows differently I would like to hear about it. I can't see Henckels selling knives that have problems with the steel. Good hunting!

A good food section should be an mix of interesting recipes, articles on local food and products, comparison tests of locally available things like olive oils, canned tomatoes, etc., something like a chef's night off -what he or she makes for dinner with recipe or where they like to go on their night off. These are all things that have been done in the past here and elsewhere and often the budget necessary is very small. Photography is obviously not the most important aspect but when almost every single food shot posted here by local e gulleters is miles above what is taken by a professional then there is clearly a disconnect (more the fault of the editor then the photog but I would have removed my name from such trash). Here is the photo/article I was taking about, it was a lot larger and the feature image in Wednesday'spaper:Vancouver Sun

I picked up todays Sun and as usual glanced over the sorry excuse we have for a food section. I wasn't going to bother saying anything but after looking at the lead picture for the article "Catch of The Holiday" about substituting salmon or trout for turkey I was stunned at how awful the picture was. They used it to illustrate the fact that "breaking with tradition can be a tasty experience". It truly is one of the worst, lazy, sorry excuses for food styling photography I have ever seen. Just a dry, dead trout on top of some dry salad greens with lemon wedges. And this should make anyone want to skip the Turkey? The larger question is why a segment of the population that obviously spends money on all things food should be ignored and subjected to such crap on a weekly basis. The funny and truly ironic thing is that in the same paper the Vancouver Sun had the nerve to put a self promoting insert that trumpeted "Content is Crucial" with such comments as "It's not the wine glass that is important. It's what fills it that matters. The same can be said of the Vancouver Sun." That is a direct quote and is repeated three more times with different examples. They even have the nerve to talk about "Compelling photograpy" and "Insightful reporting". OK I guess I'm flogging a dead horse here but much smaller cities have way better food coverage in their papers and the plethora of food bloggers and food tabloids around here show that there is no shortage of interesting stuff to write about. The bottom line is money and I can't believe that our demographic is not worthy of better treatment. Perhaps if they combined Gismondis wine page with Mia's restaurant stuff it might be something worth buying every week.

About a year ago I walked in around noon on a Saturday and sat at the front counter near the window. The young guy working the counter comes over and I order a Margharetta and a green salad. After about ten minutes he comes back and plops down....a Margarita! Absolutely no joke, and after a few trips to Italy (and more than a few to Mexico) I know how to pronounce both words. With great emabarrassment he took the drink away and I finally got my pizza (hey, he could at least have offered me the Marg.!).

My apologies for the misspelling of the name it is "Caffe Artigiano". And on another coffee related topic I see that all of the retail locations of Seattle's Best have closed in Vancouver including the sweet location on Granville and 11th.

I've heard this from two separate sources so I guess it's out in the open that Vince Piccolo has sold his Cafe Artigianno coffee houses to someone in the Earls company. He still owns and operates his roasting facility -49th Parallel- which is completely separate. Good for Vince as he obviously made some $$$ on this but it remains to be seen how the Artigiannos get spun off (and obviously expanded outside B.C.). Is it inevitable that they will be dumbed down a la Starbucks? I wonder if this includes the Artigiannos in Korea as well?

Wow, crazy stuff. Suddenly the same block of W. 4th will have two new and (hopefully) interesting restaurants (Gastropod - New European Cuisine) opening in the next while beside Shijo and then Fuel if the rumour is true. Odd name for a food establishment though what with the different connotations. Is this Connor Butler restaurant open yet? I've heard nothing about it.

I noticed it as well and I was sorely tempted but that's a pretty steep price for a one day class that would probably not be much more than an overview. Apparently they'll take half a pig and cut it into all the different components, ham, proscuitto, sausage etc. At first I thought $350 to get half a pigs worth of meat and some technique isn't bad but found out that it's a half for the whole group (number as yet to be determined) with "some" items to be given to take home. Not sure if there is any hands on or just demo. If it was a hands on for people with knife skills I'd be interested. Maybe HSG could do a one day "deconstructing Ginger Bread Pudding" for say $200. per head!

The new address is 1465 Kootenay St. (between Highway 1 and Boundary). Just like the old location there will be a retail store and a section for the wholesale crowd. Apparently this place is something like 14.000 sq. ft in size so it should be interesting.

Yes it is the same company. They opened their wholesale division (no longer on Victoria) Sept. 5 and they will open to the public on October 14. They'll still keep the original Victoria St. location open for retail. (Did you know that the old location has almost a whole city block of underground storage where they keep all the wheels of Parmesan etc. at cellar temp?)

I see that Henry's is moving from his little spot on MacDonald to new digs in the mall at Oak and King Ed - next to the TD Bank - sometime in Nov. (the scary thing is that Nov. is only about 6 weeks away!). Let's see if he can regain the mojo he lost after all the hype when he first opened. Next to Henry's on MacDonald is a BBQ/Pizza place called the Smoking Crust. They are formerly a part of Fatzos so not sure what level to expect but they've been open for about 6 months and do mainly takeout and delivery with the usual selection of Ribs, Brisket, Pulled Pork etc. Anyone tried them?

Looks like I'm the cookbook hound around here! BBJ's has changed the dates of her annual cookbook sale (usually after Christmas). It now starts Sept. 13 - 17 at both locations and everything in the store is at least 25% off. I've notice a nice drop in new cookbook prices as well lately (at her place) as people like Barbara Jo fight with the suppliers to get pricing much more in line with the relation of our dollar to the U.S.

Ouch! I guess my point Sam was that IMO, a business shouldn't open it's doors until ready to do so. Seems a strage business practice for an establishe company ... Thai Terrace. Noted ... thanks! A. ← I suspect Sam's jab was more the old pro smiling down on the amateurs!! Too be honest I think that Noodle Box's being slow out of the gate has helped the new Zakkushi a ton as they've picked up a lot of the dissapointed N.B.er's. This can only be good for the whole block as N.B. will obviously get it together sooner than later and we locals will have two strong options (hopefully, both with later hours!).

After trying once again to get into Noodle Box- last time it was a Monday and they are closed Mondays, this time it was 8:45 on a Sunday night only to find that they close at 8:00 pm although they really closed at 7:00 (I know still doing the shake down etc. but hey guys, this is Vancouver not sleepy Victoria we can handle later hours!). So we ended up walking half a block to the new branch of Zakkushi and it turned out just fine. The place is tiny and super cozy - this is going to be tough to get into in the winter time. The prices are probably the same as at their Denman branch which is really inexpensive for such a small place in Kits. Little skewers start at $1.80 each., the idea is mainly charcoal grilled bites of food with some noodle dishes, tofu and a couple of salad items. We let them do their thing and select 5 or 6 items for us. Standouts were the Beef Tongue, Raw Octopus in Wasabi and the grilled Hamachi. They close at 10:30 on Sunday night. Take note Noodle Box.

It's funny hearing the comments about service as the owner - Christian - is a very longtime front of house manager type with Umberto - Settebello, Al Porto etc. You would think that the one thing that would kick ass would be the service even if the kitchen is more like the old Alma St. Cafe. He does seem to try hard with the local and organic produce though. One of the organic growers at Trout Lake was mentioning that Tomato Cafe buys 5 times the local, organic produce that the Pan Pacific does..... interesting.

Good call on the thickness. If you really want to feel like a (happy) kid, get it unsliced next time and make the deluxe version of honey toast. Involves some minor knife work and may take some trial-and-error to perfect. I've only made it once before. Warning: Honey toast porn ← OK Sanrensho that is pretty cool! Let's hear more about the technique SVP. Looks like this will be my Sunday Brunch (except with maple syrup)!

Oh please! There is nothing wrong with bit of snarkyness as long as it doesn't get out of hand. Flowbee is obviously trying for the gentle putdown of an Asian restaurant that does not have a specific focus.... and the gauntlet is thrown! I've wondered myself at the excitement this place has generated from the many fans of it's Victoria location. They certainly seem to have put in the effort on the space if nothing else. Can it be as good as they say? By Vancouver standards?