paul mitchell

Good call on the "private club" suggestion Wendy - there are so many options of where you might end up working - myself, I worked in restaurants and hotels earlier in my career but have now moved on to more...you might say relaxed environments - in the summers I work at a small luxury resort (40 guests max) - it's long hours but not as intense as working in my previous jobs - through this resort I made contacts and work as a butler for a private family over the winter - there are so many possibilities if your interested in fiding them.

Kim, go for it. As a career waiter I say don't listen to the "you need to be a hot chick" crap or you need the "physical capabilities". All you really need is the desire to take a bit of the weight of the world off people's shoulders - to have the inherent desire to show them a little space, peace and sustenance in your company.

.....yeah....ok......I get it. Dinner at Rare on friday for me was perfect - I would eat anything that Brian and Quang threw at me - of course that's what we did - left it up to the lads - courses of squab, foie gras, rabbit, beef, sweetbread sausage (we still can't figure this one out Quang (Tim got as sauced!), cheeses and dessert - and an amuse of something rillete.....maybe rabbit, who cares though as it just got eaten - sometimes I feel like it's ok to just say dinner was awesome - to not list everything in some overzealous deconstruction - I just want to give thanks to a fantastic experience and hopefully more zealous ones to come.

G-man I didn't want to be an over-zealous freak listing all the great food we tried to Friday so thanks for giving the "shout out" to the Tenderloin. Chef delivered ours, on the bone - it dissapeared fast.

There's nothing like heading over to the HSG on a Saturday night after drinking 13 beers and a lot of rye with my buddy and hitting Neil's ridiculously great valued 20oz New York - only bad part is that after all that beautiful meat is that I couldn't really handle anymore beer at George Lounge and looked like a Nancy Pants sipping G&T's.

Many thanks to Brian, Tim and Quang for spoiling us on friday night - dinner was ridiculously good. To anyone whose thought of trying Rare you'd better go today - because once the word gets out.....unless your the OpenTable webmaster, your going to have a tough time getting a reservation!

I've been down to your joints a bunch of times in the last month and thought I might slip in to join in on the festivities - hell I lost 50% of last month's "entertainment" budget drinking Woodford bourbon and supporting my buddy's 25 year old scotch affliction a few weeks ago in your back room there - anyways, "Luck of the Irish" to you tonight.

.......ok, so with all the fanfare........can I drop in here tomorrow and have some dinner? - haven't heard anything beyond the special dinners.

I called Neil but all I got on the other line was, "Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling, from glen to glen and down the mountainside, the summer's gone and all the flowers are dying, 'tis you, tis you must go and I must bide!" It was a little strange to say the least.

.......Maybe a little late to start asking about this one - but isn't that always the case when you arrive to work on the morning of the 17th and you start getting pinches from everyone for not wearing green! Does anyone know of or running some sort of festivities for tomorrow night - ie: is Rare One serving a Frog's Leg buffet?

Tried Woodward Canyon's 02 Artist Series Cab - a chocolate bomb found at the Park Royal branch. $58 and worth every penny.

Now I don't want all of you keeners going to this place all at once cause this deal cannot be ruined. Things would get messy. Capiche? Mexicali on Dunbar. $5 (tax included) for a beef redondo roll up and a coke. Cheaper than any fast food joint and good hearty home made grub.

.......and you know your doing something special when Malcolm Parry gives you more space than the requisite pictures of socialite's gargantum breasts!

Ok folks, this is Vancouver - I could have got surefire leads on kilo's of coke and opportunities to buy 2006 Ferrari's at 90% off by now. I understand, some secrets are worth keeping. I am willing to put on my hiking boots (can bring beer) to search out the ellusive morel. P.S. - I'd be willing to share my autumn chantrelle and cauliflower shroom hunting grounds (beer provided) for an opportunity this spring.

So somewhere in all the hype of this joint I read / or maybe dreaming / heard something about dry aged beef that was left well beyond the lackluster 28th day - is this still in the works?

I've got enough cash to buy in pounds rather than dime bag grams - hook me up.

......so does anyone have a good lead on Morels as they come into season - preferably somewhere other than the usual suspects like Granville Island and the specialty grocery stores - I'd have no problem knocking out a middle man or two and pick them up on a corner somewhere down East Hastings way.

Oyama....duck prosciutto....all that needs to be said.

Well it's not exactly my honey bunny...but we get mistaken for that all the time at Granville Island - my buddy ordering copius amounts of the duck prosciutto at Oyama and me standing beside when the clerk inevitably asks, "Are you together?", in which I always respond, "Were Hetrosexual Life Partners, but no, we're not together!" Me and my Hetrosexual Life Partner eat Wings at the Regal Begal on Broadway - if we manage to last it's the ridiculously cheap mound of pate at the Smoking Dog and hope to hell they have the foie gras sauced Veal Chop on special.

.....I second the vote on Acme - my friend Dorian runs the sushi bar there - he's a dynamite guy - mention my name and he might laugh a bit (more than a few drunken adventures with the lad) but he'll sort you out. Paul

What a fantastic website. Those recipes of Olivier Roellinger are incredible. His uses of spices is very inventive.

Thanks, Mr. Manrique's menu is fantastic.

I've been searching for some restaurants / chefs that primarily cook seafood for some ideas. Whose the most creative, inventive, consistent, cutting edge, perfectly simple, or uses interesting, sustainable and exotic product? Through some of the websites I've looked at I see techniques like emulsions being used but what else is all the rage? Thanks.

Was just up in Whistler over the weekend and stopped in at the new Elements Tapas in the Summit Lodge for lunch. Finally there is a place in Whistler where you can get inventive food at a resonable price. It's a gorgeous room and wish that we hadn't bought 24oz t-bones for the bbq later on as I would have loved to go back for dinner. My buddy had been in before and he said that the portions were a good size. $14 for a steak frites is not too bad in my book. The wine list is ecclectic and has some very interesting selections. So I had a massive ceasar salad with dynamite dressing, big shavings of grand padano and crispy fried capers for 6 bucks! Open faced baguette, tomato's, frisee, crispy pancetta and a huge fried soft-shell crab on top for 9 bucks!

....D90 I might take that suggestive picture of "C" about to eat the Tiramisu as Umberto will likely be e-mailing you on how he can pick her up in his Ferrari for dinner tomorrow - ........I know his favourites were always his newly hired hostesses in Whistler but watch out my friend.