nwyles

After I posted above, i thought that i was being mean, and thought that valet run golf carts to the restaurant would be feasable....but then I like your covered walkway idea better. Lots and lots of fresh herbs and edible flowers. ← Your mean comments had you as a shoo in for the exec. sous chef position - now that you have shown your kinder, softer gentler side, - Head Hostess

Won't it be a little funny if this is the runaway hit of the year ? Really, until chef Bighead demands a payraise and a bigger part, more control, less work ........wait, that was a different show.

If I am not mistaken, this was filmed at the YAletown Brew Pub. Fine Dining ? Semi retarded ? You can fill in the blanks

The Georgia Straight Reader's choice awards are always fun as there is usually something attached and makes for a good read. It suffers the pitfall of ballot stuffing as the ballots are free and available all over town. I remember one year a disclaimer about obvious ballot stuffers would be shamed and ridiculed. I did not see that this year.

I second that. A planned route. As you have the possiblilty of 9 meals ( or 15 or more meals if you are Ling ), heaven forbid one of them is a bad one. LIfe is too short for that.

I must admit, I do not think I will be Tvo'ing this one, even if it was filmed in the 'Hood. And, one more thing - God help Maw if he makes a cameo in this - he would suffer the wrath and vengence of all - a mocking like he has never seen with no end in sight.

It is funny to see the quick jump to Jamie's side. I think that there should be a local forum rule that you can't jump all over someone in your first post. You have no "Street Cred" on the board. We saw it in the Heather thread and now here. Shellfish Sam needs to get his posts up before he starts taking potshots at anyone, I think, anyways. Anyone with more that 100 post can take shots, but certainly not in your first venture out of the gate. Not that I think Mr. Maw and his rapier sharp wit ( and fine spelling skills ) needs anyone to defend him!

Why must you rain on my parade. It would become a culinary destination - with all of the power of the egulleters behind it, people will beat a path to its door. Lumiere has created this sort of attraction - it is a destination. When it first opened, it certainly was off of the beaten path as far as the concentration of restaurants. Rob has turned that part of Broadway into a culinary destination, so we know that it can be done. COV - if they would let the deep fry masters of the Elephant and Castle group ( they also run Rosie's on Robson ) take over perhaps one of their premier spot in the country for the cost of building some new change rooms, this location has a chance. Perhaps for the cost of a three story parkade at the Sailing club. As to the walk from the car to the front door - a covered walkway with harvestable plants growing up the sides - the has been an offer or two for gardening services already so this is a slam dunk. It certainly would add to the local ingredient aspect and help keep food cost down. Perhaps we could grow hops or grapes to add to our own beverages. How could the City object to that. Money, people, all we need is lots and lots of money. Ideas we have. Sorry to say, but in my mind I have hijacked this dream so I am the Chef ( in name only ) others my come and play in my new restaurant as I do work well with others.

A couple of quick things - As to the question / concern / statements about the Asian restaurants perhaps not getting notice or Hon's as the winner etc. I think that this catagory suffers like the others in a certain way. Accessability and visability. I found a copy of the judges last year ( and posted ) because it got me thinking on this same topic. There is a few asain judges on the panel and guys like James Barber would , I think , be in the know of all of the cool little off the beaten path places. Within the 30 judges, lets say each votes Hon's as the number three for 3 points, but each toss in the names of these cool little spots that they know ( lets say 3 judges each pick rest a, b, c, d, e, f, etc, getting that place 15 points in the scoring system, still not enough to beat Hon's at 90 points. ) It is the flaw in the system that the most accessable and visable get attention, although not as the top in the catagory, but gets them the #1 position. If you look at the spread of points in some catagories, the were probably lots of people who did not vote or put N/A etc as the #1 in the Casual Chinese got 52 points. The total votes published in this catagory last year was 104 out of a possible 450 possible. I do not know what this means exactly. perhaps there is a giant list of restaurants that got from 1 to 4 points, but not enough to get into the top five ( restaurant #5 only had 5 points ). A great example of visability and accessability would be Feenie's in the Best New Informal. It had the highest point total out of any catagory across the board with 132. This means that more of the judges were able to get out and see this restaurant within the time frame of the awards. This brings me to the second point. PR people. Lots of restaurants have them. Lots of restaurants need them. Everyone uses their PR person for different reasons. Just so we are clear, I have one. I was approached in my opening week by a PR person ( 8 years ago ). In all honesty, I did not know what one did and was not sure if I needed that. I thought that I could just throw open my doors and everything would be fine. I was right. Seven years later, with my wife taking a smaller role in the restaurant having two little kids, I found myself streched a little thin and needed some help. I found myself ready and wanting to do specific events in house like wine dinners etc. I needed help not in doing the event , but communicating it. For my and my PR person, this is the main focus of what we are doing together. Communication. Now back to the issue. I see PR ( and this only how I see it, others may have different thoughts ) people facilitating media people into a restaurant, giving gentle reminders of what restaurants are doing, any changes going on etc. Some restaurants have a huge budget to bring people in and entertain them. Does it create an unfair playing feild ? possibly. But the thing to remember is that the product and service have to be sound in order for that to have any meaning at all. If the food is shit and the service crap, it was just a big waste of time and money. And I would imagine that wasting time would create a media backlash. I do not know all of the other jobs that PR people do - some work with Hotel Concierge, local businesses etc but I think for the sake of this disscussion, we are talking about what they do with the local media and how it affects the Van Mag awards. It is dangerous to host special; "events" for media that are perhaps a departure from your regular gig. The media people and judges are not fooled by Chef Gustav Von Asskicker standing at the door when they come in, when they know he truly lives up to his name and really does not care what they think, only what they can do for him. With so many restaurants in town, sometimes there is a need for a gentle reminder about what is going on. This town is full of events and comings and goings etc. It is hard for someone in the business everyday with constant communicating to their peers to keep track. I could only imagine how difficult it must be for someone who food is only a part of their job, that they really have other gigs to pay the bills so that they can pursue , like all of us, their passion for all things culinary. Ok, enough, off to work I go. Ok, I would love it if my PR person got me a big TV show. That would change everything, wouldn't it !

Here is a quick list of the judges from last year. Murray Bancroft, James BArber, Christina Burrudge, Sid Cross, Nathan Fong, Condrea Fung, Jurgen Gothe, Duncan Holmes, Judith Lane, Bill Jones, MArk Laba, Qubic Lam, Deana Lancaster, Barbara-jo McIntosh, Andre LaRiviere, The future husband of the person known as the future Mrs. Maw, Murray McMillan, Jason McRobbie, Caren McSherry, Robin Mines, Jane Mundy, Angela Murrills, Tim Pawsey, Robert Simpson, Mia Stainby, Lesley Stowe, Kasey Wilson, Stephen Wong, Stephanie Yuen and John Pifer. That is quite a list. Not only hats off to the judges but hats off to the assistant who can book time with them and get them all in the room at the same time. A fair representation of all of the different writers and food personalities in town. I do not think that anyone is omitted and I heard the was a couple of additions this year. Jamie - how many judges this year ? There was 30 last year. You have two additions this year - anyone not able to contribute this year ?

In a restaurant this size and the volume that it is going to have, I will be chef in name only. I will become a marketing icon. The will be a full brigade of restaurants chefs and sou-chefs working under me. My job will be to market the restaurant, and help create a unique brand of dining. Should we have my picture on each and every plate to aid in the branding ? I would be available for drinking wine and promotional pictures each and every moment of the day. Wow, I sure hope this works out.

Isn't Jamie the finance guy? ← He would be the developer. This way we would get some good press right out of the gate and with a full plattoon of egulletters waiting on each and every person, we are bound to be a success. Anyone know Kyle Washington ? Perhaps it could be a floating restaurant ! N

It is now nearly 4:00 and I have had only a couple of PM's about funding my dream. People, if we are get this off the ground by the end of the week, get your chequebooks out !

How about that giant ashphalt salb down by Jericho Beach, to the left of the Sailing club. Slightly out of the way, with parking, amazing view, parks board as the landlord, build a boat launch for day sailers etc. Wow, what a Westcost experience that would be. Patio - huge Chef, why me of course ! Can anyone secure the funding ? PM me if you can and I can clear my schedule right away !! Food cost ? As long as all other elements were in line to turn a profit, this could go up to 40 % In order for that to work, it has to come from somewhere - service, beverage cost, little or no rent, or just sheer volume, volume, volume - in order for a restaurant like this to sustain itself, it needs to turn a profit. People have lost fortunes building their dreams. Build a salmon stream right into the park. That would have David Suzuki eating there every day ! How about that as a starting point ?

Now here's a good debate. Who will pay $9 for the G pudding? ← Now that you are all hooked on it, you all will. Sometime I feel like a "dealer" , getting you hooked and then jacking the price. Perhaps a frequent flyer discount is in order ?

6 yrs.+, take the leap man! ←

You will let us know when she is about to become the artist formerly known as the "Future Mrs. Maw" to "Mrs. Maw"

Dear Lord, Forgive me Neil. I actually know a Noah Wyles, hence the auto error. Sorry Ann ← That's ok, if you have read this board for awhile, sometimes my own guests call me Ian. Cheers Neil

Catagories, yes, there lies a great challange. It is hard to define which pigeon hole a restaurant fits in. Like the whole West Coast Cuisine question, there possibly is no real right answer, just interpretation. Lumiere - is it a Westcoast Contempoary Regional restaurant with French technique ? Is it a Formal French Restaurant with regional influences etc. Do they sell so many small plates to qualify as a Tapas or has Lumiere become a destination restaurant, adding it into yet another catagory. Is Vij's just an Indian restaurant or is it a Contemporary Regional because of uses of local ingredients and West Coast influences or because of his influence on the local dining scene ? I certainly do not wish to have the job of defining the catagories. My keen eye did not detect the challenge in the system until I was typing the words. Accessability is key, or is at least part of it. Although Chef Gustav Von Asskicker might be doing the best food, at $1000 a head, not many people have the chance to see it, not ranking him very high in the scoring. Chef Ronald MacDonald is not doing nearly the sort of food Gustav is, while OK, at $20 per person, making him the number three choice, times the 30 judges, runs away with the catagory with a whopping 90 points over Chef Asskicker at a measly 10 points. It is not a perfect system but I can't see how it could be changed to make it so. Because of the diversity of restaurants and the judges involved, it is probably the best we have. We can't keep breaking down catagories to suit every situation, it would dilute the overall prestige of the award - Best French Fry West of Cambie just does not fit. I notice that some catagories change or blend over the years to suit the current dining scene - I would rather that than restaurant trying to change what they are doing to fit inside a catagory pigeon hole. Anyways, off to work I go, Neil

I think that this would be Le Crocodile for us - I should say for me - I have not consulted my wife on this. The food, service, and the overall special treatment makes this a forever favourite. We try and sneak in every now and then and have a few snacks at the bar - telling the staff not to tell Michel or Franck that we are there. Michel is a gracious host and lots of little treats come out of the kitchen. It is worse when Michel is not there, Franck sends out more stuff just to make sure all the bases are covered. I can't eat like that all the time and sometimes just want a couple of things, a drink and then hit the road. It is hard to slip in and out unnoticed but we have been successful half of the time. When we decide to go for the full out dinner, I just love it. I do not eat lunch and refrain from snacking so I am in full dining condition. I have never had a bad item here in all the years we have been going. I did have to take one for the team when Michel sent out two orders of frogs legs. Joan was about 8 months pregnant and this was just not happening. Although I had never had frog legs before, I did enjoy mine, I just did not enjoy having to eat the second order as well. This was also the time that I appreciated the half bottle collection that they had. I had never needed to venture in the half bottles before. BTW, I noticed West had a great half bottle collection. Are there any other restaurants out there with good half bottle lists ? Just curious.

I am just curious about the whole process. Not every publication has a budget for dinners out. Does Van Mag provide an honourarium to judges to subsidize the cost of the adventure or is this something the judges have to either pay for themselves or through their other work ? I love to dine out but certainly do not have the budget to hit all of the spots in the running. That is quite an undertaking and one wonders if it is underwritten ? Is this perhaps part of the reason for some of the huge gaps in the numbers in the scoring ? Take the meat catagory - 106 points at the top to 62, 44, 40 and 28 points for 5th ? Not everyone got out to all places and 28 points was all that Hy's got because not every judge had been in within the allotted time ? More of the judges had had a meal at Memphis Blues -ie if 30 judges rated it their #2 favourite, that would get them 120 points , where only 8 judges visited Morton's, but each rated it their #1, getting them 40 points. Is this how it works ? I certainly would not question or disagree with the results - what we get is the blended results of 30 varied judges from different aspects of the industry. I am just curious about the method in which the results are arrived at. I recall your 20 point system. Does every judge have something like it ? Do you offer up your system as a guideline or an aid ?

Went to check out new place with wife and kids for dinner Sunday night. No go - closed on Sunday Decided to go to Marcello's as we were in a pizza mood and it is in our hood. Over 60 minutes to wait for a pizza. Quoted 25 minutes, arrives in over 60 minutes. Kids are getting fidgetty, little one starts to melt down. Neil not happy at all. I have been down this road before at Marcello's, same scenario. I guess I am just a glutton for punishment. Really though 5:45 on a Sunday night, the table next to us has theirs in 20 minutes - WTF !!! I think that will be the last time we ever go with the kids. Just not worth the wait. And bloody expensive too. $9.00 for a tiramisu ! The total bill was nearly a C note ( $100.00 for the uncool ) - one salad, two small pizzas - and really skimpy on the toppings as well - I can't imagine why it took over nad hour to cook about 4 ozs of stuff - two apple juice, 2 beer and sparkling water, and tiramisu to go I think it is time to raise the price of gingerbread ! - It has been $6.00 since the day I opened. If this place is getting $9.00 for a small tiramisu, g bread is goin' up !

Thanks for the prompt response. What exactly are the criteria or areas in which a restaurant is judged ? Is there a list with a grading scale ? Can you post it ? Does past performance affect what is going through a judges mind ? ie : In judging Indian restaurants does the thought " how does this compare to Vij's ? " go through their mind ? I know that in a recent posting about Indian restaurants, Vij's was excluded. Is Vij's the standard in that catagory, which all others are compared or do we start with a clean slate every year. If I were a judge, would I reflect on other meals I have enjoyed at Vij's in other years, does that blur my opinion this year ? Am I fondly reflecting on past experiences or living in the moment ? As a judge, would thay have needed to visit Vij's this past year or can I rely on reflections from other visits. Can you give an example of a conflict of interest in judging ? Are there any conflicts in the current panel ? And lastly, come on, a duel between Pino and Umberto would be very cool ! How would it be done ? Frying pans at 20 paces ?

This is an event that I look forward to each year. I can appreciate the amount of work that gold medal restaurants have to do in order to obtain or retain that status. There are no off days and there are no "it's good enough" meals. You need to be consistantly excellent day in and day out. That being said, I do not think that there are any major surprises in most of the major catagories. For example, it would be tough to beat " Mr. Iron Chef" Rob Feenie as the chef of the year ( I am certainly not looking to have egg on my face if he does not win, just an example ). What I would find interesting is that once having won a gold medal, you are exempt for two years in that catagory, opening the field up to other players and creating an buzz about who could possibly be the new winner. That would make for an exciting awards ceremony. I certainly can see both sides of the coin here - Being a winner puts bums in seats - some people use this as their personal dining guide for the year and there is a $$ value attached to being a winner. It is the reward for consistant excellence. The readers of the magazine deserve to know who is the best example in that catagory. I recognize that. There certainly is status attached to winning. Vikram Vij runs an excellent restaurant and is the front runner for Indian restaurant etc. - Once he won this, he still would be open to win restaurant of the year, same with Tojo etc. That would make for an interesting race ! These two restaurants dominate their catagories every year. Same with Scott Jaeger at the Pear Tree - always wins for Best of the Burbs but there is a guy who could make a run at restaurant or Chef of the year( please correct me if I am wrong as I have a short memory and no stack of past Van Mags at my fingertips to check ). Perhaps I am looking at this from my own point of entertainment. Looking for dark Horses and Underdogs. Looking for surprises where perhaps none exist - Vij's is possibly the best Indian restaurant and deseves the recognition every year. But wouldn't it be fun to see something like Vera's Burger Shack win best chain restaurant rather than Earl's. I am not looking for something comical like Go Fish win best Seafood ( no disrespect to Go Fish, just a handy example ) if "C" Restaurant is out of the running for two years. Would this dilute the prestige that goes with winning or motivate people who are so very close to being in the running ( I will provide no examples here ). What sort of increase in business comes with winning ? I have an idea of how much. Are all locations ready for that ? Would it be fair to give a gold medal to someone who was not ready for that sort of volume increase ? Let's say Go Fish swept all catagories - Chef, Restaurant, Best Casual, Best Seafood, Best New restaurant, Best French Fry etc - would they be ready for five hour line-up everyday all day. No one is ready for that kind of instant volume increase. Quality would suffer and the accuracy of the awards would then come into question. ( again, no disrepect to Gord and his team, just an example ). It would make for a slightly more exciting restaurant awards ceremony. Or perhaps Pino and Umberto could have a duel for Best Italian - That would be cool !!

Don't mess it up? Leonard C GM ← Leonard, I believe that Andrew was referring to the chequered food reputation of the developers of the Watermark property on Kits Beach They also run the Elephant annd Castle pubs. ← Jamie, you really hit it on the mark about their attention to the deep fryer. I think that habit carried over to the sons and their restaurants. I am a little shocked that a restaurant group with their pedigree was able to get the Kits Beach location. I honestly thought it would have gone to Brent Davies, given his entrenchment in the City's parks already. I look forward to seeing how this will shake out.