Get Out Your Handkerchiefs

[Zucchini Mama]

Ecco Boleto was where Feenies is now. Chris Brown still makes bread and takes orders for special seasonal items once in a while. He is a regular at the Nat Bailey Market-can't wait until it opens for the season!

The first memory I have of Vancouver is that washroom containing the statue with a shield covering the naughty bits. I remember inebriated women in bright red lipstick lifting it up and gufawwing all over me. BZZZZT! A buzzer goes off inside the restaurant. We had taken the train all the way from Sask. My mother dressed my sister and I up in our homemade Holly Hobby outfits to go to this place (The Attic) because it had antiques, not because of the food. For some reason, the people running the place thought it would be fun to have us parade around the room banging on pots and pans. I thought, "Hmmm, avery strange culture out here, indeed." I was about nine years old. We got chicken pox on the train ride home.

When I tell people this story they don't believe me, but now I can say I saw it on eGullet!

I miss Surat Sweet on W4th run by the lovely man with the deep voice. He never made mango lassies unless mangoes were in season. His shrikand and his pumpkin desserts were lovely-Gujarathi cuisine.

Shelora's exploits as a medieval serving wench reminded me of the time I had to waitress dressed as Minnie Mouse, but perhaps that's something for another thread...(It's scary how many men have a thing for Minnie.)

Zuke

[FannyBay]

Hi Zucchini Mama, that restaurant was Frank Bakers, located first for many years near Park Royal in West Vancouver, then on Cambie for not too long. I remember being taken there for my birthday as a little girl and being mortified when I pulled the leaf over the male statues "parts" and the bell rang. I think I hid in the bathroom for the rest of the night!

Mama Gold's, interesting you would mention "snow" in connection to that place…

Bruno Born owned The Chef & Carpenter first. He was the chef and another German guy was the carpenter. The Carpenter (Hans?) opened Mama Gold's, but I don't think Bruno was involved with that. Bruno then opened a place on Granville and 41st, then the Coq d'Or on Broadway (somewhere in little Greece) or perhaps it was the Broadway place first then Granville? He now owns a place on Broadway, just past McDonald, and has for some time now. Is it called Zepppo's? I think that's close but not quite right…Han's? Went on to open a place on Cornwall, which was quite short lived, can't remember the name. Now there's a great example of a bad location for your bad locations thread, has any restaurant lasted along that 1-2 block stretch of Cornwall and Cypress?

I miss the original William Tell, Il Palazzo and The Devonshire Seafood House. Never went to the Savoury but at the time it, Francesco Alongi (in which dinner there I believe resulted in the loss of my virginity), and one of Umberto's restaurants were considered the only decent restaurants in Vancouver. Trader Vicks and the Roof because my first serious dates were there and they served me under age! All those great old Chinese restaurants, whose names I can't recall, and a great little restaurant in West Van named after an old Movie Star, Dietrics, Garbo's, something like that…

I miss the Drive-in's at the Whitespot, though someone told me they still do Drive-in at the location on the Lougheed Highway.

I remember ordering a coffee in one the restaurants at The Hotel Vancouver, I think it was called the Spanish Grill, and when I asked someone for cream was informed I wasn't sitting in her section and I would just have to wait for my own waitress (something's never change)

Not a restaurant, but before it was The Gap and its predecessor Marks and Spencer's, that site in the Pacific Centre Mall was a great nightclub run by the Four Seasons called Annabel's.

Recent years…well I miss Mark Pretofsky's cooking at all the restaurants he managed to run to the ground with his cocaine habit. Man he was talented…I miss the old Teahouse, just who the hell can remember how to spell Sequoia Grill? The absolutely fabulous Falafel place on Broadway replaced by the Steamrollers, and I miss the innovation and incredible futurist thinking of Janice Lotzgar and her team of talents gals like Rebecca Dawson and Karen Barnaby.

I miss the English Bay Café, Red's (which was where Raincity Grill now is) and does anyone remember what that great late night restaurant on Davie Street was called, the one that served the hugest mushroom burgers know to man/women kind?

I am sure in about a year and half I will not miss that restaurant that's about to open, and will inevitably close, on Kits beach. Unfortunately the building is built like a concrete bunker and looks like it will survive a nuclear war - It and the roaches. What was the Parks Board thinking leasing that out to a restaurant group that has owned, and closed, some of the worst restaurants in Vancouver? The Animal House, nope that's not right, the Rain Forest Café, now there was a successful franchise... Can't wait to see what tacky restaurant goes in after that. Will it become a bar for all the basketball players from Seattle who come up every year to pick up blond beach babes, then a drug dealers shop? After that it will sit empty, covered in Graffiti, for the nice folks in the neighborhood to look at for years to come. Well at least if no ones goes there, they won't have to worry about the total lack of any parking…

Edited April 8, 2005 by FannyBay (log)

[nwyles]

Fanny, I think you are sinking this place before it opens. ( Kits Beach place - Name ?? )

When is it slated to open ?

When will it close ? Any bets ? Perhaps an over / under on it.

I feel terrible trash talking it - does anyone really know the skinny on it ?

Who is the Chef ? What about the "Dining Room" manager ?

It has been really quiet about this place.

Edited April 8, 2005 by nwyles (log)

[nwyles]

Never went to the Savoury but at the time it, Francesco Alongi (in which dinner there I believe resulted in the loss of my virginity), and one of Umberto's restaurants were considered the only decent restaurants in Vancouver.

What ! Am I reading that right ? Please clarify.

[Mooshmouse]

Frank Baker’s

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Ah yes. Family meals out on the deck at Frank Baker's. That bastion of culinary wonderment from the days when buffet dining and Copper Kettle restaurants were all the rage, the stuff of childhood memories.

The James Bond mobile in the glass showcase out front. And who can forget the fig leaf on the statue of David in the women's washroom. It was attached to a buzzer that rang throughout the entire restaurant, thus identifying all curious onlookers.

They just don't make restaurants like that anymore.

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The first memory I have of Vancouver is that washroom containing the statue with a shield covering the naughty bits. I remember inebriated women in bright red lipstick lifting it up and gufawwing all over me. BZZZZT! A buzzer goes off inside the restaurant. We had taken the train all the way from Sask. My mother dressed my sister and I up in our homemade Holly Hobby outfits to go to this place (The Attic) because it had antiques, not because of the food. For some reason, the people running the place thought it would be fun to have us parade around the room banging on pots and pans. I thought, "Hmmm, avery strange culture out here, indeed." I was about nine years old. We got chicken pox on the train ride home.

When I tell people this story they don't believe me, but now I can say I saw it on eGullet!

←

Hi Zucchini Mama, that restaurant was Frank Bakers, located first for many years near Park Royal in West Vancouver, then on Cambie for not too long. I remember being taken there for my birthday as a little girl and being mortified when I pulled the leaf over the male statues "parts" and the bell rang. I think I hid in the bathroom for the rest of the night!

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All this talk of Frank Bakers is giving me the urge to have some buffet food... or lift a fig leaf... one or the other, really.

[*Deborah*]

Go for the fig leaf...you're less likely to be disappointed with your meal.

[Shiraziste]

The Timber Club in the Hotel Vancouver.  We can all laugh now at what a stuffy place it was, but that was my first real "fancy" dinner date. 

Pheasant under glass, actually brought by the waiter under a silver dome and unveiled (undomed?) with a flourish.  I'm a little embarrassed to admit how impressed I was, but going out for dinner was a much bigger deal then than it is now.

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...........and The Panoramic Roof.

My dad was offered a jacket to wear while dining

I wish I could re-open that space, it could be so cool with big band style music, Martinis, and yes, PLEASE bring back the pheasant under glass !

This city completely lacks a dining and dancing establishment with real class and sass.

Edited April 9, 2005 by Shiraziste (log)

[appreciator]

I hate to burst the bubble about the olde fig leaf at Frank Baker's thang,.... but I'm pretty sure it was an urban myth that it actually made a noise out in the restaurant. I do remember going there as a child and being told not to lift the fig leaf because it would buzz in the restaurant, however, I'm pretty sure that it didn't..

Anyone work there, oh those many years ago, who can confirm or deny this????

[Mooshmouse]

No, Sarah, it certainly did buzz throughout the restaurant. An exceedingly loud buzz at that. As kids, I remember family dinners there with my younger cousins, and we did an experiment to test the powers of the fig leaf... two of us would go into the bathroom and lift it, while two stayed outside to listen. Sho'nuf.

[edm]

Fanny, I think you are sinking this place before it opens. ( Kits Beach place - Name ?? )

When is it slated to open ?

When will it close ? Any bets ? Perhaps an over / under on it.

I feel terrible trash talking it - does anyone really know the skinny on it ?

Who is the Chef ? What about the "Dining Room" manager ?

It has been really quiet about this place.

←

to take with a grain a salt:

6-million $$ project.

a 200 seat restaurant plus a take-out.

I think they're planning on offering all kinds of different food: italian, chinese, japanese... and my bet is that none will be good... Supposedly they want to use some local ingredients... But as business oriented as they seem to be, i kinda doubt it.

Opening is about 2 to 3 months away.

Edited April 9, 2005 by edm (log)

[jamiemaw]

I hate to burst the bubble about the olde fig leaf at Frank Baker's thang,.... but I'm pretty sure it was an urban myth that it actually made a noise out in the restaurant.  I do remember going there as a child and being told not to lift the fig leaf because it would buzz in the restaurant, however, I'm pretty sure that it didn't..

Anyone work there, oh those many years ago, who can confirm or deny this????

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Sarah, the answer to your question is: Intermittently. A buzzer did go off in the ladies room and the statue pee'd too.

Here's a regifting from 'My First Restaurant Job' . . .

I began in the business as a busboy at The Attic in West Vancouver. It was shortly after the Crimean War, I believe. I was paid $1.25 per hour plus a share of tips from two waitresses--anywhere from $2 to $5 per night each, depending on many variables and their time of the month. My favourites were Teresa, who would eventually marry Jean-Claude Ramond, and Katie, who looked particularly endearing in her Klondike dress. I wore black pants and a green and gold lamé vest that reacted kindly to stains.

For those of you who never visited The Attic, it pretty much looked like its name. It was decorated in a rather eclectic manner, to be polite, with fake Tiffany lamps, unmatched furniture and a male statue in the lady’s room that, when a fig leaf masking the male organ was touched, would pee a jet of cold water onto the curious babe. I got to mop it up.

The managers, Charles (downstairs in the events and weekend brunch room called The Capilano Gardens) and Ian, were harsh invigilators, but Frank Baker was as cool with us as he was chatting up the ladies or blowing his trumpet. The night before he had his remaining teeth removed (the new ones would be installed a month later), he gave a last baleful toot. His sound would never be the same.

But he was always the same, with a lot of kind words and a big drink in his hand, often entertaining celebs like Mitzi Gaynor after a show at The Cave. He wore white tie and tails every night for the floor show, with white shoes. But it was a cut above the regular Full Nanaimo. Hy Aisenstat, Jack Wasserman, Jack Webster and Denny Boyd were regulars, because the drinks were strong, severely discounted for pals and because it was just a short toboggan ride up Taylor Way to their homes.

Downstairs, at the entrance, the silver James Bond Aston Martin sat polished under plexiglass. Quite a draw. But nothing like Lance Harrison and his Dixieland Band, who drank vodka with a splash of OJ on the back stoop between sets. To this day, I go out of my way to avoid banjo music.

In time I was allowed access to the inner sanctum where Mr. Baker would entertain those pals and fabulous babes, bouffants like cotton candy, clasping whiskey sours over vertiginous bosoms. This was, I suppose, how I came to enjoy spectating the human condition.

And at The Attic, the conditions were pretty good. The food was, well, interesting, the way you'd tell your Mum that the girl you took to the dance was “interesting”, I suppose. Soup, iceberg salads, steaks, ribs, chicken—pretty much proforma. The rubber tire tour bus crowd would roll in first on their way to the ferry—around 5 o’clock. They were served the “Staff Meal” which was invariably soup, griddled ham steak with a ring of Dole pineapple, and rice pilaf, which we didn’t exactly pronounce that way. One smart aleck caught me with my thumb in his soup when I not so carefully placed it down. “I hope you didn’t burn your thumb,” he said. “Well, no sir, it’s actually lukewarm.” And while I wasn’t actually fired for that remark, I did have to pearl dive for a couple of nights before going back on the floor.

But hell, people weren’t there for the food. They were there for a night out, for some stiff drinks, a few jokes and some music, and maybe even a chance to spot a star.

Eventually I cooked steaks, a great many steaks, in the little glass grill-room that protruded into the dining rooms. I loved it. We stuck little plastic cows of various colours—red, pink, beige and brown—into the steaks to indicate doneness. I’m sure the customers found it reassuring. I think my record was around 200 steaks in one evening. It must have been a payday Friday.

West Vancouver was a dining desert then, with Peppi’s and a Chinese restaurant with an occidental name (Hennessy's) and just a few other places augmenting The White Spot. The real action was downtown at Hy’s at the Sands, The William Tell, The Cavalier Grill and The Roof.

Frank Baker eventually lost The Attic, probably for a bunch of reasons, but mainly because he never changed the concept. The Aston Martin was famously auctioned off by the receiver. I guess people had moved on—to The Keg and elsewhere. His big time days over, Frank Baker made a comeback on Cambie Street, but it always seemed a bit half-hearted. His horn went finally quiet in 1989, his white suits packed away. The word flamboyant always seemed a bit small for him.

In the summers Mr. Baker took us out for a staff party on his houseboat, the not-so-curiously named El Citta. The food was plentiful if familiar. We would push up Indian Arm at trolling speed, eating and drinking, into the summer shadows, and then suddenly, they were gone too.

Edited April 9, 2005 by jamiemaw (log)

[appreciator]

No, Sarah, it certainly did buzz throughout the restaurant.  An exceedingly loud buzz at that.  As kids, I remember family dinners there with my younger cousins, and we did an experiment to test the powers of the fig leaf... two of us would go into the bathroom and lift it, while two stayed outside to listen.  Sho'nuf.

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Sarah, the answer to your question is: Intermittently. A buzzer did go off in the ladies room and the statue pee'd too.

I stand corrected in my attempt at busting so-called "urban myths"

Will just have to try harder next time

[merlin]

What about Rebecca's in Victoria. It was on Wharf Street immediately adjacent to Bastion Square [now D'Arcy McGee's] with a nice view of the inner harbour.

This was in the late '80's and '90's. Our regular haunts were Camille's and Chauney's [now Pescatores] until we discovered Rebecca's and that became our favourite.

Nice sunny front room for lunch, take out counters with salads, desserts and opened up further toward the back in the evening. Interesting, inventive food.

Then one year it was gone. No one seemed to know why or who was/had been behind it....that was in the days before websites like this one existed. The Johnson Street bridge area had not been developed like it is becoming now apart from the Market. No Ocean Pointe Hotel...condos just starting to go up.

[appreciator]

They are currently converting it into condos.  It was a cursed location... I don't think any restaurant has been close to making it there. Not sure what you mean by the car thing though- cars are still allowed down there, though they have never been allowed on the seawall itself...I live nearby and have seen many many rooms come and go there. Sad.  I am hoping the little cafe just around the bend  makes it. One of Gord Martin's proteges.

Ann (or anyone else) have you tried this place yet? I was having a post sun run brunch with some fellow runners at Stamps Landing Pub today and took a quick peak at their menu. Looks pretty good so I am curious to give it a try one of these days but would be interested to hear any early reports. Alas, I can't recall the name... something with numbers in it though, perhaps.

[janevm]

Lorenzo's - best Scampi in town. Now a Greek restaurant or it was last time I drove by. could be gone by now.

[lauraf]

Fanny, I think you are sinking this place before it opens. ( Kits Beach place - Name ?? )

When is it slated to open ?

When will it close ? Any bets ? Perhaps an over / under on it.

I feel terrible trash talking it - does anyone really know the skinny on it ?

Who is the Chef ? What about the "Dining Room" manager ?

It has been really quiet about this place.

←

to take with a grain a salt:

6-million $$ project.

a 200 seat restaurant plus a take-out.

I think they're planning on offering all kinds of different food: italian, chinese, japanese... and my bet is that none will be good... Supposedly they want to use some local ingredients... But as business oriented as they seem to be, i kinda doubt it.

Opening is about 2 to 3 months away.

←

It's to be called Watermark, I believe, as discussed in a previous thread.