Doing Lunch

[jamiemaw]

Brunch is for amateurs, chumps and tourists. Breakfast is a good idea, especially on weekends, but for some can arrive too early. And dinner, let it be said, might raise expectations, and certainly prices.

In an non-expense account city like Vancouver, proper sit-down lunches are vanishing. A couple of years ago, the script was writ large when the city's premier power luncheon room, Chartwell, went dark at the noon hour.

But those rooms that remain open, such as Il Giardino, Bacchus, Le Crocodile, Francesco's, Enoteca and Diva, offer refuge, respite, and value that would make a Scotsman proud. Just when your palate is freshest, and when a sandwich just won't do, I like to save about half the dinner bill, and for forty dollars or a little more, feast.

I was entertaining Italian friends earlier this week. We'd had a very good meal at Vij's the night before. But I thought I'd carry the coals to Newcastle and introduce them to Pino Posteraro's cooking at Enoteca, a sleek blonde room.

We began with a rustic terrine of pork shoulder served with baby romaine hearts and balsamic syrup. Then a gallantine of poached wild sockeye with salmon caviar, oil, asaparagus and smoked sea salt. Their lunchtime-only rotisserie chicken, which is remarkably good in its deeply reduced sauce, arrived with baby bok choy and buttered beans. Then a lemon granita over diced nectarines and whole raspberries.

The linen and silver were top drawer, the setting pretty and quiet enough for good conversation. It was, in the words of my guests, not only delicious, but very civilized.

Your favourite places for a civilized lunch?

Edited March 18, 2005 by jamiemaw (log)

[Andrew Morrison]

Aqua Riva

Sequoia Grill

Feenie's

La Regalade

West

Civilised. Not uproarious. Nothing too crazy, bill-wise.

[jamiemaw]

The food writer Kasey Wilson once described these rooms as places where you can "Get someone to do something they don't necessarily want to do."

[barolo]

I don't get out for lunch nearly as much as I wish I did but Diva and West are two of my favourites. Enoteca sounds great, but I haven't had the pleasure of lunch there yet.

[Ducky]

Good choices all. I would add Cioppinos and Rodney's Oyster Bar.

[Mooshmouse]

Back in my business-suit days, Le Crocodile was a favourite spots for lunching with clients. So too Chartwell and Il Giardino.

In addition to the great suggestions already proffered, I'd add Bistro Pastis. Best pommes frites in town.

[PaoPao]

Sometimes I get tired of everyone’s idea of "civilized". Yes all the places above are nice but it also gets IMO boring. Is one linen napkin establishment really so much more interesting than the next in lunch from dinner?

Lunch for me now and also when I had to be with clients was a time to be adventurous and try that new little hole in the wall. A reprieve from all that "civilized" behaviour is what kept me from reaching across my desk and becoming un-civilized with someone.

Sure I enjoy the above mentioned restaurants, but it's a dinner thing. Lunch I need a healthy dose of Kintaro's Noodles or Banano's Beef Enchiladas(extra spicy thank you), Havana, Cafe D'lite, etc. Even when I was having lunch with high end clients or out of towners, they liked these places much more as well.

Lunch is for adventure; keep the "good boy/girl" facade for another time.

[edm]

-Yoshi, Denman & Georgia

-Salade de fruits!

-Rangoli

-petit cafe, on Main, for tasty vietnamese

-Slickity Jim's for the unpretentious, decent brunch

-Go fish! (my first exp there was kinda funny though. after they put my F&C up, a try a couple of fries, and share my impressions: soft (but cooked) and under-salted. 5staff behind the line. the only answer i got: "we can re-fry them if you want". haha!)

[Daddy-A]

Sometimes I get  tired of everyone’s idea of "civilized".  Yes all the places above are nice but it also gets IMO boring.  Is one linen napkin establishment really so much more interesting than the next in lunch from dinner?

Kinda not the point PaoPao. Jamie started this thread looking for "white linen" lunches, not a place to go slurp noodles. That, it would seem, is food for another thought.

I'll second Moosh's rec for Pastis ... nicest lucnh ever was on a snowy Friday in January this year when "J" & I played hookey. Not sure our Goretex and Sorells (or was that Low Sorells - sorry Jamie ) fit the room, but the Cassoulet and Bouef Borgignon sure fit the weather.

A.

[PaoPao]

Sometimes I get  tired of everyone’s idea of "civilized".  Yes all the places above are nice but it also gets IMO boring.  Is one linen napkin establishment really so much more interesting than the next in lunch from dinner?

Kinda not the point PaoPao. Jamie started this thread looking for "white linen" lunches, not a place to go slurp noodles. That, it would seem, is food for another thought.

I'll second Moosh's rec for Pastis ... nicest lucnh ever was on a snowy Friday in January this year when "J" & I played hookey. Not sure our Goretex and Sorells (or was that Low Sorells - sorry Jamie ) fit the room, but the Cassoulet and Bouef Borgignon sure fit the weather.

A.

←

It's a point Arne, made from years of "white linen" lunches and an escape from the monotony of it all. Why would a contrary opinion about a subject thread need to be applied elsewhere? I guess it depends on what your definition of civilized is .... which by the way to me doesn't dictate the action ("slurp noodles") but the experience, tastes, and anticipation behind what is a great "power" lunch.

[jamiemaw]

Sometimes I get  tired of everyone’s idea of "civilized".  Yes all the places above are nice but it also gets IMO boring.  Is one linen napkin establishment really so much more interesting than the next in lunch from dinner?

Kinda not the point PaoPao. Jamie started this thread looking for "white linen" lunches, not a place to go slurp noodles. That, it would seem, is food for another thought.

A.

←

Yes, that was rather the point, illuminated by that sterling lunch we enjoyed earlier this week at Cioppino’s Enoteca.

That being said, I hosted a post-production lunch at Phnom Penh on Thursday, that, although lacking superior napery, made up for it in flavour: mango salad, hot and sour soup with prawns, Chinese broccoli, sautéed lotus root, garlic squid in lemon pepper, barbecued chicken, butter beef et alia. I must admit though, that Helen did put a white table cloth down, respite from the wood-grained arborite. I immediately christened it with a sploosh of chili paste.

And certainly the subordinate point of this thread was to also highlight what excellent value is available in tablecloth restaurants at the noon hour.

[PaoPao]

Ahhh, I see, it's the addition of the tablecloth that makes it better ....

[jamiemaw]

Ahhh, I see, it's the addition of the tablecloth that makes it better ....  

←

Or the subtraction. But only if one has been properly schooled in the art of removing the table cloth without disturbing the crystal. Or, for that matter, the reader.

Coach PaoPao, Mar 19

which by the way to me doesn't dictate the action ("slurp noodles")

On the other hand, one hasn't really lived until one has slurped noodles through one's nose. Seminars on this are given nightly by disenfranchised hockey players at Kung Pow Phat Soy, an institution of higher dining.

Edited March 19, 2005 by jamiemaw (log)

[3WholeCardamoms]

I noticed white tablecloths at Spice Islands on 41st the other day and I seem to recall a blotchy white tablecloth at "A Taste of India" - it had some cooties on it.

I forgot to ask the servers if they were civilized (the establishment, not the cooties.)

3dblC

[jamiemaw]

I noticed  white tablecloths at Spice Islands on 41st the other day and I seem to recall a blotchy white tablecloth at "A Taste of India" - it had some cooties on it.

I forgot to ask the servers if they were civilized (the establishment, not the cooties.)

3dblC

←

Cooties are notoriously difficult to civilize. Or even domesticate. Gosh, I have enough difficulty with myself.

Edited March 19, 2005 by jamiemaw (log)