Get the Puck Out: Best Food + Drink Options in BC

[jamiemaw]

The constant dilemma: Finding that elusive combination of a clear screen, decent sightlines, great food and drink and warm and informed (Harold Snepts drinking anecdotes, Tiger Williams facial stitch count etc.) service.

Many new rooms have opened across the province during the hockey lockout. And some, such as Wilson's Steakhouse, have survived, if barely, to face-off another day.

List your favourites--old and new--here please. Obscure technical references (screen size and plasmoid quality, lack of dependence on deep fryer, hockey knowledge of servers/bartenders etc.) welcomed.

Also, what's your preferred hockey beverage? And snack?

Edited August 31, 2005 by jamiemaw (log)

[stovetop]

Cedar Cottage pub ( Kingsway)

steve

[*Deborah*]

My preferred hockey viewing is a can or three of Heineken in Section 117, row 14...but alas I have no budget this year for such frivolities.

This year: a 6 of Corona in front of my 32-in. digital! snacks optional! BYOB!

[kurtisk]

We always go to Tatlow's on 4th. The screens are good, with decent sight lines. The menu and food are quite good, all the usual pub fare plus many options from the 'broiler bar'. Rather cheap as well. As an added bonus, two sets of twins waitress there.

k.

[jamiemaw]

We always go to Tatlow's on 4th.  The screens are good, with decent sight lines.  The menu and food are quite good, all the usual pub fare plus many options from the 'broiler bar'.  Rather cheap as well.  As an added bonus, two sets of twins waitress there.

k.

←

The Sedins (Heidi and Danielle) and who else?

[Keith Talent]

The only thing better than Deborah's setup is if someone else pays for the tickets.

[Keith Talent]

And the best pre-game meal is at Wild Rice. Lots of metered parking out front. Five minte walk to the arena. A good meal, that truthfully is going to cost pretty much the same as the horrid disgusting crap that GM Place calls food, charges an arm and leg for, plus parking isn't twenty-five bucks. Added bonus easy egress post game through Chinatown.

Beleive me, I have very few good ideas over the course of a year, but taking meals pre-game at Wild Rice is one of them.

[Ling]

We always go to Tatlow's on 4th.  The screens are good, with decent sight lines.  The menu and food are quite good, all the usual pub fare plus many options from the 'broiler bar'.  Rather cheap as well.  As an added bonus, two sets of twins waitress there.

k.

←

I don't watch hockey, but Tatlow's has big screens. They have decent nachos. I had a nacho eating contest there once, after a big meal at Amarcord. I hung out at Tatlow's way too much last month...haha.

[SBonner]

I don't watch hockey but I'm thinking the Quayside restaurant (bar side) would be great. Several plasma screens (42") and a wall of wine, stiff spirits, and taps all within sight. The server's there are also very sexy...so I've heard.

Stephen

[snacky_cat]

The downtown outposts of the Mark James Group restaurants are usually a good choice. The pub side of the YBC is a good place for viewing/drinking, and last time I watched a game there, they had ticket contests going on for all the patrons. You got a MJG-edition Canucks card with a player on it, and if your player scored during that game, poof! Free tickets. At least I think that was how it worked - hockey season was a bajillion years ago and I was drinking. Dix is also another good option - it's generally (and surprisingly) un-busy at game time, and they have a big screen and usually some sort of beer/bbq cheap hockey night combo.

The new Earl's in the Paramount complex looks like a good spot too - we walked past there one night and smushed our faces up to the glass to catch the last few minutes of a Lions game on their VERY VERY VERY BIG SCREEN. I could practically read the score from the other side of Hornby St.

[Feedbag]

Champ's (in Burnaby) used to be great -- until a big ugly

conglomerate swooped down and swallowed the joint. The pub

was fun, the screens big and plentiful, and the staff whooped

and cheered almost as loud as the patrons. Many a playoff

night it was jammed most likely beyond fire regs. Food was

astonishingly sub-par but ehh, eat before and no prob.

And now? Well, dunno, really. Where to go, where to go IF, that is,

the CBC allows the broadcasts. I prefer to stick to Burnaby on

a weeknight (Mountain Shadow? whatever the new NBI is called?

Hop and Vine?), but Checkers at Denman and Davie can be fun.

And in between periods you can play trivia. Food's just OK, though.

Never watched a game at Tatlow's but yeah, the food's pretty good.

Cedar Cottage is OK, food's boring.

Good topic; keep the suggestions coming.

[jamiemaw]

The Cactus Clubs have neat flat screens over their bars, and a few in the corners--the Yaletown store is fairly cosy. The new Earls at Paramount Place has lots of them going up the columns and they were thinking of installing a large drop screen over the back bar for game nights. I'm thinking that Saltlik will probably offer something similar.

Of course Wilson's Steakhouse has more screens than The House of Stein, but I have to watch from outside there.

That yuppie hangout, The Hamilton Street Grill, has screens over the bar, which is properly calibrated to 34˚F. But I would like to start a petition to present to the owner requesting that for every HSG Signature Lemon Meringue Pie® that's sold, 25 cents will be deeded to a sinking fund, the proceeds of which will be invested in post Viet Nam War video technology. I believe that the screens could be comfortably made larger too--I found it very tiresome to share the binoculars with Arne, Neil and Mayor Campbell especially as one of them has eyebrow dandruff.

[nwyles]

I was on the fence with the TV's

I was thinking about removing them. Or is it time to go for it and get the full rack of flat screens ?

Are they a decideing factor when choosing where to dine ?

Apart from the occasional "edge of your seat" Stanley Cup game seven, do they detract for old fashioned dinner conversation ?

[jamiemaw]

I was on the fence with the TV's

I was thinking about removing them. Or is it time to go for it and get the full rack of flat screens ?

Are they a decideing factor when choosing where to dine ?

Apart from the occasional "edge of your seat" Stanley Cup game seven, do they detract for old fashioned dinner conversation ?

←

New screens can certainly cohabit with fine dining, Neil. In my social circle, I daresay it actually improves the calibre of the conversation, such as "What's the matter, Daniel, SORE P-U-S-S-Y?"

This is much preferred to your usual cutomers, whose laconic dissertations on Sartre and Camus, or the discussion of the ironic superstructure of some weedy Rhone leaves me pretty chilly.

Time to get some serious eaters (and drinkers) in there Neil, and where customers are concerned, nothing says I Love You stronger than three 40" flatscreens.

[nwyles]

Sony or JVC ?

[jamiemaw]

Sony or JVC ?

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London Drugs has an excellent sale on right now. Remember, mounting height is very important.

[Andrew Morrison]

Beware, you'll find most of your floorstaff lingering at the bar a little longer to make and remake their caps. Working the floor during hockey season is a blessing - we get paid to watch the game.

[nwyles]

Beware, you'll find most of your floorstaff lingering at the bar a little longer to make and remake their caps. Working the floor during hockey season is a blessing - we get paid to watch the game. 

←

My staff are lingering too long on Oprah and the Food Network's "Top Five".

I have to light a fire under some asses when "Poker" is on.

I know how bad it will be during hockey !

[gerald]

Forget Sony or JVC Think Costco, Lifetime return policy if you are unsatisfied. I'm probably the only guy with a reciept taped to my bedroom television, 27inch lcd under 1000.

[chef jeff]

[Cedar Cottage pub ( KingswayQUOTE]

I have to agree, the cottage is the shit for hockey watching. During Canucks playoff games, they have $1 soft tacos that aren't bad. Good deal, I guess they figure the Canucks playoff runs aren't that long, so they won't lose too much money!

They also have the wierdest hot wings there. It's like all the meat has been pushed up the bone so it balloons on the end. Some kind of Chicken Wing Popsicle. How Modern!

"What's the matter, Daniel, SORE P-U-S-S-Y?"

Oh my gawd Jamie, that was hilarious! When do we get to see this nasty side of your writing in Van Mag? My question is, who made it sore? I kinda picture big Todd B, in leather bondage gear and the sedin sisters in peach coloured, lacy little see through numbers.

sorry for the visual.

[Keith Talent]

The best Sedin joke was the constant reference to the kitten with a whip, Joy McPhail as a Sedin triplet. The resemblance is uncanny. And both Daniel and Henrik are probably pissed that Sopel left town, because glancing at the Canuck whipping boy depth chart, they now occupy the Watermark spot. 1A and 1B.

[*Deborah*]

The best Sedin joke was the constant reference to the kitten with a whip, Joy McPhail as a Sedin triplet. The resemblance is uncanny. And both Daniel and Henrik are probably pissed that Sopel left town, because glancing at the Canuck whipping boy depth chart, they now occupy the Watermark spot. 1A and 1B.

←

Henrik in 1B as he is a little less of a Sedin since he lost that bit o' finger?

[jamiemaw]

chef jeff,Sep 1 2005, 10:12 AM

"What's the matter, Daniel, SORE P-U-S-S-Y?"

Oh my gawd Jamie, that was hilarious!  When do we get to see this nasty side of your writing in Van Mag? My question is, who made it sore?  I kinda picture big Todd B, in leather bondage gear and the sedin sisters in peach coloured, lacy little see through numbers.

sorry for the visual.

Truth be known, I was rather hoping that the Gagliardis would have head-manned the Canucks' buyout as they also own Sandman Inns and Moxie's. I thought a nasty article on arena food might be interesting as, comparitively speaking, Garage food actually makes Wilson's Steakhouse look relatively civilized.

Come to think of it, Garage nachos look uglier than a Sandman. Now that's saying something, as they desecrate the main drag landscape of every B-Town in BC and their hook-up with White Spot has hardly boosted the Gross Provincial Dining Product. Personally, I blame Joy McPhail.

The Aquilinis (of Zen and Aquilini slumlord fame) on the other hand, will no doubt be serving takeaways of quality salumi, lively platters of penne puttanesca and Artgiano coffees, available with portraits of Orland Kurtenbach, Dale Tallon, Stan Smyl or Tiger Williams inscribed in latte foam.

Yours until hell freezes over (or they can put down decent ice at The Garage in June),

J.

PS: The forthcoming lawsuit between the two warring families promises many patented Savardian spinnerama moves. Can't hardly wait. But like Keith, I'll be eating before I go, at Wild Rice, Chambar, The Hammy or elsewhere in Yaletown.

[Keith Talent]

It could be time again to break out that tired old refrain about the Brewpub at GM place being unequivicably the worst fucking restaurant in the province. Easy. It's so bad that it's good just to watch what massive culinary crimes will be commited. Hell yeah I think thirteen bucks for a bowl of mushroom soup that was it's component parts, a bag of powder sitting the Sysco warehouse rack and water in the tap only 24 hours earlier is something to be celebrated. I also enjoy devining the price point where you get glass drinking vessels instead of plastic, Yellowtail? Plastic. Mondavi Woodbridge? Glass. All beer, plastic. Scotch rocks, sometimes plastic, sometimes glass.

[sniffles]

On a similar topic, any private rooms (in restaurants/bars/pubs downtownish) available to watch a hockey game? Celebrating with a group of friends.