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

[jamiemaw]

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.

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I immediately called Orca Bay to address your question, Keith.

According to official Aquilini family spokesperson, F. Morris Chatters (who replaced Stan McCammon yesterday), "The price point is not what determines the drinking vessel. Rather, and although it's at the discretion of the server, Orca Bay personnel and concession contractors are strongly advised to follow this Policy Directive":

OFFICIAL ORCA BAY BEVERAGE SERVICE POLICY DIRECTIVE

To inhibit injury to customers, their families and employees of Orca Bay, the following PROFILED demographic groups and individuals must ALWAYS be served alcoholic beverages in plastic containers:

• Heavily tattooed customers. NOTE: Cactus Club servers with butterfly tattoos immediately above their magenta thongs are excused

• Mulletted customers

• Steve Moore

• The Gagliardi family

• Customers with demonic, Charles Mansoneque looks or who are obviously from Richmond, British Columbia

• Customers who noisily complain about the food in the Brew Pub.

• Customers who covertly hide takeaway containers from Wild Rice while ordering their Scotch rocks

• Anyone from the Burquitlam-Whalley Triangle

• Brian Burke and Jennifer Mather

• Customers who pay in quarters and dimes

• Customers with clear affiliation to outlawed motorcycle clubs

• Pat Quinn

• Stan McCammon

• The extended Bertuzzi family

Edited September 1, 2005 by jamiemaw (log)

[Keith Talent]

I gotta cut off my mullet.

[jamiemaw]

I gotta cut off my mullet.

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But then we wouldn't be able to drink together anymore.

Edited September 1, 2005 by jamiemaw (log)

[Keith Talent]

Oh please, everyone knows your mullet, tats and assorted pierceings are just your restaurant critic disguise. It's the worst kept secret in town.

[Keith Talent]

Oh please, everyone knows your mullet, tats and assorted pierceings are just your restaurant critic disguise. It's the worst kept secret in town.

[jamiemaw]

Oh please, everyone knows your mullet, tats and assorted pierceings are just your restaurant critic disguise. It's the worst kept secret in town.

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So why'd ya have to say it twice?

[nwyles]

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®

Ok, enough on the Lemon Pie.

I had a table in today demanding the "famous" Lemon Meringue Pie . They even threatened to kick my ass if they did not get some !

I sent over a message with the server that it was a joke and that we really were famous for the GBP.

They were not happy.

I might have to bow to the pressure and start making them.

[Daddy-A]

Jeez, I go away for a week, and look what happens to this place!!

Neil, gerald's got it right ... buy the plasma screens from Costco. I'll be bringing a few friends by in November for Grey Cup so some new toobs would be nice (look after that willya? )

Keith, keep the mullet, but that swastika tat has to go.

Jamie, leave the Gaglardi's alone. The eGullet legal fund is stretched pretty thin, and with Varmint hosting the Pig Pickin' this weekend, it will be out of ocmission for a week or so.

Finally ... back on topic ... Fets' on Commercial Drive is our hang-out for PPV's. Decent pub food, good beers on tap, lots of TV's, free draws, and (most importantly) only a Sky-Train ride away from my front door.

Go 'Nucks!

A.

ps - Back in another week, BEHAVE!

[jamiemaw]

Has anyone checked out the (plasmoid) mounting angles at Bogart's recently? We've had a couple of good reports on the food/drink/spectating trifecta.

[Daddy-A]

I feel so used ... so cheap ...

Maw's latest G&M contribution.

But Wilsons? Are you frickin' serious? After the lambasting you gave them in Van Mag? Wow, I feel like Lafleur has gone to play for the Leafs. And Dix? Well, I suppose they do have TV's.

Best line (already quoted elsewhere): "Chef's matinee-idol looks attracts a heavy puck-bunny contingent" (re: the studdly Chef Wyles)

A.

[jamiemaw]

I feel so used ... so cheap ...  

Maw's latest G&M contribution.

But Wilsons?  Are you frickin' serious?  After the lambasting you gave them in Van Mag?  Wow, I feel like Lafleur has gone to play for the Leafs.  And Dix?  Well, I suppose they do have TV's.

Best line (already quoted elsewhere): "Chef's matinee-idol looks attracts a heavy puck-bunny contingent" (re: the studdly Chef Wyles)

A.

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Had I been the headline writer, I probably would have called it 'Haute Stove League'.

As for Wilson's, I'm an Equal Opportunity reviewer and try to keep an open mind. After all, it is packed with screens and the food has improved. And I certainly admire their perseverance--they had a cold and lonely winter. I've had decent pulled pork at Dix recently too.

[Daddy-A]

I've had decent pulled pork at Dix recently too.

Them's fightin' words Maw!

Now if Memphis Mike would only hook a TV up to his smoker and park in in my driveway ....

A.

[lauraf]

We welcomed our new publisher to Vancouver last night with a dinner at Bogart's. When they first opened up, the food was quite middling, but I must tell you, their food is now fabulous! Nothing terribly exotic, but good, clean cooking and wide menu choices. I had a chicken breast stuffed with chevre served with a savoury bread pudding and green beans. Others raved about the seared Ahi Tuna with avocado and citrus sauce, the Baby Back Ribs, and the Tenderloin. The appies are great nibblers, - prawn & scallop cake, tuna carpaccio, steak frittes, garlic/lime calamari - and are half-price from 3-7pm Monday-Friday, plus martinis are only $5 all night.

This will be my hockey bar.

(Disclosure: I work with them. But they really are very good.)

[stovetop]

Hi Jamie

I saw your article in the globe today.

Good to see Bell getting some western based content.

It was amazing how the strike affected so many of the food establishments around the dome.

It is great to see everyone all pumped up to get back their reg. customers and all the extra employment for the restaurant worker.

go cunucks go!!

steve

[Andrew Morrison]

I took Jack to the pre-season game tonight versus the Sharks (his first NHL game). I, of course, wept uncontrollably during the first few minutes of the game (so very nice to see the team again and hear the anthem). Oh joy.

It's been a while, but I think they've kicked their hotdogs up a bit. Nice and fat fellas with plenty flavour. In order to massage the attention span of my son, I staggered our food intake in three courses (one for each period). First period: sharing bag of popcorn with 2 jumbo hotdogs. Second period: salty nacho chips with molten neon yellow sauce of questionably cheesy origin and flourescent pink candy floss of equally icky pedigree. Third period: Crappy draft and a smuggled-in McCain tropical juicebox. All told, it was the most expensive dinner bill of the year (tix were $138 each ), and though no plasma screen could have contained the energy and interest of a 3 and a half year old, I think I'll stick to dinner at the bar with the game for the regular season! Thanks for the recommendations.

Still, it was a simple, sugarsweet high watching my boy don a jersey and scream go Canucks go. It had to be done.

Edited September 24, 2005 by editor@waiterblog (log)

[Vancouver Lee]

Still, it was a simple, sugarsweet high watching my boy don a jersey and scream go Canucks go. It had to be done. 

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Indeed it does, Andrew. A true Canadian right of passage for Father and son alike.

[Mooshmouse]

Still, it was a simple, sugarsweet high watching my boy don a jersey and scream go Canucks go. It had to be done. 

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Indeed it does, Andrew. A true Canadian right of passage for Father and son alike.

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Oi... what's this about Father and son?! Ian likes hockey, to be sure, but I'm the bona fide sports fan in this household. Anything that Noah learns about hockey will likely be acquired from me.

Back OT, just received an e-mail from the lovely Sue Sherwood that Fiction now has pay-per-view hockey. Perfect place to enjoy some top-notch food and drink while watching the game.

[Andrew Morrison]

My column this week was on Earl's going overboard on plasma screens at the new Paramount, but after last night, I've found a closer contender to Fort Morrison.

The Cactus Club in Park Royal (West Vancouver) was like a the North Shore HQ for the PPV Disenfranchised Club. In the lounge the screens abound, and should the beer specials steer you often to the tinkler, fret not sports fans, individual tv's are tuned to the game in each of the washroom stalls. A bit weird to find oneself cheering in such a situation, yelling things out like "GO!" and "C'mon, SHOOT!", but you get used to it in such a high scoring game...

[nwyles]

Nothing says " I love you" like a 42' plasma T.V.

So how about two. I just mounted them over the bar, and still left the other ones there as I had no other place to put them.

4 T.V.'s

I have had so much trouble with Bell Expreassvu that it nearly brought me to tears ! These guys were so inept. Unbelievable ! I nearly smashed my phone after an hour and a half of "talking" to these boobs on the phone. What stopped me was that the small voice in the back of my head said " don't do it, you will just have to buy another phone ! " My building has no cable so I have to use satellite. It took nearly two months to get new smart cards for my receivers.

Still some fine tuning, but wow, it is a beautiful sight.

Now, is it just me or most games have been PPV so far. It seems a heavy amount this early in the season. Why PPV Chicago, they are the permanent basement dweller.

[fud]

^ Neil are you saying that now you have Yam Fries, Beer AND Hockey on TV?

And how do you plan on controlling the mobs?

[snacky_cat]

While again navigating the well-trod path between my apartment and the Railway Club the other night, I noticed that The Kingston looks like a nice place to watch the game. They have one BIG screen in the back corner and a few smaller TVs. Their front room is pretty tiny, so even if you forget your glasses like I always do, you can read the names on the jerseys and the score from just about any seat in there.

It didn't look too busy when I walked past around 9pm (or 5-2 o'clock, at that point in the game)- lots of open tables. Of course, maybe by then people had decided the game was long over and had wandered off home.

[Sonja]

My favorite place to watch the games is Shebeen at the Irish Heather, right at the bar with a plate of beef pot pie, a glass of Woodford's reserve (at $6.00!!!) and a pint of Guiness in front of me. I love the room, it is so small that it feels like you're at somebody's house (or in one of those party basements that our parents had in the sixties, remember, with cheesy fishnets hanging from the ceilings).

[Keith Talent]

(or in one of those party basements that our parents had in the sixties, remember, with cheesy fishnets hanging from the ceilings).

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fishingnets.

It's my generation that gauges the sucess of a party by the number of fishnets stuck to the ceiling.

And at six bucks a pour for Woodford, I may stop by The Heather with myhalf empty bottle for a fillup. That's damn near retail.

[GrandCru19]

Nothing says " I love you" like a 42' plasma T.V.

It's true, Vancouver could be a study on how sports, or rather a sports team, can effect dinning. People who don't really care to watch the games know what the Canucks are doing.

TV's ar bright, ugly, and dominate the atmosphere of a dinning room or lounge. God forbid the tv is on Smackdown or baseball or something. And then the Canucks come on and it's a beautifully essential thing.

I'm sure the reason there are so many PPV games so early is they are cashing in on this hockey starved city. I predict games will impact restaurants in playoff like fashion positive or negative (depending on your tv numbers and size) untill christmas season socializing becomes the prioity.

Cheers, Keith N

[barrett]

Chef Wyles, with the new screens at the HSG. There is a mirror image of these two just out of reach on the left side of the frame. Note the left thumb technique - carefully guarding the "last channel" button to scan the other games in our division during commercial breaks. Those barstools just got prettier.