Rare

[Ling]

I had the good fortune of dining at Rare tonight and helping out in the kitchen too! (Did I look sexy in my chef whites and heels during service? ) The food was great; especially the scallop and pheasant rillettes dish. Pics and full report to come tomorrow--I had way too much to drink tonight (extra drinks at Urban Well afterwards with some of the staff ).

The staff is awesome...lots of personality. Great food, nice space. Rare will do very well.

[Chef Fowke]

I am usually 3 hours into my nightly sleep by this time, but I am sure this is my future ~ late nights and early mornings. My dream was to have my own restaurant by the time I was 40 and I am 10 days early in achieving my goal!!! (I must remind myself in the future to be careful of what I wish for….)

Thanks Edible for planning a stellar night. What a great crowd of people to share the HORRORS of opening a restaurant to the public ~ and they showed up early!

For the first 20 minutes, I thought the night was going to be a disaster. I left the stove to help get the restaurant ready. I was vacuuming the dining room as the first guest arrived 30 minute early. She was great! She offered to help us get set up, I got her a beverage instead and proceeded to help sort out the Servery (our name for our lounge area ~ more about that in the future). By the time the bulk of the guests had arrived, everything was operational (with the exception of the décor in the bathrooms [10 days], the outside signage [1 – 16 weeks ~ what a MESS, PM before you buy a sign], and the temperature controlled wine cellar [2 weeks]).

Once we got a blood orange seltzer spiked with rum into everyone it all started to form into a exciting and flavourful night. The food executed at a solid 8 out of 10. I was pleased. Timing was smooth, I worried that the temperature of the plates were too cool and some of the courses had miss-matched plates. At the last moment, I could not find the 40 new entrée plates I had bought.

Bread was a disaster. I brought my sourdough starter down to the restaurant last week and it HATES IT THERE! It is sluggish and does not produce a consistent sponge. I will be at the restaurant all weekend tweaking the starter and getting it acclimatised to the kitchen. I do not want to use anything but wild yeast…

The menu went well. Here is a summary of the courses.

• Sautéed frog legs with garlic, pine nuts and burnt butter on a beignet

• Hard-shell scampi with pineapple carpaccio, Vietnamese fish sauce foam and a micro cress salad

• East coast scallop (huge!) with pheasant rilette, arugula puree and a caramelized sherry vinegar

• Essence of pear

• Dou of beef cheek(braised) and loin (rare) on confit leeks and puy lentils with celery and natural jus

• Panna cotti foam with roasted pistachios and blood orange

• Spanish cheeses with apple/pear confit

• Mint mojito

(Sorry ~ I am sooooo tired, I did not do justice to the menu…just wrote out the factual ingredients; hopefully one of the guests can post photos and a better description)

[Chef Fowke]

I had the good fortune of dining at Rare tonight and helping out in the kitchen too! (Did I look sexy in my chef whites and heels during service?  ) The food was great; especially the scallop and pheasant rillettes dish. Pics and full report to come tomorrow--I had way too much to drink tonight (extra drinks at Urban Well afterwards with some of the staff  ).

The staff is awesome...lots of personality. Great food, nice space. Rare will do very well. 

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Lorna!!! Tell me you did not go out with the kitchen staff from RARE....oh my, I will send over aspirin to you in the morning.

Thanks for the help, your efforts plating the main course were much appreciated! I look forward to having you back in the kitchen to work on desserts.

[mamacat]

Congratulaltions, Chef Fowke! Your restaurant opening sounds like one of life's major exciting events; right up there with getting married or having your first child. I look forward to visiting soon!

[FishGuy]

Congratulations to you and your crew, I love it when new independents open.

[Ling]

I have to work today and then I'm going to Feenie's for dinner, but I'll edit and crop the pictures tonight and hopefully post them before I go to bed.

[Daddy-A]

[host]

I've merged the two threads on Rare, and re-named the thread ... all in the name of continuity!

Just didn't want y'all thinking anything had been canned

A.

[/host]

[TimK]

The staff is awesome...lots of personality. Great food, nice space. Rare will do very well. 

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Thanks for your comments. It is nice to get feedback like that as it starts to put things in perspective. Right now I see alot of little details to get done and a timeline of Wednesday looming. Everytime we get a task completed a new one pops up. We are finding out that space or lack of it becomes a huge issue when we are operational. That being said last night was not an ordinary night as we will rarely be serving 30 people the same courses at the same time so we will see on Wednesday what it is like with a regular flow of customers. Last night revealed a few items that need to be completed today.

Wine lists dont fit into the menu covers right now and prices listed with the wrong wine. How does that happen at the printer when it was fine in the proof? POS system needs to be updated and the staff labour system needs to be integrated into it. Servery needs to get organised, outside windows washed, outside sidewalks power washed, coat closet organised, staff area overhauled and the list goes on and on.

I am really happy about the staff we have working with us....they are great and all bring a positive aspect to the restaurant. They have helped relieve my stress immensely, they have all stepped up to get the restaurant ready to go and some have volunteered to help outside of their scheduled training.

With all the stress of opening next Wednesday, the lack of sleep and headaches that have come up over the last few months it was nice to have things in perspective last night. Having a dining room full of people eating great food and drinking great wine and enjoying themselves.

[lauraf]

We enjoyed an outstanding evening at Rare last night. While I was unusually proactive in actually taking pictures, I will leave the cropping and posting to Lorna's expert hands. Whatever glitches there were - other than the lack of outside signage - we didn't notice. The service and the room were fabulous, and the food, my god, the food was stellar. I agree with Lorna, the scallop with pheasant rilette was beautiful, the scallop perfectly carmelized and the rilette rich and unctuous. The beef cheek and loin was another exceptional dish, deeply flavoured and paired with scruptious puy lentils - I rarely (sorry! ) use the word 'scrumptious' and 'lentils' in the same phrase. Hubby enjoyed the food immensely, his only criticism is he thought his scampi was a touch overccoked - mine was lovely though. He too thought the beef cheek/loin was a highlight . . .

We will be back for the regular menu very soon. And back. And back.

Thank you Eric for organizing the evening, and to Tim, Brian and everyone at Rare for executing such a memorable experience.

[TimK]

Whatever glitches there were - other than the lack of outside signage - we didn't notice. 

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I don't even want to get going on our outside sign. It was promised for this week....well we are now looking at another week or 10 days. As Brian mentioned earlier if you are ever looking for a sign please PM one of us before hand and maybe we can save you some grief. It has been a nightmare with their "customer service" department being a bit lacking to say the least. Anyways, I am glad you enjoyed your night and hopefully upon your next visit you will see a beautiful sign with red backlighting beckoning you to Rare.

Edited February 26, 2006 by TimK (log)

[Ling]

I had the incredible opportunity to watch and help a bit with the prep work for the Edible B.C. dinner last night. Chef Brian took me around the kitchen, and we spent some time hoping and praying that the brioche, the sourdough, and the original beignet dough would proof properly (they didn't--too cold in the kitchen) and had to re-do the beignets using a different recipe at the last minute. What really impressed me was how flexible everyone was in the kitchen when something didn't go according to plan, and how unwilling the team was to serve food that they didn't feel was up to the standards set at Rare. So in short--there was no sourdough. There was no brioche. But there will be excellent breads coming soon!

The paprika/cayenne beignet that didn't rise enough...

...so we made these instead. Lots of olive oil in the batter. Delicious, especially hot out of the fryer

Here we have a shot of the scampi (8 count) being cleaned and deveined. These retail for $8 a piece! An incredible deal, given the $75 price for dinner!

Frog leg stock simmering away on the stove...yes, no cutting corners here!

Chef Fowke made me some cafe au lait with the new machine...

Blood orange and rum seltzers...I really liked this cocktail. It was refreshingly tangy and the polar opposite of a syrupy pre-dinner drink. I grabbed us drinks and talked to a few Egulleters, among them Laura and her husband, and Vancitygirl (Cassandra).

Chef Fowke told us about the menu for the evening. (I got the privilege of dining with Eric's group with my guest, on the house!! Is that generosity or what? I'm speechless! )

Frog legs, toasted pine nuts, browned butter on a paprika/cayenne beignet

I've only had frog legs a handful of times, and this amuse was delicious. The taste of the meat is pleasantly mild, with a bit of chew. There is a bit of sugar in the fritter batter that offsets the spice that kicks in at the end.

Hard-shell scampi with pineapple carpaccio, Vietnamese fish sauce foam and a micro cress salad

My guest and I really enjoyed this dish--the flesh was so amazingly sweet, and the texture is very tender and unlike that of lobster meat (although its size is reminiscent of a small lobster tail!)

This was my favourite dish of the evening--the seared east coast scallop with pheasant rilette, arugula puree and a caramelized sherry vinegar.

I had a chance to taste the vinegar before it was reduced into a sauce, and the vinegar is absolutely delicious...nice apple flavour. The caramelized vinegar was not overly bitter at all, just sweet and piquant. It cut through some of the richness in the rillette. I wish Rare would do a larger plate of this as a main course!

Next, the diners were given a shooter of pear juice with all its impurities removed. Very fresh and clean-tasting. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of this as I was getting ready to help plate the main course in the kitchen, but I did get to gulp back a few extra large shooters!

The main event--on the left, we have Alberta striploin, seared rare on a bed of confit leeks, with the braised beef cheek and puy lentils on the right.

This was my date's favourite dish of the night--in particular, the braised beef cheeks with its soft, unctuous gelatin and rich flavour. The striploin was also very tender. This was sprinkled with a bit of fleur de sel before going out of the kitchen.

Speaking of plating, I was back in the kitchen at this time with my chef's whites over my sweater and skirt. This was my first time participating in plating a dish during the dinner rush, and I was really amazed at how efficiently and quickly everyone worked together! We had four stacks of dinner plates and we were each in charge of a few tasks. Mine was to lay the celery stick cut side down on the plate, place a celery leaf at the bottom, and I also did a bit of saucing and spooned some of the leek mixture onto the plates. And I tried to wipe the plates as best I could given we were trying to serve the room as quickly as possible. This was the highlight of my evening! (Well, second to eating. )

Panna cotti foam with roasted, candied pistachios and blood orange segment

I took a picture of this, but I can't seem to find it on my camera. If someone could post their picture, I'd be grateful!

This was a creative, bite-sized dessert served in a black, Asian-style soup spoon. The foam was sprayed out into a rosette, with the candied nuts underneath adding crunch. Very good.

Spanish cheese (manchego, I believe?) toasted baguette with spice butter, and pear/apple confit

As much as I love my desserts, this was a nice way to end the meal. The cheese was quite mild and the fruit was quite sweet, and the spices really added dimension to what would've been your standard fruit and cheese.

The plate was clean, I assure you. My date and I had arranged our cheese on the fruit and were going to dig in before I screamed, "I FORGOT THE PICTURE!!" so he took apart his portion and snapped a photo for me.

The meal ended with mojitos--we were told to hold the mint leaf back while we sipped the drink. I'm pretty sure the tactile element is inspired by Ferran Adria and the other proponents of molecular gastronomy.

(We drank three wines with the meal--a Riesling, the Quail's Gate Chenin Blanc, and a red that I'm forgetting...would someone please fill in the blanks?)

All in all, it was a great evening and I feel very fortunate to be able to experience both the activity in the kitchen and the wonderful dinner with the rest of the lucky diners! The evening ended with a few more drinks at Urban Well with the staff (young, upbeat, energetic--gives the restaurant a good vibe, I think!)

I would like to thank the staff, especially Chef Fowke, Tim, and Chef Quang for letting me tag along for the "Opening Soon" dinner, and for show my friend and me such a good time! (And I will thank you again...with some Plugra puff pastry, if I can find that butter!! )

ETA: My friend who's a bit better with Photoshop edited a few of the blurry pictures for me.

Edited February 27, 2006 by Ling (log)

[appreciator]

^ Great photos Lorna.... sounds like you had a wonderful time (lucky gal you, getting to help out in the kitchen ) and the meal reverberates with imagination. What a great way to kick things off.

Looking forward to checking it out soon.

[Ling]

^I should apologize about the pictures--I tried to remember not to use flash so I wouldn't disturb the other diners, and so I had to spend a lot of time editing the photos so they would look somewhat decent. The dishes looked much better in person. And I hope you do check it out soon! The chefs are very creative and talented, that's for sure.

[appreciator]

^I should apologize about the pictures--I tried to remember not to use flash so I wouldn't disturb the other diners, and so I had to spend a lot of time editing the photos so they would look somewhat decent. The dishes looked much better in person.  And I hope you do check it out soon! The chefs are very creative and talented, that's for sure.

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Oh there's only a couple photos that are a little blurry.... your descriptions make up for it and most of the photos are clear as a bell. Not to worry, you have captured the essence and that's really the best one can really hope to do ~ otherwise it's up to all of us to check it out for ourselves.

Edited February 27, 2006 by appreciator (log)

[TimK]

(We drank three wines with the meal--a Riesling, the Quail's Gate Chenin Blanc, and a red that I'm forgetting...would someone please fill in the blanks?)

The wines were Bonny Doon Pacific Rim Riesling....this irreverent winery is one of my favourite as they make great wine with a tongue in cheek aproach to the marketing of it. The Riesling grapes come from Washington State, California and 5% from Germany. I am hoping for a resurgence of this varietal.

The red was an Okanagan Wine...I brown bagged it for the staff a week ago so as not to have any pre conceived notions about it. Lots of fruit and mellow tannins it was a hit with them. I then popped it out of the bag to reveal the Sumac Ridge Black Sage Merlot 2002. It is funny how some people still have a perception of what BC wine, especially reds should taste like. I hope those who attended enjoyed them.

I have to admit I had some post partem depression Saturday night as I saw some wines being decanted at the table off of our list....Brian was laughing at me as he knew that for one of them I drove all over the Lower Mainland to grab the last few bottles available. I am glad that they were enjoyed, that is the point after all isnt it? Once they are gone I guess I get to have fun scouring the city for the next little treat.

[jamiemaw]

Great shots and descriptions, but not a whit of pastrami. What gives?

[Chef Fowke]

Great shots and descriptions, but not a whit of pastrami. What gives?

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Three more weeks in the brine...and it is being made from caribou!

[jamiemaw]

Great shots and descriptions, but not a whit of pastrami. What gives?

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Three more weeks in the brine...and it is being made from caribou!

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This is very good news Brian as it will allow me a head start on cooling the cleansers.

[Daddy-A]

Great shots and descriptions, but not a whit of pastrami. What gives?

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Three more weeks in the brine...and it is being made from caribou!

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Damn! I need to change my reservation!

A.

[Edible Vancouver]

It was a great pleaure working with Tim and Brian to organize the "Opening Soon" dinner and I am glad to people had a great time and got to see what it is like to serve the first dinner in a new restaurant.

I have also posted some pictures of the evening on my website at:

Edible B.C. Past Events

We will be hosting another event at Rare on March 12th which will be posted on the Edible BC website tomorrow afternoon. The event will be limited to 12 pairs of tickets so be sure to check it out tomorrow if you are interested as it will likley sell out quickly.

Cheers,

Eric

[Ling]

Has anyone read the write-up in 24 Hr. magazine yet? Some of my friends saw a picture of me and J in there... I hope it's a decent picture. I haven't seen it yet.

[TimK]

It was a great pleaure working with Tim and Brian to organize the "Opening Soon" dinner and I am glad to people had a great time and got to see what it is like to serve the first dinner in a new restaurant.

I have also posted some pictures of the evening on my website at:

Edible B.C. Past Events

We will be hosting another event at Rare on March 12th which will be posted on the Edible BC website tomorrow afternoon. The event will be limited to 12 pairs of tickets so be sure to check it out tomorrow if you are interested as it will likley sell out quickly.

Cheers,

Eric

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A great group of people on Saturday. It was a fun event. I was a bit worried however when I saw Lorna walking into the kitchen to help plate the entree in her high heels. She managed to not only plate at the speed that Brian expected but also made it back to her seat in the dining room without slipping and landing on her butt.

[Ling]

Oops, the link I had no longer works, as it's now linked to Tuesday's issue. But J has the actual file and he's hosting it at http://www.sfu.ca/~jhsiehb/cover.pdf for you all.

[Mooshmouse]

So, Brian, your Grand Opening is a little more than 24 hours away. How are the nerves? You had the opportunity to work out a few kinks at your Saturday dry run. Are there any last-minute "i"s to dot or "t"s to cross before the doors officially open?

You've come a looooooooooong way, baybee, and I can't wait to see what you have in store when the curtain rises for the Opening Act. Congratulations in advance!

[Zucchini Mama]

So, Brian, your Grand Opening is a little more than 24 hours away.  How are the nerves?  You had the opportunity to work out a few kinks at your Saturday dry run.  Are there any last-minute "i"s to dot or "t"s to cross before the doors officially open?

You've come a looooooooooong way, baybee, and I can't wait to see what you have in store when the curtain rises for the Opening Act.  Congratulations in advance! 

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What I want to know, is do we need to bring a change of clothes in case the quick grouting that Neil did in the bathroom cracks up under the pressure of the thirsty throng? I can do walls, but I've never attempted floors before.

Break a leg guys-- I think you all should get Waiterblog to have the photographer at the WE take a proper photo of you in vintage tuxes, a la original brat pack. It would make a great cover!

Zuke

P.S. Are you going to be slaving away on your birthday, Chef Fowke?