With the close of 2012 on the horizon, its once again time to take stock of the local food and drinkscape. Ill be sharing my picks for the Top 10 Best New Restaurants of the Year in next weeks column, and the week after that well be looking hard at what 2013 might have in store for us. But in order to make sense of the year ahead, its prudent to first look back on the good, the bad, and the ugly of the year that was.
First, the bad. There were certainly some closures that I wasnt too happy about (for entirely selfish reasons). Im going to miss, for example, the fried chicken at Refuel; the boeuf bourguignon at Bistrot Bistro; the schnitzel at Cafeteria on Main; the duck confit at Cru; and just about everything I ever tried at Dale Mackays Ensemble (what a shame). I weep also for the loss of the undersung Mistral on West Broadway and the trail-blazing Pair Bistro on West 10th two eateries that deserved a lot more love than they ever received.
To be perfectly frank, Im not all that choked up about the rest of the closures. The Flying Tiger on the West Side was never the same after chef Tina Fineza left; Ensemble Tap was a disastrous cautionary tale in hubris; themeless, pointless RTL in Yaletown lasted a year longer than it was ever welcome; nearby Cento Notti in the Opus Hotel was just as mercifully short lived as its horrifying predecessor (the tasteless 100 Days); and though I liked Hapa Umi and Goldfish enough, their replacements Hapa Izakaya and Minami made their quiet passings all the less painful.
I did not shed a tear for the end of Keg baron David Aisenstats multi-million dollar behemoth Shore Club on Dunsmuir, which always felt like the last redoubt of the 1 per cent. (No surprise here its slated to become another Keg.) Nor did I rent garments over the demise of the second location of Gord Martins Go Fish, which was nowhere near as delightful as the original shack at False Creek Fishermans Wharf. Martin then opened another restaurant, SoL, in Coal Harbour, but his involvement lasted just two months. (The restaurant is still open with sole owner Abdel Elatouabi as the executive chef.)
Thankfully, 2012 also brought with it plenty of newcomers worthy of our interest. Hastings Wildebeest which I reviewed last week was one of the best of the new crop, as was The Acorn on Main, which was one of three exciting new vegetarian restaurants (see also Heirloom on 12th and The Parker on Union). Im a huge fan of the two new Spanish tapas joints Espana on Denman in the West End and The Sardine Can on Powell in Gastown (the albondigas at the latter and chickpeas at the former are highly addictive).
And since Tacofino was one of my favourite food trucks this year, I was an easy mark for its new brick and mortar location on Hastings. Joining them in the tables and chairs game was fellow food truck Pig On The Street, which just opened the aptly named Pig & Mortar, an extremely porky 30-seater on West 6th.
Other new options for comfort foods abounded. Witness the roast beef, blue cheese and horseradish sandwiches at Chinatowns new East of Main; the noodles cooked with poultry and pork pan drippings at Powells Asian BBQ-themed Fat Dragon; the fried chicken with maple syrup and waffles at Portland Craft; the extra fatty pork ramen at Harvest Community Foods in Strathcona; the corned beef with sambal gherkin mayo at the new Meat & Bread on Pender; the French onion soup at Gastowns gussied Lily Maes; and the salted caramel brownies at Cadeaux Bakery. And speaking of bakeries, the long anticipated Beaucoup just opened up last week, and their croissants are worth crawling on your hands and knees for.
Unlike 2011, which saw the city overrun by quality pizzerias, 2012 didnt really have a defining trend. Vegetarian and Spanish did very well, but so did food trucks (again) with their brick and mortar transitions and the summer Sunday festivals in the back parking lot of The Waldorf Hotel (the closest thing to Portlands awesome food truck pods weve seen to date).
For drinks, I heard and read a lot more about craft beer and wines on tap than I did about cocktails, but Ill be damned if I still didnt drink more Negronis and Boulevardiers than was good for me.
Altogether, 2012 was a year of treading water, and fine dining at least how we used to know it didnt even show up at the pool. Despite pretensions here and there, Vancouver did not chamber a single restaurant of heavy calibre this year. For my own part, I counted only five flawless meals for 2012, and they were all in fine dining establishments, and only the fifth on that list West was in Vancouver (the others were at Araxi, Sonora Resort, The Pointe, and The Terrace in that order).
Comfort food is fine, but it is entirely ordinary. Vancouver is due for some extraordinary, and I hope to eat some in 2013.
