With the end of December drawing near, its once again time to take stock of the local foodscape. Before detailing my picks for the years Top 10 Best New Restaurants (next week) and peering ahead at what delicious things might be in store for Vancouverites in 2012 (the week after), lets open one last bottle of the year that was.
Though 2011 was marked by failures (the aptly named Fiasco in Yaletown); sad goodbyes (The William Tell closed after 46 years); stunning defeats (superstar chef Daniel Bouluds fanciful DB Bistro on West Broadway, which opened for the one per cent at the wrong time); happy endings (100 Days expired at the Opus Hotel); merciful coups de grace (troubled Nu on False Creek shuttered after a nasty flood); and dubious invasions (Ontario sushi-for-suits joint Ki arrived next to the Shangri-La), there were enough silver linings to make it all come right in the wash.
There were delicious anthems (Edible Canada opened Edible at the Market on Granville Island); liquid love songs (Bitter Tasting Room elevated the local beer game); exercises in exacting authenticity (Nicli Antica blessed us with proper Neapolitan pizza); new expressions of perfection (chef David Hawksworth launched his hotly anticipated Hawksworth in the Hotel Georgia); decadent indulgences (CinCin pastry chef Thierry Busset opened his eponymous Thierry off Robson); gorgeous shrines (coffee fetishists rejoiced at Revolver Coffee off Victory Square); and a host of new neighbourhood charmers (like the flawlessly simple Pronto on Cambie).
There were also worthwhile experiments (Peckinpah introduced North Carolinian BBQ to Maple Tree Square); welcome expansions (tiny La Taqueria off Victory Square going big at Cambie and Broadway); successful do-overs (the sumptuous Tableau replaced Voya in Coal Harbours boutique Loden Hotel); bankable offshoots (Campagnolo on Main gave us the more regionally specific Campagnolo Roma on the Eastside); steakhouse homages (the Glowbal Group opened Black + Blue on Alberni); storybook resurrections (Save On Meats returned in all its working class glory to Hastings); up-market offshoots (the Hapa Izakaya chainlet mid-wifed the higher-end Hapa Umi); celebrated migrations (much-loved Boneta in Gastown moved all of 50 feet north to become Boneta 2.0); and so on.
But was 2011 better than 2010? Id like to think so. There were definitely more exciting openings than there were sad closures, with one nearly always following the other at the same address. Evidence that were still very much a small town abounded, wherein the regular six-degrees-of-separation rule is whittled down to just one or two. To wit, the end of Corner Suite Bistro (closed Jan. 4) allowed for the launch of Ensemble (opened May 10) because of the death of Lumiere (euthanized on Mar. 13).
All was relatively quiet on the personnel front. With the exception of Ron Oliver, who left The Diamond in Gastown for the wood and well at Chinatowns Bao Bei, our top bartenders suspended their regular game of musical bars. It was the same story in the kitchen. Aside from Quang Dang landing at West after moving from C to Diva at the Met and Ned Bell bouncing from The Waldorf to Hawksworth to Yew in The Four Seasons, our best chefs stood still. If there were honours for the most inexplicable move of the year, theyd go to Food Network star/chef Anthony Sedlak, who headlined the local birth of a chain-in-the-making called The American Cheesesteak Company.
Of the trends that stood out, there was the continued ascendancy of street food, the entrenchment of comfort food, and the near banishment of fine food (where did all the white linen go?), but none of the above trumped the surprising arrival of more authentic pizza joints than we knew what to do with. In addition to the best among them, Nicli Antica, there was Novo, Farina, Verace, Bibo, and still others (there are even more to come in 2012).
So which Vancouver neighbourhood won out? If Gastown reigned supreme in 2010, there was no clear victor in 2011. From La Ghianda and Cafe Regalade in the west to Electric Owl and the fourth incarnation of Nuba in the east (not to mention the many gems in between), the entire city took a few steps forward, and thats a good thing made better by the promise of even tastier things to come. Stay tuned...
