If youre going to feed 230 people lunch, you have to be very good at multi-tasking.
The staff at Railtown Café moves with fast and efficient ease as they custom prepare each and every lunch order of the people lining outside the newest eatery in the most western corner of Vancouvers East End. In this way they are like piano players while their hands are playing one note, their brains are thinking of the next one.
Multi-tasking also applies to the entire main floor of the building that houses Railtown Café. Push aside the plastic barrier at the back of the café and you step into a huge work kitchen that is the research and development area of Etuvé Sous Vide, a Vancouver-based food company founded by chef Ben Coté in 2002. Sous vide is a cooking process that translates into under vacuum. As unappetizing as the process sounds cooking proteins such as beef or salmon in airtight bags in a warm water bath for up to 72 hours the result is surprisingly delicious and tender.
You need the right training because either it tastes like mush or youre feeding people bacteria, says Coté.
Etuvé is becoming a major supplier to restaurants who need to serve meals quickly without any loss of taste.
This is also the home of the One Planet catering company (soon to be renamed as the catering end of Railtown Café and Catering), owned by Coté and chef Tyler Day. Its sustainable approach to healthy eating includes delivery by bicycle, cloth napkins and real cutlery.
But dont stop here. At the back of the kitchen, to the left, you walk into another dimension otherwise known as chef Alex Chens practice kitchen. It is here that one of Vancouvers top chefs is preparing to represent Canada in the Bocuse DOr competition in France next January. (Chef Paul Bocuse is an aficionado of sous vide, by the way.)
But enough about the building. Lets get to the food. Although the chefs are fast customers can have their lunch in their hands in a minute this is not fast food. Its using the finesse of fine dining and dumbing it down to its simplest form, says the cafés executive chef, Dan Olson, whos returned to his home town after working at LAs Hotel Bel Air and Four Seasons kitchens.
Every sandwich, every salad, every drink, I want to eat myself. Thats how you know youre eating good food, says Day, who multi-tasks at One Planet and Railtown Café.
Everything is made from scratch, and whats not grown in organic gardens is cooked in-house, including the bread (and a gluten-free savoury muffin.)
Although youd think the location is too out of the way to be viable, look across the street. That building at the corner of Railway Street and Dunleavy Avenue is the worldwide headquarters of Hoot Suite. Coming up with new ways to revolutionize social media makes a person hungry and having a café right across the street is tantalizingly convenient.
The café is open weekdays from 7am to 3pm.
RailtownCafe.ca | 397 Railway | 604-568-8811
OnePlanetCatering.com | EtuveFood.ca | BocuseDOrCanada.ca
