Cambie Street shop is small and friendly enough to tailor some offerings to customers’ cravings

Mia Stainsby
Sun

One cannot wish damaged legs and torn ligaments upon anyone, let alone a sweet and talented woman, but if it were not for a calamitous ski accident, Kaeko Kanno wouldn’t have set up this delectable little shop on Cambie Street.

She wouldn’t have brought blueberry tarragon tarts, poached pear frangipane cakes, Earl Grey chocolate mousse, blueberry ricotta mousse or any of her artfully made delicious pastries to the masses. She would have been working as a pastry chef for some large hotel delighting the palates at weddings and conventions and hotel diners.

Kanno last worked at Senses Bakery before it closed down for the Georgia Hotel redevelopment. Senses, under the consulting sensibilities of Thomas Haas, was where downtowners went for amazing pastries, chocolates and baking.

After a year of rehabilitating her leg, Kanno opened Kreation to gear down, slow her pace and stop lugging industrial-sized tubs of ingredients and equipment around on a daily basis. Lucky Cambie neighbourhood!

Kreation is a family business with husband, kids and friends pitching in. It’s small and friendly enough to tailor to her customers. An Australian, for example, was homesick for Lamington cake (a sponge cake, dipped in chocolate, coated in coconut) so she made some and now, a drove of Australians wend their way there.

Another wanted angel food cake. Ever the tweaker and creator, Kanno made it a green tea chestnut angel food cake. Those who buy her blueberry ricotta mousse cake will be shocked at the dark purple inside the pristine the white ricotta mousse.

Her offerings cover both French and American styles; the latter includes down-home cupcakes, cheesecake and for those with wheat allergies, brownies made with rice flour. Everything’s made in individual portions and cost $3.75 to $5. She does wedding and other cakes, too.

Holiday hours are 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., seven days a week. After Christmas, she’ll go back to the 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and close on Mondays.

– – – KREATION

3357 Cambie St., 604-871-9119, www.kreationartisancake.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Garden Terrace and the Chartwell make way for gorgeous space that is very Vancouver

Joanne Sasvari
Sun

Let’s see, what shall it be?

Perhaps a flight of vodka at the raw bar. Or maybe one of the 150 wines available by the glass. Or how about a handcrafted cocktail and some divine nibbles to go with it?

As food and beverage director Marco Ciraulo says of the Four Seasons’ new restaurant-bar-lounge, Yew: “It’s not necessarily the typical hotel lounge where you sit and sip your tea.”

Six months ago, even the Four Seasons’ most loyal customers would have had to admit that the old Garden Terrace was past its prime. So the hotel began a massive renovation designed to create a whole new concept in drinking and dining.

This week, Yew Restaurant & Bar opened its doors, and one thing is immediately clear — this is a great place to go for a drink.

Gone is the ladylike but cavernous Garden Terrace. Gone is the cosy but tiny lounge off to the side. And gone, too, is the old-fashioned Chartwell.

In their place is a gorgeous, soaring space with spare lines and rich, natural materials.

A huge fireplace separates the lounge and restaurant. And what a lounge it is — sexy banquettes and a wine cellar where the old lounge used to be, along with high-top tables, a graceful granite-and-alder bar and, across the room, the sleek raw bar.

It’s all very “international big city” — but also very Vancouver.

“It was very important for me to have a very urban lifestyle here, but with a West Coast influence,” Ciraulo says.

Yew looks great, but even more important is the skill behind the bar.

“The idea was to have a lot of hand-crafted cocktails done with love,” Ciraulo says. “We took a lot of the classic drinks and gave them a little twist and modified that to our style. Some of the drinks are shaken, some are stirred, some are rolled and some are muddled, so we have every style.”

The bar staff have been training for weeks, says restaurant manager Jeff Hanson, adding that their energy, enthusiasm and knowledge of cocktail culture are as important as their mixing skills.

And, he adds, “One thing that’s really going to surprise people is, first of all, we’re not the expensive place.”

After all, they want people to visit Yew every day, not just on special occasions.

“We don’t want to be pretentious, we don’t want to be complicated, but at the same time we don’t want to be simple,” Ciraulo says. “We want to be Yew Restaurant.”

– Yew Restaurant & Bar is located at the Four Seasons Hotel, 791 West Georgia St., 604-692-4939, www.fourseasons.com/vancouver.

– – –

RECIPES

Here are two cocktails from Yew Restaurant & Bar.

Navan Fizz

3/4 oz Navan vanilla liqueur

1/4 oz cream sherry

1/2 oz fresh sweet and sour mix (see note )

1/2 oz applesauce

Dash pasteurized egg white

Champagne

Rim a chilled cocktail glass with cinnamon sugar. Pour all ingredients except champagne into a cocktail shaker and shake well. Gently add a little champagne to shaker and strain into cocktail glass — this will keep the drink from foaming over, but will preserve the bubbles. Top with more champagne. Garnish with an orange twist. Serves 1.

Note: To make sweet and sour mix, combine 1 part heavy sugar syrup (3 parts sugar, 2 parts water, boiled until thick and allowed to cool) with 1 part lemon juice.

Cafe A La Pistachio

1 oz Mount Gay rum

1 oz Kahlua coffee liqueur

1 oz heavy cream (butterfat content of 36 to 40 per cent)

1/2 oz Amoretti pistachio syrup (available in Italian markets)

Rim a chilled cocktail glass with finely chopped pistachios. Drizzle chocolate syrup down insides of glass to create an attractive pattern. Pour rum, Kahlua, cream and syrup into a cocktail shaker and shake well. Pour into glass. Serves 1.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Restaurant has charm, is inviting and places importance in the details, which makes up for some of the misses in the kitchen

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Look way up to the ceiling for a Lilliputian moment. The light fixtures are cone-shaped coils of incense made for giants.

These fixtures at Okra Asian Bistro, I learn, are made with temple incense, offerings to larger-than-life Buddhas. “I won’t light them,” laughs Okra owner Joe Kwan, imagining nothing but smoked food at his restaurant.

Judging by the large wooden Buddha sculpture in the window, the emphatic incense, Kwan’s gracious manner and gentle music that tends toward Moby, Sting and Enya, Okra does have hints of templedom. But that is not to say the menu is Buddhist-based vegetarian — it abounds in meat, poultry and seafood.

Chinese/Malaysian restaurant called Okra has only an appetizer dedicated to its name and it isn’t cooked within an inch of its life as it often is. The kitchen marinates it in Asian spices then grills it with garlic butter, retaining a pleasant crunch.

Kwan’s been in the restaurant business for some 20 years — the Vancouver years were spent as manager of Landmark Hotpot House, Tropika and Banana Leaf restaurants. At Okra, the pan-Asian food is Westernized, notably in presentation and in the single servings.

Okra is yet another sign of the upwardly mobile Lonsdale landscape, a spin-off from the developing waterfront. Restaurants that feel more downtown than suburban are feeling their way onto the strip. Deuce, a couple of blocks away, also brought a dash of downtown cool to the neighbourhood with its stripped-down modern look and tapas cuisine.

Although Okra’s menu has the traditional appetizers and entrées, all the dishes can be shared. And prices are inviting, with entrées hovering around the $10 mark although portions are smaller than usual. The most expensive — Alaskan king crab legs — are $20. In the kitchen, one of the cooks has worked at Banana Leaf and brings a Malaysian flair to the menu.

Of the dishes I tried, I was most taken with one called Golden Tofu. I know, I know what you’re thinking, but this dish has the heft of a meat dish. The chef starts with a block of tofu, scoops a semi-circle off the top, deep-fries it to golden and fills the indentation with a spicy mix of shredded cucumber and bean sprouts.

Kung pao chicken delivered lots of flavour; mango and basil tiger prawns featured large, moist prawns; Hokkien fried rice noodles were a loosely and neatly-tossed mound, not a dense tangle.

I wasn’t, however, enthralled with an overly sour stir-fried ginger beef; the spicy seafood soup, with prawns, mussels and clams was a challenge — it was screaming hot, made even hotter by incendiary bits of chili. Being a green mango salad fan, I happily ordered the dish but was disappointed to find a surfeit of green peppers muscling out the mango.

Desserts didn’t electrify but were competently prepared. Deep-fried bananas were served with fruit and chocolate syrup. A coconut pandan leaf crepe with coconut filling didn’t enthrall. I noticed a decent selection of beers and some good-value wines by the bottle.

Okra has charm, it’s very inviting and places importance in the details like the live orchids and take-home bags closed with an origami fold. It makes up for some of the misses in the kitchen.

– – –

OKRA ASIAN BISTRO

1440 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, 604-990-0330

Overall: 3 1/2

Food: 3

Ambience: 3 1/2

Service: 3 1/2

Price: $/$$

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Cactus Club founder Scott Morison wants to encourage young investors on staff

Michael Kane
Sun

When he was building the Cactus Club Cafe chain, restaurateur Scott Morison confesses he was “very great at being greedy. I woke up every morning and it was like, ‘What can I do for me.’ “

Today he’s still opening new restaurants — the latest is Pinkys, the first steakhouse in Yaletown — but he wakes up each day more interested in creating success for other people.

“It’s a different money model that I call the ’10, 20, 30 plan’,” Morison said in an interview. “In 10 years, I want to create 10 millionaires, in 20 years 20 millionaires, and in 30 years, 30 millionaires.”

If all goes to plan, those millionaires will be young people in his business who have the heart and drive to succeed as co-owners of his restaurants.

In the case of Pinkys, which officially opens on Monday, general manager Todd Hann has one year to buy 50 per cent of the operation at cost. If the concept succeeds, Hann may find he can borrow the money from the bank on the strength of the restaurant’s cash flow.

But what hope is there for a steakhouse called Pinkys? Morison’s colleagues insist they love the name, which is derived from a traditional steakhouse called The Pink Pony in Old Scottsdale, Ariz.

Some believe Pinkys will appeal to women who may be turned off by the high-priced, big, dark room format of the traditional steakhouse. With its modest footprint of less than 3,000 square feet, prices to match a range of pocketbooks, and a casual, comfortable design by 27-year-old Jillian Harris, fuelled by upbeat lighting and music, Pinkys is not your classic carnivore castle.

Others say the name Pinkys evokes images of a roguish rum runner from the Prohibition era. You just know a guy like that would want steak on the side.

Morison confesses to second thoughts about the name at one stage when he suggested Morison’s Steakhouse would sound more masculine. “But the staff rebelled and it got very personal. All these people that I barely knew said, ‘No, you’re calling it Pinkys because we love that name.’ “

Morison didn’t get to be a wealthy entrepreneur without listening to his staff, although he recalls that by 2003, after 15 years of building Cactus Club, he no longer recognized his staff and was weary of watching multiple locations morph into cookie-cutter big -box restaurants.

Around the time he married his long-time girlfriend, Elizabeth, he realized he hadn’t been growing as a person, sold his shares to his long-time partners and mentors at Earls Restaurants, and walked away.

About nine months later he opened Browns, an anti-big box casual restaurant on Lonsdale in North Vancouver where he could see the front door from anywhere in the house.

“I call it the white-eye concept,” said Morison, 42. “When the manager stands in the room he should be able to see the whites of everyone’s eyes — customers, staff, kitchen, everyone.”

In addition to occupying less than half the floor space of an Earls or Cactus Club, Browns launched the idea of a chain where each outlet is tailored to its community and reflects the individuality of its owner-manager.

Currently there are four Browns with two more opening in late February and early March, about the time a second Pinkys is scheduled to open in Kitsilano.

Morison, meanwhile, owns the brands while enjoying “fresh adventures” designing and opening new locations, developing menus and choosing wines, working with staff, looking after customers, and once again growing as a person.

SCOTT MORISON’S CULINARY CAREER

1979 — 14-year-old dishwasher at Husky’s Car and Truck Stop in Winnipeg.

1981 — Two-year culinary program at B.C. Institute of Technology.

1986 — Leaves Earls Restaurants where he has been working as a server and manager to open Cucamongas on West Broadway with business partner Richard Jaffray.

1988 — Sells Cucamongas and partners with Earls to launch the first Cactus Club Cafe on Pemberton Avenue in North Vancouver. He and Jaffray provide the “sweat equity.”

2003 — Sells stake in Cactus Club after helping it grow into a 15-restaurant chain in B.C. with two more outlets in Calgary.

2004 — Opens first “mid-size format” Browns restaurant on North Vancouver‘s Lonsdale Avenue with operating partner Derek Archer.

2007 — Opens first Pinkys Steakhouse and Cocktail Lounge in Yaletown.

 

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

Taking tastebuds for a sleigh ride

Mark Laba
Province

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening, banker’s lips are glistening, a beautiful sight, credit limits take flight, shopping in a winter wonderland. But that’s just my cynicism talking and truly Christmas is more than that. It’s also about family dysfunction at holiday functions, roasting chestnuts in a microwave (wear a motorcycle helmet if you try this), reindeer hauling ass before Santa corrals them and makes them pull his fat flesh across the country and, of course, eating until even your

La-Z-Boy recliner groans under your weight. So here’s some picks for Christmas dinner festivities to save you the trouble of cooking.

Memphis Blues Barbecue House

Have yourself an Elvis Christmas and chow down on some of the food that made the King the King. This take-home feast will have you stretching the seams of your sequined pant suit as you enjoy all the usual pulled pork, beef brisket, rib end, and other smoked treats that come with the Elvis or the really massive Priscilla Platter. But they’ll also smoke you a 16-lb free-range turkey for $65.

Enough food to feed a horde of shopping-mall Santas who’ve been gazing into the fluorescent bowels of a food court all day long, stomachs growling.

1342 Commercial Dr., 604-215-2599; 1465 W. Broadway, 604-738-6806; 1629 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, 604-929-3699; 289 Bernard St., Kelowna, 250-868-3699

The William Tell Restaurant

An elegant establishment that makes dining as exciting as having a crossbow fired at your noggin. Well, not really, but the dining is as classic as the story and on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the restaurant is offering a three-themed option culinary experience.

First is The Canadian, with Fraser Valley roasted turkey, apple-and-sage dressing, plus an appetizer, soup and dessert. Or there’s The Westcoast with an ahi-tuna tartar starter, then a mussel-and-saffron velouté, followed by Salmon Wellington, or hit The Swiss with a gruyere-cheese soufflé, chestnut soup and then roasted tenderloin of Angus beef with a wild-mushroom Madeira sauce and spatzli and chocolate terrine for dessert. Priced $44.50, $54.50 and $64.50 respectively, a good deal for such beautifully prepared food.

765 Beatty St., Vancouver, 604-688-3504

Hart House Restaurant

This place oozes Christmas spirit like your Uncle Floyd around the rum-and-eggnog punchbowl. It’s a Dickens setting for the famed Christmas Day dinner with plenty of seatings to squeeze in you and your family. $55 per person gets you a great lineup of selections.

Starters of roasted butternut-squash soup with candied hazelnuts and cinnamon crème fraîche, or organic greens with macerated sour-cherry-and-vanilla vinaigrette. Don’t let the macerating scare you off. Then pick from roasted turkey with fixings, baked pork loin with roast potatoes, brussel sprouts and double-smoked bacon or seared lingcod with some fancy veggie concoctions. End it all with bread pudding and vanilla gelato, or chocolate Guiness cake and then take a walk along the shore of Deer Lake where you can waddle with the geese.

6664 Deer Lake Ave., Burnaby, 604-298-4278

Pan Pacific

Go big or go home seems to be the philosophy of this waterfront landmark, and if the five architectural sails jutting into the skyline don’t prove the point, the variety of festivities occurring kind of reinforce this frame of mind. But the big draw is the ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas Buffet on Dec. 24 between 5-10 p.m. where they pull out all the stops when it comes to edible temptations. Ranging from baked Lobster Thermador with bay scallops, snow crab and mushrooms, to New York steaks with wild-mushroom sauce, the traditional turkey shindig to vast salad, charcuterie and soup selections. The evening isn’t complete until you run amok through the decadent dessert table. $95 per person, which may seem steep but worth the price for the variety of dishes.

Pan Pacific Hotel, 999 Canada Place, Vancouver, 604-891-2555

Sonoma Grill

Once an Austrian restaurant, the architecture remains the same comforting theme but the menu, like the Napa Valley-inspired name, proves to have some tricks up its culinary sleeve. Nevertheless, you don’t screw with Christmas and the classic Christmas Day dinner here should prove to be most pleasing. Two seatings at 4 and 6:30 p.m. and at $37.95 per person, it’s an offer you can’t refuse. Choose from butternut-squash soup, mixed greens with avocado vinaigrette or a Caesar salad before laying into either roasted prime rib with Yorkshire pudding and garlic mashed ‘taters, roast turkey with all the fixings, Schnitzel Cordon Bleu or pesto penne with roasted seasonal veggies. Finish it off with triple-layer chocolate cake, pumpkin pie or New York cheesecake, enjoy a candy-cane martini and you’ll be decking your belly with boughs of tastes.

20598 Fraser Hwy., Langley, 604-534-2104

La Belle Auberge

This place is as classy as Charles Boyer’s cufflinks. I’m not even sure what that means but its sounds French, which is good enough for me. A 100-year-old Victorian house is the setting for this fantastic Christmas Day feast starting with assorted canapés to get the tastebuds fired up. Then it’s lobster bisque and then various entrée options, like braised beef shortrib with tomato confit, traditional turkey dinner, roasted bison loin with green peppercorn sauce or a Pacific seafood medley with a little Pernod and fine herbs for inspiration. Priced in the $49-$54 range depending on what you pick, all dishes are served with fresh veggies and finished with Parisienne chocolate mousse with frozen orange parfait.

4856 48th Ave., Ladner, 604-946-7717

Raincity Grill

This always elegant joint with its great showcase of locally sourced ingredients is putting on a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner for $59 per person. Start with tempura Fanny Bay oysters and then an appetizer selection with entries like butternut-squash soup with Dungeness crab and Agassiz hazelnut, rillette and parfait of Fraser Valley duck or seared Bayne Sound scallop with a leg of Polderside chicken. Mains include grilled shoulder of lamb, beef striploin with sautéed spinach and mushroom ragout or seared Pacific wild salmon with applewood-smoked bacon sauce. Desserts are inspiring from the Fireweed honey crème brulée to molten-chocolate pudding to apple tarte tatin.

1193 Denman St., Vancouver, 604-685-7337

© The Vancouver Province 2007