Ink and Vinegar, Players Chophouse, Golden Beaver Viognier, Kolachy Co, Cowichan Chefs' Harvest Table

MEDIA HOUND - THE LOCAL INK

For your reading convenience, Nancy Lanthier has once again uploaded the links to publications that have reviewed local restaurants this week. You will find them here in our newsstand.

Our comment for today focuses on Andrew Morrison's review in the Westender of Players Chophouse Restaurant and Lounge. While his assessment may seem harsh, we think Andrew has shot a corpse on this one. Our office faces directly onto the restaurant (how inconvenient) and there is no lonelier sight than the view of the Players' valet standing outside in the rain on a Saturday night, waiting to park the cars that never arrive. We hate to say it, but unless they pick up their game, Players and another restaurant in Gastown (whose name ends in "x") are going to score the top of our Death Watch list for the 99 new restaurants we featured in our last printed issue.

So, we have to wonder along with Andrew, what is it about this unlucky spot that would otherwise seem strategically well placed to net sportsheads with payday-fat wallets rebounding out of the nearby BC Place and GM Stadium? Halloween is coming up and we are thinking of writing a feature on haunted houses - those places that can't seem to escape the fate of the cursed souls that stir fried before them, and this address would make a prime draft(y) pick. About the only successful use we have ever seen made of the building was as a faux savings and loans bank for the shoot 'em up scenes of Hollywood North cops and robbers films.

Not that we want to diss on the neighbours, but maybe the spot isn't right for a high end steakhouse. Maybe what's actually needed here is a a high end burger and hot dog stand (like Danny Meyer's ridiculously popular Shake Shack in New York). To be frank, we've always thought that the large open plaza in front of BC place would also make a good truck accessible location for a downtown farmer's market, with the empty restaurant venue serving as a handy cover for the vendors on rainy days, or to use as an adjoining craft market. Not that we prefer granola to a well grilled slab of prime beef, but on the other hand, a session of country banjo pickin' could be a preferable change to the BC Lions Street Party cover bands that shatter our windows with their Drano-gargling renditions of Born to be Wild nearly every Friday night in summer.

Filed in MEDIA/Newsstand.


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WINE OF THE WEEK
GOLDEN BEAVER - VIOGNIER 2006


There are areas where marketing people seem challenged to find a point of intersection between good taste and a sense of humour. For some reason those vectors tend to clash most painfully on any logo-fication of beavers.

Now, there are some places where beavers can be cute and still appropriate: on five cent coins, airport t-shirts, children’s hockey jerseys, beef jerky wrappers and out in the wild working on Mother Nature’s construction projects.

There are other places where they are not. Cell phone commercials and wine bottle labels would be two of them.

Thankfully, the people at Golden Beaver Winery have toned done the screaming yellow backgrounds of their previous wine labels so that you don’t feel the need to don sunglasses when ordering the stuff in restaurants – from the glare and the shame. Even so, you may still have to convince the junior members of your family that you are not hogging their root beer.

All that being said, if you can get past the label (slip the bottle in a paper bag if you must), you’ll find the juice inside is not that bad.

Our glam gal of wine, Deanna van Mulligen lends us her tasting notes:


GOLDEN BEAVER WINERY
Viognier 2006
Okanagan, BC

This aromatic Viognier has a brilliant gold tinge and teases with peaches and apricots, orange blossoms, crisp mineral aromas and exotic spice notes. On the palate it’s rich and smooth without the over-ripe oiliness Viognier can achieve. It shows fresh orchard and tropical fruit favours with juicy citrus and a warm, spiced finish. ?However, don’t let the Beav fool you, it’s a tasty wine but at 13.4% alcohol he’ll still be grinning while you are passed out under the table.

?$18.02 (+770420) ?Select BC private wine stores and at the winery


Filed in DRINK/Obscure Little Canadian Wines.

OPENING SOON
KOLACHY CO.

Noticing that the brown paper was off the windows, the lights were on inside and the front door was open, we rushed down to the Kolachy Co. thinking that we might be in time to snag the first bun out of the ovens, but nope. It was only Ben McKay and Brett Turner inside awaiting the arrival of the health inspector. Once that last hurdle is successfully cleared then the doors will be "unofficially" open for business -- hopefully as early as tomorrow.

What will be revealed is likely to be a good example of "the little shop that could". Once the Kolachy Shop, a hole-in-the-wall, specialty bakery started in 2003 by brothers Jason and Keith Thilbert, it has now morphed into the Kolachy Co, along with new owners, new branding, a new menu and a new business game plan. ... CONTINUE READING.



Filed in RESTAURANT/Previews.

TODAY'S PRESS RELEASES

This weekend, top Vancouver Island chefs will create a fundraising dinner for Providence Farm.































Chef Patrice Demers of Montreal's Laloux restaurant will sweet talk the audience at VCC's next pastry lecture series.


The local and sustainable cuisine of Aurora Bistro's Chef Jeff van Geest will be the star attraction at the upcoming Potluck Cafe Celebrity Chef Dinner.


Solar-powered salmon fishing boat wins Governor's Sustainability Award for Lummi Island Wild.



Filed in DAILY NEWS/Press Releases and DAILY NEWS/Greater Details.



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WHO'S GOT IT - THE BUZZ METER For - October 12 , 2007

(The most requested information on the site as measured
by Google keyword counter)



PEOPLE:

PLACES:

1) Transcontinental - Restaurant, Gastown, North Vancouver,
2) Boneta - Restaurant, Gastown, Vancouver
3) Italian Kitchen - Restaurant, Downtown, Vancouver
4) les amis du Fromage - Cheese store, Kitsilano, Vancouver/Park Royal, West Vancouver
5) So.cial - Restaurant, Gastown, Vancouver
6) Bishop's - Restaurant, Kitsilano, Vancouver
7) Fresco - Restaurant, Kelowna
8) O Bistro - Restaurant, Victoria
9) La Regalade - Restaurant, West Vancouver
10) C Restaurant - Restaurant, Yaletown, Vancouver

THINGS:

1) 100 mile menus
2) new restaurants in Yaletown
3) retaurant trends
4) Merridale Hill cider
5) mushroom hunting on Vancouver Island

MOST INEXPLICABLE CONNECTION:

is Rob Feenie married?

NUMBER OF COUNTRIES LOGGING IN: 129
NUMBER OF CITIES WORLDWIDE (>visiting over the entire month):56.
Number 56 was Madison Wisconsin. The most bicycle-friendly city in North America was the birthplace of Oscar Mayer Ltd., actor Chris Noth (Mr. Big on Sex and the City), and the rock band Garbage.