Italian Kitchen opened with what appeared to be a fake boob and flashy car contest last night. Though I lost in both categories (sniff), an entertaining time was nevertheless had with plenty of laughter and drinks. Service starts today. More after the leap…
Sobo, the darling purple truck slash award-winning restaurant that has become synonymous with Tofino (video here), is moving out of the Botanical Gardens and into a brand new building across from the Common Loaf. Their lease in the Gardens ends this autumn and the move to the new building (sans truck) should be completed by Remembrance Day (Nov. 11th). Press release with details should be emerging in the next few weeks.
Contract-less hotel workers at the Westin Bayshore, Four Seasons, Renaissance, and the Hyatt have voted in favour of going on strike.
The Queen Mother in Victoria (407 Swift St.) has closed and one of the owners (Andre Rosenblaum) is fuming mad about it. A letter to some of his business colleagues made it into the Times-Colonist, and he blames the failure on the fact that the once quaint Fisgard-Store street nexus has morphed into a super sketchy crack/heroin zone. It’s true. The area is a disaster, and the man has a point when he says “something has to be done other than hand wringing”. Lets just hope the dinosaurs grand muftis at City Hall don’t look to Vancouver for solutions. (Thanks to reader CS for the heads up.)
In the Globe and Mail this week, Alexandra Gill reviews The Majestic (why, we’ll never know):
“If it weren’t for the stage, draped in red velvet, and a splash of hot-pink paint in the entrance, the Majestic would look like a homely little sister to the generically designed Moxie’s Classic Grill down the road.”
Bingo. Love it. Also in the Globe, Wendy Leung suggests Vancouver restaurants are following New York and LA in abandoning fusion cuisines in favour of classic bistro fare (Bistrot Bistro) and kitchen-less simplicity (Salt Tasting Room). Really?
In the Georgia Straight, Angela Murrills discusses the upcoming Feast of Fields and investigates beef noodle soup (OMG that Heineken pop-up ad is annoying awesome).
The new issue of EAT Magazine is due to be released September 1st, but my feature on restaurant referral kickbacks and hotel front desk corruption won’t be in it, at least not in full. I’m afraid it didn’t make it beyond the lawyer smell test. In fact, all three drafts failed to pass. Gary and I nevertheless felt it was still something worthy of debate in the industry, so we worked hard to salvage enough of it for an extended “Editor’s Letter” that covers similar ground. Sigh.
The Boston Globe tracks celebrities in Vancouver hotels and restaurants. Prepare to yawn or hurl epithets.
Frank Bruni in The Scotsman writes about server Phoebe Damrosch’s upcoming new book, Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter.
Jay Rayner, writing in The Guardian, says Gordon Ramsay’s been having a tough go of it lately.
Gawker goes to town on the “faciness” of NY Daily News’ restaurant girl, Danyelle Freeman.
Time: Hilly Kristal, legendary founder of CBGB, dead of lung cancer.
Editor & Publisher: Philadelphia Inquirer’s restaurant critic, Chris LeBan, is soon to have his photo published against his will by Philadelphia Magazine…
Philadelphia Magazine’s editor, Larry Platt, writes in the upcoming September issue that LaBan’s photo has already appeared in two local publications, and that “this whole debate of his anonymity just smacks of so much self-importance. Listen, the guy eats meals and writes about them. He’s not Valerie Plame, okay?”
Hahaha!
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“Italian Kitchen opened with what appeared to be a fake boob and flashy car contest last night. ”
Was that before or after the conference for bouncers with shaved heads?