Chief
02-25-2008, 04:28 PM
http://www.columbian.com/business/businessNews/2008/02/02242008_Vancouver-hungry-for-fine-dining.cfm
Sunday, February 24, 2008
By PAUL CRAIG, Columbian staff writer
The best hamburger in the Portland metropolitan area is served at a Vancouver restaurant, according to the Web site Citysearch. The chef responsible for putting that burger on the menu at Vinetopia said it’s an item he never intended to serve.
Alan Lake, the executive chef at the restaurant inside the Cinetopia movie theater complex, with 25 years of culinary experience, said when he created the menu for the business in 2005, it was “probably the hippest, coolest menu I’ve written in my entire career.” Within three months, he said, the adventurous items were not selling as well as dishes with more common ingredients.
Kobe beef was replaced by hamburger, he said.
“Instead of getting crazier and more far out, it got more conservative,” he said of the menu, “and the truth is, by getting more conservative, it increased our bottom line.”
Lake, who has cooked around the country and earned awards along the way, said he doesn’t believe upscale dining is viable in Vancouver. Others feel differently.
One upscale restaurant is expanding. Brad Root, owner and executive chef at Roots Restaurant and Bar in the Riverstone Marketplace in east Vancouver, has started a $125,000 project that will double his bar’s size and add seating.
**SCHNIPP**
This article is excellent commentary on the rift here in vancouver between the people who live here, and the elites on the West Side of I-5 in downtown.
They cannot understand why people at Cinetopia would rather have a good hamburger than a Kobe Beef entree at twice the price.
It's because the younger couples who are going there are on a date night, are on the hook for a baby sitter, and don't have the budget for Cinetopia and Kobe beef on the same night. (Many probably cannot appreciate Kobe Beef anyway...)
Bacchus was supposed to be a big deal up here in Cascade Park when it opened a few years ago because it was the first real "white tablecoth" fine dining restaurant on this end of town. It was recognized at the time as a sign of the "maurity: of Cascade Park, blh, blah, blah.
Bacchus lasted about 2 years because most of the people who would consider going there couldn't afford one of their bottles of wine, much less a full course meal. It's not that folks are cheap, but you need to know your audience. People in Vancouver are a lot more likely to want some well-made fried chicken over an outstanding culinary presentation of fois gras...
Know thy audience. This is why I don't buy any of the explanations about attracting the arts and croissant crowd into a new Vancouver Pearl District at the former Boise Cascade site. It's a fantasy, built on a dream...
Stout hearts...
Sunday, February 24, 2008
By PAUL CRAIG, Columbian staff writer
The best hamburger in the Portland metropolitan area is served at a Vancouver restaurant, according to the Web site Citysearch. The chef responsible for putting that burger on the menu at Vinetopia said it’s an item he never intended to serve.
Alan Lake, the executive chef at the restaurant inside the Cinetopia movie theater complex, with 25 years of culinary experience, said when he created the menu for the business in 2005, it was “probably the hippest, coolest menu I’ve written in my entire career.” Within three months, he said, the adventurous items were not selling as well as dishes with more common ingredients.
Kobe beef was replaced by hamburger, he said.
“Instead of getting crazier and more far out, it got more conservative,” he said of the menu, “and the truth is, by getting more conservative, it increased our bottom line.”
Lake, who has cooked around the country and earned awards along the way, said he doesn’t believe upscale dining is viable in Vancouver. Others feel differently.
One upscale restaurant is expanding. Brad Root, owner and executive chef at Roots Restaurant and Bar in the Riverstone Marketplace in east Vancouver, has started a $125,000 project that will double his bar’s size and add seating.
**SCHNIPP**
This article is excellent commentary on the rift here in vancouver between the people who live here, and the elites on the West Side of I-5 in downtown.
They cannot understand why people at Cinetopia would rather have a good hamburger than a Kobe Beef entree at twice the price.
It's because the younger couples who are going there are on a date night, are on the hook for a baby sitter, and don't have the budget for Cinetopia and Kobe beef on the same night. (Many probably cannot appreciate Kobe Beef anyway...)
Bacchus was supposed to be a big deal up here in Cascade Park when it opened a few years ago because it was the first real "white tablecoth" fine dining restaurant on this end of town. It was recognized at the time as a sign of the "maurity: of Cascade Park, blh, blah, blah.
Bacchus lasted about 2 years because most of the people who would consider going there couldn't afford one of their bottles of wine, much less a full course meal. It's not that folks are cheap, but you need to know your audience. People in Vancouver are a lot more likely to want some well-made fried chicken over an outstanding culinary presentation of fois gras...
Know thy audience. This is why I don't buy any of the explanations about attracting the arts and croissant crowd into a new Vancouver Pearl District at the former Boise Cascade site. It's a fantasy, built on a dream...
Stout hearts...