Weather is here, wish you were beautiful
Greetings from Vancouver! I just got back from 5 days of fun and relaxation spent in the city of Vancouver with two old college buddies. There were supposed to be 4 of us on this trip to celebrate our fiftieth year, but one guy bagged out at the last minute. (I know he's reading this, and in his honor we invented a new slang phrase -- "to Jeff out" now means to put work before friendship or fun. So there.) The weather cooperated wonderfully, it was sunny and warm for the entire trip. We did all the usual tourista stuff, cameras in hand, and guidebooks at the ready. There was good conversation and a lot of time to relax and catch up on what each of has been doing. We also ate some great food and enjoyed a variety of really excellent beer (and wine).

Vancouver looks like it was designed by a single architect, all the buildings have a 1970s Jetsons futuristic design with tiered hovercraft landing pads / balconies, teal blue windows, and beige tinted concrete modular construction. They're evenly spaced with courtyards and fountains and walkways and the overall effect is a sort of balanced uniformity that might look good on paper but leads a tourist to not really know which part of the city he's looking at because all the bloody buildings look alike.

There is a wide walkway and plaza system along the water's edge with separate paths, one for pedestrians and another for cyclists and rollerbladers. The walking path is right at the seawall and there's no OSHA mandated fence or railing or wall there to spoil the view either. I guess Canada assumes if you're drunk and you stagger and you fall in it's your own damned fault. Good for them! We trekked around most of False Creek searching for some geocaches but they were too well hidden (or we weren't sufficiently motivated to find them). So we "Jeff-ed out" on geocaching and went in search of beer and other adventures instead.

The best beer was at the Granville Island Brewery. Granville Island is in the middle of False Creek under the Granville Street Bridge. It's got a bunch of nice shops and restaurants and we spent a lot of time there wandering around exploring. The brewery, or brewpub as it's known locally, features a different set of beers on tap each day. Their India Pale Ale was outstanding as was the Honey Lager and Maple Cream Ale. The brewpub serves tasty munchies too so it was a good place to hang out.

On our first foray onto Granville Island we chanced upon the Sandbar restaurant. It's on the waterfront directly under the bridge. The views from the bar and dining areas are fantastic. There was a short wait for a table so we detoured to the bar. In keeping with their seafood and nautical theme the hostess gave us a designated signal flag to look for, and when our table was ready they ran the flag on a clothesline over the bar.

Our table turned out to be located upstairs on their outdoor patio. The view of the city at sunset was fantastic. But the view couldn't surpass the food. Words like outstanding, excellent, amazing, and wonderful can't begin to describe just how deliciously fabulous it was. I started with a duck confit appetizer that fell off the bone and exploded with flavor. It was by far the best I had ever had and I asked our waitress if I could ask the chef just how he created such a terrific dish. She said she'd see if he was busy. About 5 minutes later Chef Jason Kleinfeld walked up to our table, pulled up a chair and sat down. He carried with him his big recipe book and he opened it to show me how he prepared the duck. Even better, he had photocopied the recipe for me!

We chatted about food and how he prepares the various dishes for a few minutes. He made sure to emphasize that I had to take my time preparing the confit or it would come out stringy. It was a really cool experience; he had a restaurant full of people and he took the time to come talk with me! I'm definitely going to make the confit -- even after reading the extremely detailed instructions that call for, among other things, keeping the cooked duck legs sealed in duck fat and refridgerated for at least 4 weeks before serving them.

After the visit with Chef Jason our main courses arrived and they were every bit as excellent as our appetizers. Grilled Mahi-Mahi came with a spicy but not overpowering sauce and a melange of fresh vegetables. Sweet and sour chicken stir fry was perfectly cooked and served with fresh vegetable fried rice. The food was so good that when the manager came strolling around to ask how things were going I inquired if we could make a reservation for our last night in town because food like this needs to be enjoyed again. He found it amusing that all 3 of us were named "Chris" and he put us down for what is probably the best table in the place, right at the corner of the patio with a 3-sided unobstructed view of the harbor.

Yes we went back, and yes it was just as amazing as the first visit, and yes they all remembered us and the manager even bought us a round of drinks. It was the perfect ending to a very nice trip.

Posted at 17:05 by Chris   []   | | | Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Stumble It! | Reddit | Link