Redevelopment has closed many eateries, but the owner of the former Pronto went to the West End to open a new Italian restaurant.
Lamenting the loss of neighbourhood touchstones on a regular basis has, unfortunately, become part and parcel of living in Vancouver. Yet the story of one eatery swimming against this current offers encouragement.
Due to redevelopment, owner Angela Maida had to shut down her seven-year-old Cambie Village restaurant, Pronto, and its neighbouring bar, Prontino, at 3473 Cambie Street on March 3. Fortunately, she already had a second spot in the works.
Quietly, Centro opened in the West End at 1037 Denman Street on April 6. In an interview at the premises (formerly the location of Hub), Maida said she chose the approximately 1,700-square-foot space, with seating for 59 patrons and an additional eight patio seats, after an extensive search throughout Vancouver. She was looking for an existing restaurant to diminish the permit-wait time and a building that isn’t likely to be demolished—so, basically, a unicorn.
While Pronto was 1940s-inspired, Centro jumps forward a few decades. The space evokes a stylesavvy living room immaculately preserved from the 1970s. Because the building was built in 1971 as a bank branch, Maida and designer Scott Cohen decided to “respect the bones of the building”, which reflect the brutalist architecture of the time. With the nearby departures of decades-old businesses like the Dover Arms Pub and Denman Fitness, the retro theme reasserts the presence of the past amid the rapid erasure of history.
“So much has been taken from this community recently,” she noted. “It’s nice to be able to come in and dress up a building and offer something to the community.”
It also reminds Maida of growing up in the 1970s in a traditional Italian family in Winnipeg that she describes as “hard-core immigrants”. Although back then she felt “mortified” by things like goats in their basement while her father made his own sausages, appreciation came with adulthood.
“Things were pretty ethnic in my house…it was a little embarrassing,” she said, “but then as I grew older, those were the things I loved.”
Luckily for Vancouver diners, Maida translated that regard into ventures that balance classic and retro elements with a keen eye on the future.
Reopened clerestory windows offer ambient lighting that illuminates the coffered ceiling, from which two mobiles of geometric forms are suspended. The entire room is awash in curves and rectangular forms, coloured in gradients of muted, earthy tones. A variety of seating arrangements offers a dynamic layout. A bank of two-seater booths, housed beneath flowing arches, separates the main dining area from the bar but still permits sightlines.
The name Centro (pronounced “chen-tro”) comes from something Maida learned on her many travels in Italy. While driving around there, she would always be looking for the black-and-white bull’s-eye-style sign in villages that denoted the city centre, or centro. Because her new location was downtown, she thought it would be appropriate.
It’s more apt than she may have anticipated. Sandwiched between the flourishing Asian noodle district near Robson Street and the cluster of Middle Eastern and southern European eateries approaching English Bay, Italian pasta could not be more fitting.
As at Pronto, simplicity will rule the roost for Centro’s menu, which, similarly, features pasta, with an everchanging array of specials.
Most of the pasta (ranging from $18 to $24) is made by hand, including for the tagliatelle pomodoro, potato gnocchi with creamy pesto, casarecce bolognese, and mafalde alla boscaiola. Other mains include grilled luganica fennel sausage served with tomato and rosemary potatoes ($22), and marinated grilled lamb loin chops, served with charred corn, roasted red pepper, and mint salsa ($24). As Maida wanted more small plates for the cocktail bar, antipasti (from $6 to $25) include charred octopus with cannellini beans, prawns wrapped in wild-boar pancetta,and Tuscan-influenced fritto misto, or mixed seafood.
Centro’s bar retains Prontino’s cocktail specials, an Italian-focused wine program, and its gin program. Also available are negronis, martinis, vermouth (“to open your appetite”), and amari (which Maida said is an after-meal digestive).
Because she’s not into fanfare, Maida said there won’t be a grand opening, but they’ll continue to develop things in preparation for the busy season, full of tourists, sun seekers, and eventgoers searching for the centre of the summertime action. And so, it seems, Centro appears well-positioned to become part of that.