REAL ESTATE
The City of Vancouver has received a revised application to develop a building near the famous East Van Cross. From the previous height of eight storeys, the new proposal calls for a 10-storey office building at 2102 Keith Drive. The building will serve as the new headquarters of Nature’s Path Foods, a Richmond company that produces organic foods.
The original application filed by design firm Dialog in June this year provided for a building height of at least 117 feet. In the new proposal, the building’s height goes up to more than 147 feet.
Dialog indicated in a letter to the city’s department of planning, urban design, and sustainability that the increased height is being backed by city planners. “We appreciate that the City Planning team has been very supportive of pursuing the conditional increase in density and height,” Dialog architect Martin Nielsen wrote.
Nielsen recalled that the city’s urban-design panel unanimously supported the proposed development at a meeting on September 5 this year. “The Nature’s Path team was very encouraged by the response of the panel and their support for additional density and height on the site,” Nielsen stated.
The East Van Cross is formally known as the Monument for East Vancouver. The artwork was commissioned in 2009 by the City of Vancouver as part of the art program for the 2010 Olympics. Vancouverborn artist Ken Lum created the west-facing light-art piece.
Lum, who is currently chair of fine arts at the University of Pennsylvania’s school of design in Philadelphia, does not favour the proposed development.
In a statement in September, Lum noted that the vacant lot in front of the monument, where the office building will be constructed, “should have long ago been dealt with by the city, if the city had any sense of the cultural weight that this work has come to accumulate and also bear”.
“While I was apprised of the development plans I always voiced my strongest opposition in return,” Lum stated. “Despite the earnest efforts of the design team, the end result will be comical with much of the building obscuring in close proximity the Monument, possibly turning it into a symbolic tombstone embodying the very real and depressing relationships of power and struggle that continue unabated in the city of my birth and formation.”
The city is receiving comments from the public regarding the project until December 7. The proposal will be taken up by the development permit board on January 21, 2019.
Canard is the third restaurant by Gabriel Rucker, the Portland chef WW has called the most talented of his generation. At his other two restaurants, Le Pigeon and Little Bird Bistro, Rucker’s innovative menus are equally inspired by Americana junk food and French fine dining. Canard’s is no less shocking. There’s foie gras-infused bourbon, foie gras dumplings and the Duck Stack—fluffy pancakes with Tabasco onions, duck gravy and a fried duck egg—with optional foie gras for $15. Most dishes take equally bold chances: steak tartare ($16) with Chinese sausage and cashews; uni “Texas toast”; dry-aged petite New York steak with French onion soup sauce. The prices at Canard are generally inexpensive, with nothing over $20. The lack of pretension is matched by the buzzy atmosphere, especially during late-night happy hour on weekends, when bumping bass from the upstairs Bossanova Ballroom can strum stacks of sauté pans like a washboard.
MATTIE JOHN BAMMAN. In a world of beer-geek dens, Bailey’s Taproom welcomes all. Rounding into its eleventh year in existence, it’s by far the best and most popular beer bar on the westside, often packed to the rafters with equal shares of old-school beer nerds, tech dudes and tourists alike. There are apparently spreadsheets and formulas behind this success; beer buyer Bill Murnighan tries to keep just the right balance of esoteric, trendy and accessible beers on the 26 house taps. If the crowd gets too thick for your tastes, retreat upstairs to the Upper Lip, a sanctum of rare beers where you may find Bailey’s owner Geoff Phillips or one of the bartenders drinking from one of 10 excellent taps they chose for themselves. If all those imperial porters and Belgian tripels give you a case of the munchies, don’t forget that Santeria, the tiny Mexican restaurant across the alley, delivers fantastic drunk food directly to the bar.
PETE COTTELL. It didn’t take long for Kachka to outgrow its hole in the wall. Upon opening on Southeast Grand in 2014, the regional Russian restaurant was the talk of Portland’s food scene. In July, Kachka finally moved into a much larger, more refined venue several blocks away, and immediately began firing on all cylinders, delivering old standbys like the herring under a fur coat and new favorites such as gluttonous potato vareniki. But the owners didn’t just abandon their smaller digs: At the same time, Kachka’s new sister restaurant, Kachinka (720 SE Grand Ave.), took over the old space. Here, the Russian pop is loud, the doors stay open until midnight every day, and you can order several of Kachka’s best dishes at happy-hour prices all night long. And don’t forget the vodka: Potent Moscow mules cost $3 less than at Kachka, and the Dacha Martini, seasoned with savory celery bitters and cucumber brine, will make you hungry. MATTIE JOHN BAMMAN. In a city that lionizes dive bars, night clubs often feel like an afterthought. On a blustery Friday in January, however, Holocene felt like anything but. Local scenester VNPRT was playing Lil Uzi Vert’s infectious “444+222” for a crowd of impossibly hip 20-somethings, small in number but packed tightly on the sunken dance floor of this split-level warehouse conversion. In the space above, which functions as Holocene’s primary venue for touring bands, a young couple posed artfully on the empty stage with some found props. At the long bar to its side, partygoers refueled with candy-coloured blueberry vodka lemonade slushies ($7) and surprisingly tasty tacos ($3-$3.50; order the citrus carnitas). Fifteen years in, whether Holocene is hosting a dream-pop trio, a live podcast or its birthday party for Drake, it still feels like the coolest place in Portland.
WALKER MACMURDO. At a steakhouse, you expect the big chunk of meat to be the star of the show. At Greg and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton’s Argentine-inspired Ox, steak is only a player in a meal whose gargantuan flavours present with admirable balance. In the spacious, exposed-brick and wood-table dining room on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard, almost everyone orders the chowder. The soup is a masterpiece: rich from milk, cream and the smoked marrow bone that sits atop a pile of fat clams, and heated gently with slivers of jalapeño. The chorizo is airy and rounded with warm spice, and the sweetbreads are like umami gumdrops. The taters, even, are terrific. And even if the flatiron is a little blandly beefy, the skirt steak is set off with a masterful chimichurri. Though the ox at Ox feels like it takes a back seat to everything else, the Dentons remain two of the few chefs in Portland who can make a 1,200-pound cow dance. WALKER MACMURDO. White Owl Social Club is as close as Portland gets to a bar that everyone can agree on. During the day, it functions as a relaxed post-work hangout thanks to a dozen spacious booths inside and rows of picnic tables on the enormous patio, half of which is tented for outdoor drinking during wet winter months. This real estate is bolstered by a stellar happy hour, with $4 pints from a diverse and ambitious tap list, as well classic $5 happy-hour snacks like nachos and wings, all of which come in a tasty vegan variation. At night, especially during warmer months, White Fact: Matt’s BBQ has the best smoked brisket and ribs in Portland. There is no second place. At Matt Vicedomini’s dual-smoker barbecue cart—which moved next to North Mississippi Avenue beer bar Prost last year, fortifying that pod’s status as the hottest in town—only the pulled pork can be found better elsewhere. The sliced brisket is the showstopper, with thick, smoky black bark and a texture that usually perfectly straddles the line between moist and sloppy. The ribs are taut, with a peppery crust that yields to the tooth in the most satisfying way. Then there’s the sausage. The links are made in-house, and in a town with a lot of good sausage, the smoky heat of the jalapeño cheddar is peerless. And with “The Whole Shebang for 2,” you can try everything with sides for just $25. That’s insane.
MARTIN CIZMAR. Owl transforms into a good-natured but nonetheless line-out-the-door party bar, with DJS and live bands scheduled most nights. Though the cocktails are closer to dive-bar quality than they are upscale, White Owl still has plenty to offer for larger groups in search of lively place to drink and be seen. WALKER MACMURDO. Recently named third-best tiki bar in the world by Critiki, Hale Pele is a Disneyland-like experience where rum lovers crowd around bowls
Founded in 1969, Music Millennium is the Pacific Northwest’s oldest, and arguably its most beloved, record shop—although it’s much more than just a place to purchase music. Owner Terry Currier’s store hosts upward of 250 live performances and meet-andgreets a year from touring artists of the highest caliber, as well as enjoyable local showcases. Currier was among the group of record industry insiders who helped start Record Store Day, and that ethos of celebrating music and record collecting permeates the shop year round.
DONOVAN FARLEY. Though Jackpot’s Records’ downtown location may have shuttered, this local dealer is hanging on at its Hawthorne spot with a well-curated selection of new and used vinyl, along with rare finds and bizarre one-offs acquired when the shop bought a special collection of 125,000 records. PENELOPE BASS. Rightly regarded as one of the truly special record stores on the West Coast, if not the entire country, Mississippi Records piles all manner of curios—mostly of the blues, gospel and folk varieties, a good chunk of which were reissued via owner Eric Isaacson’s label of the same name—into a room resembling the den of that eccentric hermit at the end of the street you’ve been dying to become friends with. MATTHEW SINGER. There are only a couple of spots in Portland that “need no introduction,” and Powell’s, the palatial bookstore-cum-tourist attraction, is atop the list. No matter who you are, if you find yourself in Portland, you will eventually end up in the best bookstore in America. WALKER MACMURDO. Free of the crowds and sheer magnitude of Powell’s, a visit to Mother Foucault’s is like falling in love with reading all over again—that is, if classic literature, avant-garde poetry and philosophy in a cozy, multilevel library à la 1910s Paris is your cup of tea. Mother F’s does deal in used books, but don’t even think about trying to sell ’em your tattered copy of Old Yeller…unless, that is, it’s in Italian. LAUREN YOSHIKO. Among the OGS of indie bookstores, Broadway Books has been doing its thing since 1992. Besides new and used books, magazines and cookbooks, you can make special orders at no extra charge. Broadway Books is also a good spot for picking up signed copies by local authors like Cheryl Strayed.
LAUREN YOSHIKO. Birthplace of the “Wild Feminist” tee, Wildfang has become the outfitter of the modern woman with a tomboy edge. This location—though more mild-tempered than the West End’s flagship— boasts the same tailored button-ups, patterned two-piece suits, gleaming patent-leather oxfords, and Carharrt jackets that appeal across the gender spectrum to all seeking a well-fitted, street-smart addition to their wardrobe. LAUREN YOSHIKO. A truly singular boutique, the team at Kiriko Made imports rare, discarded Japanese fabrics and uses traditional garment production techniques to make contemporary, stylish streetwear, homewares and decorations in a backof-house workshop. WALKER MACMURDO.