Pear Tree still a solid eatery after 20 years
Despite success, owner/chef Scott Jaeger sees ‘changes in the future’
Like dogs, if a restaurant lives 12 to 15 years in, it has had a very good run. Beyond that, it’s noteworthy.
Pear Tree turns 20 this year and is still the top dog in Burnaby. Owner/ chef Scott Jaeger still reigns as one of the best chefs in the region; he hasn’t blurred his focus by opening other restaurants, or resting on his laurels. He puts his heart and soul into the place.
“I like being here,” he says in a phone interview. “In the 20 years, there’s only 11 days that I haven’t been here.” (He wasn’t playing hooky; he was either representing Canada in culinary competitions or supporting chefs he trained for competitions on those days off ). But there seems to be an itch. “We do see change coming in our future,” Jaeger admits. (‘We’ is Jaeger and his wife Stephanie, who steers the front of house). “I can’t say much more, but we love what we do.” It’ll be something bigger and different is all he would say.
Meanwhile, Pear Tree is the elegant anomaly in Burnaby Heights. I hadn’t visited for years, and after a renovation 12 years ago, the room is much larger (they’d taken over a space next door) but still intimate. Carpeting mutes the sound of a full room on a Saturday evening, and one wall serves as a temperature-controlled wine cellar.
Jaeger’s high-end menu (mains are $32 to $43) is more conservative than Vancouver counterparts, but he fulfils his more creative chef impulses with a seasonal table d’hote. When I visited, it featured sockeye gravlax with pickled beets, sea asparagus and rye crisps, and quail breast in smoked ham with leg confit, summer bean cassoulet and chanterelles with a choice of desserts. (These dishes can also be ordered à la carte.) There was also a special on offer: pappardelle with braised bison cheek.
“We consider ourselves a neighbourhood restaurant feeding our community, but we also draw foodies with expectations. We walk a fine line,” Jaeger says.
The neighbourhood likes what it likes, and Jaeger hears about it when he removes certain dishes off the menu. And so dishes like the flamed gin tomato soup with chive whipped cream, Caesar salad, and lobster ‘cappuccino’ have hung in there longer than they should.
“With every table of six, there’s always an aunt or someone who wants to order something recognizable,” he says. But with the freshest of top-notch ingredients, excellent technique and a tweak or two to the best-loved dishes, Pear Tree stays on top.
Although I did love the lobster cappuccino (with lobster bisque foam, dashi custard, poached lobster and a rice and squid ink chip) which looks just like a creamy cup of cappuccino, so much so that my mind tasted coffee. The dish involves a foam gun, and it’s exactly why you go to restaurants to have something most would never tackle at home.
The menu is flexible, and the orange caramelized scallops with double-smoked bacon can be ordered as an appetizer or main course. As an appetizer, four perfectly seared scallops marched atop a creamy risotto on a rectangular plate,
My main dish, a pan-roasted Lois Lake steelhead with pomme dauphine and butternut squash featured a lovely filet with a swoosh of butternut squash purée and, like all the dishes, was cleanly and fashionably plated. The pomme dauphine (which mixes mashed potato and choux pastry and is piped into a round and deep-fried) was short on choux and a crisp exterior.
Braised lamb shank stew with roasted cauliflower and cauliflower fritters strayed far from stew. It’s braised, deboned, cut into nuggets, and served encircled with a bright wine spinach watercress “fluid gel”. This dish certainly is not conservative. The lamb was excellent.
For dessert, I had the pear sorbet, which was as memorable as the one I had at an engagement dinner in Paris several hundred years ago, or so it seems. This one, too, was a pretty intense pear experience.
Another dessert modestly calls itself a “chocolate pudding,” but it is dressed to impress. Hillocks of Valrhona chocolate pudding do a line dance with malt crumb, hazelnuts, blueberries, chocolate curls, and vanilla ice cream. Quite luscious.
Vegetarian guests should know there’s a separate menu with three appies and three mains.
The wine list is surprisingly affordable, but if diners wish to go deeper, there’s a reserve list.
“We work hard on keeping the regular list affordable, and good value,” says Jaeger.
The Dirty Apron does it for kids
For a special dinner for a special cause, check out Alfresco, with Dirty Apron Cooking School Deli and Catering putting on a ritzy spread at Science World.
It benefits Science World’s Super Science Club after-school program for inner city kids with inspiring science and technology programs, with the aim of nurturing long-term interest in the subjects.
Guests at the $250 per person fundraiser dinner start with cocktails from The Botanist, canapés from Dirty Apron in Ken Spencer Park, followed by a five-course family style meal with wines on Science World’s Green Roof Terrace. Courses include togarashi grilled tuna with yuzu avocade crema; and miso and sake roasted sablefish with king crab broth.
For tickets and information go to scienceworld.ca