Another Bite
Twenty-four years after first reviewing the Water St. Cafe, our critic returns.
’ Vancouver magazine stalwart who back in 1993 wrote alargely positive review of Gastown’s Water St. Cafe. Liked the room, vacillated over the food, lamented the wine list. Now, almost 25 years later, I’ve been sent back. Magazines, always so up to the minute.
Then again, the place has not required instant updates. Rather incredibly in this city of glass, the same Domenique Sabatino who in 1988 converted it from Brasserie de L’Horloge still presides over the room, which has changed but little. And thank goodness, too, as it’s a beauty and always will be, even if I’d make the case for something other than silk plants above the doorways.
There will be no vacillating over the food this time, either. On occasional visits over the years, I felt the place was rolling up a magnetic hill, seemingly worsening because everything around it was bettering. Then, a few years ago, the kitchen seemed to kick it up several notches. The menu remained a time capsule of casual French and northern Italian with West Coast inuences, but the pastas were better and the vegetables, in particular, less boilerplate and more delicious. Sabatino conrms this was no illusion but areal thing, sparked by the arrival in 2013 of chef Kevin Shawcross (since departed for Barbados) combined with the proprietor’s decision to move a little upscale.
Successor Zachary Steele (ex of now-closed Baccano Restaurant) has been there only a few months, and there’s asense that he’d love to push things a little further, but whether he does or doesn’t, few will be disappointed by their kale and farro salad, gnocchi with mushrooms, tru¡e butter and chèvre, or rack of lamb with sun-dried tomato, apricot-pistachio nut fregola, mint gremolata and cumin emulsion. Instead, letdowns will be reserved for a wine list that seems rather suburban, and taps that extend only to two pedestrian Granville Island brews.
In conclusion, let’s call this update highly positive, with a couple of reservations—which, by the way, you’re going to need on most summer evenings, as the patio’s atreat and, across the street, there’s a certain steam clock, which has also proved to be timeless, or something like that.— Jim Sutherland, editor, 1993 to 1999 For the full text of Jim’s 1993 two-star (out of three) review of the Water St. Cafe, visit vanmag.com