‘Duke of Earl’ legacy lives on at Douce
She’s as bright as sunshine but then … clouds with a chance of rain.
Dawn Doucette, chef and owner of the five-month-old Douce Diner in North Vancouver, is telling me how her 90-year-old grandfather visited the diner at least once a week with advice.
“Damn, he was right about doing shredded hash browns with butter,” she says. “It’s nothing pretty but it tastes good.”
She reveals her grandfather was Leroy Earl (Bus) Fuller, the founder of Earls and Joeys. He had died the day before, and grief made a sneak attack. In her decades-long career in the restaurant industry (beginning with a year-long internship at Zuni Cafe in San Francisco) she’s never mentioned it in media interviews. (Her father is Clay Fuller.)
“He was the Duke of Earl, and I am really going to miss him. I always set myself apart,” she said. “He was one hell of a guy and inspired me a lot. I’m proud of my grandfather.”
She did inherit the hospitality gene. Douce is an all-day breakfast and brunch diner, and Doucette trained up kitchen staff to free her to work front of house. And she’s nailed what a good breakfast spot should be.
First, it channels that Doucette cheer. The room is bright and homey with retro chrome diner stools, vintage yellow, pink, mid-cream tones, polka-dot tiles, retro light fixtures and a neon “hello” sign.
Our first dish was evidence that quality’s important.
The salad greens levitated with freshness; farrow, roasted yam and a slice of ricotta added heft and flavour.
“I want the ingredients to be like what I feed my family, even if costs are higher,” Doucette says.
My husband’s Douce burger was good enough for return visits. Douce is a play on deuce and the number two (more on that later), and this burger doubled up on the juicy beef patties from (organic) Beretta Farms in Ontario.
Vintage cheddar, zucchini and red onion pickles, lettuce, and a house sauce joined the party. The brioche bun from North Van’s Bad Dog Bakery elevates it. It comes with fries or a salad and upon my command, he chose the shoestring fries. Some fries
are worth the calories, and these were.
Bad Dog Bakery figures in other dishes calling for bread like the “avocado toast my way,” French onion grilled cheese, and breakfast sammies.
My chicken (Rossdown) and buttermilk waffle were satisfying — a light waffle, crisp outside and soft inside. It came with maple syrup and country-sausage gravy. I wasn’t fond of the pale, thick sausage gravy and stuck to maple syrup, even on the chicken.
For the obligatory eggs benny for brunch, Doucette detoured around English muffins and went with biscuits. Her secret to the nice fluffed layers? Frozen grated butter. As for the waffles, she says the secret “believe it or not is in how it’s mixed,” and a castiron waffle maker.
We ordered a side of smoked bacon and pork sausage. Loved the bacon but not so much the sausage, which needed more seasoning and spicing.
Desserts are vintage milk shakes (with an option to add malt), sundaes and a banana split.
And for the cherry on top, there’s a possibly paranormal phenom at Douce Diner — it’s a magnet for twins (again deuces), starting with a statistical anomaly on staff — Doucette has hired three sets of twins, although some parts of the sets are back at university.
“And, believe it or not, we always get twins coming in the door. I take photos of all the twins,” says Doucette.
“It’s so bizarre. One day we had four sets of twins come in.”
Her grandfather’s visits have stopped, but he’s smiling as she seemed to heed his advice.
“He taught us never to accept complacency in our lives and to chase our dreams,” says Doucette.