Will Travel for Food
Is there a better way to explore this city?
with friends last night at an old haunt, the Bayside Lounge, where the excellent happy-hour Caesars play a cool second ddle to the view over English Bay. (The cracked leather seats are just part of the bar’s charm.) Conversation ran from weekend plans to the Vancouver usual: real estate and all its facets. One particular point of discussion was a new high-rise development that’s about to replace an old block of stores in the area, and one of our friends—who just that day had nished relocating from Gastown to the West End—confused the location, thinking theblock was on DenmanStreet instead of Davie. In response to our teasing, he justied his mistake: “Give me a break,” he said. “I just moved to this neighbourhood.”
We’re a city of neighbourhoods, and it’s fair to say that while most of us get to know all the great spots around the corner, our mental maps get a bit fuzzier once we step outside our home borders. When we do, though, it’s always worth the trip, because there’s nothing quite like the delight of discovering a new-toyou spot in some far corner of the city.
For our annual food issue, food editor NealMcLennan is here to help you do just that. With this issue’s A to Z guide (“Eat the City,” page 27), he’s gathered up achecklist that you can use to get out beyond your own backyard andexpand your taste map of Vancouver. You’ ll nd those hot spots that are creating new classics in this city (St. Lawrence’s rice pudding, for one, manages to renew this most vintage of desserts), as well as the old-time stalwarts around town that youneed to know about(including one of my beloved haunts, theEuropean Deli on Davie, where thehummus is so incredibly rich andcreamy it takes all my willpower not to stand by the counter and eat it with aspoon).
Because whether you’re new to your ’hood or have an itch to set out and explore someone else’s, isn’t food truly the greatest way to venture outside of what you already know? And it’s even better when you can be surprised by something amazing that’s been there all along, right under your nose—even in your very ownneigh bourhood.