Our weekly distillation of who wrote what about food and drink in this week’s city print…

Alexandra Gill gets a drink poured for her by Chambar’s Wendy McGuinness before waxing glowingly on DB Bistro in the Globe and Mail:

I roll up for my first visit on a snowy Sunday night and the place is packed. Everyone on the floor – from the timid hostess who isn’t quite sure what to do with our coats to the restless manager who circles the room anxiously rubbing his hands – looks jumpy and nervous.

And they haven’t even recognized me yet.

If they had, I sincerely doubt that the woman seated beside me would still be waving a bill holder in the air as she tries to catch her waiter’s attention. Or that we would have to wait this long to order drinks.

We’re still waiting, quite thirstily, when executive chef Stephane Istel pops out of the kitchen and looks over. He probably spied me on the video monitor. (Mais oui, there are hidden cameras in the dining room with a view of every table so the cooks know when to start prepping the next course.)

Et voilà, the whole atmosphere changes. The reinforcements swoop in. The cocktails (spicy Bloody “Bulls” stirred with veal stock) arrive promptly. And the woman beside us has her credit card processed, tout de suite.

C’est la vie.

A most amusing story.

A Texas writer stays at the Wedgewood, dines at Bacchus, and leaves a great big puddle with her opening para:

Some say that the best city in the world is Vancouver. It’s beautiful, clean, green and hip. It gets nice and cold, but rarely snows. You can go from boating to golfing to snow skiing within hours. It has unbelievable scenery and trendy arts, clothing and music scenes. It’s also the starting point for thousands of cruises each year. Vancouver is worth a vacation of its own but throw in the winter Olympic Games 2010 and you’ve got a Destination!

In a different piece, she heads over to The Wick outside Tofino, where the gushing continues with good ‘ol Charles McDiarmid, the coolest hotelier I’ve ever met, playing along pitch perfectly.

Over dinner, McDairmid tells us about the best travelers – “Italians and Texans are the best groups to host. They travel to have a good time and they never forget they’re on a vacation.” While The Wick provides the ultimate in romance, comfort and attention to detail, McDiarmid’s eyebrow arches as he smiles and says, “Nature is still in charge here.” Thank goodness.

Oh Charlie, you devil.

In the Westender, I review Railtown’s new diner, Deacon’s Corner. It’s good. Go.

From Saltaire in West Van to the glory of James Beard House? Apparently so. Vancouver-schooled and trained Derek Myers, now plating in Bermuda, has been invited to cook at the JBH in New York.

In the Vancouver Sun, Mia Stainsby loves the food at Whistler’s Araxi. Not so much the stuff out front.

The service isn’t at the level of sister restaurant West, not surprising in a town dependent on a fairly transient, young staff, but one wishes for better when you’re paying for it.

From the normally generous Mia, that’s an ouch. Also in the Sun was a review of the Richmond location of Browns that I actually missed in the print edition. Happily, the link was sent in by a long-time reader. The subject line read “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Anya Levykh reviews Lumiere in Metro and kicks Rob Feenie in the balls.

Under the former direction of Chef Rob Feenie, it used to be one of the priciest menus in the city, in a room that smacked of nouveau institutional chill. The food was wildly inventive and often amazing, but untended farmland tends to go fallow, and the lack of presence of the main draw (Feenie himself) led to a slump in food and service. Fast-forward to today, and you have a hot New York chef (Daniel Boulud) stepping in and creating a menu that is now put out by an even hotter team.

Untended farmland tends to go fallow. And the Amish man said snap. For Feenie, however, the adoration quickly returns with some puffery in the Calgary Herald.

The Courier’s Tim Pawsey goes to San Francisco and drinks a lot of Zinfandel. Tim is awesome.

Former enRoute food writer Chris Johns and his girlfriend go from spending $300 to $50 a week on food with the help of some of Canada’s top chefs.

High end restaurateurs, meet your new customer: the Globe charts new rules for the bourgeoisie.

And finally, here’s a chef who doesn’t get enough press. Koji Zenimaru, the oddball funny man who runs the crazed kitchen at Kingyo in the West End, gets some profile action. If this guy spoke English, he’d be a star.

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Andrew Morrison is a west coast boy who studied history and classics at the Universities of Cape Town and Toronto after an adolescence spent riding skateboards and working in restaurants. He is the editor of Scout Magazine, the weekly food and restaurant columnist for the Westender newspaper, a contributor to Vancouver and Western Living magazines, and a proud board member of the Chef’s Table Society of BC. He lives and works by the beach in Vancouver.

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