A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

Tapastree Team Opening Italian Joint Called “Nook” On Denman

sfghNicole Welsh and Mike Jeffs of the West End’s much-loved and undersung Tapastree restaurant have been busily putting together a new, casual Italian mini-joint called “Nook” in the former (and mercifully short-lived) “Schnitzelz” location at 781 Denman (just around the corner from Tapastree and right across the street from Kintaro).

From the looks of what I could make out of the interior (it was really dark outside and my camera flash + glass window = dumb idea), it appears as if perennial heavy lifters Scott Cohen and Stephan Gagnon (the builders behind rooms like Le Faux Bourgeois, Jules Bistro, the new Nuba, Bistrot Bistro, and Gastropod) have put together about 30-35 seats with a lengthy, soda-shoppe sort of open kitchen bar. The red stools and chairs look built for broad bums, super comfy.
If they don’t open before the weekend, I’d be mighty surprised. Aside from the usual pre-opening flotsam and jetsam, they look very good to go.

Word is the focus will be on simple pastas and antipasti. I spied a nice big slicer behind the bar, too, so salumi is likely to be had to boot. For more info and photos as they arrive, check into the “Trade Winds” thread on the Table Talk forum.

There are 2 comments

  1. This place was fantastic, absolutely fantastic. Food was exactly what you would expect from a top tier Italian restaurant (fresh, clean, simple and elegant) without the top tier pricing. The food is unpretentious and focuses completely on fresh quality ingredients and perfect flavour combinations. It was also refreshing to see a simple wine list, I went with a chianto classico, for food we had a nice caprese salad(perfect sea salt in this made it just right), Prosciutto with Bufala Mozzarella, the Prosciutto was perfectly aged an beautifully cut at the bar, the mozzarella was a really generous portion and was a really good piece, next we had a thin crust sausage pizza which could easily have been mistaken for Michele’s in napoli. After that I had the gnocchi, which was very fluffy and just right but a small portion which always seems to be the case with gnocchi. My wife had the bolognese which was fantastic. I also grabbed a limocella cause i was feeling nostalgic of Italy after such a good meal
    All in all Nook is up there with my fav’s in the city for price and quality, there is nothing in the city that touches this place for its low price point and quality of food.

    Service was ok could have been a bit better in my books but it certainly shouldnt affect your decision

    Well done

  2. It was our first time to Nook. The food was very good but I was very disappointed with the service. We had the rudest waiter I have ever encountered. He was abrupt, fake and never asked us how are meal was. Whenever we asked him a question, he made us feel like we were bothering him.

    Good restaurant but they should definately look at who they’re hiring to deal with their customers. It really turned us off of our whole experience and not sure if we would eat there again just for that reason.

Osteria Elio Volpe Officially Opens In Cambie Street Village

The time has finally come: Osteria Elio Volpe will open at 540 West 17th Avenue this Thursday, March 14th - take a look at what you can expect...

New Chinatown Bar, Meo, Set to Officially Open March 13th

The highly anticipated retro-inspired cocktail bar brought to us by the team behind Bao Bei and Kissa Tanto (Tannis Ling, Joël Watanabe and Alain Chow) is on track to open doors next week.

Good Thief is Coming to Main Street

Scout has toured Good Thief, a new concept by Amélie and Vincent Nguyễn, the sibling duo behind the celebrated Anh and Chi. Although we're sworn to secrecy on the finer points, we can confirm that the "thrilling extension of their vision" will be very, very cool.

Slo Coffee Aiming to Bring a New Pace to the Fraserhood by Summertime

By late spring or early summer, Fraser Street is expected to welcome the new café inspired by the Japanese idea of wabi-sabi and the universal desire to just slow the fuck down.