A reader sent in this cell phone shot of a Distress Warrant in the window at 1168 Hamilton Street, the address belonging to Fiasco, Yaletown’s “newest” restaurant. If it is indeed shuttered for good, it’s clear that their vision of “swank and swagger done with style” didn’t pan out. While Yaletown does have a habit of chewing up businesses and spitting them out (witness the fates of LK Dining Lounge, Plan B, Lucky Diner, Diner, Pinky’s, Charlie’s, Browns, etc), this was pure infanticide. Fiasco’s life was astoundingly brief. It opened in the first week of October, which means it breaks the record for the shortest lived establishment in the neighbourhood’s history (as far as I know it).

As to why anyone would give their restaurant a name synonymous with failure, or better still, disaster, is beyond me, but so is Yaletown these days. It has become a chain restaurant theme park in recent years, and though excellence and fun still abound, the last few newcomers have been totally bizarre, so much so that you have to wonder what’s next. The Hindenburg?