Goodbye Ross Sinclair 1944-2010

Sorry for the lack of posts these last few days. Sad to report my step-father of 33 years has died after a short fight with cancer at his home in Victoria. He was 66. I came over with my brother yesterday to be with my sister and Mom. All are in good spirits, remembering how he’d lived well and relieved he’s free of pain. Together, we wrote his obituary this morning:

Ross Sinclair, surrounded by loving family, passed away peacefully in the early morning of February 26th. Born in Vancouver in 1944, he graduated from UBC (Economics) before moving to Victoria, where he is survived by his wife Laura, brother Alex, sister Kathy, children Kate (Robert Duncan), Alex and Andrew (Michelle Sproule), and grandchildren Alexander, James and Isabelle. Ross was instrumental in the preservation and restoration of several heritage buildings in the city – among them Market Square and his own MacClure heritage home – but he was most proud of his final building project, the Cedars treatment facility at Cobble Hill. He will be remembered most of all for his phenomenal cooking, his love of golf and the open water, his ability to put others at ease with great humility and an always available ear, and the wicked sense of humour that helped to steer him and countless others through many trials.

Ross was a real character, as genuine as could be. True to form, his last words were “Fuck off”, muttered to the nurse who stuck him with his last IV. He will be missed.

Chef Edward Tuson Of The Sooke Harbour House To Open The Edge

Great news for Island dwellers. Long-time Sooke Harbour House executive chef and locavore extraordinaire Edward Tuson (interview) will be opening a restaurant of his own, perhaps as soon as this week or the next. Read more

Painting The West Coast With Sandra Harris

One or twice a week Scout poses 60 questions to a local who has made life in BC that much more interesting. They pick and choose which ones they’d prefer to answer, with a minimum response rate of 20. A Rorschach test, for sure…

Sandra Harris has a passion for painting the untamed landscapes of Canada’s west coast. “A scene that I paint has to put a sense of awe into me first; that moment has to happen where all I see is the landscape in its size, energy, and beauty. The whole idea of my work is to recreate or to relate the experience of seeing and being in the landscape to the viewer.” Harris studied art at Langara College, Emily Carr University and The University of Victoria. She recently graduated from the University of Victoria’s visual arts program with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts. She lives and paints in North Vancouver.

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Scout Q&A

Three things about your neighbourhood that make you want to live there:
On a mountain, beautiful scenery, 5 minute walk and I’m on a trail hiking in the beautiful scenery.

The thing that you eat that is bad for you that you will never stop eating: Red licorice.

Default drink: Water.

Sexiest fashion item for the opposite sex: Baggy basketball shorts. No short shorts please.

Book you’re reading: “Sleep Thieves” by Stanley Coren.

Last place traveled: I went to the Queen Charlotte Islands this past summer on a week-long kayaking tour down in the south end of the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve with the Pacific Rim Paddling Company. Despite the lousy weather, the scenery was awe-inspiring. We visited the village of Ninstints with all its decaying totem poles, which was pretty amazing for the imagination. It was mind blowing to see a landscape with no sign of development, no power-lines, no nothing. I actually found it to be somewhat of a relief to know that places like this still existed.

Best sneaker in the world: Well, my favorite basketball shoe is a toss up between the Nike Zoom LeBron 2 II and the Adidas KB8 II. This is strictly based on aesthetics as neither seemed to help me jump higher.

Ice cream flavour: Oreo.

Food your mom makes better than anyone: Cheesecake. I’ve been ruined for life; no other cheesecake can compare.

Talent you wish you possessed: The ability to skateboard and not eat concrete.

Favourite sports team: Los Angeles Lakers, and I seem to take a lot of heat for it.

Best concert experience ever: Hilltop Hoods @ Tonic. Front row, baby.

Dream car: A non-existent charcoal grey seriously fuel-efficient diesel Toyota 4-Runner with a great sound system, so that I can explore the province for future paintings enjoyably with a few friends. I’m not satisfied as to why there aren’t more diesel cars available in North America.

Town you were born in: North Van, as far as I’m told. My memory is non-existent pre-preschool.

Old television shows you can tolerate re-runs of: The Cosby Show! I wish sitcom shows today were still filmed in front of a live studio audience so that the jokes actually have to be funny to get a laugh. There is nothing worse then watching a show and needing the tape loop laughter track to come on for you to realize that a joke was just made… a bad joke. Might this be part of the reason why I don’t watch very much TV anymore?

Album that first made you love music: Can’t remember. It could quite possibly have been a Bryan Adams album…? No, wait! It was Dolly Parton’s “White Limozeen”. No joke, when we were little my sisters and I used to crank that and sing along. I remember one time a babysitter told us she knew Dolly and we believed, and she had the three of us eating out of her hand the entire evening. Nowadays, ‘Rock n Roll’ by The Sounds is the song that I am in love with, hands down. Rhymefest is also definitely a recommended download.

The career path you considered but never followed: Professional basketball player. I had the passion for it; I even got voted in my high school yearbook as ‘most likely to play in the WNBA’. The only thing I was lacking was LeBron James’ athleticism. Fingers crossed for my next life.

Three websites you visit every day: Facebook, NBA.com, Voleurz.com.

The thing you’re addicted to: Books on mythology. I’m an avid reader of anything by Joseph Campbell… you know, the mentor George Lucas credits for ‘Star Wars’. Check it out.

Biggest hope: To wake up tomorrow with the powers of Superman.

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THE SCOUT INTERVIEW ARCHIVE

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The Return Of Chef Andrew Springett

Tofino’s little sister Ucluelet has just seen the arrival of the Black Rock Oceanfront Resort. Only a few days old, the hotel offers 71 rooms in the main lodge and another 61 Beach Suites ($135 a night and up). In other words, it’s a major development that will likely rival the very best properties on Vancouver Island, going toe-to-toe with such Tofino properties as The Wickaninnish and the Long Beach Lodge (two of my favourite retreats).

I’ll be going to check it out as soon as I can, knowing that the trick up their sleeve is one Andrew Springett, the talented chef who once toiled at La Belle Auberge and Diva at the Met before he moved to Tofino to run the kitchen (to great critical acclaim) at The Wick from 2003 to 2007. It looks like they’re taking the food and beverage program mighty seriously, too.

From the website:

Fetch Restaurant

Enjoy an artisan inspired culinary experience at Fetch, our 90-seat oceanfront restaurant. Dine on our patio overlooking the active surge channel and Wild Pacific Trail or stay indoors; every seat has a spectacular view of the surrounding rocky headlands. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, all menus have local themes and are carefully crafted to perfection by our professional culinary team, lead by Executive Chef Andrew Springett. Fetch is an oceanography term referring to the distance a constant wind blows across a body of water for the generation of waves. The longer the fetch length or distance, the higher energy the waves.

Float Lounge

Cozy up to the fireplace with house inspired cocktails and beverages in our 50 seat Float Lounge, with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the open ocean. Watch waves continually crash on the rocky shoreline from the comfort of your seat under the remarkable wave inspired bar- no wetsuit required. Enjoy items from our custom designed menu specially created for sharing with friends over warm conversation. Surrounded by nature and West Coast beauty, you’ll find a welcoming, contemporary atmosphere awaits you at Float.

Wine Cellar

The signature feature of Black Rock Resort is the dramatic Wine Cellar looking inside the active surge channel with exploding waves and surrounding coastal features. The Wine Cellar showcases a variety of Pacific Coast region wines, and is the ideal location for a meeting, small reception or event under 60 people. Wine tastings & pairings, chef’s table and custom private dinners, just to name a few, will be available in this impressive location.

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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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Escape To Point No Point And Victoria

That would have been a particularly mellow holiday season had it not been for the treachery of the weather. It began, really, with me pulling out of my driveway after the first major cold snap (the night of Dec. 21st). I very quickly discovered that the Westfalia was in no mood for travel. As we pulled up to the first traffic light I pressed my foot all the way to the floor to find that the master brake cylinder had cracked, the brake fluid had drained, and we had the stopping power of butter. Nothing happened. Very gingerly I pulled the beast around and into the mechanic’s garage (two doors from my house).

$850 and three days later, the car was of little use to us anyway. The weather had gotten so bad in the upper redoubts of West Vancouver that getting to Michelle’s parents house on Christmas Eve required us parking at the bottom of 300m high hill and then piling all our luggage and gifts on to an old sleigh and pulling it up through the ice and snow (Grinch-style).

After that, it was all turkey and gravy. Michelle’s mom made a superb Christmas dinner, and after putting our very anxious children to bed we stuffed the stockings, had another drink, and fell asleep ourselves.

Christmas morning was beautiful. All was quiet, with snow deep and crisp and even. Jack and Pip tore through their presents like raptors through a primary school, and following a hearty breakfast of chocolate and coffee we piled our things into the sleigh and tore down the hill to the car to ready for Christmas #2 in Victoria. Because of the snow and the icy roads (and a missed ferry), we didn’t get to my mom’s house until after 5pm. The kids went through their second present opening session by a roaring fire (listening to Neil Young), and then we all sat down for another turkey dinner, complete with paper hats and lots of Stella Artois.

The next few days are sort of a blur. The grandparents took the kids up to Point No Point Resort in Sooke, so Michelle and I were mercifully left to our own devices. We bumped into lots of old friends; breakfasted and lunched at Mo:Le twice; got high on caffeine at Habit several times; enjoyed a truly fantastic dinner of five courses at Fernwood’s excellent Stage; and followed walkabouts with driveabouts and early nights with late mornings. I grew up in Victoria, so it’s always a headful of memories and reminders of paths taken and not.

Point No Point is a post-Christmas family tradition, so we were quite eager to get up there and join everyone. It’s an ethereal, Big Sur kind of spot. The noise of the ocean never fades, and they keep the cabins well supplied with kindling and mossy wood. My iPhone had no reception. There was no wireless. No TV. No radio. There was, however, a hot tub on the deck, lots of wine and beer (My sister’s husband brought a big bottle of Le Fin du Monde) and a long and winding path down to a longhouse on the beach, complete with open fire pit and benches. It really does feel like the end of the continent, and we love it.

On the 29th it was time to get home and back to work. We packed our things and piled into Westy, listening to the King’s College Cambridge Choir sing Agnus Dei on the old stereo as we headed north to catch the ferry home, happy to have had some time to slow down and reflect on both 2008 and 2009.

We hope you had a great holiday, and wish you the best for the new year.

Tofino’s Raincoast Cafe Closing

After 12 years in business, Tofino’s excellent Raincoast Cafe is closing.

From the Westcoaster:

TOFINO — A critically acclaimed Tofino restaurant will close it doors at month’s end following nearly 12 years in business.

The RainCoast Café, which has received positive reviews in publications like the Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Magazine and Best Places in the Northwest, will hold its final dinner service New Year’s Eve.

“It’s had a good run,” said Larry Nicolay, who co-owns the café with partner Lisa Henderson. “Our hearts [are] in Tofino, but we have to do different things for the family.”

Best of luck in Vancouver Larry and Lisa!

Scout Field Trip #268: Sidney

We didn’t pick the best weekend, weather-wise, to do our husband and wife disappearing trick, but Michelle and I nevertheless had a splendid time holed up in the new Sidney Pier Hotel & Spa. It’s a sweet spot, jutting out over the water like an ocean liner at port, and being just a quick ferry ride away across the Georgia Strait, it’s wholly accessible without feeling too close.

As I posted “live” a few days ago, we missed the ferry by less than a minute, so after landing at Swartz Bay we had to drive into Victoria and drop the kids off at my mother’s and then turn around and race back up the Pat Bay Highway to check in and make our spa appointments on time.

After an hour long deep tissue massage with hot stones (which I’d never experienced before – awesome) and Michelle’s facial in the spa, followed by some chill out time in their “spa sanctuary”, we did a quick change and slipped into Haro’s, the hotel’s restaurant cheffed by Ray Elrick. It’s a very cleanly laid out space, with modern furnishings and floor to ceiling windows looking out onto the ocean. Elrick (ex-Oak Bay Marina, Abigail’s Hotel), who sources much of his ingredients close to home and is fully Oceanwise compliant, laid out a nice spread of butternut squash risotto, decal steak, scallops with salsa verde, and vegetable tempura, and we drank local Phillips beers and a bottle of 2004 Sandhill Petit Verdot from their Small Lots program. Great food and drink, and a happy development for Sidney, which has always been something of a culinary desert.

The next day the weather had taken a turn for the apocalyptic. After a DIY breakfast in our room (Umbria coffee, bacon, sausages, and pancakes) and a tour of the kitchen courtesy of Elrick (who seemed a very solid, locally-minded guy), we took to the road and traveled 15 minutes south to Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse (the winds were so strong that it felt as if our Westfalia – not a very aerodynamic vehicle – would tip over on the highway). The Ciderhouse was a very cool retreat. We sampled four different ciders, from the clean, crisp, and dry to the hot and buttered, together with a plate of cheeses, breads, charcuterie, and smoked salmon. It was a wonderful little getaway, and we had it all to ourselves.

Back in Sidney we stayed close to home, touring several bookstores (the best place to shop for books in BC) and shopping in the hotel’s eclectic gallery featuring the work of what seemed like dozens of local artists (I bought Michelle a silver salmon ring by Chris Paul). Mineral world is right next door to the hotel, so I got my paleo-wonk on and had a jolly time with Cambrian crinoids, ammonites, and various bits of dinosaur coprolite (fossilised poop). We stayed in that night as the weather had become particularly forbidding. The hotel has a pretty extensive DVD collection and big flat-screen TVs in the rooms (side-loading), so we curled up and watched Sideways, Gosford Park, the waves wind-whipped over the pier, and the first flakes of snow fall.

The next morning saw us not a little concerned about the roads. Westy just got new tires, but she’s still a bit of a disaster in snowy and icy conditions. Still, the heater works (thank God), and we had to pick up our kids from grandma’s and then catch the ferry home. So, after a breakfast with a brace of locals in the hotel’s Georgia Café & Deli (first pain au chocolat in years), we started slowly down the highway. There were plenty of cars skidding all over the place, and we saw many that had spun off into ditches. Thankfully, we arrived in my old James Bay neighbourhood and my mother’s house without incident, and were glad to be reunited with our kids.

It was a very relaxing weekend with plenty of sleeping in and lounging. I like the idea of being able to escape the city for a weekend away without having to drive too much or fly. The ferry, in this sense, becomes more like a cheap cruise, and because the Sidney Pier Hotel & Spa is just a few minutes from the dock, it shaves the tedium of the full trip into Victoria. And you know what else? Sidney is a cool little town. When I was growing up in Victoria we used to make fun of it as the Land of the Newly Dead and the Nearly Dead (no Newly Weds), but it appears to have evolved into quite a little cultural zone with a pedestrian friendly drag playing host to lots of interesting shops and, as is well known, plenty of well-stocked bookstores.

We’ll be back for sure.

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