GOODS: Bold Mexican Spirits And Delicious Food At Kale & Nori’s Bittered Sling Bistro

Kale & Nori Culinary Arts is Vancouver's newest catering company | 604-809-9479 | www.kaleandnori.com

The GOODS from Kale & Nori

Vancouver, BC | Back in January, Kale & Nori’s Chef Jonathan Chovancek and Lauren Mote traveled to the agricultural belt of Mexico to develop cuisine and cocktails using the “Aguardientes” and “Licors” of the Onilikan Distillery. These European-style spirits will take centre-stage for two special cocktail events at Legacy Liquor Store’s beautiful long table: May 8 with bartender Marc Smolinski (Max’s Burger’s, A Drinker’s Peace) and May 27 with Lauren Mote (Kale & Nori, Bittered Sling). Enjoy these unique opportunity to taste the spirits, cocktails and cuisine created with Onilikan’s spirited line up. Tickets for May 8 here and May 27 there. Details and menu after the jump… Read more

TEA & TWO SLICES: On Hiring From Within And The Anti-Gentrification Front (Splitters)

by Sean Orr | The great vindication? Study finds number of neighbourhood’s social housing units actually on the rise. “These residents won’t be eating at Pidgin or drinking IPAs across the street at Bitter or at whatever new boite turns up nearby. But they aren’t leaving the historic area either, according to the report, despite the upward trajectory of their neighbourhood’s price point”. This has been my entire point all along. Yes, change is happening, but unless you’re a wide-eyed anarcho-syndicalist who is unable or refuses to see nuances in capitalism – that projects like 60 West Cordova and independent restaurants like L’Abattoir (who in turn hire grumpy bloggers like me) can be sensitive to demographic concerns – then the debate is purely, uselessly academic.

So how do the “Marxists” respond? Well, they first held a meeting (rough video facsimile at the top), wherein they decided that the City lied! City skews numbers to hide loss of low income housing – 430 units lost in the last year.

The city report, which is in fact only a slideshow presentation for a public relations campaign, suggests that the number of low-income singles housing in the downtown core has increased…However, Ward’s Tyee article fails to take into account that the same slideshow also states that out of the 4,482 low-income SRO units in 2012, only 24% of the units rent at welfare rate… The problem is that the city’s SRA By-law literally does not count these units as losses in the affordable housing stock, regardless of what price they climb to.

Ok. Fair enough. But what does a restaurant have to do with that? Raise the bloody welfare rates now and the point is moot.

But how do the self-styled class warriors respond? They steal the little sandwich-board sign from out front of Save On Meats. Because that’s how the Russian Revolution started, am I right?

Related: saying you will hire from within the community sure sounds good, but it doesn’t always work: Businesses strain to retain Downtown Eastside workers. “Just like the neighbourhood residents, they’re figuring out how to succeed in their own way.”

Meanwhile, did you know that a middling pizzeria is responsible for the wholesale displacement of Quebecois squeegee kids and patchouli-covered trust-fund hippies on Commercial Drive? Yup. Pizzeria allegedly vandalized by Vancouver anti-gentrification group. Would it be too predictable of me to now form an Anti “Anti Gentrification Front” Front?

And check out these fucking gentrifiers: Introducing the Brewed Awakening feature tap at Pat’s Pub & Brewhouse.

Sorry, but Canada was never the No. 1 place to live. I don’t know if it was on purpose, but I love how the first word there is sorry. So Canadian!

Bonus: Victoria’s Johnson Street Bridge: a thoroughfare of song.

SEEN IN VANCOUVER #407: Intersection Of Hastings & Cambie Streets, Then And Now

(via) Busier then than now? Probably, though I suspect the intersection is much tastier today with Nuba, La Taqueria, and Meat & Bread. It’s likely more aromatic, too, what with the absence of horse shit and the introduction of all that smoke emanating from The Amsterdam Cafe. Harbour Center? Meh.

EVERYTHING SEEN IN VANCOUVER

SMOKE BREAK #977: New Trailer For Film Adaptation Of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road

The new trailer for the feature film adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel On The Road came out this morning. The movie hits Vuze theaters this Christmas with a supporting cast that includes Kirsten Stewart, Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams, Kirsten Dunst, and Terrence Howard. Relative unknowns Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund are playing legendary leads Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty.

TAKE ANOTHER BREAK

Tea & Two Slices: On Street Hockey Bans, VPD Lenience, And Dropping Acid At Work

by Sean Orr | Vancouver bike lanes draw unnecessary lines. No, Vancouver Courier, you’re the one drawing lines. You’re the one making infrastructure a moral issue.

Leading us to the tweet of the day c/o Joe Hill: “Things I’ve learned are socialist: libraries, schools, health care for kids w/asthma, paved roads, garbage collection, the census, science”. Also: parks, safe injection sites, public transit, taxes, and the CBC.

Oh, behave! VPD officer who struck prisoner in wagon last year avoids criminal record if he stays out of trouble for 6 months. Man, I wished everything in life worked like that. “So if I don’t come in to work ripped on acid, smashing dishes, lighting fires for the next six months I won’t lose my job? Cool!”

The Beat doesn’t go on: Second season of The Beat could be its last. Good riddance. If I want to see the police harass the poor I’ll just step outside.

Repeat Offenders: New EI rules takes aim at frequent users, force workers to accept lower pay. So those people who are most vulnerable, hardest to employ, and the most marginalised are now called frequent users? Do they get Air Miles on that?

Turns out Sullivan can write as well as he can run a city: “I have been intrigued by recent discussions in the media about the theory that foreign Chinese homebuyers are responsible for high housing prices in Vancouver”. Foreign Chinese, eh? OK, sorry. It’s not that bad. It’s just that weird self-promotion he always does.

Remove the Bubble Wrap from Our Public Spaces. By-laws are almost always unnecessary. I’m no Libertarian, but I mean…come on, street hockey? The other day at McLean Park we watched the cops ticket a man in a teepee because his dogs weren’t on a leash. They were bothering nobody.

Gym should have let man work out in hiking boots, tribunal rules. Wow, it took a whole tribunal, eh?

Your skinny jeans might be killing you. Yeah, I had to hang up my Nudies when I kept getting Male Itch.

GOODS: Beatty’s Award-Winning “Chambar” On The Hunt For Full-Time Kitchen Staffers

Chambar is located at 562 Beatty St. in Vancouver's Crosstown neighbourhood | 604-879-7119 | www.chambar.com

The GOODS from Chambar

Vancouver, BC | Chambar Restaurant is looking for full-time cooks with a minimum of 3 years of experience in fine dining. Chambar is a high volume and fast paced environment. The candidate must have a strong work ethic and be detail oriented. Wages are very competitive. Please email resumes to jobs@chambar.com. No phone calls please. Learn more about the restaurant after the jump… Read more

SEEN IN VANCOUVER #348: Main Street’s Gene Cafe Transformed Into Hawker Stand

Culinary enthusiasts Alex Dadzis and Ken Tsui took over Gene Cafe (2404 Main) last night and turned it into a hawker stand. They were flogging steamed Fei Bing pancakes stuffed with ethically-sourced ingredients like Paradise Valley pork belly with house-made apple jelly (also sesame shiitake & smoked tofu with hoisin and sriracha; five spice yam chips; and “ice queen sweethearts” – almond cookie ice cream sandwiches). Awesome grub guys. Keep up the good work!

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EVERYTHING SEEN IN VANCOUVER

TEA & TWO SLICES: On Demographic Time Bombs & History As A Pretext For The Future

by Sean Orr | Revising the revisions: History: B.C. teachers’ strikes are so last century. Hey, check it out! We’ve always treated teachers like shit, so let’s keep treating them like shit! Besides, as a province, we are totally broke.

In other news, B.C. is totally not broke.

Pending spending: Minister Ida Chong defends $3 million in unallocated discretionary arts funding. And in doing so, she leaves us with this insight: “If we decided we were not going to expend it and felt that all dollars that we wanted to spend on arts and culture for the year were complete, we would have just returned the amount to treasury”. Holy shit that is brilliant! So, for the next budget she should announce that she’s “allocating” ONE BILLION DOLLARS to the arts, spend only a fraction of it, and then just magically absorb the rest!

DOXA’s Open Letter to Canadian Heritage Minister, James Moore. “If Canadian Heritage’s funding criteria have suddenly changed, how have they changed?” You’re fooling yourself, DOXA. If it doesn’t have Canadian Geese, a moose, an orca, or has nothing to do with hockey/Tim Hortons/the War of 1812, then it isn’t “heritage” enough.

War on Kids: Jobs recovery for young ‘almost non-existent’. Read it and then look at the VPDs latest riot poster. Now, watch this trailer.

Free Ride: Eliminate all tolls on highways and bridges. Oh, and demand more highways and bridges (a reaction to something the mayors never requested, unless Frances Bula is living in an alternate universe).

Fresh scabs, old wound: Rocky Mountaineer workers face another lost year. An interesting tidbit: the owner donated passes to all Oscar nominees, oblivious of course that all Oscar nominees belong to a union.

Smoking the equity pipe: Vancouver’s Demographic Time Bomb. That’s awesome. It also reminds me of going camping at Chehalis Lake in Dean’s truck listening to Rancid the whole way up.

Cool Thing We Want #334: Hand Made Silver Branch And Twig Rings By Colby June (Etsy)

Set of sterling silver branch and twig rings with a bronze and 14k gold rock ring | Colby June Jewelry

EVERY COOL THING WE WANT

GOODS: Vancouver Island’s “Deerholme Farm” Joins The Growing Scout Community

We’ve invited Vancouver Island’s awesome Deerholme Farm to join our curated GOODS section as a recommended boutique getaway for food-lovers. They’re now proud members of Scout, and as such we’ll be posting their news in addition to hosting a page for them on our awesome list of independent goodnesses. We’d like to take this chance to thank them for their support of Scout, and for making BC a more delicious place to live.

ALL THE LOCAL “GOODS”

DINER: Sediment At The Bottom Of An Old Bordeaux Bottle Lands Wine Writer In Court

(via NYT | photo Natalie Hayes) Recently, acclaimed wine writer Mark Oldman was leaving what sounded like an especially luxurious dinner at New York City’s Colicchio & Sons when he was written up by the police for carrying out an empty bottle of well aged Bordeaux as a souvenir.

Oldman tried in vain to explain that this was only sediment: “It’s what is left after you decant a mature bottle!” But the police issued him a court summons anyway.

Yikes. What follows then, is the awesome record of the court proceedings…

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Court Officer: Mark Oldman, Docket ending 9818, open alcohol container.

Jed Philwin, the court-appointed lawyer: Move to dismiss, facially insufficient.

Judge: What was this? [referring to the bottle in question.]

Oldman: It was an empty bottle of 40-year-old Bordeaux I was taking as a souvenir. I’m a wine writer. The officer thought there was something in the bottle. He started writing up the ticket. I’m a well-known wine writer.

Judge: A well-known what?

Oldman: Wine writer. I was taking the bottle as a souvenir. It was a 40-year-old bottle. I have it downstairs. They wouldn’t let me bring it up.

Judge: Let me get this straight. Your job is to go around drinking wine all day?

Oldman: Yes, it is. And writing about it.

Judge: Before or after you drink it?

Oldman: A little of each.

Judge: What’s your record in one day of consuming wine?

Oldman: It’s quality, not quantity. It’s not about drinking as much as you can.

Judge: Have you ever seen Night Train Express?

Oldman: I love it. Does a body good.

Judge: Who pays you to drink wine? I know of a lot guys that would like that job. Read more

GOODS: Gastown’s “L’Abattoir” Hunting For A New Foodrunner To Join Its Service Team

L'Abattoir is located at 217 Carrall St in Vancouver's Gastown neighbourhood | 604-568-1701 | www.labattoir.ca

The GOODS from L’Abattoir

Vancouver, BC | Gastown’s L’Abattoir restaurant is looking for a competent food runner to work 3 to 5 shifts a week on a flexible schedule. The restaurant will prove to be a great training ground for those looking to move up in the trade. Minimum restaurant experience unnecessary, but desired. The lucky candidate will really only need to be intelligent with a great attitude, a driven sensibility, and a yen for learning from some of the best in town. Only the brave need apply to paul [at] labattoir [dot ca]. Learn more about the restaurant after the jump… Read more

Five Minutes With Damian Van Zyll De Jong, Vancouverite And Creator Of Native Shoes

All the kids are wearing them. In fact, this season Native Shoes have reached an unprecedented level of cool in the EVA-foam-injected slip-on shoe world: the Fall 2011 limited edition Jimmy boot was designed by Marc Jacobs! Beat that, Crocs! Local boy Damian Van Zyll De Jong founded the company in 2009 with the help of his friend Matthew Penner. As the PR says, “as the visionary behind the Native brand, Damian sparked a footwear revolution, and his unyielding passion continues to propel the brand forward.” Scout stole five minutes of Damian’s time to ask him a few questions and this is what we got:

When did you know Native was really going to happen? When I started doing it.

Some folks describe Natives as Crocs for cool people. What do you think about that? Everything is everything.

Most mind-blowingly satisfying celebrity/Native pairing? Obama’s daughter.

When you see someone in your neighbourhood wearing your footwear, what goes through your mind?Amazing!

What is it about West Vancouver that makes you want to live there: The Mountains for sure.

Architectural style that you most identify with: Fave architect is Ai Weiwei.

Three words that describe the vibe of your current living space: Open, organic and free!

What inspires you? People who do things well.

Describe your favourite photograph: It’s a Tim Barber photo of a friend of mine standing on a diving board over the edge of a cliff.

Default drink: Carrot, Ginger, Apple.

When you can’t sleep: I text my employees.

Favourite place to see live music: A backyard.

Cheap place for dinner: The Fridge. Read more

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