GOODS: Fat Dragon & The Two Campagnolos Are Primed For Walk-Ins This Mother’s Day

Campagnolo Roma is located at 2297 East Hastings Street in Vancouver, BC | 604-569-0456 | www.campagnoloroma.com

The GOODS from Fat Dragon, Campagnolo, and Campagnolo Roma

Vancouver, BC | Mother’s Day is upon us and we want to help you show your mom some appreciation. Join us at Campagnolo & Campagnolo ROMA for brunch or Fat Dragon Bar-B-Q for lunch, Sunday, May 13. Mom will receive a single stem flower while supplies last and our bar team has designed some beautiful spring time cocktails with her in mind. Reservations aren’t available, so just come on in! Get all the details on the special cocktails after the jump… Read more

GOODS: “Just Like Dinner At Nonna’s” Series Returning To Campagnolo On Main St. In May

1020 Main St | 604-484-6018 | campagnolorestaurant.ca | 1944 West 4th | 604-288-7905 | refuelrestaurant.com

The GOODS from Campagnolo

Vancouver, BC | Just like Dinner at Nonna’s, a series of home-style Italian meals offered Tuesday nights at 6:00pm for $19, returns to Campagnolo Restaurant for the month of May. Starting May 8 and ending May 29, every Tuesday night, Main Street diners can look forward to a hearty meal made from quality seasonal ingredients sourced from local farmers and purveyors, paired with a draught beer from R&B Brewing Co., for an incredibly affordable price. Check out the menus after the jump… Read more

DINER: A Look Inside The Highly Anticipated Fat Dragon Chinese BBQ Joint On The DTES

by Andrew Morrison | A weekend of dry runs with friends and family have owners Tom Doughty, Robert Belcham, and Ted Anderson all set to open their much anticipated Fat Dragon at 566 Powell St. on the DTES this week. The new restaurant will specialize in Chinese BBQ in a way that we haven’t seen before, as nearly all the items will enjoy a lick of southern spice with a proper bar lending a pairing hand with five original cocktails or 4×4 wines by the glass (plus a reserve list). I took a look yesterday afternoon and there was much to like, including a kaffir lime soft serve ice cream that’ll be making it onto their opening menu this Thursday (so good). Here’s the PR and all of our photos from yesterday afternoon:

Accomplished restaurateurs, Tom Doughty & Robert Belcham of Campagnolo and Campagnolo ROMA, are excited to partner with longtime employee and first time restaurant owner, Ted Anderson, to proudly announce the opening of Fat Dragon Bar-B-Q on Thursday April 5, 2012. Fat Dragon, where Far East Asian flavours collide with American Southern barbecue methods, is the most casual restaurant this team has so far created. Open seven days a week, from 11am – late, Fat Dragon offers both dine-in and take-out options with street parking available at 566 Powell Street. “We have always wanted to open a barbeque joint.” says Anderson, ”We want guests to be able to enjoy a few cocktails and snacks without getting fatigued on heavy barbeque, so we incorporated Asian flavours and techniques to lighten the load.”

The Fat Dragon kitchen team will be led by Chef de Cuisine Adam Johnson in serving delicious food, first seasoned with Asian spices and herbs, then slow smoked over local fruit woods. These techniques will be applied to the best local cuts of pork, beef, lamb, fresh seafood, vegetables, and tofu. “We have a great love for different types of food from all over Asia,” says Ted Anderson. “This is our homage to the many, great, late-night dinners of noodles, barbequed pork and stir fried crab that we have enjoyed in our travels.”

The team at Bricault Design has created a stripped down, open space reminiscent of a 1920’s opium den. Exposed brick and wooden beams are complemented by a silk entry way, resembling the interior of a Chinese lantern, and a dragon-skin inspired ceiling installation made of wooden scales. The focal point of the room is an 18 ft bar housing a variety of local craft brews and imported Asian beers, a small selection of wines by the glass, and an assortment of cocktails derived from classic recipes rejuvenated with smoke and Asian flavours.

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ALL ANTICIPATED RESTAURANTS

GOODS: “Just Like Dinner At Nonna’s” Series Set To Return To Campagnolo On Main Street

1020 Main St | 604-484-6018 | campagnolorestaurant.ca | 1944 West 4th | 604-288-7905 | refuelrestaurant.com

The GOODS from Campagnolo

Vancouver, BC | Just like Dinner at Nonna’s, a series of home-style Italian meals offered Tuesday nights at 6:00pm for $19, returns to Campagnolo Restaurant. Starting March 13 and ending April 3, every Tuesday night Main Street diners can look forward to a hearty meal made from quality seasonal ingredients sourced from local farmers and purveyors, paired with a draught beer from R&B Brewing Co., for an affordable price. Take a look at the menus after the jump… Read more

DINER: Campagnolo Crew To Open New “Fat Dragon”, A Chinese BBQ Joint On The DTES

by Andrew Morrison | Robert Belcham and Tom Doughty, the owner/sommelier duo behind the two Campagnolo restaurants, are opening a Chinese BBQ restaurant called Fat Dragon in the heart of the Downtown Eastside (566 Powell).

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Joining them as a first time owner is Ted Anderson, long the chef at Refuel and now at Campagnolo Roma out on East Hastings (always nice to see that happen). The concept is interesting – Chinese food with a Southern US “lick of smoke” – and I’m sure they’ll nail it (the menu reads fantastic, and we’ll get to that soon), but let’s be honest; the thing that will define The Fat Dragon won’t be its food, but rather its location, at least in its first couple of years.

If you thought Salt Tasting Room in Blood Alley was daring back in the day, or really any location remotely worthy of the word in recent years, dinner at Fat Dragon will be – for some – like going to the moon. It’s this section of the DTES around Oppenheimer Park that has been (and still is) considered a bridge too far by restaurateurs, even hungry first-timers with very few funds. There is a community here, and a strong one at that, but it has to face a daily gnarliness that no other neighbourhood in the city has to contend with. I think for most Vancouverites, the idea of dining out hereabouts is repellent, and yet the restaurant, due in under two months, will probably do very well indeed. Read more

GOODS: Main Street’s “Campagnolo” Is Now Taking Bookings For Valentine’s Day Feast

1020 Main St | 604-484-6018 | campagnolorestaurant.ca | 1944 West 4th | 604-288-7905 | refuelrestaurant.com

The GOODS from Campagnolo

Vancouver, BC | Chef Adam Vaughan and Bar Director Giovanni Giardino plan a menu designed with couples in mind, in celebration of “la festa di San Valentino” – the festival of Saint Valentine at Campagnolo. Guests are encouraged to show their affection over a sumptuous 4 course dinner, available on one day only, Tuesday February 14. Giovanni will loosen things up with a thoughtfully prepared aperitivo while Adam prepares a romantic Italian dinner for two. Get details and the menu after the jump… Read more

ON A MISSION: Looking For The City’s Best Gnocchi And Finding It In A French Bistro…

by Claire Lassam | I wish I could start this off by telling a sweet story about my Italian grandmother teaching me how to make potato pasta, or even of my non-Italian mother who embraced my father’s heritage with gusto by showing me how to push the yukon golds through a ricer and carefully fold in just the right amount of flour, but this is not the case. I do vaguely remember my Nona’s gnocchi, but in a far off, nostalgic way that makes me wonder if I’m not just exaggerating them with a trick of memory. Mostly, I remember reading and re-reading Thomas Kellers recipe, and all the worrying and fussing and time it took the first time I made his gnocchi. I could never forget the overwhelming relief that came when I took that first bite. It was not just relief, but also happiness, the slightly awestruck feeling that I had done it right (I think I was only 15, so there were more misses than hits at this point).

Anyway, it was in that instant that I first fell in love with proper gnocchi; little nuggets of potato that were soft and fluffy with just enough bite that they held together for a magic instant before melting away entirely. They required time, energy and a little finesse, but they were worth it. When bound – typically – in a little tomato sauce, they make the perfect comfort food.

The trouble, for me at least, is always the time and the lack of space. I find myself eating them out more often than making them in, and so my mission this week was to find Vancouver’s best gnocchi dish. I needed the soft, ethereal little dumplings to be served in a sauce with character; a real exemplar that would inspire me to return again and again. It wasn’t easy.

Most classic Italian restaurants get the texture right, so I began with Il Giardino and Cioppino’s. Both produced lovely versions (I have it on good authority that it’s the same recipe at both), but Cioppino’s won hands down in the tomato sauce department, what with their delicious addition of mozzarella di buffalo. Still, at $25 a bowl, I felt a little gouged, even with the wonderful cheese.

I went to Campagnolo for a different experience, and found a tantalizing, Roman-style gnocchi made with semolina flour (not potato). Sadly, the texture was disappointing (the dough was over-salted) and the sauce lacked punch. Boneta’s was a big improvement, and thus far my favourite. They were tiny and covered in a wild mushroom cream sauce with a wonderful lemon juice zing. It was so good, in fact, that I went twice. The gnocchi themselves could have been a little softer (they had a slightly gummy texture, probably from working the dough just the smallest amount too much), and on both occasions the sauce was split (the bottoms of the finished bowls were all oil with bits of white sauce trapped within). Imperfect, but still very good.

The best was found by accident. I didn’t expect to find any gnocchi on the menu at Tableau, the French bistro at the foot of Coal Harbour’s Loden Hotel, but when some friends and I popped in for a drink and I saw them on offer, I had to give them a try (I was feeling lucky, and lucky I was). These were flawless, placed as they were atop a pool of pesto cream sauce and dotted with wild mushrooms (not getting soggy underneath). Every time the dish would begin to seem too rich, I’d get a bite of a roasted tomato – still sharply acidic – and it would make me start craving the cream again. They were pan-fried to finish, and despite the resultant, crisped exteriors, they were still meltingly tender. They were thus endowed with more flavour, allowing them be the star of their own show. And in this girl’s opinion, that’s exactly what they should be.

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Claire Lassam is a baker, blogger, and freelance writer based in East Van. She has been cooking and baking her way through the city for nearly five years, working in restaurants ranging from Cioppino’s to Meat & Bread. She currently toils at Beta 5 Chocolates and runs the baking blog Just Something Pretty.

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DINER: “The Dry Age” Goes Behind The Scenes At Refuel & The Two Campagnolos

You may have noticed that blogs operated by restaurants tend to lean toward the irredeemably shitty because they’re either a) written by general managers or owners who can’t help but be shamelessly self-promotional, or b) they’re updated only once per epoch. The Dry Age, in contrast, is a breath of fresh air. The new tumblr is a joint effort from the kitchens of Campagnolo, Campagnolo Roma, and Refuel. It’s enjoyably frank (written in cheffish, staccato vernacular), honest, and unconcerned about the delicate sensibilities of customers who might be freaked out by an occasional swear word or a photo of a brain on a cutting board. From stories about collapsed drains at 4am to the deserved glorifying of some of local producers and their ingredients, it just doesn’t feel like a “company” website. Bonus: it’s updated often, which is to say it’s a solid bookmark. Check it out.

DINER: Where To Stuff Your Face And Drink Your Fill During The Eastside Culture Crawl

by The Editors | As most Scout readers are likely already aware, the Eastside Culture Crawl (November 18, 19, 20) is a free, three day art crawl that covers the area bounded by Main Street and Victoria Drive north of First Avenue. Over 300 artists are participating, and it’s going to be freakin’ awesome. But where to eat and drink before, during and after your Crawl? Being the thoughtful folks that we are, we’ve lined up a list of key stops within (and just without) Crawl grounds: Read more

GOODS: Nonna Is Spending Her Summer At Main Street’s Award-Winning “Campagnolo”

1020 Main St | 604-484-6018 | campagnolorestaurant.ca | 1944 West 4th | 604-288-7905 | refuelrestaurant.com

The GOODS from Campagnolo

Vancouver, BC | Just like Dinner at Nonna’s House, a series of home-style Italian meals offered every Tuesday night at 6:00pm for $19, returns this summer to Campagnolo Restaurant, starting July 12 and ending August 9. Every Tuesday night Main Street diners can look forward to a hearty meal made from quality seasonal ingredients sourced from local farmers and purveyors, paired with a pint of R&B Brewing Company’s finest, for an affordable price. Details after the jump… Read more

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