Ah, So This Is What It Feels Like To Be Scared Of Alexandra Gill

I was on the Urban Rush television show again today and hosts Michael Eckford and Fiona Forbes were ribbing me about working two nights a week as an expediter at Gastown’s L’Abattoir (if you didn’t already know, I’m there researching for a Vancouver magazine story on restaurant service that is due this Spring – please be sure to say ‘hi’ if you come in). Anyway, I didn’t take offense. They were just kidding around.

Still, having invested a bucket of my own sweat in the place since opening night nearly two months ago, I’ve grown quite proud of the restaurant, especially the people who work there. So when I heard that both my colleagues at the Globe & Mail and the Vancouver Sun had come in for reviews while I was off traveling, indulging in my real job (the same as theirs), I couldn’t help but feel nervous. What if it’s bad? What if it’s fucking terrible? Oh my God, I thought. We’re going to get anally raped and crucified.

Since many of you aren’t restaurant wonks (please don’t change), let me tell you about Alexandra Gill, Vancouver’s food critic for the Globe & Mail. Of the five or six paid restaurant reviewers in town, she is by far the most feared. I’d put the number of people in the local trade who like her column at about 17 out of 40,000, and I’d wager that 10 of those are either drug addicts, liars or probably both. But they all read her.

She might pen a dud every few months (most weekly critics do), but damn it if there isn’t always an entertaining flick of the knife, a slash that leaves a mark. When she really sinks her teeth into a restaurant’s jugular, it’s the ultimate schadenfreude sundae. Even when I love the restaurant that is being torched, it’s as mesmerising as watching a cheetah take down a Thompson gazelle in slow motion. First comes the run and then the turn. Once you see the claw hitting the ankle and restaurant’s center of gravity falter, it’s all blood and dust from there. I imagine she’s exhausted after writing her best. Panting. Too spent to eat. And at the end of every read I don’t know whether to burn the paper or keep it in order to study how she does it.

While she doesn’t have the power to break a restaurant, she sure can make the people who work in them angry. She’s even made me angry at times, but only when I think she’s gone too far. For a few years – when I had a hotter head – I wasn’t all that kind to her. Why? Because – gasp – she spoke her mind, kept her own counsel and could give a damn about what anyone thought of her. I’ve written wholly reactionary words about her over the last five years, none of them nice. To be honest, I’m quite sure that some of them were downright awful.

So when Paul Grunberg, L’Abattoir’s owner, told me that she was writing the review, my sphincter involuntarily tightened. I felt the fear, the very same that most chefs and restaurateurs might feel whenever she calls to “follow up with a few questions”, only it was amplified, like ten-fold. I very quickly convinced myself that, despite the obvious merits of the restaurant (which she would ignore), she was going to take every backhanded thing I’d ever written about her and use this golden, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to slam it all back in my dumb, smug face. Yes, and with a big fuck you and a steaming turd on top. I was a liability to the restaurant, a walking time bomb. And she was holding the detonator. How could I have ever been so plum stupid to have set the hard-working people of L’Abattoir up for this? What a total asshole.

But she’s the pro and I’m the child, given to wild delusions fed by my sometimes Herculean sense of self-importance. Of course she loved it. She wrote almost the exact same review I would have done if I wasn’t polishing the restaurant’s glassware and trying not to get in anyone’s way. She probably had no idea I was working there. She could probably give a fuck, really.

Phew.

Mia Stainsby’s review comes out late tonight in Sun. Naturally, I’m convinced that it will be hand delivered by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, that it will be terrible, and that it’s somehow all my fault.

Help Wanted: “L’Abattoir” Seeks Experienced Chef De Partie

Scout supporter L’Abattoir Restaurant in Gastown is seeking a reliable, motivated chef de partie immediately. Please reply by email in confidence to info@labattoir.ca with a resume detailing no less than 2-3 years experience. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thoughts And Photos From The First Few Days At “L’Abattoir”

Those were a fun first few days at L’Abattoir in Gastown. With the kitchen in calibration mode to perfect their timing, the pace was calculated so as to guarantee necks above water until close. The door was managed really well, and the action was all very smooth from my vantage point on the pass (the busy communications and exchange station in the kitchen where the plates are finished by the chef and then distributed to the staff). Almost as many customers were turned away as were seated on opening night, which is, I think, a jolly good harbinger of things to come.

From valet parking needs to service protocols, some interesting dynamics are already emerging, the most fascinating of them being those generated by the neighbourhood itself. As I’m sure most of you are aware, Gastown enjoys a late crowd these days, especially on weekends, and since the kitchen only stays open until 10:30pm, it’s Shaun and David at the bar who are receiving the wave of latecomers. As we are busily shutting down (polishing silver and stemware), they get pretty well slammed with folks keen to take a peek, wish them well and get their drink on. They’re both solid pros, however, dudes long accustomed to high volume. Most of my experience has been at slightly more formal restaurants that don’t attract a crowd seeking Negronis and Manhattans, so it’s weird to be finished with food service and then confronted with a crush of bodies at the bar. It’s pretty awesome. Read more

Training Days Inside Gastown’s Highly Anticipated “L’Abattoir”

As regular readers might remember, I’m writing a feature for Vancouver Magazine on table service in the city and how it’s been evolving with our restaurant scene. To gain some insight, I’m putting the old apron back on (God help you all) and getting back to work. I’ll be at South Granville’s storied West Restaurant for a night later this summer, but right now I’m concentrating on the opening of L’Abattoir in Gastown (I’ve been invited to clock in at Deacon’s Corner, too, and I hope to be able to make that happen, too).

So far it’s been a lot of fun. We did cocktail and wine training yesterday and talked a little about service philosophy and the different protocols associated with each (table settings, approach, et cetera). It’s been fascinating to watch them try and create their own style to suit their vision for the restaurant. I’m really very psyched about the whole “embedded” experience, though not a little freaked that I might drop something. In a few hours we start the final menu tasting, followed by a proper dry run of friends and family. The opening to the public, if all goes well, should be a ‘go’ for Friday (knock on wood). Lots of photos of the room and our training sessions after the jump. Read more

On Staff Orientation & Service Stories @ Gastown’s L’Abattoir

I’ve started researching for a couple of features for Vancouver magazine this week. One of them is on restaurant service across the city, which as I’m sure you’re aware can range from the outright deplorable to the superbly air tight. I’m taking it as an opportunity to work shifts at three different establishments that will hopefully reveal to readers some of the different kinds of styles and philosophies represented in the more fascinating coves of our restaurant scene. One of these will be the soon-to-open L’Abattoir in Gastown.

It’s my hope that participating in service through the prism of a hotly anticipated restaurant opening will prove of interest on several levels, not least because the exhilarating systems check that is opening night is something that only happens once in a restaurant’s lifetime. It’s then that you discover what works and what doesn’t, and when experience steps in to calibrate.

Staff orientation began yesterday, with the fourteen member front of house crew (several familiar faces) in their civvies listening to co-owner/chef Lee Cooper going over the menu, wine guy Jake Skakun explaining the list, and bar manager Shaun Layton (interview) presenting his cocktail list in a room that was still very much under construction (see pics below).

Though I wasn’t umbilically attached like the other staff, I was still a little nervous. It had been about 10 years since I’d done any sort of orientation in a restaurant, and nearly four since I hung up my apron and started writing full time. I’d like to think floor work is “old hat” or like shoes I can just slip back on whenever the fancy strikes, but the butterflies suggested very much otherwise. Good times… Read more

Shaun Layton Dishes On Life & Leaving George For L’Abattoir

We sat down with recently anointed Bartender of the Year Shaun Layton yesterday for a long delayed interview and were surprised to learn that he’d just given his notice at George Ultra Lounge in Yaletown after two and a half years of solid service there. Read more

New Restaurant “L’Abattoir” To Open In Gastown This Summer…

A new Gastown restaurant is under construction in the original Irish Heather location at 217 Carrall. Demolition began yesterday. It’s called L’Abattoir, a name chosen to speak to the space’s proximity to Blood Alley (‘slaughterhouse’ in French is so much sexier).

Such a moniker might weird some people out, but if Judas Goat can pull off a name that sounds like a Norwegian death metal band’s sophomore album, L’Abattoir’s a total go. I’ve been assured that there will be no carcasses hanging from the ceiling, and blood splattering is not a motif currently being entertained by the designer.

The front of house will be the realm of co-owner Paul Grunberg, former GM at Chambar and Market (most recently he’s been moonlighting at Bao Bei), and the back of house is in the hands of co-owner/chef Lee Cooper. Applying his business acumen to the project is Nin Rai. He went to Malaspina with Cooper, and owns Truffles Fine Foods with chef David Lee. A young, hungry group.

Grunberg is a known entity to me (and you, if you get out much). I’ve seen what he’s done, loved where he’s done it at, and recognise him as one of the city’s top drawer managers. Though this may be his first swing of the independence bat, I don’t doubt his abilities one bit, especially since he’s personally invested.

Cooper is a total mystery to me, and that’s what excites me the most. The 31 year old seems like a really nice guy – the nephew of none other than Okanagan pioneer Bernard Casavant (was Burrowing Owl, now Manteo). He’s made the right moves staging; training at some big guns (London’s Tom Aitkens, Maze, and most recently at Napa’s Ubuntu); and was once upon a time a chef de partie at the storied Fat Duck. Closer to home, he did a stint under Michael Allemeier (interview) at Mission Hill, moving on to sous chef positions at Scott Jaeger’s award-winning Pear Tree and Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Market in the Shangri-La Hotel. Though I’ve never eaten a morsel from the man, having read that back I sure as hell want to.

The approach he’s taking to the food seems straightforward. Though they don’t want to be pigeon-holed, from what I gather it’ll be affordable, modern French with bouts of rustic classicism and plenty of attention being paid to details. They won’t be afraid to take chances, Grunberg told me, but they’ll do so with confidence. Sounds plenty like Boneta up the street, which is a very good thing as there are plenty of beery, jolly joints in Gastown, and only the one swipe at excellence. An extra dash of the stuff wouldn’t hurt, and Lord knows Boneta could use the company. Read more

Chinatown’s Hotly Anticipated “Bao Bei” Looking Marvellous…

It’s possibly only a matter of a day or two (again, crossing my fingers and knocking on wood) before Vancouver gets treated to Bao Bei. I checked it out again last night in its final construction phase, and I can say without any reservation that’s really looking beautiful (see for yourself below). For those of our newer readers who’ve never heard of the place before, the Chinatown restaurant is widely acknowledged in trade circles to be the city’s most highly anticipated room. Here’s what we wrote about it when we first broke the news of its coming last May… Read more

PHOTOS: Chinatown’s “Bao Bei” Coming Along Nicely On Keefer

Returned to Bao Bei in Chinatown tonight for another glance. It’s come along plenty in just the last few days. I’m loving the details that have popped up so far: lots of recycled stuff like unique lamp shades in the bar and stools so grand-maternally homey that they couldn’t not have come from your grandma’s house. All the little design choices that have been made to date have been great, and it is hoped that chef Joel Watanabe should start testing in the kitchen soon. Mmm…soupy dumplings, soupy dumplings, soupy dumplings. I am ready for you. Read more

Paul Grunberg Done At Market To Launch Chinatown’s Bao Bei

Paul Grunberg, once upon a time the Chambar general manager who moved on to midwife the successful launch of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Market restaurant in the Shangri-La, is heading for a new challenge: consulting front of house for Tannis Ling and the highly anticipated launch of her new Chinatown restaurant, Bao Bei. An official press release should start making the rounds in the next couple of days. We’ve seen a draft copy (subject to change), and have it excerpted below: Read more

« Previous Page — Next Page »