GOODS: Yaletown Newcomer “Minami” Has Joined The Growing Scout Community

We’ve invited the new Minami in Yaletown to join our curated GOODS section as a recommended local restaurant. They’re now proud members of Scout, and as such we will 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 Vancouver a more delicious place to be.

ALL THE LOCAL “GOODS”

DINER: First Look At The Highly Anticipated Minami In Yaletown’s Old Goldfish Location

by Andrew Morrison | I snuck a peek inside Minami yesterday (the old Goldfish location at 1118 Mainland Street in Yaletown). The anticipated Japanese restaurant – a relative of popular Miku (owned by Seigo Nakamura) – still has three weeks left before it’s scheduled to open, but already it’s looking pretty swell. The deep brown stain from the original wood floors has been sanded away to leave a nice raw glow, and many of the rear dining room walls and both private rooms are in the midst of a decorative once-over by Hideki Kimura, the acclaimed mural painter from Japan (he’s leading a team of artists from neighbouring Raw Canvas). The firm behind the newer aspects of the look (ie. the facets not inherited from Goldfish) is Vancouver’s own OMB (the same folks responsible for the clean lines of Obakki, and Oru), so the end result will likely be modern looker worthy of a good gawk.

As far as the food is concerned, I’m told that we can expect more aburi sushi and plenty of dishes that Miku fans will recognize, as well as a noticeable shift towards more “hot” items. The bar program has been designed by former Bartender of the Year Shaun Layton of L’Abattoir, with the sake element being looked after by Miki Ellis of Hapa Izakaya fame (a certified sake expert). Service will be led by former Sandbar GM Mike Deas-Dawlish and Miku veteran Patrick Rider. Mark your calendars. D-day is May 30th.

ALL ANTICIPATED RESTAURANTS

Cool Thing We Want #258: Nice And Cold Upside Down Beers At “Sea Monstr Sushi”

Around Christmas I posted a video that was shot at an American sporting event and showed a beer dispensing machine that blew my mind. Why? Because it poured from the bottom to the top instead of the other way around. Unbeknown to me at the time, Mark Brand and Alex Usow at Gastown’s Sea Monstr Sushi had one of the BottomsUp machines on order. With Sea Monstr’s liquor license about to finally drop tomorrow, Brand broke out the machine for an ice cold Sapporo test run this afternoon…