Fans of former Bishop’s chef Andrea Carlson rejoiced last month when we reported that she was taking over the reins at Strathcona’s Harvest Community Foods, but now we have even better news: Carlson and her partner Kevin Bismanis have secured an East Van location for a new restaurant.

The address is 2702 Main Street, which was until recently Cafeteria (and before that, Ping’s Cafe). Cafeteria owners Andrey Durbach and Chris Stewart knew that Carlson was looking for a spot in the area, and they were looking to down-size their far-flung operation without taking a loss (they also own Pied-a-Terre, La Buca, and The Sardine Can). A chat here, an email there, and the deal was done. All was set and signed back in September, but it wasn’t until last week that Carlson got the keys. She and Bismanis are hoping to turn it into a 30 seater – called Burdock & Co. – before the end of November.

More good news? She’s not abandoning Harvest to do this. Phew!

As far as renovations are concerned, they’ll be swapping out the tables and chairs, keeping one side a lengthy banquette and the other a big communal table. The 4-5 seat bar will remain with its full liquor license. They’ll also be doing some painting. Even though that doesn’t sound like a big redux, Bismanis is an architect and those folks like to fiddle. I expect we’ll see a completely new room from what we see in the shots above.

Burdock & Co. will follow Carlson’s well established penchant for urban agriculture and farm to table cooking. She has spent most of her career building solid relationships with artisan suppliers and farmers, and she is pretty dialled in with local CSAs and projects like SOLEfood and Innercity Farms. Vancity is in on the funding of the restaurant, so expect a celebration of the local in every respect. Maybe it’s time to switch banks!

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