by Andrew Morrison | If you’re a food lover and you’ve wandered Gastown’s many blocks in the past few weeks you may have noticed a great many number of things. For starters, Lily Mae’s is now open on Powell and serving French-ish comfort food (mmm, Boeuf Bourguignon), and further down the same block the new location of Rodney’s Oyster House has opened in the old Cobre spot (from Yaletown with love). What’s more, a pretty damn cool chocolate/coffee roasting operation is under construction on Carrall (details/photos shortly)

It’s not all good news, though. The not so Secret Location on Water St. looks to be still something of a secret (pity the bored hostess standing outside in the rain), and even though Sean Heather and Scott Hawthorn (Salt Tasting Room, Judas Goat) look to be nearly finished with their build of Rainier Provisions on the southwest corner of Cordova and Carrall, we still have a while to wait. They’re getting it gussied (as you can see in the photos above) so it will pass its inspections early enough for them to use the space for commissary purposes and for large Christmas parties during the holiday season. Heather says the highly anticipated neighbourhood victualling station will “hit the ground running” in early January.

Take a look at how the space appeared when we first reported on it back in September of last year…

ALL ANTICIPATED OPENINGS