Inside a Ghostly Lumiere and DB Bistro, Still Empty 380 Days After Final Dinner Service

Curtains piled in front of Lumiere’s bar, a year after its closure | Photo: Scout Magazine

Seven years ago this week in April, 2012 I found myself walking around what was left of the interiors of Lumiere and DB Bistro Moderne. It’s common for failed restaurants to quickly get replaced by new ones, but this was some 380 days after these two famously closed.

The shared space at 2553 West Broadway would eventually become the also short-lived Q4 Ristorante, but on this walk-through I was less interested in the future and more transfixed by the past.

The fire sale of the Lumiere and DB Bistro Moderne’s impressive, spare-no-expense innards left a few things still eerily in place, including much of what was originally chef Rob Feenie’s gleaming million dollar kitchen. Swiping through the photos I see piles of curtains unceremoniously dumped in front of Lumiere’s bar; a lone stool standing vigil in front of the bar next door; a single booth abandoned mid-move; a wall panel leaning off the wall; carpets, still soft underfoot, looking plenty worse for wear…

I’ve written about the closure of these interconnected, high-end destination spots on several occasions (and included both in Vancouver’s Restaurant Graveyard), so I won’t get deep into it again for this image-driven edition of Throwback Thursday. That being said, seeing these shots again (for the first time in seven years) really brought home how attractive and how fleeting they truly were. It’s really too bad they didn’t last. I think 2019 would have looked good on both.