This is not to be some hackneyed piece on how pumpkin spice is everywhere. And I mean everywhere. For all the lament about it, it must surely sell or it wouldn’t continue to be pushed so hard by every food and drink brand in North America.
Or is it precisely because it has been pushed so hard that it has become such a cash cow? No matter, that’s a topic best suited for another columnist. Still, can we take our foot off the cinnamon and nutmeg brainwashing gas pedal just a touch? I feel like that ornery character in the Dr. Seuss tale. I do not like it in my beer, I do not like it over here. I do not like it in my foam, I do not eat it at my home. I do not like pumpkin spice, because I do not like things that are not nice.
No, this is to be a column about the best of autumn flavours on the Shore, your safest bets for money well spent.
Now is the advent of heartier fare on menus everywhere. Root vegetables and preserves, braised meats, potage-style soups, sauces made with pan-roast bits, and desserts that involve dried fruit and crème anglaise prevail, leaving their meyer lemon and sweet basil sorbet cousins behind shivering in the autumnal night.
Feast Restaurant, 2423 Marine Dr., West Vancouver. 604-922-1155
First out of the gate on the fall heavy-hitter list is West Vancouver’s Feast, a restaurant that has truly come into its own under a second incarnation that began in 2017 under the direction of restaurateur Geoffroy Roulleau. The kitchen and bar teams have just launched a new lineup of weather-appropriate dishes including a stunner of a lamb shank, served on bone in a creamy, honey-glazed polenta with delicate ribbons of zucchini, prepared spaghetti style. A dramatically plated, ingenious smoked duck dish arrives with the medallions of medium rare breast set atop a grilled slice of focaccia, which is perched on the edge of a bowl in which sits a perfectly soft-poached egg, surrounded by a silken, almost bisque-like cream of parmesan. A cocktail of cardamom-infused apple juice and dark rum walks dangerously close to the precipice of the pumpkin spice abyss, but manages to stay on this side of good taste and originality.
Wooden Fish, 1403 Marine Dr., West Vancouver. 604-926-6789.
A ways east down Marine Drive is the thriving Wooden Fish, a 2019 entry into the busy Vietnamese category. Wooden Fish has regularly continued to distinguish itself from its competition, in my view, since my initial revelatory meal there soon after opening back in April. While the pho stock can stand with the best of them on this side of the bridges, the kitchen doles out so much more than the expected Northern Vietnamese staples. A nicely executed dish of Beef Carpaccio showcases the prowess of the culinary team here, featuring paper thin, high grade beef prepared simply with a drizzle of lemon and a smattering of Vietnamese herbs. A new-ish menu program of made-to-order skewers has proven popular and lends itself to conversation and libation with a larger group, with grilled goodies including bacon-wrapped okra, nem nuong (traditional, distinctly sweet and salty Vietnamese pork sausage), cuttlefish, beef, shrimp, or for budgets larger than mine, lobster tail. Wooden Fish offers a modest but adequate assortment of wines and beers to pair with its menu.
Café by Tao, 210-150 Esplanade West, North Vancouver. 604-971-5108
For insight into how to properly use this season’s favourite ingredient, a visit to long-running vegan, health-minded venue Café by Tao will sort you right out. The breakfast bowls, which are my favourite dishes here, leave you feeling nourished and sated, never stuffed and ashamed like so many other breakfast experiences, and feature flavour-packed, amino-acid rich sprouted Styrian pumpkin seeds in addition to other ingredients like acai berries, house-made coconut hemp milk, fresh fruit, and Tao’s own sprouted buckwheat granola.
Hearty soups like coconut lentil and a velvety, dense butternut squash round out the seasonal offerings.
Ernest Ice Cream, 127 West First St., North Vancouver. 604-770-4136
Ice cream may sound like a counterintuitive indulgence when it is raining sideways and the mercury is hovering around zero, but Earnest Ice Cream remains the master of making wares to suit the season. My all-time favourite Earnest flavour, Oatmeal and Brown Sugar, has made a triumphant return and is available at the North Shore location at the time of publication. It is a stick-to-your-ribs kind of dessert that could conceivably serve as a meal in its own right, balanced diet considerations notwithstanding. Other fall-ish flavours right now include collaborative Moja Coffee Almond Mylk Latte, and vegan Cardamom Sugar Cookie.
Jagerhof, 71 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver. 604-980-4316
It arguably doesn’t get heartier and more traditional than Jagerhof’s Bavarian Schweinshaxn (as far as I know, the only one available in all of Greater Vancouver), a bruiser of a dish featuring a whole roasted pork hock served with sauerkraut and pan-fried potatoes, with a mustard demi. I treat myself to one of these (OK, maybe two) every year on regular works trips to Germany and I can tell you that Jagerhof’s version of this ultra old school southern German specialty is legit. Block a longer than usual window for dinner (the kitchen needs a minimum of 20 minutes lead time to crisp this sucker up) and try this out, at least once in your life, so you understand what the fuss is about. You won’t need to eat again for a few meal periods, I assure you.
Coach House Lounge, 700 Old Lillooet Rd., North Vancouver. 604-985-3111
There is a warm, inviting ski lodge vibe to the unusual Coach House Lounge, a diminutive bar and restaurant situated at the Holiday Inn and Suites off Old Lillooet Road in North Vancouver. Don’t let the unlikely location throw you, this cozy space doles out the goods and is a fun date spot. A self-serve record player and board games set the backdrop for a retro cocktail menu (think Vespers, Grasshoppers, and Side Cars), a decent whisky list, and a simple, functional menu of shareable plates. I tend towards dark spirits in the fall (both literally and metaphorically) and recommend a Sazerac here, a straightforward but potent cocktail hailing from New Orleans, made with Rye or Cognac stirred with a Peychaud Bitters-soaked sugar cube and poured into a glass lightly rinsed with Absinthe.
Wildeye Brewing, 1385 Main St., North Vancouver. 604-988-1900
And finally, a special shout out to Wildeye Brewing, winner of the 2019 People’s Choice Award for Best Brewery at the Whistler Beer Fest, for a couple of their darker, more malt-forward, autumn-friendly brews including the complex, black as night Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Stout and Double Nut Brown Ale.
Johnny Piano accompanies Chris Gehry on "Sweet Sue, Just You," performed on an 1887 Fischer upright that sits in the entrance of North Vancouver's Jagerhof Restaurant.
(Cindy Goodman video/North Shore News, Feb. 21, 2018)
