If you need any further evidence that this craft beer thing is real, that it’s here to stay, and that you ought to take notice because it’s helping to transform not just the beer scene but the food scene too, you needn’t look further than the menu of the newly opened Hearthstone Tap & Forno.
The menu works on a number of levels: it’s very “now,” featuring some trendy items like kettle-cooked popcorn, Humboldt squid (more on this below), and beer can chicken; it makes use of small-scale, responsible suppliers like Meadow Valley Meats, Two Rivers, Noble Pig Ranch, and J&K poultry; it has a healthy inventory of share plates. Perhaps most notable about the Hearthstone menu, however, is that it is designed with beer in mind. This is brew food, thoughtfully and lovingly realized with the craft beer enthusiast in mind.
At the centre of the menu, as well as the room, is a lovely, imposing, white-tiled, wood-burning double forno (oven), which is used for great pizzas and a number of other specialties cooked at extremely high heat.
It’s a fitting approach for Hearthstone, whose beers have been on the market for a while now and have found fans (me included) for their contemporary take on classic styles like IPA, ESB, Pale Ale, Stout and Porter. Take a close look at the Hearthstone beer logo.
It looks like two stalks of wheat set in front of water. Upon closer inspection, however, you will discern in the negative space created by the wheat stalks, a stylized forno. The reference is both literal and figurative. Yes, you can now sit around the giant forno in the brewery’s tap room and enjoy a meal and a few pints, but the broader reference is to the idea of warmth and comfort of the kind afforded not just by a wood-burning oven, but by classic, well-crafted beers.
The menu, which draws on bright and flavour-forward Mediterranean culinary influences, takes some of its inspiration from the similarly colourful labels and packaging of the Hearthstone beer lineup. The union of food and beer is indissoluble on every level. It was Hearthstone co-owner and general operations manager Maeghan Summers who shared this little bit of trivia with me when I phoned her for a bit of background on the place after a recent meal at the tap room with my wife DJ.
Summers co-owns the restaurant along with her husband, executive chef Jared Summers, and other partners from the Hearthstone Group, which also operates Mission Springs Brewing Company. The Summers own The Noble Pig up in Kamloops, an operation similarly focused on beer and comfort food. The couple now divide their time between the two rooms, though the explosive launch of Hearthstone might require a bit more attention for the North Shore operation in the short term; DJ and I spent 25 minutes on a waitlist for a table on our visit, despite the fact that the place has not issued so much as an official press release about its opening.
Once seated, we found service swift and informed. We ordered a number of apps to kick things off, including Hearthstone Popcorn, made with hop salt and malt vinegar, Brave Potatoes, fried wedges of spiced potatoes served with side of aioli, and Crispy Humboldt Squid with Two Rivers chorizo sausage, strips of fresh cucumber, mint yogurt and wedges of lemon. The popcorn was a treat, nicely salted and boldly flavoured with the odd singed bit; it paired very nicely with a pint of Wyld Raspberry, a Berliner-style Weissbier with a tart, berry finish. DJ, who has yet to warm to the craft beer flavour profile, tested out a pint of Rizla Rice Lager, a creative brew designed to serve as a bridge between the well-known taste of a mass-produced domestic lager and the distinct, no-holds-barred character of craft beer.
The Humboldt squid was a similarly beer-friendly dish, generously portioned with strips of breaded, steak-like squid. Humboldt is a real treasure of the Pacific and, despite catching on at a number of progressive venues, is, in my opinion, still underutilized; maybe that’s just as well if the cephalopod population is to be sustained.
The Brave Potatoes, another amply portioned dish, were a great snack to munch alongside a pint of Special Bitter, a hop-forward and refreshing beer.
DJ opted for an order of Almond-Breaded Mozzarella, flash-fried spheres of fresh mozza served with tomato chutney. The dish was not the usual riff on fried mozzarella: while the nut coating around the cheese was hot, the interior remained room temperature in order to preserve the texture and flavour of fresh fiore di latte.
While completely superfluous to my actual sustenance needs by this stage, I could not, in good conscience, leave Hearthstone without trying a pizza from their signature wood-burning oven, so I ordered the Smoked Beef Cheek iteration, prepared with cream, roast garlic, fiore di latte, grana padano and truffle. The crust on this pizza was positively stunning, at once chewy and crispy, with the deeply satisfying character of freshly baked bread.
Overall the pizza was a clever combination of bold flavours, but I have to admit I was bested by the smokiness of the beef cheek. This is an unusual criticism from me, as a huge fan of Islay malts and cold-smoked fish, but it was simply too smoky for my palate in the end; this is not a pizza for the faint of heart. However, based on that incredible crust, I will be sure to head back for another pie, perhaps the Albacore Tuna or the Fennel Salami.
When I do, I’ll proceed straight for the pizza, maybe with a pint of IPA, and leave a bit of room for the Goat Cheesecake, which caught my eye on the dessert menu.
Our meal was $80 (including two pints each) before gratuity. Hearthstone Tap & Forno. 1015 Marine Dr., North Vancouver. hearthstonebrewery.ca 604-984-1842
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. He earned his sommelier diploma in 2001. He can be reached via email at hungryontheshore@gmail.com. North Shore News dining reviews are conducted anonymously and all meals are paid for by the newspaper
