Good service is a relative thing.
This is an idea espoused by my good friend and frequent dining partner, Gil. I put stock in his ideas about restaurants and related subject matter because he is a food and beverage industry professional, a guy who has worked the unforgiving hours, serviced the challenging patrons, and managed the up-and-coming egos in the kitchen of some of Vancouver’s top rooms for more than two decades.
I admire his commitment to the business. I learned years ago that my skin was not thick enough to stand the test of time working in restaurants. It is a draining and yet incomparably rewarding industry, best suited to those with a tireless drive for perfection and a bottomless forgiveness for the imperfections of the human species.
Gil reminded me of his concept of the relativity of good service over a recent breakfast at Daisy Sandwiches & Such, a gem of a diner off the North Shore’s beaten path on Roosevelt Crescent and Lloyd Avenue.
Gil’s concept goes something like this: you can visit a three Michelin-starred restaurant (like Joel Robuchon at the Mansion at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, for instance, where Gil and I once enjoyed an outstanding 16-course dinner), or you can visit a friendly neighbourhood diner and, in both cases, experience the same level of outstanding service.
Service, you see, is all about context.
At Robuchon, where a meal for two, before cocktails, wine, and gratuity, will run $700, you expect a degree of polish from the service, a comportment, knowledge of product, and sophistication of plating commensurate to the meal on offer.
At the local diner, your expectations are just as demanding, relatively speaking. You need your meal to be tasty, prepared quickly, sold at a decent price, and served by courteous and proficient staff. If the diner meets these expectations on every front, it has succeeded in delivering a flawless meal, just as the platoon of seasoned staff at Robuchon do every night.
With the idea of Gil’s Service Relativity in mind, it is my contention that Daisy Sandwiches & Such can go toe-to-toe with the best restaurants in the world; it hit every deliverable we sought in an early morning breakfast experience, and then took it to another level with some thoughtful touches that we did not anticipate as first-time Daisy patrons.
Now, let’s be clear. Daisy’s is not boldly pioneering uncharted breakfast territory; foam, nitrogen, celeriac and sous-vide pork belly are not on the menu.
However, a solid assortment of breakfast staples, including eggs prepared in numerous styles, bacon, sausage, and multiple toast options prevail, alongside a tricky item for short-order preparation, eggs Benedict. Mess up the Hollandaise or over-cook the poached eggs and the whole dish is hooped.
Happily, Daisy’s seems to have the entire morning repertoire down pat. My eggs Bennie featured a pitch-perfect Hollandaise, buttery and tangy with citrus notes, applied sparingly so as not to interfere with the bright orange cascade of yolk from two impeccably poached eggs.
Gil selected the Good Morning, two eggs any style with a choice of bacon, sausage or ham, shoestring hashbrowns and choice of toast. A side order of French toast revealed a thick, springy slab of white toast delicately dredged in egg and dusted with confectioner’s sugar, which ultimately resembled in flavour and texture a glazed doughnut.
It is worth noting that our meals were delivered precisely six minutes from the time we ordered, a remarkable turn-around presumably reflective of the time-pressed clientele that visits the restaurant on a weekday.
Not advertised on the breakfast menu are the nice little accompaniments that find their way onto the plates, including a small earthenware ramekin of baked beans and a mini muffin. Gil’s plate featured a dense and moist zucchini muffin and mine, a light and fluffy, cake-like strawberry number.
We sat outside at one of Daisy’s few patio tables, absorbing the early morning rays of the July sun and remarking on the attentiveness of the service; our coffees were never permitted to be depleted to less than half full and ice water was topped up without a word exchanged.
The restaurant seems to do a brisk take-away business for those without the luxury of time to dine in, and their website suggests phoning ahead for speedy meals.
Daisy’s space is bright and cheerful, with a glass display cooler that contains some of the eponymous sandwiches and such, including panini of roast beef, pork, turkey, salami and various baked goods to take out with a coffee. From the modest kitchen in the back of the restaurant issue chicken burgers, pulled pork and grilled cheese sandwiches, soups and salads.
Our meal of two breakfast menu items, a side of French toast, two coffees, two juices and two take-away muffins came to $36. Daisy’s Sandwiches & Such is located at 1089 Roosevelt Cres. daisysandwiches.com
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. Contact: [email protected].
