The new Earls restaurant at the airy corner of the cruise-ship-size Grosvenor building instantly became the fashionable West Vancouver place for tout le monde when it opened last month – making a million bucks in its first four weeks, according to gleaned information.
Earls had temporarily brought in and ensconced in hotels some cream of its young staff from its Calgary, Edmonton and perhaps other restaurants to ensure a smiling, attractive, smoothly professional great launch.
I had expected a more one-off, boutique-y style restaurant as Grosvenor’s choice – festooned with a name featuring la, au, le or Italian equivalents, and a menu requiring translations. But the Earls chain won the restaurant lottery and shrewdly gauged the market. At a glance, the lunch menu is carefully calibrated to have a wide appeal to all ages and incomes.
I wonder if Mayor Michael Smith, who negotiated the development deal with Grosvenor as he did with Park Royal – two of the most fabulously rich-beyond-the-dreams-of-avarice enterprises on earth (Vancouver Sun columnist Malcolm Parry reported the present Duke of Westminster, Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor, age 27, is worth $13 billion) – lost any sleep about how the new kid on the block might hurt existing restaurants.
Thirty seconds away from Earls – which is open till midnight, a sign announcing an application for a 2 a.m. closing being hastily taken down in March – are long-established Chez Michel, which has lost its water view, Ambleside favourite Carmelo’s, the jauntier Inn Cogneato, Delhi Belly, Nishiki Sushi, the tucked-away Squarerigger Pub (“this is the bar your Dad drank at,” a reviewer ambiguously wrote), Lao Cai and Fusion Bistro.
Only a bit further on that block, on Marine Drive, Clyde or Belvedere, are Sakura Ichiban, Yanaka Sushi Bar, Shanghai Village, Ginger & Soy, The Bubble Tree, quaint Thai Pudpons and Crema, a popular coffee shop.
But the Earls magnet could draw patrons beyond that. Within a couple of blocks are The Anchor Eatery, Encore, Bean Around the World, C.C. Violin, Rose, Chef Hung, Amici, Swad, Handi, Starbucks, tiny Cindy’s and (oft-renamed) Rive Gauche. Not to overlook Domino’s and Panago takeout pizza places.
Beyond that again, still just minutes away, are Mangia e Bevi, Zen and Dundarave restaurants like the busy Bakehouse, The Truffle House, Feast, Dundarave Sushi, The Beach House and The Red Lion – a favourite of Mayor Smith.
The above, some doubtless missed, constitute a very wide range, to be sure, many flattered to be mentioned in the same breath as Earls. But losing even a few cups of coffee or a couple of lunch patrons to the sucking sound of the anointed Earls can make a difference to the shaky bottom line of small operations.
Are they happy about this deep-pockets, smartly run international competition? Survival of the fittest is a fine entrepreneurial concept – especially for the overwhelmingly fittest with $$$.
Mayor Smith’s words from an email detailing the case for his development successes: “A quick trip down to Earls at 14th will show you the vibrancy that the Grosvenor building and its new residents will create for Ambleside.” I’ve been. Felt the vibes. Might even eat there some day.
• • •
A year or two ago the wittily named Avant Gardener, its goods appealingly displayed, closed, a sad loss of character for Ambleside. Now another loss – also steps from the Grosvenor building: Glynda Fitzgerald’s card shop, full title Glynda the Good Witch Cards Canvas and Cool Things, featuring her imaginative all-original greeting cards and other creative work, is leaving West Van for North Vancouver’s Edgemont Village in the near future.
• • •
At this writing – subject to change in the wink of the U.S. president’s eye – it appears that Donald Trump is very fond of the country to the north and its leader.
No, no – not north of the 49th parallel but the 38th, and not Justin Trudeau but North Korea Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.
Whatever. It’s good news for those of us who are veterans (ahem) of the Korean War.
You see, in 1952 the Royal Canadian Air Force created what it innocently called its Summer Employment Program for high school students, doubtless with a shrewd eye on future recruits if the war dragged on (it ended in 1953). And so you are reading the words of one of the dwindling survivors of City of Hamilton RCAF 424 Squadron’s program, who put his life on the line serving his country – in Mount Hope, Ont.
Years later I met great Vancouver Sun cartoonist Roy Peterson, who had been in a similar program, and scoffed at me for serving so safely far from the bang-bang.
“I, on the contrary,” Roy boasted, chest heaving with pride, “served on the front lines.” Pause, lowered voice: “In Comox.”
A joke, but I cherish my honourable discharge papers from, can it be, 66 years ago. And I can legitimately join a legion anywhere in the country.
But joke aside, this episode was a big maturing experience for a 17-year-old. These loutish young dudes nowadays could use a taste of the old military discipline, harrumph.
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
