Stepped in on their opening day as a website was mentioning this place. Took a friend with me to check out the digs and after circling the block for over 20 minutes I was able to find a parking spot and finally was able to get into this place. It's in an area of the Granville Street stretch that is busy, located less than half a block in on the West side of the street, the place from the outside has a very 'cool' 'hip' look, a nice place for a first date maybe, it's a casual place with a good look of class, something different to.
We came in and were greeted right away and sat at a two seater booth pretty close to the bar, and the semi-open kitchen. We were presented two menu's, one would be the food they serve here, the other, the drink menu, also on the back wall was a big black chalkboard showing their wine's seperated from white to red, two bubbles, and on the bottom, some charcuterie and cheeses.
We started out from the top of the menu ordering the lemon pepper cashews. When they came out, it was on a beautiful wooden board, looking like it was spilled from a glass jar. Talk about presentation, this thing just looked right, and then we decided to pick at it. My friend Jay was saying.. dude these are good, I went at it.. and in no time they just magically disappeared in our mouths, I think the next time I have these, I'm ordering a drink first. These roasted devils, were done perfectly, caramilized from the roasting, with a hint of sweetness in them, let's just say if they sold these in a jar at the front I might have taken one home.. and come back another day to get a refill!
My buddy ordered the beer braised pulled pork on their savoury tart. This thing also came out on a big wooden slab. We are used to seeing pulled pork in little buns, well, think of pulled pork topped on a rectangular phyllo pastry. This was ok, as we found the pastry bottom, the corners a little thick, and tough.
Next up was the charcuterie plate, where I chose 3 items for $15 (the breakdown is 1 for $7, 3 for $15, and 5 for $21) and we picked two meats and one cheese from the board. They support the local farms in BC with both their meats and cheeses and we ended up picking the catlaina chorizo, capicolla, and Holland Vintage gouda. Each was real good, and with drink in hand it just made my glass a little bit more empty each bite I took. If I could find that gouda... it would be sitting in my fridge!
The drink of choice for tonight was the 'Tuxedo' which was a mixture of icewine, brandy, vermouth, orange bitters. It was good, not too stiff, easy drinking, something I definitely can recommend to order.
I expect to be back to try more things, a 4.5 in my book (even though Yelp doesn't allow me to .5 anything.....) I had a great time here, and that was even after coming out and seeing my car getting ticketed (damn stupid meter maids who can't be real cops, bleep *&^*%%) so watch out when you park around here, but I'm glad they opened up a place like this. As I said, whether you have a date, or just want to chill out with a friend, this is the place to come to. The service is top notch, from our server who gave us a good time, and some comedy from the small talk, to one of the guys (who I believe maybe one of the owners) who asked us all the way through how things were. So this is an early review... but definitely recommended to come in here, have a seat, eat some nuts, have some drinks, and enjoy the night. read more