At Fraiche, the roasted Fraser Valley duck breast is cooked perfectly pink and gorgeously presented.LAURA LEYSHON
Sometimes you feel like a fancy restaurant, sometimes you don't.
Chef Dino Renaerts got the best of both worlds when he recently became a co-owner of two West Vancouver landmarks, Fraîche in the British Properties and Ambleside's Beachside Forno (formerly Crave Beachside).
His work-life balance is another matter. The guy must be going nuts.
Then again, the challenge of running two restaurants probably isn't any more difficult than being executive chef of the Metropolitan Hotel - where Mr. Renaerts did an excellent job of reviving the flagging Diva at the Met while also overseeing the hotel's in-house dining and catering operations until moving across the bridge last spring.
For customers, either room is a terrific choice. It's a question of budget and mood.
If you're looking for good pizza and pasta in a relaxed setting, Beachside Forno is the place. The flavours here are fresh, the portions are generous and the prices are affordable.
If I lived in West Vancouver, this would be my go-to Friday restaurant. Especially in the summer, when you can sit on the sunny back patio overlooking the park, sip on a strong bourbon-sage sour ($9) and shoot the breeze with your neighbours.
"Fantastic, isn't it?" says a gentleman at a nearby table, nodding enthusiastically at our prosciutto pizza ($16).
Well, I actually prefer a crispier crust. But I suppose unleavened flatbread suits the city's older (sensitive-toothed) population. And the toppings - salty pecorino, sweetly reduced balsamic, bitter arugula, garlicky pesto and thick, chewy ribbons of cured pork - give the mouth plenty to play with.
The soft, pale dough is my only complaint. Mr. Renaerts is obviously having lots of fun with the restaurant's new namesake forno oven.
In its fiery depths, he bakes a half-dozen meaty Fanny Bay oysters ($16) in their shell until they're slightly plumped yet still moist with briny seawater and a dollop of tangy barbecue sauce that imparts a fading tease of spicy heat.
Beef carpaccio ($12) is bright pink, sliced thinly frail and exceptionally supple for this inherently tough eye-of-the-round cut. Wiggles of truffle aioli, shaves of pecorino and a basket of warm forno-fired flatbread lend richness to the lean but flavourful meat.
Seafood linguini ($18) is a very nice medley of mussels, crab and halibut in a creamy, light, white-wine sauce.
That said, save for the exceptionally light and airy ricotta-lemon doughnuts ($8), nothing on the menu made me really stand up and exclaim, "Wow." But do you really expect such bursts of excitement in an affordable, neighbourhood restaurant?
To me, those truly fantastic, jaw-dropping moments should be reserved for special occasions. Fraîche is the place to find them.
I've always loved this restaurant perched high atop the British Properties, with its panoramic view that spans from Burnaby to Vancouver Island. Under Mr. Renaerts, I love it even more.
Fraîche is the type of place you can show off to friends from out of town without feeling too touristy. And even though the privileged people who live in these parts may see it as a casual neighbourhood restaurant, the rest of us will bring our parents or a romantic date and make it a night to remember.
At both restaurants, Mr. Renaerts is stepping into the rather large shoes of Wayne Martin, who was once executive chef of the Four Seasons Vancouver (and has now, finally, fulfilled his dream of living a simpler life by focusing exclusively on his original step-out restaurant, Crave on Main).
Both chefs have a similar sensibility - comfort food beautifully prepared with the best local ingredients. But I'd say Mr. Renaerts has upped Fraîche a few knots, in terms of presentation and ambition, while slightly lowering the price points.
I'm talking about dill-cured salmon gravlax ($14), beautifully weighted until it's dense as ham, yet bright with the essence of juniper and fatty with a crispy oyster beignet.
House terrine ($12) is pressed with a sumptuous duck confit, studded through the middle with sweet nuggets of carrots and green beans, punctuated on the side with a fat, crispy hunk of chicken skin.
This is comfort food at neighbourly prices that are quite reasonable for a chef who has worked at Bistro Pastis, West and the Hotel Georgia. It's not show-off cuisine. It's good, fresh, generous food, beautifully presented and cooked with care.
Take this sole from the Queen Charlotte Islands, for example. I've haven't seen such a beautiful roll, all bound up with basil, since the eighties. Add a black, citrusy tangle of house-made squid-ink tagliatelle.
"Did they really make this in house?" I ask, oohing and ahhing over the pasta.
"No, we didn't," one young server says.
"Yes! Of course we did," another server insists.
I honestly believe the latter. It's hard to get house-boiled pasta that chewy.
Roasted Fraser Valley duck breast ($32) is cooked perfectly pink and gorgeously presented with swirl upon swirl, but the fava beans are overdone and the duck "boudin" doesn't bounce back to the touch. If you're going to call it boudin, I think the meat should be a bit more soft and yielding.
But then of course we have the seared scallop and shellfish risotto, which impresses by the chewiness of the rice, crunch of the asparagus, lightness of the lobster oil - and beauty of the meat. If it were creamy, I'd complain.
I could go on and on about the airy mocha semifreddo or fresh pistachio crème brûlée, but the "extra" that impressed me most was the service and genuine pride shown by everyone on the floor.
How often does this happen: You praise a dish. The server humbly bows his head, smiles and says, "thank you."
Not: "Thank you, I'll be sure to let the chef know." Or the sycophantic: "Wow, I'm so glad you think so."
These were thank-yous that said: "Here at Fraîche, we work as a team. We take great pride in what we do."
That is truly fantastic.
Beachside Forno: 1362 Marine Dr.; 604-926-3332
Fraîche: 2240 Chippendale Road, No. 2; 604-925-7595