Giovane Cafe at Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel is now run by the Kitchen Table Group, which turned it into a Venetian bacaro
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Where: 1029 West Cordova St., Vancouver (at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel)
When: Daily, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.; lunch coming soon.
Info: 604-687-9887. giovanebacaro.com
I know, I know. You’re pumped to travel. Well, Giovane Bacaro, the reimagined, re-designed Giovane Cafe at the Fairmont Pacific Rim is a pretty good imaginary trip for now. It’s the Vancouver version of the Venetian bacaro that functions a lot like the Spanish tapas bar, only in Venice the food accompanying the drinks are called cicchetti.
The bacaro, accent on the first ‘a,’ has roots in the Venetian expression far bacara, which means to party and have a good time, according to bacarotourvenzia.com. The aperitivo menu at Giovane Bacaro runs from 3 to 5 p.m., and after that the menu has muscle enough for dinner.
This is a contemporary and lean bacaro with high-top seating in one area, a standing counter down the middle, a bar seating facing a 40-tap Enomatic wine system and a more private dining area at the back.
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“I dreamt of doing something like this,” says chef Scott Korzack, who has worked at Ask for Luigi, Autostrada and L’Abattoir.
His cooking interest began while working in his parent’s butcher shop in Georgetown, Ont. as a teen. “I’d always worked around quality ingredients and been intrigued with how you could cook a steak completely different every day and that there’s endless learning with food.” The pandemic grabbed him by his collar a bit and shook up his lifestyle, he says. “I used to be a workaholic. I took a step back and evaluated life. I realize cooking brings me a lot of joy, but now I’m finding a balance.”
Even opening amid the uncertainties of the pandemic, the Kitchen Table Group (Ask for Luigi, Pourhouse, Di Beppe, Pizzeria Farina, Farina a Legna) assembled a strong team. General manager Mark Taylor is a veteran in the Vancouver restaurant scene (Cru, Siena, Cibo). Alex Tung, culinary director of Kitchen Table, has worked with New York restaurant giants Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Daniel Boulud. “For the most part, he leaves me be to create. I’ll present a dish that’s 95 per cent there and with his experience, he’ll offer something to take it over the top,” says Korzack.
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Good ingredients matter the most to him. “It makes a huge difference and I always have intention with everything on a plate. I won’t put things on for decoration,” he says. Ingredients tend to be seasonal and local except for Italian signature ingredients, sourced from importer Valoroso Foods.
The menu offers a lot of choices, and he wants to have something for every taste with prices from $3.50 into the $20-somethings. “I designed the menu so there’s something for every mood — a light meal, a special occasion, a snack and a drink,” he says.
I know that potato chips aren’t the pinnacle of a chef’s menu, but I loved his house-made version and so, apparently, do others — a table of three ordered five of them. They’re ultra thin, made from Kennebecs, delicate and crispy and dimpled with bubbles. As to how that happens,Korzack won’t say. “Secret,” he says.
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The salumi and Italian cheeses come with individual condiments; I liked the ‘figs in balsamic’ that went so well with the prosciutto di Parma. In the ‘Cold’ section, shaved pork poached in milk come with pickled turnips, salsa verda and tonnato and was excellent — the pork is brined for three days before the milk poach and had a creamy tenderness; the tonnato (tuna-based sauce) is such an Italian touch. A large plate of it was only $16. Beef carpaccio a la Harry’s with piave vecchio cheese, peas and herbs strewn about and named for the famous Harry’s Bar in Venice, was another winner for me.
Some dishes are brandedby the Japanese charcoal grill in the kitchen — like the grilled polenta topped with whipped salt cod and salsa rossa. The grilled Wagyu beef with preserved onion and a heap of fresh butter lettuce is the most expensive dish on the current menu at $28, but I gotta say it wasn’t my favourite. The Wagyu was dry and overcooked.
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He’s cooked his share of pasta at Autostrada and Ask for Luigi, both noted for their pasta prowess. I tried his bigoli pasta, thick spaghetti-like noodles, cooked al dente with a ragu thick with shredded duck meat and hefty shavings of reggiano. A seafood linguine, twirled with snow crab, spot prawn bisque, semi-dried tomato and basil was delicious but the pastas, pricey at $27 and $31, were several forkfuls short of a meal — surprising since other dishes were generously portioned. The linguine was dried Rusticello and the bigoli was freshly made at the Kitchen Table production kitchen, Korzack says.
I’m happy to say the desserts don’t wander out of Italy. Chocolate hazelnut semifreddo with caramel sauce was my favourite with its assertive flavours and showering of fresh tasting roasted hazelnuts. The Giovane Caffe is adjacent but separate; however, I was able to order one of the Italian baked goods from the counter, a blueberry cornmeal cake. (The baking is from DiBeppe, a sister restaurant.)
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The wine list is by Cassandra Mocher (Bao Bei) and focuses on Northern Italy and B.C., the former for the obvious reason and the latter because the restaurant is in a hotel, and soon enough out-of-town guests would want a B.C. experience. Plus Mocher’s originally from Toronto and finds herself “enamoured with B.C. wines and what they’re doing here.” The huge capacity Enomatic wine system allows for an interesting array and flow of wines by the glass.
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Source: vancouversun.com
