Restaurants: Collective Goods delivers with French bistro delights

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Collective Goods Bistro and Grocer

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Where: 3532 Commercial St., Vancouver.

When: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Wednesday to Sunday.

Info: 604-757-0306. collectivegoods.ca

Restaurants, like children, thrive with good parenting. You might say Collective Goods Bistro, of the three-child family Collective Hospitality group of restaurants, has that.

First-born Mackenzie Room is the “Willie Wonka” of the family and enjoys challenges and thinking outside the box, says chef-owner Sean Reeve. It’s a high-demand spot even in its Downtown Eastside location. The middle child, Say Mercy, is the love child of Reeve’s passion for Italian food, refined at Cioppino’s and American barbecue. It’s a popular Fraserhood spot.

The baby of the family — Collective Goods Bistro and Grocer, which opened for dinner last November — is his “French-ish bistro where you read the menu and know what’s going on.” It was actually born last September as a grocery store, so you’ll still find ready-to-heat foods such as lasagne, cottage pies, curries, stews, soups and desserts as well as some basic provisions, wines and bottled cocktails.

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The place is newly renovated but has the feel of a lived-in, not-so-minimalist Shaker dining room. A couple of cafes, art gallery and the artisanal bakery, Flourist, also reside in this increasingly interesting, largely residential neighbourhood.

Collective Hospitality operators are Reeve, the chef, Andrew Jameson, the financials guy, and Antonio Cayonne, director of operations. Jeba Sritharan, who previously worked at Say Mercy, is the restaurant chef and works with Reeve on the menus. 

Food service starts with coffee and pastries in the morning, moves to lunch at 11:30 a.m., then dinner at 5 p.m., beckoning, like a neighbourhood hub. Morning pastries include doughnuts from Butterboom and croissants and pain au chocolat from Mercy Boulangerie.

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Lunch includes dishes such as croquettes madame, moules frites and a bistro burger.

Dinner menu starters are $15 to $21 and mains run from $28 to $46 and have the heart and soul of a classic French bistro with dishes such as Coquille St. Jacques, bouillabaisse and steak frites, but there’s some off-roading with items like Piri Piri Hen, an homage to the previous Portuguese restaurant, Casa Verde, which had a barbecued version.

Reeve uses Cornish hens, brined for two days. The hens are cooked sous vide, then pan seared at service. “I love it very much,” Reeve says. “It’s fragrant, bright, with lots of acidity and beautiful chile flavour.” The peri peri sauce uses chiles from South Africa.

There’s also an Italian dish on board: Charred broccoli house-made cappelletti with taleggio, gremolata and white wine butter sauce.

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I relished everything I ordered, starting with a gorgeous chicken liver mousse with fermented chamomile honey, preserved fruit and grilled sourdough. Chicken livers are cooked sous vide and blended with barely-there amounts of vanilla, orange, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and black pepper. It’s a super light, creamy, ethereal mousse.

Another starter, celeriac and apple remoulade with creme fraiche vinaigrette, had little shouts of blue d’Auvergne cheese.

Booyah-baisse points to a nice little tweak in the bouillabaisse dish. Instead of the traditional tomato-based broth with a pinch of saffron, it’s sauce Americaine with the distinct flavour of lobster. The term bouillabaisse, by the way, was coined by Marseille fishers who made stew from fish they couldn’t sell. The Occitan word is from verbs meaning to boil (bolhir) and simmer (abaissar). Here, it’s the more desirable mussels, clams, squid and lingcod that fill the bowl. It was served with a baguette slathered with saffron rouille.

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I wondered if the cut of the two slices of duck breast would only accentuate toughness. No, it was beautifully cooked. It’s brined for two days, then seared to render fat, then cooked in the sous vide. For service, it’s finished in the pan with butter, thyme and red wine jus that took a long, slow three days to make.

And for dessert, a simple crème caramel with Curaçao, candied orange and house-made vanilla pizzelle. Simple, but pretty and perfect.

In keeping with a neighbourhood feel, they’ve introduced Sunday roasts with all the fixings including Yorkshire pudding for $29 per person. The roast, as are all their proteins, are locally sourced.

By mid-June, the menu will have had an overhaul with local farm produce coming on stream — at higher costs than ever. Local asparagus, Reeve says, was $10 a pound, about twice the cost of imported. And his canola oil rose from the usual $20 to over $40 for the bottle.

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The wine list changes according to the food and there’s a small list of cocktails and local craft beers.

 mia.stainsby@shaw.ca

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