Restaurant review: What it’s like dining at Le Crocodile by Rob Feenie

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Le Crocodile by Rob Feenie

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Where: 909 Burrard St., Vancouver
When: Lunch Tuesday to Friday; dinner daily
Info: 604-669-4298. lecrocodilerestaurant.com

Ask Rob Feenie about his second crack at running his own restaurant and he’ll speak in torrents. But nothing describes his goal better than the man who cried.

Feenie, who took over the iconic Le Crocodile from his friend and mentor Michel Jacob last June, tells the story of a recent diner from Strasbourg, the city where a much younger Feenie was struck by the culinary lightning bolt while apprenticing with Émile Jung at Au Crocodile (three Michelin stars at the time). Au Crocodile was also the restaurant that inspired and influenced Jacob when he opened Le Crocodile in Vancouver 40 years ago.

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The Strasbourg guest had booked at Feenie’s restaurant because of the similar name — in memory of an unforgettable lunch his mother had taken him to at Au Crocodile when he was a young boy. He’d never forgotten the food, how well he was treated, and how the chef had made french fries, just for him.

“I took him into my kitchen and showed him the framed Au Crocodile menu that Émile signed when I left there, wishing me good luck,” says Feenie. “He saw instantly I had a connection. He got emotional.”

When he delivered the guest’s main course, Feenie added french fries. “This is for your mom,” he told him. “He started to cry,” says Feenie. “I’ve been in this business for 41 years and it was one of the most moving moments. His son and wife were near tears, too.”

Feenie fans had speculated on what Le Crocodile by Rob Feenie would be like. He hadn’t run his own place since his spectacular loss of the formidable Lumiere in 2011. Would it be Lumiere II? Would he carry on Jacob’s lovely but traditional cooking?

Le Crocodile by Rob Feenie isn’t Strasbourg’s Au Crocodile, nor is it Vancouver’s Le Crocodile, or his groundbreaking Lumiere — it embodies them all, tweaked, reshaped. It has the beautiful way with sauces he learned in Strasbourg, a lighter version of Michel Jacob’s French classics, and the artistry of Lumiere.

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Distilling decades of cooking, Feenie finds meaning, drive, and inspiration in memories and personal connections.  And like that emotive guest, if you pressed Feenie, he’d probably cry, too, in recounting his food journey.  “It’s really about memories for me. I think it’s just memories,” Feenie says. “I’m humbled by what they taught me.”

That includes his late mother. “Back when I was a kid, my favourite smells in the world were when Mom would roast a turkey or a Sunday roast and add vegetables to it. I loved the scent, those natural flavours. It’s why I want to get as close as I can to those aromas and natural flavours in my sauces.”

I recently visited and wondered how he’d honour and blend memories, mentors, and his own self in his food. What makes it work is his exquisite, silken cooking. It triumphs.

Feenie’s restaurant is lighter and more modern in feel, both in decor and food, than the former Le Crocodile. The classics have lightened up on the butter and heavy sauces — dishes such as steak tartare, foie gras terrine, seared foie gras, escargot, Dover sole, which is deboned tableside, beef tenderloin with sauce au poivre, grilled veal medallions with morel sauce, and Alsatian apple tart.

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My dinner started with amuse bouche — lovely P.E.I. oysters with a mignonette, a rice, tapioca and provolone tartlette with shaved truffles.

The next course, Kobujime hamachi, was a return to Lumiere — beautifully composed, sensual little explosions in each bite. The hamachi had been wrapped in kombu for 24 hours boosting umami and tenderness, then sliced, and served with compressed green apple, cucumber ice, and herb oil.

Seared foie gras and scallop on toasted brioche with grapefruit and orange was an umami bomb. “Alsace is foie gras heaven. We sell tons of it,” says Feenie.

Steelhead trout was visual knockout and a big wow. It had been cured for six hours, lightly smoked and cooked just beyond sashimi raw (or mi cuit, as the French call it) for an amazing texture. It was served with caviar and beurre Nantais sauce.

Duck breast was wonderfully tender. Dry aged two weeks and cooked perfectly, it came with  seared foie gras, carrot purée, oranges, and duck jus with a kiss of sweet soy.

For dessert, a tall Alsatian apple tart came with a brown butter cardamom ice cream. “Cardamom and cumin are common in Alsace,” says Feenie. And a lime chiboust, with pastry cream with meringue tuilles, was nice and light.

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Elevated dining comes with elevated prices. Starters are $20 to $42 with mains coming in at $42 to $90 (for a 20-oz. prime côte de boeuf) and the tasting menu is $120.

Feenie’s team includes industry vets Steve Edwards as general manager, and Jill Spoor as wine director. Marc Marayag, so impressive as chef at Bar Susu, is chef de cuisine.

Spoor’s wines looks to France. “ Essentially there is a representation of most French regions, often from smaller producers that are committed to organic and biodynamic viticultural practices,” she says. “The smaller international portion of the program is mostly B.C. and California. The most compelling wines for me are the ones that are complex yet very delicate, leaving you in wonder. I think this speaks very much to chef Rob’s compositions as well.”

What does the future hold? Menu changes will be slow and steady given Feenie’s perfectionist nature. “I’ve learned from three-star chefs, consistency is more difficult to achieve than complicated cuisines. It’s the key to any great restaurant,” he says. For Christmas, he’s thinking, maybe tournedos Rossini, pork hock terrine, maybe a souffle. “I love, love, love choucroute so it might be a feature.”  So far, he’s resisted requests for his famous ravioli but resolve is cracking. “Maybe,” he wavers. “I’m laughing because I can never escape it.”

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And in spring, he’s planning an Alsatian collab with some power chefs — Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Gabriel Kreuther, of New York and Marc Thuet of Toronto.

But Feenie declares he’s not the Feenie of Lumiere days. “I was 29, single, driven, working seven days a week, 90 hours a week. I have to pull back. I’m almost 60 and now I want to make people happy, every day.”

And maybe, make them cry?

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