Amici Italian Wine Bar review: Pasta, focaccia + a mini Michael Bublé

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Amici Italian Wine Bar

Where: 33724 Essendene Ave., Abbotsford
When: Tuesday to Sunday. Lunch, aperitivo, dinner
Info:  778-201-0023 amiciwinebar.com

Some are “just do it” people, to borrow from the athletic company Nike and the death-row prisoner whose last words inspired the slogan.

Josh Vanderheide is certainly one of those do-it people. And perhaps impatience ignites the doing. He doesn’t wait, he makes things happen. In particular, there are places he likes to eat and drink. When he moved from Vancouver back to Abbotsford, where he grew up, he wasn’t finding  many such places. “When I was working in Vancouver (at Cossette, a national marketing and communications agency), it was a great place to live with restaurants, cool cafes, and community experiences,” he says.

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“I couldn’t wait around for others to create it. Like Gandhi said, we have to be the change we want to see. If we’re not willing to do the work to create community, we don’t deserve it.” That said, he now heads the East Abby Hospitality Group and over the past few years he’s opened some breweries (Field House Brewery and Canteen Kitchen in Abbotsford and Chilliwack), burger spots (Brgr Brgr in Abbotsford and Chilliwack) and a five-acre farm to supplement the kitchens.

In March he opened Amici Italian Wine Bar with a sidekick gelato bar next door. The Italian restaurant became a ‘just do it’ project after a trip to Italy where he dined at restaurants such as the three-Michelin-star Osteria Francescana in Modena, two-time winner of the world’s best restaurant title.

“It was a pilgrimage and my main inspiration was agro-tourism. I wanted to understand why their food culture is so strong, what drives it, and its integration of agriculture and hospitality,” he says. “There’s a god-given passion for la famiglia and neighbours, where everyone’s welcome at the table.”

That was his vision for Amici Italian Wine Bar (‘friend’ in Italian) and if Vanderheide is in the house, he brings it to life with his energy and gregarious nature. “We’re historically a food community, but it’s only looked at through the lens of agriculture. We haven’t effectively translated it to food culture when it lands on the table. We need more places where we could experience local products.” Thus, the small farm of their own supplemented by other producers, such as the Fraser Valley duck farm “just down the road.” Beef for Brgr Brgr burgers is local or from B.C.

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Amici chef Jae Yoo has worked at Hawksworth, Savio Volpe, and Published on Main and this is his first role as exec chef. “I was in marketing before culinary,” he says. “I started as a dishwasher at Hawksworth and worked up to the lunch team. “I loved the rock ’n’ roll of restaurants, the chaos, the 250 covers in two hours. That was my entrance to cooking,” he says. “I’ve always wanted to do this. It was my ultimate goal but I have a son and that held me back.”

Dishes on the menu need to be accessible, affordable and casual enough for the Italian hospitality and the community feeling so it’s a menu of comfort dishes like pasta, beautiful focaccia with a variety of toppings, easy appetizers like Italian meatballs and burrata as well as three à la carte dishes like the half-roast chicken with sides.

Appetizers and salads run from $12 to $34; pastas are $23 to $28. Until he’s got his kitchen staff fully trained, he outsources most of the fresh pastas. “I want to make them in-house eventually but I’m holding tight. Logistically, it’s about consistent quality.” But the lemon ricotta tortellini is handmade in-house and it’s really good, with a generous 12 pieces per order, bathed in basil oil with hits of pickled pearl onion and lemon zest. They sell 30 portions a day and that’s it.

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Gorgeous, voluptuous focaccia, with a choice of toppings, run from $10 to $13 — a slice comes with pasta dishes but you’ll regret not ordering, say, a nice slab with garlic and rosemary.  Locally sourced Anita’s flour gives it a flavour boost. Proofing the focaccia, Yoo says, is weather dependent and is adjusted accordingly.

The biggest seller, though, is the rigatoni with sun-dried tomato pesto. The sauce nicely clings and coats, and doesn’t drown the pasta.

Burrata for Everyone features a fresh ball of lusciousness, drizzled with arugula oil, perched atop a bed of pickled beets. Slather the burrata onto the side of focaccia crostini for a moment of bliss. The pickled beets, though, are too acid-happy for this event.

A kale Caesar salad has more heft than the usual romaine lettuce. It’s topped with ruffles of pecorino cheese and pangrattato (crispy breadcrumbs).

I didn’t try the meatballs but they’re a mover. “I’m using 60 to 80 pounds of ground beef per week,” Yoo says. It shows, though, how amped he is to do things right. He cuts his mirepoix ingredients by hand rather than delegating to a Robot Coupe and refuses to use the butt-end of garlic for the garlic confit. “Taste-wise, it’s day and night,” he says of those details. “It’s the standard I want.”

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A main dish of cured salmon (farmed, for now) with farro was cooked just to the point of flakiness with a hard sear on the skin. Chive beurre blanc went nicely with it.

Watch for the weekly features. On Tuesdays, there’s a family style pasta and chicken offering. Sundays, he says, he has chef’s specials like braised lamb and steaks.

The wine list is all Italian and offers great value.  A page of “one price wine” offers nine different wines each served by the glass for just $10. Other wines available by both the glass and the bottle are a bit pricier but still excellent value. There are also premium wines like Barolo and Amarone for those wishing to spend more.

A variety of Negronis, spritzes and other Italian cocktails are on offer, plus some local craft beers. Non-alcohol options are many, from zero-proof craft beer and cocktails to Italian sodas and house-made Italian-style flavoured lemonades.

Downstairs, there’s a different music-centred lounge vibe with the likes of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra and on Thursday nights, they bring in their own local “mini Michael Buble” by the name of Nicolas Roy. “He totally fits. He’s a handsome young man, wears a suit and comes in with a microphone.”

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On Wednesday nights, they do a collaboration with Retro Media, a vinyl vintage record store across the street. “They lend us 10 records,” says Vanderheide. “It’s a way to connect community and with different music experiences.”

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SIDE DISHES

Free lunch! For the month of September, property giant Cadillac Fairview offers Stress Less Lunch every Wednesday, from noon to 2 p.m., from food trucks at the south side of the Vancouver Art Gallery plaza. It’s for those who live and work in the downtown core. The reason? It’ll help relieve the pressures of Stresstember. Participating food trucks include Disco Cheetah, Chicken Wrap, Rao’s Burger Shack, Mo’s Hot Dogs and Sauzzy Thai offering the lunches  of one meal per person while quantities last.

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