Friday food - the Arts Club Lounge

This week, on our way to The Arts Club Theatre on Granville Island to see A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline (and if you're interested in reading my blog about the play, check it out at http://www.joseerenard.wordpress.com/ ), we stopped at the Backstage Lounge aka the Arts Club Lounge.

I hadn't been there in a while and it really is a whole new experience. It's lost the grungy bar feel and looks and feels a whole more like an upscale lounge. White leather bar stools, black leather chairs for the tables and, as always, a lovely patio right under the Granville Street Bridge. The problem is, of course, Vancouver hasn't yet had summer so we sat inside.

The menu has changed - and we had terrific food. A roasted pear salad with a light and tasty ginger vinaigrette, together with a small round of chevre. We added the best Ahi tuna I've had in a long while. Cooked perfectly and served with raw fennel rounds, a few slices of pink grapefruit, it definitely made my evening.

My partner had a bellini for the very first time and kept saying to the waiter and the couple (from Reno and in Vancouver for the very first time) at the next table that it tasted great but it didn't have an alcohol. Both he and the man at the next table (who tried one after he'd seen the one on our table) didn't believe me or the waiter when we said, "No, just wait for it - you can't taste it, but I'll bet you feel it." They did. Luckily, they both stopped at two.

This bar/restaurant is going on my go-to list. The service was excellent, the food was top of the line, the prices (Bellinis always only $4) very reasonable. I had a glass of wine though I wasn't too impressed with their wine list - it might be that I just wasn't paying attention.

Try it. You'll like it.

Kate

Big sky country?

I have to admit that when I first left the west coast and drove across the country into the prairies, I fell in love. I fell in love with the rolling hills, I fell in love with the green fields in the spring or the golden fields later in the summer.

I fell in love with the fact that I could see miles and miles and miles and miles and miles (are you singing that song in your head? I am).

Maybe, mostly, I fell in love because it was so different from Vancouver in every possible way.

I took this picture yesterday from the False Creek Ferry dock on my way over to Granville Island. Big sky right here!

Kate

Spring in Vancouver

is fleeting - so you have to take advantage of every moment of it.

And we have very very very big birds. Here are a couple of  photos of my walk around False Creek yesterday. I've got them up on my computer as well as here because, oh surprise, it's raining again today.

Stopped at Granville Island on the way home - packed full of people taking advantage of the sunshine. Picked up a pound of fresh crab, a couple of loaves of Terra bread (one french, one pecan date walnut), paired that with fresh watermelon and feta cheese. The best lunch ever.

Kate

One sunny Saturday

One sunny Saturday is all we've had in the past six or eight weeks, so I took advantage of it last weekend and walked all along the shores of False Creek - called false for a reason. It's really not a creek at all (though it may have been at one time) but an inlet from English Bay and the Pacific Ocean through the heart of the newest part of downtown Vancouver - Yaletown which was built en masse after Expo 84 - and a relatively new development on the south side of the inlet called Fairview Slopes.

We walked from our place on the northern shore of the entrance to False Creek right around to Granville Island and then took a ferry back across to the foot of our street. We even had lunch outside at Bridges, though the last half hour was getting a little cool and we made it home with only the first few raindrops hitting us.

This is the view once we hit the corner to turn back to the west on southern half of the creek.


I don't have kids but I still love Science World, especially the huge and surprisingly lovely sound sculpture right outside the front door. It fascinates me and I can get stuck there for an hour, just watching the balls drop and create all kinds of lovely music. It's hypnotic.

But there's a lot more to Science World than the sound sculpture. It's home to all kinds of scientific experiments which are a whole lot of fun - for adults as well as kids. There's also - at the top of the ball - an IMAX theatre where they're always showing great movies. Definitely worth a visit.

The two photos at the top of the page are views across False Creek to the north. The greenery is a part of Granville Island (also incorrectly named as it's not really an island but an isthmus) and the towers are part of Yaletown, with the Granville and Burrard Street bridges spanning False Creek.

It's a terrific walk - a couple of hours, I'd guess - and there's a whole lot to see.

There are the amazing grounds and buildings that make up the Olympic Athletes' Village - gorgeous and are now up for sale at huge prices. There are lovely lounging chairs big enough for three or four people, benches, a beautiful span bridge for pedestrians, all kinds of interesting sculptures, including a huge - and when I say huge, I mean 20 or 30 feet tall - bird right in front of the Village.

A pond full of geese and ducks and seagulls. Keep your eyes out for the best friends at the dog park - a tiny long-legged dog who spends most of his time chasing a swallow. The swallow allows him to get so close - one big jump close - and then flies up a few feet and the game begins again. It's definitely entertaining though it's clear from the start that the dog will never ever catch the swallow.

There are restaurants and bars and several marinas filled with all kinds of boats. There are bikers and roller bladers and every type of person imaginable, especially, as you can guess, on the first sunny Saturday in weeks.

As you head closer to Granville Island, you begin to see the houseboats on the far side of the Island, the hotels and restaurants and bars that help make the Island so vibrant, the Granville Island Brewing Company where you can sit and test several of the beers made right there, as well as take a tour of the brewery. There is one of my favorite places in the world - the Granville Island Market. And on a Saturday like this one, it's noisy and cheerful, full of colors and aromas and people. Everything to keep you entertained for hours.

And then, at the end, there's a short ferry ride across False Creek and we're home.

What do you do on a sunny Saturday?

Kate