eatvancouver.net

Interview Series Part 2. Reigning in Connor Butler

By Jason Chin
Eat Vancouver Editor
Monday, October 9th, 2006

Connor Butler has been a popular topic of discussion ever since industry folk caught wind of his tongue-in-cheek website, announcing his self-titled restaurant. The biography on the website was borderline egomaniacal and the menu was borderline ridiculous. Butler swears the website was a mostly a joke, something for his friends and family to laugh about. But in a way, the joke was on him. The buzz is growing, and much to his chagrin, people are asking questions.

I recently had the great pleasure of speaking with Connor Butler about his new South Granville restaurant. What struck me about Butler was the juxtaposition of his respect and knowledge of classic European technique with his passion and eagerness to push the boundaries of cuisine, and present a restaurant that is wholly different from what one has come to expect from Vancouver’s restaurants. It is no doubt a gamble, but from our conversation I gather that he has the work ethic and devotion to actually pull it off. I present the majority of our conversation below, where we talk about stuff ranging from how he found the location of this new restaurant (Craiglist, oddly enough), to why he loves Memphis Blues.

—

Jason Chin: So, I thought we start with why you are opening a restaurant now – how did you get to this point?

Connor Butler: The story of me, as ridiculous as that sounds is that my great grandparents, who were from Washington State originally, they had a hotel. Then the depression came and they lost the hotel. They turned into a big public house where everybody they knew started living there. The city didn’t like this and they came in and basically told them to cease operations, essentially ending the hotel.

My grandfather, during the Korean War, he worked in a shipyard and died due to some kind of cancer associated with manufacturing these ships. My grandmother, being a single mom, was forced to figure out another way. Fortunately, she had this knack for finding valuable things where you least expect them. So she built an empire of antique stores, actually a few stores but that’s huge to me, considering we came from poor Irish immigrants. Long story short, she passed about three years ago and I had a new grandfather by then and my mother and I ended up with nothing. My family moved away because my father started working on Vancouver Island, at the naval base there. Because my family moved away to Canada, the other side of the family thought we had abandoned my grandmother because she died of Alzheimer’s and so they kept everything. And so recently I called my step grandfather and I said that’s not happening. And he gave me the house my grandma had secretly left to me. So that’s what happened last December and January while I was working at Pearl on the Rock.

JC: I have to get in touch with my relatives (laughs).

CB: You know what, when you actually have integrity on your side, there’s not much people can do when they want to fight you off. The reality is that I am owed this, and you have enjoyed it for three years. So I got the house and I spent the first four months of this year selling it in the states. And I took every penny that I had and threw it into Versace China and the restaurant. Because I want to have the hotel again, I want to give my family back that. And that is who I am and that is where I am coming from.

JC: Are you going to incorporate any of these antiques in the new restaurant?

CB: Absolutely. I love opulence and I love grandeur because I grew up around these antique shops. Nearly everything we put in there will reflect that. I mean, it’s a little rundown after-hours on Granville. And we’re down there trying to paint it up in the Versace color. And if wanted to give any kind of message out here is that I just to put out good food and serve it well and nothing else.

JC: So the restaurant will be self-named, as it appears from your website?

CB: I was originally going to call it Le Phantom – I love subtle flavors, right? But I’m getting tired of restaurants being named like that. The best dining I ever did was in Europe and in Europe all the three star Michelins are self-named and the reason is the chef doesn’t want any kind of preconceptions, any preconceived idea of what is going to happen when they walk into the door. When you come into my restaurant, I don’t want you to expect anything. When you come into Le Phantom, you expect crème brulee after your main course. When you come to Connor Butler, I really want people to open and curious. So we can take chances.

JC: Just so we can touch on your culinary background a bit, what was it like working with Robert Clark at C?

CB: I can tell you, Rob Clark is an animal. I spent a long time underneath that guy.

JC: How long did you work there?

CB: I worked there for two years. Two full seasons there.

JC: What did you do there?

CB: I did lunches when they were open and I was saucier at night. So kind of like the jack of all trades. If they had asked me, I would have worked 6am to 6am.

JC: Did you like working there?

CB: Oh absolutely. I don’t think I’ve ever worked anywhere I didn’t like to work, or else I wouldn’t work there.

JC: Fair enough. How was it working for Rob Clark?

CB: He’s creative. He pushes the envelope, but in a way that doesn’t scare people off, which is why I think it works.

JC: How did you originally get started in the industry?

CB: I started working in a pub when I was 14 or 16. A small little place where you have to wash the plates while serving the food.

JC: Sounds rough.

CB: Oh it was tough. I think it was called The Landlubber pub in Nanaimo.

Then I tried out being a punk rocker downtown. Played in a band. Then I decided to go to culinary school and let me tell you, that program in Nanaimo is an unbelievable program. They took a 17 year old punk rocker and beat the shit out of me and I came out wanting to do fine service. So I worked around the island as much as I could and learned as much as I could and at some point the Island became too small. So I moved over here and started working in various places. For instance, The Boathouse, where all I did was inventory and cut fish.

JC: Did that ever get frustrating?

CB: No, actually, I preferred it. I needed to learn it and I would have never done it. I left Rhe Boathouse and I went to work in the States and I’m traveling around, learning what I can. Worked on a train where we actually could run out of water, which really makes you think. Did that until I got a call from Frank Dodd, asking me to work at The Wedgewood, which was a very good experience. The crew I started out there was truly hardcore.

So left the Wedgewood, went to C. Was there for two years. Went back to Wedgewood. While I was working there I was offered to the job of executive chef at Pearl on The Rock in White Rock.

JC: That was a huge move.

CB: A big step for me, yeah. But you know what’s huge about it was that it was five minutes from my house. And I’d worked downtown, I’d traveled Europe and been to Japan but I had never just cooked five minutes from where I live. And I’ve been married to the same person since I was 14. We’ve been married for seven years but I’ve been with her since then, you know what I mean?

JC: That is a long time.

CB: Yeah, half my life. I’m 28 now.

Yeah, she deserved it. But it turned out I was working 80 hours a week, so I didn’t get to spend that much time at home. It’s a small restaurant, but it was like a pub when we started there. But it has a high end clientele that wanted to spend money. So we did it. Worked with Ian Reynolds there. He works at Abigail’s party now. He’s British. I love working with British, they eat food the way I like to eat food. They aren’t afraid to fry food.

JC: I love that. I also like to get full when I eat.

CB: Yeah, but with what people charge nowadays, you can go to any restaurant around here and pay 50 bucks and leave hungry. Except for Memphis Blues.

JC: Yeah, I go there a lot. The Memphis platter.

CB: We’ll be having that tonight. We’ll be covered in grease. What’s your favorite?

JC: Oh, of the Memphis platter? I’d have to say the pulled pork. But I have a friend who likes to say that he waits all week to get those sausages in his mouth.

CB: I’m not gonna touch that one.

JC: So what’s your favorite part of the Memphis platter?

CB: I will answer you with a quote from Chris Farley in Bill Swerski’s Superfans on SNL. They were doing a Jeopardy thing and the final question was Bears versus Bulls. I think his answer was pitting these forces of nature against each other will not only be detrimental to humanity as we know it, but we should make sure to do everything we can do to make sure this never happens…or something like that. That’s how I feel about the Memphis platter. It’s all so damn good.

JC: To switch subjects a bit, what drove you to want to become your own boss?

CB: Well I think a lot of it had to do with a conversation I had with Rob Clark, when he told me it was time for me to go be the boss. What he said was pretty much, we want reigns on our guys, we can’t keep them on you and I don’t have the job that can let you be that person, so you should go find it. You’ve done all the sauces, all the desserts, you know all the suppliers, what am I going to do, put you back on the line again? I have that dude, you’re not that dude. I took it to heart.

JC: So how did you find this location [2145 Granville]?

CB: We were going to buy an old schoolhouse, just outside of Tsawwassen, right on the river. We just fell in love with it. It’s a heritage house and I contacted my lawyer about it. But that just didn’t work out. So I went Craigslist and typed in “restaurant” and this one was the first one that came up, “Restaurant for sale, Granville street.”

JC: So how’s it coming?

CB: Well, I will be cooking for someone at some point.

JC: Could you be more vague?

CB: We are looking to be open by Halloween.

JC: So different kinds of challenges?

CB: Different world. It’s like being on tour. I’ve been on tour and I always insist on driving. I want the responsibility. And the other guys and they say, let him drive, it’s cool.

JC: A lot of people wouldn’t want the added responsibility.

CB: I do. I was a singer one minute and then I was a driver and a roadie. I was a cook one minute and now I’m handing out pay checks. But it’s fun. All I want to do is a get a successful business going for my son his son. To get our family back to how it was at the turn of the century. That’s all I want. I don’t care about being in magazines; I don’t care about being compared to anyone. I don’t want pictures of my food everywhere.

JC: You’re serving off Versace.

CB: I’m serving of Versace because I eat off Versace in my house. The only reason I do that is because I’m a little wild. And I think you are going to recognize that. Why put all this work into your food and not eat it off a good plate? That’s how I like to eat, so why wouldn’t I offer the same thing in my restaurant?

JC: What kind of price range can we expect?

CB: The front dining room will be 24 seats, and we’ll serve two tasting menus there. There will be a $100 vegetarian menu and a $160 non-vegetarian menu. The back room, which is named for my grandmother, will serve a $70 three course prix fixe, with an optional wine pairing for $30. Ron Douglas from C will be doing the wines.

JC: What can you tell me about the menus, seeing as the one on the website was more tongue-in-cheek than anything else?

CB: In reality it isn’t that far off. It won’t be as tacky. It’s based in what I like to eat. And I spent the last two years and about fifty grand traveling the world and eating in three Michelin star restaurants and then not leaving but spending two to three hours in the back with the chef smoking and drinking coffee and talking about why he does what he does. That’s a big deal to me. These are guys who I shouldn’t peel their carrots, and through my broken French I spent years just trying to get a little insight. I traveled through northern Italy, spent a long time there during white truffle season, learning this and that. This is where my food is based from. If you want a quote, I am on a fervent search for unnecessary perfection. What I do is very simple, and when you come try my food you’re gonna get it. Well that’s crab risotto and he’s just done that French kinda thing to it. Well that’s just scallops and bacon but it’s all tripped up.