Tickets to Whistler Cornucopia are now for sale on their website. Cornucopia, Whistler’s autumnal tribute to wine, food, and all things excess, has long been an Eat Vancouver favorite. If you plan to go, I’d reserve tickets sooner rather than later, as it’s actually one of those events that does sell out quite quickly.

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Target 6: Shanghai River
Address: 110-7831 Westminster Highway, Richmond
Phone: (604) 233-8885
Menu photos: Page 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11
Price: $6.50 for eight baos

Visit date: May 30th, 2008
Visit time: 2 PM

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An Eat Vancouver reader wrote in to tell me about Dine Italia, an early Autumn event that puts Vancouver’s Italian restaurants in the spotlight by offering prix fixe dinners. The release is as follows

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Welcome to our third edition of “Dine Italia” a special celebration of Italian food & wine.

The Italian Chamber of Commerce invites you once again to visit the Lower Mainland’s favourite restaurants to enjoy a delicious three course Italian dinner ranging from $20-$50.

This celebration starts September 1-15th.

Enjoy this unique opportunity of taste authentic italian cuisine in the most renown restaurants in the Lower Mainland.

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Sounds like a good chance to try a whole bunch of different things at a reasonable price. That’s always fun, right?

Press release below.

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FigMint Presents
“ON THE WOOD”

The fourth in a new monthly tasting series at FigMint
Once a month, Thursday nights 6pm to 7:30pm
16 seats along the bar - $25 per person
Also available as a group booking in the private room in FigMint, minimum 12 people

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Below is a press release describing Shaun Layton’s recent victory at a mixology contest. Layton is a bartender at George Ultra Lounge in Yaletown.

I went to George a couple of times and while I must say they do cocktails the right way, they are dead expensive. And the clientele has an unmistakeably douchy aura about them. But besides that, thumbs up. The cocktail (full recipe below) actually sounds very good.

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In a haze of packing, kayaking and last minute shopping, my brother and I found ourselves famished at 3pm on West Broadway and Fir. A whole bunch of places were closed until dinner and we didn’t feel like going to Earl’s, so we stopped into this new pizzeria that was having some kind of soft opening. The pizzas they were selling by the slice had clearly been around for a time, but we decided to have a go anyway. It’s a chain restaurant, but it seems like a pretty nice family runs this franchise. I paid with a $50, and the owner’s daughter gave me change for a $100. So there’s always the chance you could get a really good deal there (I kid).

Anyhow, for the first day, the pizza was alright, if a bit thick for my taste. But they seem like good people, and they just sent me the following email, and menu. Could be worth a shot.

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Following this brief interlude, stay tuned for a press release about Figmint’s new mojito series. Because when reading about mojitos, it’s best to listen to The Submarine’s new upbeat hit, You, Me and The Bourgeoisie. And let’s face it, I’m always right.

Now, when I’m entertaining in the summer, I often go the old BC-fruit mojito route. It’s a real crowd-pleaser, and I get to break out my muddler to boot. But can you really call something a mojito if it’s not simply lime, mint, sugar, rum and club soda? I’m thinking we need some new names for these, especially my new classic BC cherry mojito (the tart cherries leave less chance of an oversweet product). How about: The Chancellor?

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Figmint
(604) 875-3312
Address: 500 West 12th Ave
Homepage

But Anyway
a restaurant review

By Jason Chin
Eat Vancouver writer
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

** and 1/2 (of four stars)

It can’t be easy to maintain a successful hotel restaurant. Besides all of the other difficulties inherent in running a profitable standalone restaurant, there is the small task of feeding a hotel. For instance, there are few fine dining restaurants that have to worry about a breakfast service every morning, but hotel restaurants do. And then there’s the small matter of room service, conference center catering, and providing a watering hole for weary tourists and business travelers. But to attempt all of this while also being nestled snuggly the post-apocalyptic war zone that is Cambie street? It’s probably needless to say that Figmint, the restaurant in question, is not in an altogether enviable position. Not to mention the fact that Figmint is located in the Plaza 500 Hotel, not exactly a household name and a building that looks more like an apartment building than a hotel.

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Hello Folks. I am sorry to report that we have experienced a catastrophic backup failure and are in the midst of resurrecting eatvancouver.net. Please check back and we should be in full swing in short order.

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Don’t Like the Taco Shack? You Must be a Racist.
an outsider’s journey inside Vancouver’s restaurant industry

August 11th, 2008

By Jason Chin
Eat Vancouver Editor

As one of the biggest proponents of a Mexican food renaissance in Vancouver, as well as one of the first to write publicly about Dona Cata and the now defunct Chilo’s, people keep asking me why I don’t write more about The Taco Shack. Surely their focus on authentic Mexican and Cali-Mex preparations merits more attention. Well, this issue keeps coming up, and it’s one that probably should have ended years ago, but also one that will probably benefit from a full public understanding of it. It’s a bit of long story, but the reason I tend to ignore the Taco Shack is because the last time I wrote about them, Daved Benefield, the co-owner of the restaurant, called me a racist.

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