18 replies to this topic

[Holden West]

I've seen a few episodes of Restaurant Makeover on the Food Network. Usually a Toronto restaurant is made over in this reality show. They get a revamped menu and a new decor. It's a pretty good program and it got me thinking...

Which local restaurant has decent service and management but could use a refreshed menu and updated design?

[amor de cosmos]

A few places come to mind. I haven't been to any of these in quite a while, but from what I remember, they could do with a Restaurant Makeover:
* Demitasse (across from Juliet)
* Bean Around the World - creaking floors, creaking chairs... seems to be busy & popular anyway though. Maybe it doesn't really need a Restaurant Makeover...?
* Lemongrass Cafe - more of a sit-down place than NoodleBox. I've never been to Vietnam but the food is really good & seems to be authentic. I don't really understand the layout either; it seems to have two fronts. The decor is really boring also, & the bright fluorescent lights don't help either.

I wasn't surprised to see this in Maclean's a while ago though:

The curse of the restaurant makeover

Once the TV cameras are gone, it's not always quite so 'happily ever after'
JACOB RICHLER | Jan 22, 2008 | 9:46 am EST

A week or two back I stopped in for dinner in Toronto's Cabbagetown neighbourhood at an unexpectedly charming little restaurant called JAM Café. If you live in the area you will likely know it as the latest concept to occupy the former site of the long floundering Bistro Aubergine. If instead you make your home in distant Halifax, Vancouver or Saskatoon, but all the same take an interest in restaurants, occasionally tune in to Food Network Canada, and like most people who do are a fan of Restaurant Makeover, you may know the place too, because Bistro Aubergine was featured on the show last autumn.

"But hang on a sec," you should be thinking to yourself if you caught that broadcast. "As I remember it, Top Chef Lynn Crawford and Famous Designer Cherie Stinson transformed Bistro Aubergine into something else entirely."
And you would be right. In the Restaurant Makeover episode the little bistro gets a sound design rethink by Stinson, who installs a large marble bar in the front room, and in the back, already blessed with a handsome fireplace, adds bookshelves for a comfortable reading-room effect. Then Crawford, who is executive chef at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York and a regular on the show, decides that the place should abandon its bistro concept and instead turn itself into an upscale pub, which while hardly a fresh idea is at least a reliable one. That's when the Makeover team come up with their new name for the place: the Cork and Cabbage.

"That's a good name," says chef and owner Asim, when he gets the news.

"That's a great name," says his considerably more assertive wife, Sheila, who has purportedly been down on the project all along, and long been seeking to dump it. "We'll take down the For Sale sign and see how the next few months go."

And as it happens, even though head chef Asim has given no sign of being up to the challenge of assembling a decent grilled-cheese sandwich, and the Cork and Cabbage is the most foolish name floated for a restaurant since Peter Cook and Dudley Moore came up with the Frog and Peach (a country restaurant in Dartmoor which, as you may recall, offered only two items—frog à la pêche and pêche à la frog), things apparently go very well.

"Cherie Stinson and Lynn Crawford have worked their usual magic, transforming Bistro Aubergine into a casual but sophisticated spot for the gastro-pub set," writes Patricia Noonan, "food writer," on the storyboard that pops up at the end of the show. And next, just before the titles scroll by to close the show, another one reads, "Asim and Sheila changed the name of Bistro Aubergine to the Cork and Cabbage and continue to delight customers."

The only problem is that they never delighted any customers before or since. The show documented a Makeover executed in April, but by the time it was first aired on Oct. 1, the Cork and Cabbage was long gone, sold to a new ownership group that had reopened the place as JAM Café nearly six weeks earlier, in August.
etc etc

http://www.macleans....122_094626_5624

Restaurant Makeover also doesn't address how a restaurant is run, so a combination of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares & Restaurant Makeover would be much better. Decor/design + food + management is what they need. If a restaurant is badly run then just changing the design, etc probably won't help at all.

[gumgum]

I used to go to Santiago's in JB all the time, but the last couple of times I noticed how grimy the place is looking. Not to mention the plastic tablecloths and seat cushions. I think the colour scheme is purposeful in its Spanish festive theme, but the combination of loud, almost florescent colours makes the place look cheap. The furniture could do with replacing as well.
I also chose this place because other than everything else, the food is unique, tasty and consistent. The service is prompt friendly and relaxed. But the decor is hurting the place a bit I think.

[Mike K.]

Spinnakers! It's definitely showing its age.

A good source of ideas for Spinnakers would be Brentwood Inn's restaurant/lounge.

[Holden West]

The apparently elegant transformation of the old Knockanback Grill into the new Crooked Goose reminded me of other places that could use an update, whether it's a decor change or a complete overhaul a la TV's Kitchen Nightmares.

While not terrible, the Bird of Paradise pub, Prairie Inn and the Monkey Tree pub don't look like they've changed much in 20 years and may soon be in danger of having business siphoned off by attractive, hard-working new places like the Crooked Goose. A convenient location can only carry so far.

[VicHockeyFan]

Someone told me BoP had closed, not sure if this is true or not.

[Holden West]

^The BoP website is up but boy, they're being torn apart right now on Urbanspoon.

[VicHockeyFan]

^The BoP website is up but boy, they're being torn apart right now on Urbanspoon.

It tells you a little bit about the Groupon people. A typical review is along the lines of "we read all about the absolutely terrible service and mediocre food, in a dated and dreary atmosphere, but we bought the Groupon anyway because..."

[Holden West]

^True, I'm sure there are regulars who love the food, are on a first-name-basis with the long-term staff and think the decor is decent and honest. Thing is, I think those people are a dying breed.

Maude Hunters seems good to me, and I understand they had a modest makeover a while ago which makes it look folksy without being dated.

[ChrisA]

Most of the pubs outside the downtown core are run-down and serve generic food that ranges all the way from atrocious to mediocre. Maude Hunter's, Smuggler's Cove, and Christie's in particular are in desperate need of updating.

But aside from pubs, I'd like to see an overhaul of the new but obviously failed Beach House. I'd particularly like to see Gordon Ramsay screaming profanity at the staff, because I like to live vicariously.

[Mike K.]

See post #4 of this thread from way back in 2008. Some of the cobwebs adorning the ceiling have gotten longer and dustier since then. That's about all the change I've seen.

But aside from pubs, I'd like to see an overhaul of the new but obviously failed Beach House. I'd particularly like to see Gordon Ramsay screaming profanity at the staff, because I like to live vicariously.

You seem to be very down on this place judging by your posts in the Beach House thread and I'm not sure it's deserved.

Beach House is exactly what I've been waiting for: modern, tastefully renovated waterfront location with panoramic views onto the straight that is neither pretentious nor over priced. It's a win in so many ways that I've lost count of the number of times I've been to the place.

[ChrisA]

I don't personally know anyone even vaguely involved with the place. I am a foodie, and I live a close to the Beach House, one of only a handful of sit-down restaurants in the area and the only one for many miles that's on the water. Its low quality is a great disappointment.

[D.L.]

What I don't like about the Bird of Paradise is having to walk past the bar with it's smelly boozers in order to get to the dining area. It's got a bad layout which could possibly be fixed with a make-over. The service is also terribly slow.

[Baro]

Bin4 was aiming for classy and urban but seemed to have landed on "langford classy".

[cakeman]

Bin4 was aiming for classy and urban but seemed to have landed on "langford classy".

Care to elaborate? I think Ive eaten in once, but have taken out from there a few times and havent had any complaints.. I mean I dont know that I'd use the word classy to describe it, admittedly.. but I cant think off too many places that I would.. Classy, in my experience, tends to go hand in hand with expensive, so they can afford high end finishes/accessories and very good staff..

They seem to have pegged modern/urban fairly well though..

cakes..

[VicHockeyFan]

Have you visited these? 10 oldest restaurants in Vancouver - Daily Hive Vancouver

 

Notte’s Bon Ton Pastry & Confectionery (1926)

White Spot (1928)

Deutsches Haus at Vancouver Alpen Club (1935)

Ovaltine Café (1942)

The Northern Cafe & Grill (1940s)

Argo Cafe (1954)

Nick’s Spaghetti House (1957)

The Diner (1958)

Hy’s Steakhouse (1960)

Helen’s Grill (1961)

 

 

 

http://dailyhive.com...ts-in-vancouver

[lanforod]

Bon Ton is the oldest? They make one of the best cakes I've ever had, Diplomat cake.

[Jill]

I love Nick's Spaghetti House. The online reviews seem divided between those who think the food is Chef Boyardee level and avid fans, but I've never introduced someone to Nick's food who didn't love it.

[VicHockeyFan]

I love Nick's Spaghetti House. The online reviews seem divided between those who think the food is Chef Boyardee level ....

 

In 1924, Boiardi opened Il Giardino d'Italia restaurant^[3] at East 9th Street and Woodland Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.^[4] The idea forChef Boyardee came about when restaurant customers began asking Boiardi for his spaghetti sauce.^[3] He opened a factory in 1928, moving production to Milton, Pennsylvania, ten years later, where enough tomatoes and mushrooms could be grown.^[2] He decided to name his product "Boy-Ar-Dee" to help Americans pronounce his name correctly.^[3]

 

Two Chef Boyardee Mini Bites canned pasta products

The U.S. military commissioned them during World War II for the production of army rations, requiring the factory to run 24/7.^[2] After the war, instead of reducing production, the company was sold to American Home Products in 1946 so that everyone working there would be able to keep their job.^[2] American Home Products turned its food division into International Home Foods in 1996. Four years later, International Home Foods was purchased by ConAgra Foods, which continues to produce Chef Boyardee canned pastas bearing Boiardi's likeness

 

https://en.wikipedia...i/Chef_Boyardee