184 replies to this topic

[aastra]

This thread sure croaked all of a sudden. Where is everybody?

[DustMagnet]

They probably went for dinner.

[aastra]

If you could work a frog pun in there somehow that would be great.

[aastra]

 

They probably went for dinner.

 

Let me guess: Pad Thai?

Edited by aastra, 14 June 2019 - 05:30 PM.

[Rob Randall]

I must say, from what I've seen here this place has exceeded my expectations. I predict that before too long people will regard it like Spinnakers or the Ogden Point Cafe and say they can't imagine life without it as a waterfront feature. 

[aastra]

I agree but I've been thinking of it more along the lines of Victoria's Oak Bay Marina.

[Rob Randall]

^Menu-wise sure. But I always think of the OBM as a place you drive to, rather than a place you serendipitously encounter on a walk. Your mileage may vary.

[aastra]

I was meaning more the presence of the thing, its status and function as a "place" and a landmark, etc. Go for a walk on Oak Bay's waterfront and the marina is the marina. Many people will begin or end there or otherwise touch upon it and linger a bit. Go for a walk on Victoria's waterfront and the marina is the marina. Many people will begin or end there or otherwise touch upon it and linger a bit.

 

Some things fit so easily and so naturally, as if they're supposed to be there. As if they always were there. Also, both marinas were born of some controversy, and yet both were regarded as non-offensive modernity when new. Wholesome modern, rather than deplorable modern as per every luxury condo development that comes along.

[LJ]

Sam Harris already has a well earned culinary reputation. He’s chef’d at two top 10 (nationally) restaurants in Victoria the last few years.

Matt.

Isn't B&B owned by Paul Simpson from Glo?

[Matt R.]

I understand there is an ownership group, separate of Glo, of which he is Managing Partner. What’s that got to do with the Chef?

Matt.

[Gary H]

... And I had the confit chicken, which is possibly the best meal I’ve had out in a very long time. So good, that when we go back, I’ll more than likely not try anything else on the menu because that dish is so good.

...
I want that chicken again!

 

Thanks for the recommendation - my wife had it this evening and she wants it again too.  It's NOT a shareable portion!

 

confit chicken thigh 19

polenta, pomegranate, pine nut, rapini, mustard greens, chimichurri, apple gastrique

[Hotel Mike]

I'm looking forward to trying the place out. I can see it from across the harbour in James Bay. After that huge mystery yacht leaves, I'll head on over.

[LJ]

I understand there is an ownership group, separate of Glo, of which he is Managing Partner. What’s that got to do with the Chef?

Matt.

I understood the chef was the number 2 guy at Glo and was moved over to B&B.

[Matt R.]

I understood the chef was the number 2 guy at Glo and was moved over to B&B.

Nope, don’t think so.

Matt.

[jonny]

I was poking fun at the "more restaurants per capita" claim that so many cities like to make, including Victoria.

Come on, for a tourism-focused city of Victoria's size you'd expect dozens of waterfront restaurants, easily. Tourists mention it all the time, how few and far between the waterfront places are. I'm not saying the situation isn't slowly improving. This marina restaurant is another piece of the puzzle, as are some of the other recent additions mentioned by Cassidy.

Heck, I'm just a young whippersnapper but even I remember how big a deal it was when a restaurant not-in-a-hotel opened on the Selkirk waterfront (I believe it was called "South Bay" in its first incarnation? I'm an old coot now so my memory isn't what it used to be.) In the CoV such straightforward waterfront establishments were almost unheard of. This was before things like the Steamship Grill and Fol Epi at Dockside Green, obviously.

Odd really that we don’t have some sort of lively boardwalk with restaurants and shops. Instead we have harbour front parking spots that must be worth $200k each.

[Mike K.]

We’re sort of stuck now. Civic politics has backed itself into a corner where if something like a waterfront mixed-use, up-market civic project is proposed, it would go against the social equity that the voting block on council are adamant must be included to get their support (ie taxpayer subsidized businesses or publicly administered and financed cultural spaces). But building on the most high-profile land in the downtown core will require vast sums of investment (architecturally speaking as a start, but seismically complicated as well) that would yield a monumental drain on taxpayers.

Propose something reflective of market conditions, and the social license component would need to be heavily downscaled or removed altogether.

We also can’t sell the land, since Isitt has deemed the sale of public land a no-go (which has nearly derailed Johnson Street Gateway [it’s more like Yates Street Gateway now].

So we’re left with unsightly concrete. While Vancouver saw a world-class convention centre built on its waterfront, we have a shipping container selling seafood sandwiches. And a plan to create some kind of a park.

For examples of mismanagement of civic construction undertakings look no further than the Crystal Pool, the bridge, the David Foster pathway, and cost overruns of the bike lanes and how politics is stalling the most pressing priority in the city: a siesmically safe firehall. Anything along the harbour would meet the same fate. Short of selling the land, it’ll likely remain unsightly for generations to come.

[Nparker]

 

While Vancouver saw a world-class convention centre built on its waterfront, we have a shipping container selling seafood sandwiches.

I think this pretty much sums up the difference between BC's two most important coastal cities. Every time I hear the proles say "we're becoming too much like Vancouver" I just laugh (and also cry a little).

[Victoria Watcher]

We’re sort of stuck now. Civic politics has backed itself into a corner where if something like a waterfront mixed-use, up-market civic project is proposed, it would go against the social equity that the voting block on council are adamant must be included to get their support (ie taxpayer subsidized businesses or publicly administered and financed cultural spaces). But building on the most high-profile land in the downtown core will require vast sums of investment (architecturally speaking as a start, but seismically complicated as well) that would yield a monumental drain on taxpayers.

Propose something reflective of market conditions, and the social license component would need to be heavily downscaled or removed altogether.

We also can’t sell the land, since Isitt has deemed the sale of public land a no-go (which has nearly derailed Johnson Street Gateway [it’s more like Yates Street Gateway now].

So we’re left with unsightly concrete. While Vancouver saw a world-class convention centre built on its waterfront, we have a shipping container selling seafood sandwiches. And a plan to create some kind of a park.

For examples of mismanagement of civic construction undertakings look no further than the Crystal Pool, the bridge, the David Foster pathway, and cost overruns of the bike lanes and how politics is stalling the most pressing priority in the city: a siesmically safe firehall. Anything along the harbour would meet the same fate. Short of selling the land, it’ll likely remain unsightly for generations to come.

post of the week. let’s celebrate that shipping container.

[Cassidy]

That's a great post Mike, insightful and accurate.

[AllseeingEye]

/\....excellent synopsis: to indicate just how far out there local councilors are - and just not Isitt and his mindless army of ideological followers - but remember Pam Madoff's infamous, utterly mind-bending, reality-denying "...our waterfront is world class and as good as anything Vancouver has" comment just a few short years ago?

 

She was specifically referring to the, ahem, grandiosely-named David Foster Walkway - which even today mostly isn't, but in a broader sense also essentially everything from Clover Point to Old Town.

 

Okaaaay.....however she'd apparently never experienced the Vancouver version - you know.....Spanish Banks to Jericho Beach to Kitsilano Beach to Granville Island, the Olympic Village, the TELUS Sphere lands, the north side of False Creek, Third Beach, Sunset Beach, English Bay Beach, Second Beach, Stanley Park-Vancouver Seawall, Coal Harbour-Devonian Harbour Park.....all of it eminently walk-able and bike-friendly jammed with seaside cafe's, restaurants, bars, stores not to mention the truly tourist magnet that is the Granville Island/market.... 

 

But yeah...HOO-RAH! because we in Fantasy by the Sea feature the glorious Ogden Point warehouse, rather poorly disguised as a "cruise terminal", its massive pedestrian-unfriendly expanse of adjacent concrete-parking lot, an obsolete ferry terminal for the Coho about 50 years out of date, the aptly-named Northern Junk property - which we can't even agree after a decade how to develop,replete with all sorts of interesting "street life" right there on the waterfront - and, ultimately, a Value Village in Old Town. Not to mention the still far-from-completed D.F. 'walkway'. World-class waterfront Pam? Hardly......