Méli-Mélo - March 2023
Local Food on the Fly
Travellers can now enjoy a taste of local Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Slamon n'Bannock, Vancouver's only Indigenous restaurant, has opened a second location dubbed Salmon n'Bannock On The Fly at YVR.
Salmon n'Bannock was opened in 2010 by Inez Cook, above right, a member of the Nuxalk Nation in Northern British Columbia. Before becoming a restauranteur, she was a flight attendant based at YVR for 33 years.
"Our new location at YVR feels like a fitting extension of my two loves: travel and food," Cook says.
This is the first and only Indigenous restaurant in a Canadian airport and travellers can expect the same taste of local they have come to love at the Vancouver location on Broadway. Favourites such as the Feel the Beet Salad and Urban Salmon Burger are on the menu, as are new offerings that reflect food's central role in Indigenous cultures. The Bannock Taco is highly recommended.
Salmon n'Bannock On The Fly
Gate D71 | Vancouver International Airport
salmonnbannock.net | @salmonnbannockbistro
School is in Session
A new kind of school has opened in Vancouver — wine school. Three of Vancouver’s most well-known sommeliers — Jenna Briscoe, Maude Renaud-Brisson and Kelcie Jones — have come together to launch This is Wine School, a unique educational experience open to all wine lovers. Held at Nancy Go Ya Ya in Chinatown, the trio aims to provide an interactive, engaging, and thoughtful educational experience with no exams or stiff lapels. The team also offers one-night alternative classes with such names as What the Heck is Natural Wine? and Food and Wine Pairings ABCs, as well as professional courses from the accredited Wine and Spirts Education Trust (WSET).
The three have an impressive pedigree in Vancouver’s hospitality scene. Briscoe is a VIA Italian Wine ambassador and manages the dining room at Cafe Medina. She is also the director of the Top Drop wine festival seminars. Renaud-Brisson is the founder of Apéro Mode, where she hosts inventive wine pop-ups and brings years of agency and restaurant experience. Jones has managed the wine list at beloved restaurants across the city, including Chambar and Elephant. You can also find her articles in local publications.
Classes are offered biweekly and fill up fast. Inquire soon.
This is Wine School | thisiswineschool.com | @thisiswineschool
Savour Sakura
Eat a cherry blossom and you'll note the sweet, rose-like flavour with hints of the fruit itself. Local restaurants will soon be offering pink-hued menus featuring cherry blossoms in cocktails, pickled blossoms on savoury plates, sakura onigiri, cakes and other sweets.
Tojo's Restaurant plans to launch its sakura menu again in late March. Its Omakase menus will have six to seven courses showcasing seasonal ingredients and flavours, such as the tender shoot vegetables — warabi, fuki and asparagus — as well as spring blossoms — cherry and nanohana.
tojos.com | @ tojos_restaurant
Dickie's Rebirth
There is an assumption that when a business closes, it closes forever. Stephen Tufts challenged that narrative by resurrecting his beloved ginger beer company, Dickie’s Ginger.
Tufts started Dickie’s Ginger in 2014 as a project that turned into his bread and butter. It had a certain cachet in the local restaurant and bar scene, but by 2019, he had hit a wall. At the time, he saw two options — take out a substantial loan and go big, or fold. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“Any enjoyment I had was completely zapped through 2020 and I felt like I was a small business surviving on the back of government support,” Tufts says. “The people who worked with me were also really burned out, and it felt like it was time to move on.”
Move on he did. In the year that followed, he worked with local brewery collective BeerVan and the new bottled cocktail company Please!, which remains his full-time occupation.
At the beginning of 2022, Tufts began to think about Dickie’s again. “What I missed the most was the relationships I had developed through Dickie’s,” Tufts says. “Especially in the restaurant industry where people work so hard to make these moments for us.”
Armed with his newfound knowledge and connections through BeerVan, Tufts found a way to collaborate with others to produce Dickie’s and focus more on the relationships he values so highly.
“It got to a place where my emotional connection to it was bad, but now it’s fixed and I only found that from stepping away, and it couldn't be better than it is now.”
Dickie’s Ginger
dickiesginger.com | @dickiesginger
Spring in Bloom
How do Vancouverites know spring has sprung? They go from scraping ice off their windshields to scraping off cherry blossoms.
The Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival returns from March 31 to April 23 to celebrate the 43,000 cherry blossom trees that line the city’s streets. Events include the Sakura Days Japan Fair (April 15 and 16) with Japanese performances, food and festivities. There are also guided tree walks, Bike the Blossoms (April 22), a slow ride to take in the east-side's hot pink Kanzan cultivar and the Big Picnic (April 1) at which you can relax under the Cherry Trees in David Lam Park and enjoy a lineup of local talent on the Cherry Jam Stage. Hone your poetry skills to get ready for the return of the Haiku Invitational, an international competition in three lines.
Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival
vcbf.ca | @vancherryblossomfest
