BeatRoute Magazine B.C. print e-edition - April 2016

ROYAL DINETTE
JACKALOPE’S
innovative eats make you muse about what you munch by Paris Spence-Lang a hangout for lovers of BBQ and music by James Olson
It’s 5:00 on St. Patrick’s Day and
people with green dollar-store
decorations are already
prowling the downtown strip, including
upstairs in The Blackbird.
Chen-Wei Lee, manager of The
Royal Dinette, effectively ignores
them. “I’m not Irish,” he says.
The restaurant has no garish
green. There’s emerald in the
leather chairs, green in the jars of
preserves lining the walls, and in
the open kitchen, piles of fresh
greens are prepped for plating.
Elegant and comfortable, it’s an
old-fashioned space. Deceptively
so — The Royal Dinette is home
to some of the most innovative
dishes in Vancouver.
With an ever-changing menu
facilitated by local, seasonal
ingredients, the restaurant is
pulling Vancouver by its ankles
into the locavore culinary experience
with their house-made
cheese and hand-shaped witchhat
pasta (that’s cappellacci). A
cocktail with kombucha brewed
by one of the staff and the lemon
curd ice-cream — possibly the
best I’ve ever had — are also
house-made, making for an
obvious theme: the chefs at The
Royal Dinette do it themselves
and they do it fresh.
You can tell what’s in season
by looking at the menu. Today,
sunchoke and nettle dominate.
Duck makes a guest appearance
every three weeks to a packed
audience. So what’s the process?
The restaurant gathers fresh
sheets from farmers a couple
weeks before the food is ready.
These sheets list what the farmers
will have available. The rest
is like a flavour jigsaw, matching
ingredients across the farms to
create a menu that’s fresh, local,
and full of flavour.
Finding constant inspiration
for new recipes takes as much effort
as cooking them. “Jack reads
about menus every day,” says
Lee, of head chef Jack Chen. “He
spends hours reading menus,
Transition to almost zero waste, Royal Dinette are at the forefront of food innovation.
researching restaurants across
the globe.”
One of the biggest challenges
Chen and his staff face is keeping
the kitchen as close to waste-free
as possible, which means finding
places for ingredients that most
would throw in the compost.
The solution was Ugly Duckling
Dinners, where guest chefs come
to cook with coffee grounds,
pasta trimmings, and whey.
This is all part of an effort to
make people stop and chew a
little slower — to reconsider
what food means to them and
what they want out of their
experience instead of going
for the fastest, the biggest, or
the cheapest plate. Lee leans in
and tells me, “Think about why
you eat.”
The Royal Dinette is located at
905 Dunsmuir Street and is open
Monday to Friday from 11:30 a.m.-
2 p.m., 4:30 p.m.-10 p.m.; Saturday
from 5 p.m.-10 p.m.
photo: Fred Fung
Jackalope’s Neighbourhood Dive is a great place for vegans and carnivores alike.
Stepping into Jackalope’s
Neighbourhood Dive, I’m
greeted with an intriguing
mix of sights, sounds, and
smells: the aroma of grilled
meat, eclectic décor, and
fist-pumping metal blasting
on the stereo system. Chatting
over a beer and a dish of skillet
fried chicken, sous chef Jordan
Kinicki and front end manager
Matt Hewlett share with me
the secret recipe to the restaurant’s
ongoing success.
Founded in 2014, Jackalope’s
has cornered a niche market
for lovers of southern BBQ and
hard rock. Hewlett has nothing
but praise for the ownership,
the staff, and the clientele,
rarely pausing for a sip of beer.
“Everyone who comes in here
are on the same page,” he says.
“People come in here for our
atmosphere, the music we play,
the vibe we have, and when
they have our food they’re just
loving it.” Kinicki adds that it’s
not uncommon for customers
to hang around for two to
three hours on average.
The brisket and burgers
are highly recommended,
but Kinicki adds, “the menu’s
balanced enough that you
have plenty of choice. We have
enough things on the menu
that you won’t be bored by any
of the options.” And though
the restaurant caters to meat
lovers, Jackalope’s has its fair
share of vegan and vegetarian
options as well, including the
grits & gravy and the Portobello
Sandwich.
Music makes up a large part
of what Jackalope’s is all about
and Kinicki quickly fires off
a list of staff members who
play in bands themselves.
“Everyone else either goes to a
ton of concerts or listens to a
ton of music,” he says. “Either
you’re in a band or you’re an
audiophile.” Hewlett goes
even further to illustrate how
deep the love of music here
really is. “If you wanna hear
some nerdy conversations, get
a couple staff members together
and it gets pretty bad
sometimes,” he says. “I think
the peak of that was when I
was having a discussion with
Shane [Clark, cook and former
3 Inches of Blood guitarist]
where we were dissecting
80s era Rush. I realized in the
midst of it that it was probably
the nerdiest conversation I
had ever had.”
Above all, there are two key
factors that make Jackalope’s
such a fun place to work and
eat. “It’s a combination of
good food and good atmosphere,”
Hewlett states. “You
don’t really need much else.”
After wolfing down that fried
chicken and downing a couple
of beers, I’d have to agree.
Jackalope’s Neighbourhood Dive
is located at 2257 East Hastings
city
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