Italian food in Vancouver: two new restaurants join the scene; global praise for another
The Farmhouse gets fresh in East Van; Gastronomy plays in Gastown; and Cioppino’s named among the world’s best Italian restaurants
Gastronomy Gastown.
The Farmhouse.
METRO VANCOUVER LOVES its Italian food. Last year saw more than a dozen spots open up; the trend continues in 2023, with two new dining spots to add to the list. In related news, Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill & Enoteca, headed by local culinary legend Giuseppe “Pino” Posteraro, has been named one of the best Italian restaurants in the world.
The Farmhouse.
Fresh pasta and breads at The Farmhouse
After Curtis Luk competed on Top Chef Canada in 2012 (having earlier swapped his master’s degree in math for an apron and set of knives), the Hong Kong-born chef moved to Vancouver from Ontario, helping fellow Top Chef finalist Trevor Bird open Fable Kitchen. He went on to run his own restaurant with a partner for a while, the much-missed Mission in Kits, and has since worked as a fish butcher and acquired his Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Level 3. One of the constants in his career has been a love of making pasta and doughs.
Freshly made noodles, breads, and pastries anchor the menu at The Farmhouse, a new Italian restaurant in East Vancouver from Viaggio Hospitality Group, which also runs Cibo Trattoria and Ancora Waterfront Dining & Patio, to name some. Across the street from Kingsway Mall and designed with wooden furnishings and agricultural motifs, it focuses on rustic Italian fare crossed with BC ingredients.
Curtis Luk.
Luk has a dual role as The Farmhouse executive chef and GM, spending more time interacting with guests than is typical of exec chefs; he can often be found running dishes out to diners. It might be a basket of freshly made bread: The Farmhouse aims to have three types daily, such as sourdough, focaccia, and ciriola (a crusty Roman-style baguette); with it, he’ll bring out ramekins of extra-virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and head chef Laura Messinger’s signature chili oil for dipping. (Luk met Messinger at Cibo; rounding out the team is sommelier/assistant GM Holly King, whose wine list favours natural, organic, and biodiverse wine from B.C. and Italy.)
“Bread and pastries have been a passion of mine since even before I cooked professionally,” Luk tells Stir. “Pastas and doughs are the parts of the cuisine I enjoy making the most—being able to try new pasta shapes, learning the history behind them, and how they are traditionally served with their respective sauces.
“For me, the most enjoyable part of making doughs is in seeing the transformation from something as simple as flour, water, and other ingredients into something as profound as a well-made dish or a beautiful loaf of bread,” he says. “I love the versatility in doughs and how they can take on so many different shapes, textures, and flavours.”
With a menu that will change up frequently, The Farmhouse launched with pasta dishes like paccheri all’amatriciana: thin, tube-shaped noodles in a rustic tomato sauce with guanciale, pecorino Romano, and chili pepper. Corkscrew-like fusilli lunghi alla nerano has caramelized zucchini, sharp provolone piccante, and basil.
“I envision the Farmhouse to be a place where people share and dine on dishes that are both familiar and unexpected, with one foot in tradition and another in the innovative,” Luk says. “At the end of the day I want everybody at the table to share and enjoy, to discover, and also have that ‘Ratatouille moment’.”
For some, that mood-boosting instance might come in the form of tagliatelle al ragù , with duck ragu, cured egg yolk, and duck-liver mousse; for others, it might be sea urchin risotto, made with creamy carnaroli rice—considered the “king” or “caviar” of risotto rice—and topped with some crispy risotto for texture and a quilt of parsley purée and uni for colour and umami. Other options: whole sea bream stuffed with prawn and spinach mousse; half roasted chicken with truffle-scented white bean and baby turnip; local and Italian cheeses and charcuterie; beef and pork polpetta with raisin vinaigrette; and more.
Then there’s Luk’s lemon tart. It’s a dish he’s been intent on perfecting for years; it stands tall and sturdy with a thick shell, belying its fresh and light taste, bringing things back to his love of dough.
Alessandro Vianello.
Gastronomy Gastown gets playful
When Nicli Gastown opened on East Cordova street in 2011, it was a trailblazer: it was the first restaurant in Vancouver to be certified by Italy’s Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, making truly authentic Neapolitan pizza. Nicli still serves the real deal at its North Vancouver outpost in Edgemont (and has three other Vancouver addresses planned) but the original location shuttered due to the pandemic. Now occupying the Gastown spot—long and narrow with exposed brick walls and its massive, white-tiled, low-domed, wood-fired oven—is Gastronomy Gastown.
Gastronomy Gastown.
Gastronomy is “Italian-inspired”, and the team is having fun with the concept. Co-owners Sahand Bigloo (of North Vancouver’s Kingpins Bowling, the region’s most stylish bowling alley, with pool tables, food, and drink) and Kiarash Tarikhi (who has a background in architecture, fashion design, and NFT art) enlisted Alessandro Vianello as consulting chef (the independent consultant is formerly of ARC, Wildebeest, and Kitchen Table Group, among others) and Selim Louis Dehmane as sous chef (who studied and worked in Paris before gaining experience at Montreal’s Toqué and Vancouver’s Hawksworth Group, notably leading Nightingale’s pizza program).
Gastronomy Gastown.
It's early days yet, but to get an idea of the playfulness on the menu, look at some of the pizzas, cooked at 900° Fahrenheit in that Acunto oven, built in Naples by craftsmen out of local clay. 24 Carrot Gold has nests of pickled carrot with carrot pureé, fior di latte, and basil pesto, adorned with gold leaf; Fungilingus comes with candied mushrooms, taleggio cheese, fresh spinach, and preserved lemon cream, the server giving it a spritz of sherry-vinegar mist at the table. There’s more to these than whimsy; the flavours stand up to the names. A boon for those who dine for the ‘Gram (or anyone who eats with their eyes, which is everyone) is the Smoke & Mirrors pizza, black with charcoal cream sauce; it’s topped with double-smoked bacon, fior di latte, shaved Brussels sprouts, and toasted pistachio.
An edible interpretation of stained glass is the hamachi starter, thinly sliced fish arranged in a mosaic of citrus carpaccio with crispy onion, basil pureé, and Calabrian chili vinaigrette. Also on the opening menu are a broccoli Caesar salad, the namesake veg roasted and pickled; Crazy oysters (taking their name from the Italian “acqua pazza”, referring to a light broth, here of tomato water, the dish spiked with pickled chili and garlic aioli); squash lasagne (which one diner suggested should really be called “squasagne”); and conchiglione, the large pasta shells stuffed with fennel sausage and spicy tomato sauce, covered in cheese; and more. Cocktails by bar manager Stephen Sherry (Uva Wine and Cocktail Bar) run the gamut from smooth and sweet (The Nitro Goose, with caramel infused Grey Goose, Kahlua, fresh espresso, and chocolate bitters) to herbaceous and fruity (The Raspberry Theory); most of the drinks can be made as mocktails.
Giuseppe “Pino” Posteraro.
Cioppino’s named among the world’s best
Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill & Enoteca has officially been recognized as one of The 50 Best Italian Restaurants in the World 2023. Headed by founder-owner-chef Giuseppe “Pino” Posteraro, Cioppino’s is one of only two establishments in Canada to receive the award.
The honour comes from 50 Top Italy, an online guide that is widely considered the authoritative source on Italian cuisine. Its annual Top 50 ranking acknowledges exceptional dining establishments outside of Italy.
“Cioppino’s is a solid Italian-cuisine reality for those who want to eat authentic Italian in Vancouver,” 50 Top Italy said of awarding Cioppino’s its #33 ranking.
“After three very tough years through the pandemic and industry-wide staff shortages, we have focused even more, experimented, and evolved, always with the full intention of giving customers the very best experience in the culinary field,” Posteraro says in a release. “It is amazing to be considered and recognized in this prestigious award of the Best 50 Italian restaurants outside of Italy and to be included with such great chefs like Massimo Bottura, Davide Oldani, and the Cerea family.”
Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill & Enoteca.
The nod from 50 Top Italy follows Cioppino’s being awarded 3 Forchette (3 Forks) by Gambero Rosso, a global certifier of the Best of Italy. 3 Forchette is the organization’s highest honour for Best Fine-Dining Italian Restaurants abroad.
Recommended by Michelin in its inaugural Vancouver guide, Cioppino’s is the only Vancouver restaurant on Gambero Rosso’s list and is one of only two Canadian dining establishments included of the total of 30.
Posteraro was also honoured with the Guardian of Tradition Award by Gambero Rosso.
In 2018, Posteraro was named a Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy, the first chef in Canada to be given the award, which is designated by Italy’s president.
A native of Lago, a rural area in Italy’s Calabria region, Posteraro began cooking by his mom’s side before he had even started elementary school. After two years of studying medicine in Sicily, he decided to pursue his passion for cooking, working at Michelin-rated restaurants around the globe and teaching at George Brown College before moving to Vancouver and opening Cioppino’s in 1999. Celebrity sightings at the restaurant—which recently underwent an extensive renovation, complete with an outdoor dining area and 50-bottle, temperature-controlled, by-the-glass wine dispenser—have included Bono, Drake, Jennifer Aniston, Harrison Ford, Jason Momoa, George Clooney, Diana Krall and husband Elvis Costello, Stanley Tucci, and the late Anthony Bourdain.
Celestino Posteraro (left), Stanley Tucci, and Giuseppe “Pino” Posteraro at Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill & Enoteca.
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