New Year’s Eve: Local food and drink to toast 2021 coming to an end
From omakase and artisan pizza to bottled cocktails and sparkling wine, whether out or at home, here are a few ideas for year-end dining and imbibing
Elephant is a teeny new restaurant by the same folks behind Dachi and Ugly Dumpling.
IT’S ALMOST OVER. Whether you’re seeking to celebrate the end of the year with live music over a multicourse meal, a simple family-friendly affair, or a take-home feast, here are a few ways to kiss 2021 goodbye in good taste.
Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie on Keefer Street. Photo by Glasfurd & Walker.
After so much rich, fatty food over the holidays, Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie is doing New Year’s Eve right: “We know all you want to do right now is put your face in some chilies and garlic, roll your mouth around some sweet and sour sensations and reconnect with your love of cilantro.” The traditional Chinese feast features items like crispy duck pancakes, mouth-watering poached chicken in a sesame chili vinaigrette with spicy peanuts, Sichuan-style lamb potstickers, wok-fried Brussels sprouts with mala spice, shiitake, bamboo, and crunchy sesame chili, and more. The $75 ticket includes dinner and a glass of bubbles.
Fanny Bay Oyster Bar.
You can get things rolling as early as 3 pm at Fanny Bay Oyster Bar when it serves New Year’s Eve on the Half Shell. Get a shucker’s dozen of molluscs—with options including the restaurant’s namesake variety as well as Sun Seeker, Kusshi, Kumamoto, Shigoku, Fat Bastard, Olympia, Beausoleil, Sweet Select, or Sand Dune—for $40 (or $3.50 each). Gancia Rosé Prosecco, Jackson Triggs Esprit Brut, and Louis Roederer Brut Premier will be on the menu for toasting.
The Chickadee Room.
Seatings start at 4 pm at The Chickadee Room, where bartender Sabrine Dhaliwal serves up crazily creative cocktails in the cozy space adjoining Juke Fried Chicken. Every guest will be greeted with a welcome cocktail, with the full Juke menu available; late-night diners will be treated to a complementary champagne toast at midnight.
Elephant is a teeny new restaurant by the superstar duo of Miki Ellis and Stephen Whiteside (Dachi and the just-shuttered Ugly Dumpling) teaming up with chef Justin Ell. With just 18 seats, you’ll need to book pronto for its New Year’s Eve Omakase experience, a five-course seasonal meal ($120 per person) with optional wine pairings from a list that focuses on regeneratively farmed organic producers and natural wines.
Frankie’s Jazz Club’s tiramisu.
Juno-nominated Mazacote, a world/Latin band inspired by Afro-Caribbean percussion is on the bill at Frankie’s Jazz Club. The three-course menu features selections like lobster bisque with seared diver scallop to osso bucco with saffron risotto and gremolata to Frankie’s classic dessert, tiramisu with espresso-dipped lady fingers, mascarpone, and cream ($125, includes cover charge).
C | Prime and Century Plaza Hotel is serving up a four-course dinner with an Aperol Spritz to start, a midnight sparkling-wine toast, and live music by the Stiver-Fisk-Hart Jazz Trio. There’s a pasta course (choices include an egg-yolk-and-ricotta ravioli with butter emulsion and winter truffle or butternut-squash tortellini with parmesan cream and sage brown butter), while main-course options are scallops with cauliflower tabbouleh and saffron purée or beef wellington with honey glazed carrots, truffle mash, winter chanterelles, and demi glace ($150 per person).
Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar has lavish three- and four-course dinner seatings available to splurge on; there’s also its Canapés & Countdown service from 10 pm to midnight ($90 per person). Diners will be treated to live music by Nikita Alfonso.
Tocador/
In the heart of Mount Pleasant, Latin American restaurant Tocador is celebrating with tapas, midnight bubbles, and a live performance by Son de Todos, with salsa, cumbia, punta, reguetón, and bossa novas.
Maxine’s Café and Bar.
Maxine’s Cafe & Bar, a super-stylish but relaxed West End spot, is offering a choice of either prix-fixe or a la carte dining for the last dinner service of the year. Those who opt for the former have a five-course menu that features carpaccio with smoked egg yolk; pan-seared scallops in a caviar beurre blanc; ricotta gnocchi with shaved black truffle; roasted black cod with sauce Normande; and a spiced, roasted apple dessert ($95 per person).
Gorgeously decorated Glowbal has two shared feasts on offer. The Prime Platter (for two) has a 12-ounce slow-roasted Canadian prime striploin and two-pound lobster thermidor with truffle whipped potato, grilled broccolini with parmesan cheese, classic béarnaise sauce, and red wine reduction. The Deluxe Platter, serving four, features a 50-ounce Snake River tomahawk steak, two-pound lobster, pan-four pan-seared Baja scallops, four giant black tiger prawns, and two split snow crab legs with truffle whipped potato, the restaurant’s signature Brussels sprouts, béarnaise sauce, and red wine reduction. Entertainment is included after 9:30 pm, with the Adam Woodall band ringing in the New Year.
Rocky Mountain Flatbread.
Masquerade-mask making is part of the NYE family fun at Rocky Mountain Flatbread, along with live magic, kids’ pizza or pasta making, and an early countdown. It all means parents can relax with a glass of wine while kids are entertained. Adults get a house-made soup or salad with their pizza or pasta; little revellers get a drink with their main dish and a warm double chocolate brownie (Adults, $40; kids, $30).
Maenam. Photo by Octane Collective
Staying home? Maenam is open for dine-in, but for those who want to eat a Thai feast at home, it’s also making take-home NYE dinner sets ($120 for two to three people) with omnivore, pescatarian, and vegetarian options. Omnivores get items like tom kha beef soup, steamed Massaman lamb curry, and three-flavour lingcod. In the Pescatarian kit are hot and sour seafood soup, steamed mussels with nahm jim sauce, grilled tuna salad, green sturgeon curry, and more. And the vegetarian meal has dishes such as tom kha banana blossom and mushroom soup, fried Brussels sprouts salad, and, eggplant stir-fry with Thai basil. All three come with coconut sticky rice cake with longan. Black pepper crab is available as a decadent add-on with a minimum 48 hours' advance notice (market price on the day of purchase). We love chef Angus An’s choice for a sparkling wine to go with the feast: Fitz Crémant 2019 ($55), made using traditional methods from 100-percent estate grown Pinot Blanc grapes by Fitzpatrick Family Vineyards in Peachland at Greata Ranch.
Nightingale.
Nightingale has launched a new line of heat-and-serve hand-tossed, Malagutti oven-fired pizzas with blistered crusts, a recipe painstakingly developed over years under the direction of a master pizzaiolo—and that you can have ready in about 10 minutes. Made with local and Italian ingredients (like San Marzano tomatoes and fior di latte), they come in three varieties: Margherita, Mushroom (with fontina cheese, confit garlic, and arugula pesto), and Spicy Salumi with piquillo peppers. Find them at the downtown Vancouver restaurant and its sister spot Bel Café or retailers like Fresh St. Market, Stong’s, Meridian Farm Market, Urban Fare, IGA, and more province-wide (for around $15.99).
Kafka’s. Photo by Sergio Gutiérrez
Need a host’s gift or ready-to-serve simple sweets or snacks? We’re still stuck on holiday cookies. Kafka’s Holiday Cookie + Coffee box includes a bag of freshly roasted coffee and four festive cookies inspired by pastry chef Adi Kessleman’s childhood favourites: Christmas tree sugar cookies; espresso-cardamom sablé stars with golden dark chocolate drizzle; ginger chews with crystallized ginger; and the locally owned coffee shop’s famous Salted Chocolate Chip ($32).
The Bench Bakehouse.
Commercial Drive’s The Bench Bakehouse is once again offering its shortbread holiday collection with three new flavours: double chocolate, London fog, and lemon along with hazelnut and original. There are three sizes: mini with 10 pieces ($15), medium with 20 pieces ($25), and large with 30 pieces ($35). A vegan cookie box is also available with oatmeal hazelnut chocolate sandwich Cookies for $15.
Dank Mart.
Or build your own basket of rare and hard-to-find treats by visiting the hippest new snack shop in town, Dank Mart. Where else can you find Red Velvet Chips Ahoy cookies, Fruity Pebbles Candy Bars, Duff A L'Orange Sparkling soda, Cheetos Crunchos Cheese & Ham (Poland), or cereals like Sour Patch Kids, Franken Berry, Lucky charms Marshmallow Clusters, and Apple Jacks? Having established an almost instant cult following, it has two locations (Robson at Thurlow or Main Street at East 48th Avenue).
Drink
Torafuku. Photo by Leila Kwok.
Torafuku is shaking things up with Moontail, its brand-new line of hand-crafted cocktails for home. The bottled drinks, created by Torafuku owner Steve Kuan and bar manager Wade Chou, spotlight Asian flavours inspired by their travels and childhood memories. Take the Hibiscus Penicillin, a scarlet-hued sipper that highlights the bloom Kuan remembers from the Taiwanese dishes hew grew up on. His hibiscus syrup delivers a sweet and sour element that goes well with the Irish whiskey base; balancing things out with is plum powder for a salty sweetness. The Aloha, meanwhile, is a taste of the tropics, with coconut-infused vodka, aromatic pandan, and Maraschino liqueur. All of the beverages come ready to enjoy straight up, over a large ice cube, or with a splash of sparkling water. Each serves two to three people ($18). The glass bottles are emblazoned with artwork by Maggie Ikemiya, a local Japanese-Canadian graphic designer, illustrator, muralist, and former Torafuku staff member.
What’s New Year’s Eve without sparkling wine? We love Haywire’s Baby Bub, Okanagan Crush Pad half bottle of Pink Bub (375 mL, $16.90)—perfect for someone who lives alone or is the sole person in a bubble who drinks bubbles. A delicate shade of pale pink (from a drop of red wine that’s added to the dosage), this standout sparkler has hints of smoke and strawberry. For a regular-sized bottle, check out OK Crush Pad’s Haywire Vintage Bub 2013, bottle-aged for five years with a crisp apple finish. Blue Mountain Vineyard and Cellars’ Gold Label Brut NV ($27.90) is a beauty and a value, fresh and lemony, made with 100-percent hand-harvested estate-grown grapes. A pioneer in the Okanagan wine industry since 1972, Gray Monk has released its Odyssey White Brut ($26). A blend of Riesling, Pinot Blanc, and Chardonnay Musque grapes, the straw-coloured sparkling wine has a creamy texture, fruity aroma, and luscious flavours of stone fruit and citrus. Steller’s Jay Sparkling Rosé, made of 100-percent Gamay grapes, redolent of rhubarb, strawberry, and pink grapefruit, is stellar indeed alongside ripple chips, sushi, or apple pie.
Outside of sparkling wine, anything by La Frenz is guaranteed to please; many of its wines are sold out till the next release in May 2022, but you can still get your hands on its Reserve 2019 Vivant ($25.13). Having won Gold at the 2021 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada, the textured Rhone-style blend would go nicely with a grazing board. Hester Creek’s 2019 Old Vine Late Harvest Pinot Blanc ($16.90) was a Platinum award winner at the 2021 National Wine Awards of Canada. Made of hand-harvested fruit and aged in stainless steel, it has a lush and bright fruit intensity; serve with a fruit pie or well-chilled for dessert on its own.
For red, we’re pouring Nk’Mip Qwam Qwmt Cabernet Sauvignon 2018. Pronounced kw-em kw-empt, Qwam Qwmt means “achieving excellence” in the Okanagan language spoken by the Osoyoos Indian Band; it shows in this rich and structured red ($34.99). Also on the table: Liquidity Wines’ Dividend 2018 or 2019 ($35), full-bodied with chocolate notes, perfect for comfort dishes like boeuf Bourguignon or a sweet-potato stew with artichoke and chickpeas.
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