The Mighty Bowl utilizes the power of social media to inform customers of their stops each week.
Find them at:
360-602-BOWL
Low Bar Lounge
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Low Bar Burger & Jo-Jo’s
photos by mary preiser potts
Eye-catching, skilled, yet unpretentious illustrations appear on both the website and the menu at Low Bar in downtown Vancouver. It’s not surprising to discover that bar owner Claire Ghormley is also the artist. Creativity and a focus on conscious ingredients, she says, elevates Low Bar to “dive bar with classy comfort food.”
So here’s the lowdown on the Low Bar Burger. It wears the signature dish crown because almost everything on it is made from scratch. Beginning with a sweet potato brioche bun that soaks up the tangy juices from house-made pickles and pickled onions to the creamy garlic aioli that holds everything together. Melted local cheese (cheddar, gruyere, bleu or chevre) tops a natural beef patty made from whole chuck roast that is cubed, spiced and ground fresh daily in-house. At $6 a la carte for lunch and $8 paired with jo-jo’s for dinner, the cost-benefit of this burger is clear.
The side of jo-jo’s may play second fiddle, but they deserve their own mention. Whole potatoes are wedged, dredged and fried in a pressure fryer that is, apparently, a secret weapon in Low Bar’s kitchen. The result is a perfectly cooked potato wedge with crispy fried chicken satisfaction. You may even decide to skip the ketchup.
Low Bar Lounge
809 Washington St., Vancouver
Vietnamese food with a French flair
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photo by Todd Gunderson
Vietnam has become a foodie destination! My favorite part of Vietnamese cuisine is the French influence. The French occupied Vietnam from 1858 to 1954. They brought the baguette, crepes, paté and pastry. Being an owner of a French café myself, I adore all those things!
Tan Tan Deli and Café is a family run restaurant that has a diverse and interesting menu, covering all my French cravings and serving up the traditional Vietnamese fare.
I started with traditional salad rolls. They are wrapped in rice paper and filled with pork, shrimp, rice noodles and fresh herbs and vegetables; served with a rich peanut sauce for dipping.
Next up is the bahn mi. This is a sandwich served on a crusty-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside, baguette with many options of protein. I chose the moist, flavorful lemongrass chicken. The condiments for the bahn mi are homemade mayonnaise, paté, house pickled vegetables, cilantro and jalapeños. This fresh sandwich is an amazing deal at $3.50!
At my café and at the (Vancouver) farmers market we have served thousands of crepes this year. I consider myself a bit of a crepe expert. The Tan Tan crepe (ban xeo) is a whole different experience. The crepe is filled with pork, shrimp and bean sprouts. Served alongside it, are large leaves of lettuce, fresh herbs and pickled vegetables. Lisa, the lovely girl at the front of the house, informed us the proper method of eating. Tear off a piece of lettuce, fill with crepe and veggies and dip in the sweet sauce provided. Absolutely delicious!
The traditional rice vermicelli noodle salad is called bun. Bun is served with a choice of meat, seafood or tofu and nam chao dressing. There are many options for protein. At Tan Tan I love the house made sausage patty. You can take these patties to go from the deli as well.
For drinks, I enjoyed a Vietnamese coffee. It is strong, smoky and sweetened with condensed milk. They also have many smoothie options – the avocado is my favorite.
Tan Tan also has the national dish of Vietnam, phô. This meaty brothy noodle soup is perfect for these cold winter days.
Keri Gallagher is the owner of C’est La Vie, at 1015 Main St. in Vancouver. You can find C’est La Vie on Facebook or call 360-553-5836.
Tan Tan Deli and Café
316 S.E. 123rd Ave., Vancouver
360-892-3400
Such is life
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photo by anni becker
Vancouver native returns home to spark local food and wine scene
Keri Gallagher is something of a globe-trotting foodie. Hailing originally from Vancouver where she worked at Italian spot Little Italy’s Trattoria for six years, she set off in 2001 for Hawaii. She then went traveling in New Zealand, where she had her “wine epiphany,” and returned to the Northwest to attend wine school at Walla Walla Institute of Viticulture and Enology.
But as it turns out, she joked, “I like to drink it, not make it.” So back to the Southern Hemisphere for a sommelier course at the New Zealand School of Food and Wine in Christchurch, where she earned her diploma in wine and spirits. Taking a job as a sommelier in a five-star resort in the Maldives, she lived off the coast of India for a year, then returned to New Zealand to teach the wine course she had taken.
After a 2011 earthquake in which she lost everything, and a short time living and teaching on her boss’s farm in the Christchurch countryside, she moved back to Vancouver. Quickly, she established a creperie stand at the Vancouver Farmers Market, and this fall it evolved into a bricks-and-mortar shop in the back of Angst gallery and adjacent to the very popular Niche wine bar on Main Street in downtown Vancouver.
“I came back last year, reevaluated, and wanted to stay here and start something,” said Gallagher.
At C’est la Vie, Gallagher offers savory and sweet crepes, homemade soup, salad greens with preserved lemon vinaigrette, croque monsieur, and sweets such as macaroon cookies, flourless chocolate cake and almond cake, madeleine cookies as well as seasonal tartes. Daily specials feature seasonal fare, and locally sourced foods are used where possible, including Longview’s Beautiful Pig and items from the Vancouver Food Co-op, as well as Provvista, a Northwest specialty foods importer. Breakfast and lunch are served five days a week and prepared in Niche’s kitchen.
Enchanted Tea from Tea Bar Downtown that previously occupied the space is available in addition to French press coffee and cafe au lait from using the speciaI Niche blend from Compass Coffee Roasting in Vancouver.
Gallagher, who also teaches wine classes at Niche, has a vision of creating a small culinary center, which would include a wine shop and café, and a wine school.
“I saw the growth and potential in Vancouver, how downtown has blossomed – it’s fantastic,” she said. “Ten years of being a gypsy has come to an end.”
1015 Main Street, Vancouver
360-553-5836
Try it our way
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Drink handcrafted coffee in style at Torque
photo by annie becker
In the newest chapter of downtown Vancouver’s continued revitalization, a local entrepreneur has turned a former tile factory at the city’s southern edge into a popular coffee house and gathering place. Torque Coffee Roasters embraces the rough, industrial quality of the space, which was an auto shop for years, and creates a welcoming, urban space unlike any other coffee shop in Vancouver.
Owner Ryan Palmer has a long history in the coffee business, with 14 years of experience with companies large and small, all over the country. Most recently, he owned and ran Meriwether’s Cafe, inside Vancouver’s Firstenburg Community Center. With Torque, he’s taken it another step. The lofty space is open and very hip, with plenty of reused tables and chairs or a coffee bar to sit at, and an urban patio decorated with one of the ubiquitous Vancouver murals. The coffee house, he emphasizes, is bike-friendly and dog-friendly – you can bring both inside.
The shop currently serves Coava Coffee at the bar, though he plans to begin roasting his own beans in the near future with the large roaster sitting in the corner. He also serves and will soon be certified to bottle cold-brew coffee. “We try to make our own syrups, chocolate, chai, all of it, in-house,” he says. “We also make our own tea and have a filtering system we developed ourselves. You get a fully-brewed cup of tea, not a little bag or some floaty stuff in your cup.”
Coffee is the focus at Torque – you won’t get a meal here. But incredible baked goods come from Portland’s Bake Shop, run by James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Kim Boyce. And he supports local food vendors by inviting them to set up outside, aiming “to have food carts or trucks here most days of the week.”
“We’re quality-focused above anything else,” says Palmer. Between himself and his six employees, “We’ve got about 45 years of experience behind our bar. A lot of us are former competitors in the U.S. Barista Competition – we have a different level of expertise than most people are used to.” That said, he also insists that you won’t get attitude from behind the bar. “We take the newer, fancier places that have popped up with a ‘No, we won’t DO that’ attitude, and we turn it around. Try it our way first. And if you don’t like it? We’ll do it your way.”
The Mighty Bowl
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After nearly a year of planning, The Mighty Bowl food truck embarked on its maiden voyage through Downtown Vancouver in early June. Kevin DeGraw, Sherilee Valenta and Steve Valenta founded The Mighty Bowl with the goal to provide the quick, easy meal a food cart can offer, while still serving healthy food with quality ingredients. The lemon curry sauce on the eponymous signature dish, engineered by Sherilee Valenta, was the beginning of the first recipe and as such the resulting bowl was lovingly dubbed, The Mighty Bowl.
The food cart bowl concept is not new, however The Mighty Bowl’s blend of flavors is. The tangy lemon curry sauce sits in the brown rice and black bean base. On top, sour cream, shredded cheddar, olives and cilantro, blend with the zesty sauce and substantial base to create a well-balanced meal with a light, fresh taste. The sauce is free of gluten, egg, dairy, soy and nuts; combined with the other components, the dish leaves a pleasant and unique aftertaste.
