He aims to be a Michelin restaurant but doesn’t have their resources, experience
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Connor Butler, chef and owner of the Connor Butler Restaurant at 2145 Granville with Truffle Stuffed Pork Belly. He says he tried to create a Parisian dining salon or a Russian tea room. Photograph by : Peter Battistoni, Vancouver Sun
Sometimes (apologies to poet Robert Browning) a man’s reach should not exceed his grasp. Sure, it’s great to strive, dream and be ambitious, but when it comes to restaurants, there’s little wiggle room for error and forgiveness.
Connor Butler, chef/owner of his namesake restaurant, has, I think, exceeded his grasp. Too bad, because when ambition and skill set line up, he’s good. I’ve seen it at Pearl on The Rock in White Rock and was impressed with his finely tuned bistro style food.
At Butler’s own restaurant, he is trying to recreate something like the magic of Michelin restaurants he visited on a recent trip to Europe. But Butler, 28, doesn’t have the resources, experience or the slave labour these European restaurants have enjoyed to pull it off. He really needs to work in some of those kitchens for mastery of such highly refined meals. (He has, however, cooked at Bacchus and C restaurants in Vancouver.) “What I really wanted to do,” he explains, “is create a Parisian dining salon or a Russian tea room.”
He offers two tasting menus — a 10-course meat and fish (omnivore) and a 10-course vegetarian (herbivore) — as well as a three-course prix fixe, costing $130, $100 and $70, respectively. Not quite Michelin restaurant prices, or even Lumiere, but pricey enough to set up high expectations and a firing squad of critics.
He does have the passion, I’ll grant him that. And he’s got the energy befitting a singer in a heavy metal band — which he has been. He sports an early Meatloaf (the rocker) style ponytail. It’s perplexing, though, that a musician would pay so little attention to the mood-enhancing power of music. When we visited, the quiet room was in need of buzz but what we heard was gloomy Wagnerian-style classical and then, hard to believe, Jingle Bell Rock — jaunty, but unbelievably wrong. Quiet jazz would quickly heal that wound.
For dinner, my partner ordered the $130 menu and I, the $70 three-course prix fixe, where I chose courses from several offerings. But by meal’s end, I’d had as many as 10 courses, as the kitchen (Butler) doesn’t like having a partner salivating while the other lustily eats. When you add up the courses plus the complementary dishes, it adds up to a lot of food, and a lot of detail work in the kitchen.
It’s plain to see he loves to cook. But what’s missing is the “wow,” the “pow” in flavour, colour and presentation, even on the ornate Versace dishes by Rosenthal. (“It’s loud, like I am,” Butler laughs about the pattern.)
He does showcase great ingredients — prawns, king crab, foie gras, lobster, truffle-stuffed pork belly — but the dishes don’t all sing with flavour. He buys organic wherever possible, like Kobe beef and Berkshire pork.
I cheered at the “Smoke on the Med,” which was presented under a small glass dome; when the server lifted the dome, a plume of verbena smoke burst free. “It’s done with laser beams,” he jokes, then explains it’s done with a bong (usually used with hash or marijuana). “I purchased it in Spain,” says Butler, a whiz consumer on eBay and Craig’s List. While at Pearl on The Rock, he bought a candy-floss machine to make garnishes; he sourced this restaurant’s antique silverware from various estate sales and had them replated.
“It’s my guerrilla attack, trying to get as much for as little as possible. I come from an antique dealing background,” he says.
My starter of side stripe prawns with greens was lovely and beautifully fresh; my main dish, a galantine of hen with lobster potato salad and sauce Robert would have been delicious but the bird was overcooked and dry.
My partner’s omnivore menu included Prawns Marie Rose; Foie Gras with Apple Cake and Grapes (peeled) in White Port; Lobster with Noodles and Sauce Bigarade; King Crab in Albufera Chaud Froid (a sauce); Truffle-stuffed Pork Belly.
Desserts were enjoyable, I was barely conscious from having eaten so much. The Pistachio Mille Feuille with bitter chocolate tuiles and macerated cherries was a sculpturally elegant and delicious to demolish. I had to skip the petit fours of cassis jelly, shortbread, truffles and biscotti lest I explode.
Browning said something else, which might be fitting. “How sad and bad and mad it was. But then, how it was sweet.” That’s pretty much it.
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CONNOR BUTLER
Overall: 3 1/2
Food: 3 1/2
Ambience: 3
Service: 4
Price: $$$
2145 Granville St., 604-734-2145. Open for dinner only.
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006