Simple and delicious homestyle foods help us get through the tough times
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Owner/cook Mike Jeffs of the Nook Restaurant in Vancouver cooks an Italian sausage pizza in a wood stone oven. Nook provides a great neighbourhood place with a laid-back attitude. Photograph by: Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun
NOOK
Overall: 3 1/2
Food: 3 1/2
Ambience: 3 1/2
Service: 3 1/2
Price: $$
781 Denman St.; 604-568-4554
www.nookrestraurant.ca.
Open Monday to Saturday for dinner; lunch Tuesday to Saturday.
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There’s nothing like hard times to head-butt fine diners into the thrifty category. It’s a good time to shift into a “less is more” lifestyle.
Nook fits that market. Although this little Italian boite on Denman Street just opened a few weeks ago, it feels lived-in and confident. Could it be the straightforward pasta and pizza menu? Or the Neil Young, Talking Heads and Stones making you tap your toes?
“I owned Tapastree for 12 years. I was a little bored,” says owner-chef Mike Jeffs.
“I wanted to cook what I like to eat and cook. That was the inspiration for it.”
Tapastree was one of the first of the non-Spanish tapas restaurants in Vancouver; it’s a couple of blocks away and has had a loyal following for those dozen years.
Other than the pasta and pizza mains, there’s a handful of crostini, antipasto and salad options. Pastas and pizzas are $13 to $15 and there are daily specials chalked on a board.
That’s where I found pizzas with a pinch of intrigue — one with ricotta/roasted garlic/onion/roasted Campari tomatoes and another with pancetta/egg/asparagus.
Jeffs declares he does nothing special in making the pizza dough and uses a recipe that came with the pizza oven, but it’s pretty darn good for “nothing special.” It’s thin crust without being hard and cracker-like. It’s got chew and comes out of the gas-fired pizza oven with artisanal humps and bumps.
Pastas are simple but delicious. The noodles aren’t house-made (unless they have ravioli on special) but he uses a high-end brand. Saucing is controlled; that is, there’s just enough to coat the noodles.
The spicy spaghetti puttanesca with tomatoes, anchovies, capers and olives lives up to its name (“whore’s spaghetti” in Italian). Orecchiette (“ear” pasta) with Italian sausage, fennel, rapini and chilis turned out to be butterflies (farfalle) but was enjoyable all the same.
Jeffs isn’t much of a pitchman. He uses organic as much as possible but there’s no mention of it until I ask. And he uses locally produced Golden Eleni olive oil which I see sells online for $30 for 500 millilitres.
He’s never been to Italy, but takes “inspiration” from southern Italy. So he hasn’t worked for months on the perfect pizza dough. So he hasn’t visited the Italian source of gorgeous pastas. I don’t know if he needs to.
For what Nook is — a great neighbourhood place for supper — he’s doing a great job.
“I’m trying out different things for the menu. I’m not a well-organized guy. But people kept asking for a menu so I did it off the top of my head,” he says.
The laid-back attitude seems to serve him well, winning him another loyal following.
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