A Night Out in Vancouver at Three Venues

A Night on the Town in Vancouver
Last Thursday we had a busy night planned and all three venues were places we had not been before. We started the night at Relish Gastropub & Bar on Nelson for the Vancouver Tech Co-Founders Meet Up. Next we headed to the Georgian Court Hotel for dinner at their restaurant Frankie’s Italian Kitchen & Bar. Our final stop was the basement of the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre for Gunmetal Blues part of the new Recital Hall Series. It was a great night in a great city. And it wasn’t raining.

Meet Up at Relish
Relish Gastropub is easy to walk past many times and not notice due to its sub-basement like location off of a courtyard. We signed up to attend the Tech Co-Founders Meet up to talk to other entrepreneurs about our Go Play Golf app and we are glad that we did. It is a great meetup group and we connected with some very interesting business people. We also loved the fact that Alexander Keith’s was $3 and Highballs were $4. A rare find on a Thursday night in Vancouver. The pub was packed with Meet up members. We checked out the menu and will likely go back and give it a try when it is not so busy.

Dinner at Frankie’s
Things started out a bit slow at Frankie’s. It was not very busy but it took us quite some time to get two glasses of water, a beer and a bottle of wine (10 minutes or more). We had plenty of time to study the menu which includes small plates, salads, soups, pizza, sandwiches and what we were looking for – homemade pasta dishes. All pasta is made in-house, some fresh and some dried. I wanted a salad to start and our server happily offered to make a half portion out of a few of their offerings. I chose the Beet Salad with arugula, pistachios and goat cheese. The salad was good but the dressing a bit bland. On to the main course. Jeff chose the Garganelli Bolognese which are squares of pasta that are then rolled and attached, kind of like an off kilter penne. The pasta was well cooked (not over done), the sauce was tasty and was topped with shaved parmesan. I ordered the Conchiglioni Frutti Di Mare which was large pasta shells stuffed with a mixture of dungeness crab, cod, swiss chard and cheese, baked au gratin and served in rosé sauce. The filling did not seem to contain much crab but it was tasty, and anything baked with cheese always tastes good. We ordered a bottle of Sandhill Gamay Noir, a favorite. The food was good, the service OK. Not sure if we will give it another try with so many Italian Restaurants to choose from in Vancouver. And due to the slow service we were almost late for the play.

Vancouver Playhouse Theatre
The Recital Hall series is a new feature for the Playhouse. Two shows will be offered this season and they take place in the basement recital hall – a small stage with folding chairs set up on a dance hall floor. There were only about 100 seats so the show was very intimate. Gunmetal Blues is set at the Red Eye lounge – “one of those bars in one of those hotels out by an airport’ and in the office of Sam the Private Eye. With only three cast members we were unsure we would be engaged, but we loved it! The play was packed full of cliches from private eye movies, the standard blonde and a lounge singer/musician named Buddy Toupee in addition to Sam the PI. The story had both comedy and mystery and kept us glued until the end. We loved Sam the PI. He had a great speaking voice, like he should be on the radio. But we though it was better when he spoke than when he sang. We preferred the Buddy Toupee songs but Sam still made the play. Gunmetal Blues runs until February 4th and tickets are only $20. An amazing value!