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A year ago Vancouver was a boom town for restaurants.In three blocks of the Gastown neighbourhood alone, there were 800 new seats available for dining.

The Olympics fever that fuelled the rapid growth continues. Between now and January, four of the most highly anticipated rooms in the city will open: Voya Restaurant at the Loden Vancouver hotel; Lumière and DB Bistro Moderne by Daniel Boulud in Kitsilano; and Market at the Shangri-La Hotel, courtesy of Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

An already-saturated market is about to be bombarded with heavyweights - just as the global financial crisis digs in. From restaurateurs to suppliers, the talk is about what calamity this winter might bring, while on business property sites restaurants are being put up for sale at an alarming pace.

"We're crossing our fingers," says restaurateur Emad Yacoub. Mr. Yacoub owns the Glowbal Restaurant Group, which currently operates five restaurants in Vancouver, with three more set to open here and in Calgary next year.

"The average cheque is down everywhere. Customers who would usually come in and order a $200 bottle of wine at lunch are now drinking water."

Restaurateurs are being hit hard everywhere. Recent reports have detailed a crisis in Paris, closings in London and concern in Toronto and Montreal that consumers are changing their habits and being very cautious about how they spend their money.

"This is when customer service makes the difference," Mr. Yacoub explains. "We're pulling on our regulars. Our managers are calling them every day, encouraging them to have lunch with us rather than try somewhere else. Every person counts now."

He says the first sign he saw that there was a real shift was when the president of one of his major food suppliers phoned to find out why his orders - usually hitting $150,000 a month - were so reduced.

"I'm no longer buying everything from one place," he says. "I might go to five different suppliers now. But when the president of a big company calls me personally, I know they are hurting too."

The smaller suppliers are also noticing a change. Specialized meat purveyor Mark Hills of Hills Foods Ltd. says the cost of proteins has risen.

"Venison is 25 per cent higher than last year, and chefs are looking for ways to cut costs. I see them trading down, looking at cheaper cuts they can braise, or getting creative with flank steak rather than purchasing tenderloin."

Ken Lum, the backer of one of the city's most sophisticated and inventive rooms, Gastropod, is simply trying to work out what would bring more customers in.

"We have these endless discussions: 'Should we remove the linen and serve steak frites every night?' Meanwhile, we watch people heading across the street for all-you-can-eat mousse au chocolat."

Although his newly reopened Irish Heather pub is packing the punters in, Sean Heather has no reason to think he's immune to the vagaries of the economy. Just across the street from Heather, business in his award-winning Salt Tasting Room has been slowing down.

"At Salt we have two wines that sell for under $9 a glass, and I'm thinking we should drop more below that mark. Money is just not going to be around. This could be the tipping point that closes places down."

On a Friday night, a tour of Gastown finds several of last year's newcomers struggling. It's hardly surprising: from Tourism Vancouver visitor and hotel occupancy rates to the B.C. Liquor Board's sales of red, white and rosé wine to restaurants and bars, the figures all show a downturn compared to this time last year.

Numbers are down in the Okanagan, too.

"We took a big hit in September," says James Kendal, director of hospitality at Quails' Gate winery. "Traditionally, it's when we see our older tourist demographic - a group more sensitive to the mood of the economy."

He believes it's the mid-market operations that will be hit hardest. "Take Robert Belcham at Fuel in Vancouver - he's about to open another restaurant. That's probably not such a good idea."When Kor's new Loden Vancouver hotel opens on Oct. 18, general manager Edel Forristal is banking on being the new kid on the block.

"There hasn't been the extraordinary number of new restaurants again this year," she notes.

The 80-seat restaurant at the Loden, Voya, will debut under the command of executive chef, Marc-Andre Choquette - Rob Feenie's former chef de cuisine at Lumière - and will cater to a West Coast crowd that dislikes formality.

"People are looking forward to this opening and I think that will carry us a long way - hopefully through to next summer. I'd be more concerned if we'd already had our big splash."

Over at the Shangri-La, due to open in January, regional vice-president and general manager Stephen Darling is even more optimistic. Despite gloomy international reports, he expects the B.C. economy to stand tall and for travellers from across the country to continue to head west. Though the hotel plans to target niche customers from the United States and Europe, the restaurant will be pitched to locals through lunchtime and business deals and afternoon teas.

"Market by Jean-Georges is not positioned as an expensive experience - it will be affordable and creative. On a global scale, our pricing and rates are as cheap as borscht," Mr. Darling says.

Steven Shaw, director of international food website eGullet.org and one-time lawyer for recently defunct Lehman Bros., notes that Vancouver's economic strengths may last only as far as 2010.

"Right now, all the big money in the world is running to Vancouver. The Olympics is recession-proof - they'll do well initially. That's a fait accompli," he says of the upscale newcomers. "But past the Games, if this downturn is serious, I would fully expect them to close."

Cornucopia festival

The financial crisis is making itself felt in the run-up to Whistler, B.C.'s annual Cornucopia bash, which will be held from Nov. 6 to 10.

Ticket sales for the food and wine festival are down. Hardest hit are sales for the luxe winemaker's dinners held at the resort's swankiest restaurants - tickets range from $150 to $295 a person. Concerned that the festival did little to encourage attendees to eat out locally, the Restaurant Association of Whistler pushed Watermark Communications Inc., Cornucopia's new organizers for 2008, to rethink Crush, the most popular event of the festival.

"Because so much food was being given away at what is supposed to be a wine tasting, visitors would not need to go out for dinner on Friday or Saturday night," said Chris Quinlan, association president and owner of two local cafés. "A lot of restaurants simply closed down during the festival."

This year, Crush will offer only wine, and tickets will include dinner at a choice of restaurants (tickets will be tiered into three price brackets).

Nevertheless, the credit crunch makes Cornucopia less attractive to visitors from out of town.

A former festival visitor from Seattle, Sonja Lindstrom is giving the festival a pass this year. "It seems to me that the hotel pricing is way up," she explained, adding that the U.S. Veteran's Day is being celebrated on Tuesday this year, removing the possibility of a long weekend. Mostly, though, it was about the money: "This economic crisis is scaring the heck out of me."