News

On May 27, the Tomato Fresh Food Café served its last meal at 17th Avenue and Cambie Street, where the once-thriving, organically rooted restaurant had been a venerable neighbourhood institution for 17 years. Christian Gaudreault and Star Spilos were two of the lucky ones.

Unlike dozens of struggling merchants who have been forced to close shop because of the Canada Line construction nightmare that has turned Cambie Street into a dusty, deep-ditched ghost town, the owners of Tomato Café could afford to pull up stakes and move on.

Less than two weeks later, the restaurant reopened at Broadway and Bayswater on the other side of town. Cambie Village's loss is Kitsilano's gain. But a relocation of this sort doesn't come without serious disruption and costs.

How does a popular neighbourhood haunt maintain its character when it shifts from the bohemian East End to the tony West Side?

"It wasn't an easy decision," Mr. Gaudreault explained this week by phone. "If I might say so, humbly, we were a big part of Cambie Village. I felt I had let the neighbourhood down."

But after months of watching revenues fall by 50 per cent, with more than half of the $2-billion infrastructure project still left to dig and no government aid in sight, Mr. Gaudreault said he had no alternative when a new opportunity arrived.

The new Tomato Café is located behind the Mark James clothing store, whose owners hold the lease. It's a bright, airy space with creamy walls, bright red accents, sunlit windows, lots of plants and a wide-open kitchen. The new space is much larger, by about 35 seats.

It doesn't have the same retro charm as the original diner, which was wrapped around a heritage barbershop. But it does boast big, comfy booths and even some of the swivel stools salvaged from the old chrome bar.

The food, thankfully, hasn't changed at all. Head chef James Campbell still works with local farmers and suppliers to root out the freshest regional ingredients for the restaurant's seasonally focused menus.

A new clientele, mind you, might be more difficult to cultivate. Mr. Gaudreault says the restaurant has been steadily busy since they opened, with lots of regulars crossing town and local customers constantly streaming in.

Yet when I mentioned to a foodie friend that I would be reviewing, she was surprised. Although she lives right around the corner from the new location, she has yet to visit. She said she thought it was a casual place for breakfast or lunch - but not dinner.

The Tomato Café does serve fabulous juices, smoothies and wholesome daytime meals with fresh-baked goods and first-rate dishes such as homemade sour-cherry granola and heirloom-tomato BLTs.

But it's the dinner menu that has earned the restaurant its serious critical acclaim, and it's the nighttime business that it will need to survive.

I can honestly say the dinner I ate here last weekend was one of the most delicious, roundly satisfying experiences I've had in months.

The food is fabulous. But it doesn't come cheap. And that could be a big problem in this highly competitive neck of the woods.

We started with the shaved beet and arugula salad ($10). The sweet nuggets of gold and candy-striped beets were a gorgeous contrast to bitter greens and nutty slices of Manchego cheese. Drizzled with a roasted-shallot vinaigrette, the dish was simply divine.

Even better were the perfectly seared bay scallops ($13) served with creamy wild-mushroom risotto, robust scallion oil and the earthy crunchiness of toasted hazelnuts.

I've tasted a lot of expensive steak in the past few months, but the Tomato Café's five-ounce grilled beef tenderloin ($28) was by far the best. The meat, antibiotic- and hormone-free, comes from Nicola Valley Ranchland.

It was served with buttermilk mashed potatoes, grilled peppers, asparagus and carrots. Bathed in chipotle butter and sitting in a pool of pitch-perfect jus, the meat melted in the mouth.

Bouillabaisse du Pacifique ($25) was yet another hit. The bowl was huge, bursting with halibut, salmon, Salt Spring mussels and Savoury Island clams. The clean broth, slowly simmered with halibut bones and thickened with tomato paste and saffron rouille, was out of this world.

The desserts looked great, even if we couldn't manage to squeeze them in. When the table next to us saw me eyeing their dark chocolate soufflé and blueberry-filled meringue, I think they were honestly afraid I might reach over and dig in.

With two glasses of wine, dinner came to $102 before tip. It was worth every penny. I do realize it's expensive to run a business in this city, and one must pay extra for high-quality products. (Mr. Gaudreault says the menu prices have risen slightly, but attributes it to the cost of food, not increased rent or the costs incurred by moving).

Still, the bill seemed awfully steep for a neighbourhood family restaurant. At those prices, I don't necessarily want the (otherwise highly competent) server to take my risotto-splattered knife off my plate and plunk it back on the wooden table.

The Tomato Café is stuck between an excellent restaurant and a casual diner. I suppose that's better than being marooned in a barren construction zone.

But there are many more good restaurants in Kitsilano than there are in Cambie Village. Whether the Tomato Café will last another 17 years here, only time will tell.

Tomato Fresh Food Café, 2486 Bayswater; 604 874-6020.

agill@globeandmail.com