THE DISH: RESTAURANT REVIEW: AURORA BISTRO

Local, organic, sustainable: It's not just lip service

In a city where few restaurants are sincerely committed to championing the best of the region, this bistro stands out

ALEXANDRA GILL

agill@globeandmail.com

May 7, 2008

Around 8:30 p.m., at the end of a brilliant blue-sky day, the setting sun gently glows through Aurora Bistro's front windows.

"Is it always so bright this late?" a gentleman from New York sitting beside us asks.

Yes, now that he mentions it, Vancouver does have comparatively long spring and summer days thanks to the northern latitude. I guess it's one of those things we take for granted, much like our abundant supply of fresh farm produce and never-ending runs of wild sockeye salmon.

Uh, scratch the latter.

With marine biologists ringing alarm bells about the precarious state of the Pacific salmon fishery, it's a good time to remember that the locavore doctrine we so strongly embrace is not always as stable as it seems.

Local, organic, sustainable: You will find the clichéd buzzwords splashed across menus all over the city. But in fact, most restaurants pay little more than lip service to the mantra.

Truth be told, there is a limited number of regular suppliers growing and raising all this virtuous, nourishing, community-saving food.

The Vancouver restaurant owners and chefs who have fostered relationships with local small-farm suppliers and are sincerely committed to championing the best of the region can easily be counted on one hand. Aurora Bistro stands out among them.

Since opening his Main Street restaurant to great acclaim in 2003, chef and owner Jeff Van Geest has consistently cultivated close ties with local farmers, foragers and fish purveyors.

Over the years, the menu has evolved from cheap and playful Canadiana comfort foods (bison stroganoff and wild-rice cabbage rolls) to a more sophisticated expression of fine dining with subtle French and Asian influences (red wine shallot tart tatin and tea-smoked duck with truffle marinated Okanagan goat cheese).

Without becoming too pretentious for its casual East End roots, the restaurant's star has continued to rise ever higher into the culinary borealis: Aurora Bistro recently won the best regional and special green awards at the Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards and was highlighted in Food & Wine magazine's Go List as an example of why Vancouver is one of the top 10 restaurant cities in the world.

How strong is the chef's dedication to bringing his customers the freshest B.C. ingredients? On Saturday night, a few hours after the first load of local spot prawns arrived at the False Creek Fisherman's Wharf, he already had them on the menu.

And how does this loyalty translate onto the plate? Almost perfectly.

We start with silky bites of albacore tuna ($12) that have been gently poached in olive oil. The fish (Ocean Wise-approved, of course) sits on a salad of navy beans bathed in smoked tomato vinaigrette punctuated by bright bursts of thyme. It's prettily topped with a tangled nest of bright-pink pickled red onions.

"Aurora Bistro's presentations are so photogenic that you hate to shatter them with your fork," the New York Times raved last year in a travel article. I don't disagree.

Bison carpaccio ($13) comes from Nicola Valley and is cured in house. The wafer-thin slices of ruby red meat are splashed with a grassy green olive oil and served with a creamy side of preserved-lemon aioli to fatten up its naturally lean flavour. The dish comes with a generously sized salad of baby arugula and sharp parmesan cheese.

We wash it down with a fruit-forward glass of Tantalus pinot noir, selected from an exclusively B.C. wine list. I don't know of any other restaurant that showcases only B.C. wines.

And the selection is impressive, ranging from the biggest vineyards to the smallest boutiques, with many options available by the glass and a reserve selection for big spenders.

Moving on to our main courses, we go with pork. Mr. Van Geest buys his heritage-breed pigs whole from Sloping Hill Farm and butchers them on site, rotating the cuts as the night progresses.

We luck out with tenderloin ($26). Meat this full-flavoured doesn't need much embellishment. The chef simply rolls it in a dry porcini-mushroom powder and roasts it gently.

Finally, we arrive at the spot prawns. The chef has thrown them in with a ling cod ($28), a dish that comes with short-rib tortellini, sautéed rapini and mustard-maple jus.

The rich sauce works well with the cod, which isn't the most flavourful fish. But it overpowers the natural sweetness of the prawns and seems unnecessarily complicated.

This is my only complaint. And it's almost forgotten by the time we dig into a buttery slice of chocolate and goat cheese terrine ($11) nestled next to a red-wine poached pear sprinkled with candied thyme.

The room is so casually comfortable with all its curves cut from recycled plywood, and the mood so relaxed, we linger a little longer over a glass of Paradise Ranch late-harvest merlot.

Mr. Van Geest might be a "chef's chef," as the Vancouver Magazine judges enthused. But he obviously knows how to please his customers, too.

Aurora Bistro: 2420 Main St.; 604-873-9944.Side dish

Breakfast in bed is always appreciated. But if you're looking for more inspired ways to spoil your mom on Mother's Day, consider brunch, books and clowns.

JC Poirier's mama won't be disappointed. The chef at Chow will be offering nothing but her favourites when he opens for lunch this Sunday. The mom-approved dishes include croque madame, poached eggs with sautéed mushrooms, house-made duck terrine, and taglierini pasta with braised lamb. 3121 Granville St.; 604-608-2469.

Barbara-Jo's Books to Cooks hosts a Mother's Day brunch with Anita Stewart as its special guest. The author, often referred to as the "patron saint of Canadian cuisine," will be signing copies of her new cookbook, Canada, which is included in the $75 price of admission. 1740 West 2nd Ave.; 604-688-6755.

There's no hope for Mom if the kids are cranky. To keep the little ones amused, the Pan Pacific hotel will be sweetening its Mother's Day buffet with face painting, balloon artistry, a cupcake tower and a Callebaut chocolate fountain. The price, which includes as many Alaskan king crabs as you can eat in one sitting, is $75 for adults and $37.50 for children. 300-999 Canada Place, Cascades Lounge and Café Pacifica; 604-895-2480.

Alexandra Gill