Who thought cold cuts would ever be so cool?
With the runaway success of Salt Tasting Room and the growing number of fine-dining restaurants serving house-made charcuterie (Chow, Fuel and Parkside to name a few), it was perhaps only a matter of time before the European-style wine bar concept took off.
Uva Wine Bar at the Moda Hotel is the latest boîte specializing in mix-and-match platters of cured meats and artisanal cheeses to enter the scene.
Uva (Italian for grape) is located in the street-side corner lounge of this funky new boutique hotel where the Dufferin Pub, a notoriously seedy gay strip bar and drag queen cabaret, once reigned supreme.
The makeover is nothing less than spectacular. With its restored marble floor, bold red-and-white patterned wallpaper, custom-made leather chairs and Italian light fixtures in exploding swirls of brass, the look of the cozy 36-seat room has gone from beer-stained to chic and sophisticated.
Even more impressive is the bar's eclectic clientele.
On Friday night, we watched well-heeled symphony-goers popping in during intermission for a quick tipple mingle with a statuesque, platinum-blonde transsexual dressed in stiletto go-go boots who once worked the Dufferin stage.
It felt miles removed from the yuppie pretension that has engulfed nearby Yaletown.
"Ça pue bon!" Sebastien Le Goff said of the gritty vibe, which, roughly translated means, "It stinks good."
Mr. Le Goff is not the bar's general manager. That would be a breach of his employment contract at Lumière and Feenie's, where he was recently the sommelier and director of operations.
He says he is more of a start-up manager and consulting partner to the hotel owners, who will soon be adding a fine-dining Italian restaurant and European sports bar to the premises.
Whatever the title he certainly looked happy bopping around the glowing bar, dimly lit in green and blue, while coaching customers on his impressive selection of about 20 wines by the glass.
The red wines are poured from taps hooked up to a high-tech, nitrogen-pumping, temperature-controlled contraption imported from France that prevents oxidization and keeps the bottles fresh for up to three weeks.
Our favourite bang for the buck was the hearty $9 glass of Tenuta del Portale Basilicata, made from a noble black, volcanic-soil grape whose roots date back to the ancient Greek colonies in Southern Italy.
Mind you, we also enjoyed a juicy $12 Avignonesi Rosso 2004 from Tuscany. (The bar has this amazingly lulling effect that keeps you ordering more.) But the best pairing of the night was the honey-drenched Cuvee du Censy Muscadet Sur Lie 2005 ($8), which virtually melted on the tongue under a heavily larded, yet lightly seasoned, ramekin of pork rillettes ($11).
The meat was so delicately shredded it spread as smoothly as the plate's homemade butter, which also came with a fresh baguette, tiny gherkins, radish buds and a sprinkling of coarse sea salt.
Uva sources its meats from Moccia's Italian Meat Market in Vancouver's east end. Save for the rillette, it is all dry-cured, pork based, sliced impeccably thin and served with grainy mustard ($6 per selection or $16 for a plate of three).
The cheese, mostly Italian in origin and supplied by Jan K. Overweel Limited in Toronto, is priced the same. (Go for a creamy taleggio or mild gorgonzola dolce Ballarini with honeycomb.)
Uva's meat and cheese selection might not be as broad or as deeply smelly as the selection at Salt, but I do appreciate that you can order a single portion of cheese or meat (as opposed to Salt's autocratic menu from which the minimum food order must consist of at least three items). The "stink" at Uva smells good to me.
Unfortunately, The Greedy Pig doesn't smell so good - at least not in the bathroom. To me, it stank like a barnyard. My girlfriend said it smelled like cat litter.
Whatever your association, it was anything but pleasant. Especially not to the other patrons, who were literally plugging their noses as they returned from the privies which had grunge-spattered walls.
Allison and Cam McKinnon should be doing much better than this. Although young, the married proprietors have more than 20 years of experience between them, having worked at such well-known restaurants at Il Giardino and Brix.
Their intention was to create a casual environment that featured good food value for money and a happening live music scene.
The room is certainly east-end comfy, in a garage-sale-chic sort of way. The faux-croc benches are original vinyl, the high tops are sanded down from old butcher-block tables and the gas-lit wood stove is pure vintage.
If you're going for authentic music clientele you can't get much better than Hot Hot Heat (who munched on a meat platter while sitting beside us).
But if you're aiming for a foodie crowd, you've got to hit higher than the blandly braised pulled-pork sandwich ($10) or the grilled Beef Wellington ($13), a roast beef sandwich spread with a layer of foie gras truffle parfait and mushrooms so thin I couldn't even taste it.
Pig Soup ($6) made from Alsatian white bean and salt pork was drowned in a watery broth.
The Butcher's Block platters (mostly sourced from the Oyama Sausage Company and Dusa Cheese) are excellent value for money ($18 for three meats and two cheeses).
But the wines by the glass are mostly pedestrian and wouldn't entice many people as a destination drive.
In the end, it all comes down to the bathroom, which (fair or not) most everyone would agree, is a good indication of the attention given to cleanliness.
Grab a bucket of bleach and I might go back to The Greedy Pig. In the meantime, I'll take my chances with "the good stink."
Uva Wine Bar at the Moda Hotel: 900 Seymour St., 604-683-4251
The Greedy Pig: 307 West Cordova St., 604-669-4991
agill@globeandmail.com
