"Last spring, Boulevard was quick off the mark with BLVD Provisions, which offered ready-to-eat meals and meal kits with premium proteins for pickup or vancouver-wide delivery."

"A Ho Chi Minh street vendor made famous by the late Anthony Bourdain is the inspiration — and a distant partner — for this slick family-restaurant retrofit in Vancouver. Its daily rotation of noodle soups made with recipes from Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thanh (aka The Lunch Lady) is pretty awesome."

"In spring 2020, while other Vancouver restaurateurs panicked and pivoted, chef Pino Posteraro closed his 20-year-old Yaletown establishment for its long-promised, often-delayed $2-million makeover. Now Cioppino’s is back, with renewed elegance and a contemporary flair."

"I didn’t fall in love with Arike at first sight. The humble West End Vancouver walk-down located on a shabby stretch of Davie Street leaves much to be desired. But my first bites? Wow. Tender pulled goat piled onto golden spoons hummed with musky drizzles of smoothly puréed ata din din pepper sauce. Suya skewers of striploin, thinly sliced, lightly charred and rubbed with peanuts, were tingly and toasty. Airy pof pof doughnuts elevated by choux pastry were glazed in ginger."

"When long-time Vancouver chef Kevin McKenzie was granted off-season use of his cousin’s coffee truck, his thoughts turned to something missing from the city — the suddenly ubiquitous (everywhere else) birria taco. Following three months of development — utilizing tips from a Mexican friend and colleague who volunteered some (but not all) of his family’s time-honoured recipe — McKenzie launched Top Rope Birria this past November."

"If you’re missing Toronto’s Momofuku Shoto or can’t get to Ko in Manhattan, Vancouver’s Street Auntie Aperitivo House is the next best thing. This tiny, sleek Chinese restaurant set around an open kitchen has arrived on the West Coast by way of Beijing, where owner Yuyina Zhang ran BMK at The Courtyard with the English Michelin-starred chef Brian McKenna."

"Specializing in richly aromatic Indo-Persian Awadhi cuisine, Tushar Tondvalkar’s terrific ghost kitchen Urban Tadka opened in early 2020 and seriously upped Vancouver’s takeout game with offerings like slow-roasted chicken thighs smothered in almond paste and marrow-heavy goat shank."

"In the past year, the typically reliable, classic-cuisine-driven menus at St. Lawrence in Vancouver have gone through more thematic twists and turns than a Tour de France ascent through the Alpe d’Huez. In late spring, after the resounding success of a month-long tribute to Lyon, a planned rotation of other French regional cuisines was put on hold when indoor dining was cancelled. That idea was replaced by a simpler market-fresh collaboration with Glorious Organics Co-op — rotisserie chicken à la St-Hubert."

"Despite the ongoing challenges of its location, at one of the most turbulent intersections in Vancouver’s gritty Downtown Eastside, Pidgin has endured since 2013 on the strength of its playful Asian/Pacific Northwest fusion fare."

"When Brandon Grossutti, owner of Vancouver’s Pidgin, signed his first contract with a third-party delivery service, he knew the numbers didn’t make sense. With a background in software architecture, algorithmic trading and business development, Grossutti was uniquely qualified to come up with a better grassroots delivery solution. He began coding in early March last year and then enlisted the help of two local software firms to finish the platform. The FromTo delivery service processed its first order in early May and now has 33 restaurants onboard, plus another 184 in staging, waiting on platform improvements, and a new app needs to be completed."

"When it opened in Vancouver in December 2019, Published on Main was immediately recognized as a breathtaking showcase for executive chef Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson’s ambition. An array of inventive dishes — say, duck confit meatballs with black pepper sauce, or the dessert of aerated hay custard — seduced critics and customers alike."

"“I haven’t eaten a lot of frozen pizza in my life, but it has happened,” Vancouver chef David Hawksworth says. What he remembers of the experience was not pleasant, starting with the thin, flabby, freezer-burn-facilitating wrapping. Then one day, mid-pandemic, a browse on his phone landed on the order site for Eat Pizza, a quality operation in Washington, D.C., that delivers 3,000 frozen pizzas daily to retailers like Whole Foods. Unlike conventional frozen pies, these are parcooked in a proper pizza oven before being frozen. “I looked at my idle pizza oven and I thought, We can do this.” So now, at Nightingale, four mornings a week before lunch service, Hawksworth’s staff fire 150 pizzas of three kinds."

"There are temporary patios and then there’s The Keefer Yard. Vancouver’s grooviest outdoor pivot popped up last summer in a vacant lot beside The Keefer Bar (No. 2 on Canada’s Best Bars for three years running), its surrounding brick walls covered in graffiti murals."

"Looking for the ultimate Covid-19 cocktail experience? Slide onto the plush seating of the enclosed VIP table at the end of Vancouver’s Botanist Bar for a private six-course cocktail tasting menu with food pairings."

"With Italian-meets-Southern-barbecue as its unholy concept, Say Mercy! was primed to work miracles. When COVID hit, this casual purveyor of buttermilk sweetbreads and BBQ bolognese in Fraserhood was only two months old. Rather than rolling down the shutters, the Collective Hospitality team immediately responded with Staff Meals, a charitable takeout program that grew into a local phenomenon."

"Adam Pegg, chef/owner of Vancouver’s Point Grey jewel La Quercia, says the past year “forced us to try new things” — and the results of those efforts are delicious. After months of takeout, Pegg reopened last summer with just five tables and found that fewer staff serving fewer diners was a workable model."

"Last year Ned Bell returned home. The Penticton-born chef became a co-owner — with his wife, PR whiz Kate Colley, and partners Paul Hollands and Maria Wiesner — of the Naramata Inn, an unpolished 1907 wine-country gem, now regaining its lustre as “a really good restaurant…with rooms,” as touted on the inn’s website. Already, the Naramata is the hottest reservation of summer."

"Who knew that Covid-19’s silver linings would be finely threaded with su filindeu? Caffè La Tana has been offering an enticing alimentari selection online since the Savio Volpe team (which now includes Phil Scarfone, formerly of Nightingale) pivoted last spring."

"As with so many other restaurants of quality, Vancouver’s Burdock & Co. responded to Covid-19 with a fine take-away program that now runs the gamut, from multi-course meals well judged to travel well to grab-and-go finished dishes and meal kits packing great prepped product to make the finishing easy. But no part of the offer has provoked as much passionate loyalty as has Burdock’s weekly grocery bag."

"This bijou offshoot of Burdock & Co. is all about the wine, but Vancouver is just as smitten with Neil Hillbrandt’s delightfully aromatic snacks, now available in heartier portions by popular demand."

"When Covid-19 hit, Vancouver restaurant supplier Legends Haul was stuck with more than $1 million worth of top-quality meat and produce in its warehouse, and so, almost overnight, the distributor set up a one-stop online shopping emporium. Retail customers could avail themselves of home delivery of premium proteins and small-farm produce previously available only to chefs, as well as everything from dairy and pantry items to fresh pastry dough, floral bouquets, organic pet food and eco-friendly cleaning products."