by Trish Kelly
Eat In
Wheelhouse Seafoods doesn’t exactly qualify for spring chicken status (husband and wife team Catherine Jones and Trevor Yamamoto opened their doors at 2605 E. Hastings more than seven years ago). However, its commitment to providing fresh, local, and sustainable meats and seafood has been a passion since day one. In the summertime, the store revolves around fruits de mer, but in the fall, tasty land animals take centre stage. Heaps of research and face-to-face meetings with ranchers have resulted in a butcher’s case of free-range bison, free-run ducks, grass-fed beef, and, at this time of year, non-medicated turkeys. Call to reserve your ethical protein of choice for Thanksgiving dinner. 604-215-5562
Eat Out
If you don’t feel like cooking those sustainable meats or mussels yourself, Subeez Café (891 Homer St.) will do it for you. Executive chef Leigh Power, who helped open the eatery and stayed on board till 2002, has returned to Subeez with a local and sustainable agenda. It isn’t the first time that Leigh’s had a vision of infusing this casual and super-hip restaurant with organic and local items, but he admits that the recent renos to the menu prove it’s getting easier to do the right thing. Subeez has signed up for the Ocean Wise program and is sourcing its beef from a medication-free Albertan ranch. For more options, check out their menu online. subeez.com
Check Out
With sophisticated flavours like lavender, kumquat, rhubarb, and lemongrass, DRY Soda’s offerings wouldn’t seem out of place in a high-end wine shop. These subtle and refined “culinary sodas” are lightly sweetened with pure cane sugar and housed in elegant, minimalist bottles. They might be a tad hard to spot on the shelf, but will look oh-so-classy on your dinner table (or in some Hollywood socialite’s manicured hand.) They’ve been available in the Seattle area for three years, and have finally made it across the border to land at Capers Whole Foods. DRY sodas are great on their own to serve to teetotalling guests, but for those who prefer a tipple, check out the tantalizing cocktail recipes on the company’s website. drysoda.com
Trish Kelly lives and eats in East Vancouver. She loves
empathetic carnivores, genre-bending beverages,
and hipsters who do their sustainable homework.
Each month, Trish requests that her contributor fee
be donated to a food based non-profit. This month’s
recipient is UBC Farm (landfood.ubc.ca/ubcfarm ), the
only working farm in Vancouver.
