Save-on-Meats

It's no secret that I think Mark Brand is the second coming, and his latest outing has proven to be another safe bet for dining on the East Side. Happily, Save-on-Meats is a lot easier on the wallet than my favourite arm of his multi-pronged business. After two visits, I now feel qualified to comment on the diner side of things. I can't speak to the other aspects of the reborn Save-on-Meats, but my trust in Brand runs deep, so I'm sure they're great.

For reasons I can't quite pinpoint, the food here is almost secondary. It's certainly good enough, and you simply can't argue with the prices. Save-on-Meats is more about the experience and the atmosphere, and they've nailed both. A, E and I had a collective girl crush on our server Kelcie, and we would have been happy to have her hang up her metaphorical apron and sit a spell with us. A friendly fellow behind the counter let us sample a bacon chocolate chip cookie before we committed our dessert calories elsewhere. The space is airy and spare, save for the many charming old-timey posters by local artist Dan Climan.

Biking there and back to work off the large portions topped off a truly perfect summer evening. I hadn't been to the original, but I think this incarnation deserves at least as long of a run.

My very favourite nightspot in Vancouver, and beyond

It’s no surprise that a single girl in Vancouver with a mortgage and a costly commute isn’t left with much in the way of disposable income. My disposable income, such as it is, is consistently funneled to two of my best friends (besides A&E): my aging dog and The Diamond.

I try to stay away for stretches here and there, so they don’t get tired of me hanging around, but the place exerts some sort of magnetic pull. Owing to my recent travels, it has indeed been a while, but a shortly upcoming visit is written in stone on my Google calendar!

When I describe the Diamond to friends, I often use the phrase “wonderland of beauty.” Truly everything is beautiful here: the staff, the filament bulbs, the stag's head chandelier, the exposed brick walls, the view of Maple Tree Square from the windows (especially when it snows!), the craft cocktails, and even the exquisite vintage glassware. Happily, it's an old-timey and warm type of beauty that was obviously not conceived in a Toronto boardroom, unlike the contrived corporate esthetic of certain other places. It’s just so easy to lose yourself here, and I’m always eager to show it off to someone who hasn’t yet had the pleasure of an evening at the Diamond.

I’ve never been here for an actual dinner, since the Asian fusion concept is more small plates than anything, and the drinks are so strong that it’s unwise to go on an empty stomach. That being said, what I’ve nibbled on while lingering over cocktails has always been wonderful: olives, nuts, gyoza, subs, and panna cotta. The drink prices run high ($10-12), but we're not talking watered down rum and cokes. The booze forward cocktails are nonetheless so eminently drinkable that it took E making us journalists at our own New Year's Eve pre-party for us to realize just why we often end up unexpectedly blitzed at the Diamond.

A small selection of beer is available, but as I once unwittingly asked someone who turned out to be Mark Brand, "How can you drink something like that in a place like this?" PBR has its charms, I'm sure, but I remain immune to them.

The service is such that I felt like a regular on my very first visit, and by this point, I actually feel among friends. Impeccably dressed, attractive, sociable, and skilled friends who make consistently incredible cocktails from memory, (I'm talking to you, Donnelly Pub Group), and don’t tease me (much) when I’ve had a few too many. What more could a single girl ask for?

Here we go...

Well, it only took a day for me to find an East Van blog I'd overlooked. I've seen their branded merch on lamp posts and torsos around my 'hood, but I didn't realize this was but a piece of a larger pie. From what I can gather, (the website's not super clear in this regard), Welcome to Eastvan is a clothing and gear company with an expanded online presence. The blog seems to support the stuff they're selling, not the other way around, so I don't feel too badly about missing it. At any rate, I'll be checking it out from here on in. Maybe I'll even get myself an apron. The stuff is locally designed (natch) and made (bonus points!), and accordingly a touch pricey.

Interestingly, Mark Brand is listed as one of the owners of the company. He also happens to be an owner of one of my very favourite places in East Van, nay, the world. It won't take long at all for me to blog about that place, so I'll leave it as a teaser for now. Of course you could always spend 0.11 seconds googling Mark Brand Vancouver to narrow down your options.

That's the thing about East Van. The more plugged in I get, the more connections I can draw between the artists, proprietors, and general gadabouts such as myself who call this place home. I hesitate to use the word incestuous for obvious reasons, but golly, is this place ever interconnected! The great thing is, these connections seem more natural and grassroots than they probably are in other urban areas of comparable renown, such as it is.

Until our next...