Monday - Saturday from 5pm (food at 6pm)

 

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New Year's Eve 2012

This year Kits Daily will be entering its 3^rd year....with lots to celebrate.

New Year's Eve 2012 will celebrate a year of food and wine shared with the great people who have made Kits Daily a success. A six course culinary adventure showcasing the ‘best of the best' from 2011 and introducing new foods and ideas for 2012. The adventure will begin with a Pegu Aperitif and will have each course paired with an ‘iconic' BC wine.

The menu will be created the day of NYE 2012 using only the finest products found at the local markets - each dish will be presented and described to you by your server. This will be a true adventure.

Aperitif served at 8:30pm. Dinner will start sharp at 9pm with champagne at midnight. Full bar will be available from midnight until 2am.

With your reservation please advise us if you are interested in:

          1. A bottle of champagne at midnight (priced from $85 - $270)
          2. Local caviar service to begin your meal ($110 per person/minimum four people) - served at 8pm
          3. Pemberton bone marrow served with the entrée ($15 per person)

Please feel free to suggest favourite foods. We will do our best to accommodate. Any food allergies or dislikes should be included with your reservation. Every dish is cooked to order and we will provide a great alternative.

$130 per person plus tax (gratuity at your discretion) 30 person limit.
A small dinner menu will be available between 5pm and 7pm.

   Food in your Beer and Beer in your Food!

It is with great pleasure that I have had the opportunity to explore the properties of beer this year. With the success of the Craft Beer Movement and R and B Breweries, beer has been more readily accepted as a pairing with all types of food.

This Monday, November 21^st the Brew Master at R and B has given me a challenge. He has brewed the following and it is my job to use them in my cooking and pair them with the food. At Daily Kitchen we shop the local markets daily to bring you the freshest and most interesting food available on the West Coast. Always striving to be local and sustainable - and organic whenever possible.

I will shop the local markets on Monday - foraging for the ‘best of the best' the city has to offer. By 7pm I will be ready to serve seven unique and beer inspired dishes.

The Beers R and B has created for this evening:

• Chantrelle Wheat Ale
• Mayan Chocolate Stout
• Fresh Ginger Pale Ale
• ESB
• Apple Pie Pale Ale with apples, cinnamon, ginger and allspice
• Rose Petal Pilsner
• Blackberry IPA

This will be a small and intimate event in the back half of the restaurant with only 25 tickets available at $50per person++. The Brew Masters will be on hand to interact.

This is going to be a great night.

Please RSVP through brian@kitsdaily.com

   Top 10 Food & Wines from the Summer of 2011

On Monday October 17^th, 2011 - Kitsilano Daily Kitchen offers it final dinner in the Summer Beer and Winemakers' Series.

10 courses of ‘the best of the best' from the Kits Daily Kitchen paired with our BC's Top Ten List of wineries/breweries. Tickets are $65 per person or $400 for a table of eight.  Space Limited. Please call for reservations.

For Reservations, please contact me directly at: brian@kitsdaily.com

Kits Daily's Top Ten List of Meats, Seafood and Produce from the West Coast

                                  10.       North Arm Farm Red Ace Beets - Pemberton

                                    9.         Fanny Bay Clams - Vancouver Island

                                    8.         Sprouted Vegetables & Grains - Squamish

                                    7.         Chanterelle Mushrooms - Buckley Valley

                                    6.         Pemberton Meadows Bavette - Pemberton

                                    5.         Two Rivers' Merguez Sausage - Pemberton/North Vancouver

                                    4.         Callo de Hacha Scallops - Baja

                                    3.         Yarrow Meadow Duckling - Yarrow

                                    2.         Theissen Farm Quail - Mt Lehman

                                    1.         Bar M Ranch Lamb - Cache Creek

Kits Daily's Top Ten List of Wines, Beers and Distilleries from the West Coast

                                  10.       2011 Spirit Bear Okanagan Gin

                                    9.         2009 Clos du Soleil Capella

                                    8.         2008 Sandhill Small Lots Sangiovese

                                    7.         2010 Quail's Gate Chenin Blanc

                                    6.         2011 R&B Red Devil Pale Ale

                                    5.         2007 Cedar Creek Platinum Series Pinot Noit

                                    4.         2010 Desert Hills Viognier

                                    3.         2010 Dirty Laundry Hush

                                    2.         2009 Ruby Blues Red Stiletto

                                    1.         2008 Burrowing Owl Athene

Kitsilano Daily Kitchen.

A fresh approach to unpretentious West Coast Cuisine.

Daily visits to the local Markets and Farms of British Columbia to procure the finest local seafood, produce and meats at the peak of quality. Working the best the West Coast has to offer and prepping, cooking and creating a new menu every day.

Always in the season, local and organic whenever possible.

   The annual ‘return to my roots' dinner party has come and gone and I really need to thank everyone who attended  for his/her contribution. The food, as expected, turned out great. With the exception of the snails everything turned out as I had planned. The snails were live ‘petite gris' that took an additional four hours to clean and prep (the day before the dinner). I am more familiar with the larger Bourgogne snails that are easier to clean and have a more pronounced flavour.

The wine was the highlight of the dinner. I have gathered the twenty bottles that I enjoyed the most (thank god for the new Ridel tasting glass that only holds one ounce; I didn't have to spit!). The following is in the order of preference (I am a novice so I am writing the description as it is written on the label, sorry if I get regions/growers mixed).

•1.    Chateau Saint-Pierre 1990 (St Julien) I cannot remember a better wine. The flavour was in my mouth for a full five minutes. This wine changed in complexity every half hour. We opened it and tried it over a five hour period.

•2.    Clos Des Papes 2000 (Chateauneuf-du-Pape) (Magnum) I will apologize to everyone French but I loved this because it reminded me of the very best of the big Californian Cabs. This was amazing and the large format bottle was a lot of fun. We had some left over after dinner and we smoked a couple of Cohibas and the wine held up to the smoke!!

•3.    Pouilly-Fuisse 1990 (Bourgogne J.J. Vincent) This wine was a fresh and lively as if it had been bottled yesterday. This was the perfect wine to crack at pre-dinner.

•4.    Pouilly-Fuisse 2000 (Bourgogne Joseph Burrier) This wine almost sparkled in the glass. It was tamed by the solid butter finish.

•5.    Cairanne 1997 (Cotes du Rhone Village) (Magnum) For everyday consumption this would be my favorite wine of the day. It held up really well to all the food.

•6.    Aloxe-Corton 1995 (Cote-D'Or Comte Senard) I found this to be very unique. I am still not sure if I liked it but I went back for seconds and am going to purchase some more. I think the flavour was raspberry-grapefruit-vanilla-tobacco,

•7.    Domaine Rabasse Charavin 1996 (Cote du Rhone) (Magnum) the best $140 magnum I have ever tasted. Extremely smooth with everything French I was looking for.

•8.    Domaine Raspail-Ay 1999 (Gigondas) Why do I love Gigondas so much? This was the best buy for $60can. It was definitely ready to drink and it paired well with the rabbit and pheasant.

•9.    Vacqueyras 2000 (Rhone Feraud - Brunel) Another wine under $65can that was great to drink. Nothing overly complex; just pure enjoyment to drink while sitting in the sun with a full belly of food.

•10. Silver Oak 1987 (Alexander Valley) Not French. Should be closer to the top but it was a French theme party. I hope there is more of this on the market. The tannins are gone and the fruit is beautiful.

•11. Meursault-Genevrieres Premier Cru 2000 (Latour-Giraud Cote-d'Or) Extremely buttery. I am not an expert but I do believe this will be number one on this list in a few years when it rounds out more.

•12. Caves des Papes 2000 (Eleve en Foudre Dechene) One of the most sophisticated bottles of the dinner. The content was clean with great, mature, oak for a bottle only three years old.

•13. Riesling 2001 (DR Loosen) This was a great refresher.

•14. Les Hauts de Montmiral 2000 (Gigondas) Another favorite that I will put into my cellar. This had good alcohol with a rich flavour. Five years and it will be at the top of the list.

•15. Croze-Hermitage 2000 (Caves des Papes) This is on the list because I didn't get to try it. Everyone ‘guzzled' this bottle in seconds.

•16. Montirius 2000 (Gigondas) Very good flavour. Great bottle.

•17. Stag's Leap Petite Sirah 1998 (Napa Valley) My crazy friends. Bringing a Californian to a French Theme party. It was extremely tasty and much appreciated. I though 1998 was a poor year in Napa? This wine was full and complex.

•18. E.Guigal Rose 2000 (Cotes-du-Rhone) I would have never thought to have brought a Rose. It was a real treat after dinner and before the cheese. I am going to keep a bottle in my cooler - if I can find one.

•19. Chateau de Bord 1999 (Laudun Cotes-du-Rhone) Cheap, inexpensive and easy on the palate. We drank about 10 of these bottles between 7:00pm and 11:00pm.

•20. Napanook 1998 (Dominus Estates Napa) I hope I can afford this wine. I thought it was an old Cote-du-Rhone when I first tried it. This was the biggest surprise of the day for me.

And then there were the cheeses. My supplier didn't leave the labels on all the cheese so I have to guess on a few. The majority were un-pasteurized French cheeses. To pick a best would be impossible. They were all perfect in their own way and the restaurant had a beautiful  stink! As the room warmed up so did the odor. The ‘cheese virgins' began to thin out and move away from the cheese board. The true gourmands ascended on the ripe molding mounds of dairy and bacteria!

•1.    Morbier - very mellow. Really interesting to taste the difference between the ‘morning milk' cheese and the ‘evening milk' cheese that is separated by the volcanic ash

•2.    Chaumes - This cheese never ‘warmed up'. It looked like it was going to run after four hours but it never did! It had a very nutty flavour with a meaty overtone.

•3.    Port Salut - Almost pedestrian today but what a great flavour.

•4.    Bucheron - The wooden box was a great touch and I understood why it was there when I opened it and saw the ball of mould. The cheese by the crust was extremely sharp. It became quite mild and creamy near the center.

•5.    Somerset Farm House Cheddar - I kept coming back to this cheese with a cheap bottle of Chateau de Bord. For a cheese priced at $30/lbs and a bottle priced under $15/bottle it was a match made in heaven.

•6.    Affidélice - The taste of the Chablis is prevalent throughout this cheese. I drank a 1990 Pouilly-Fuisse (J.J. Vincent) and ate a loaf of potato baguette.

•7.    Honorable mention needs to go to the Salt Spring Island Cheeses that were served. For a small, cottage industry (Hippie), the cheeses had a note of sophistication. Anyone wanting more information contact me directly and I will forward you more information or try this link: http://www.moonstruckcheese.com/

Some Notes on the Food:

By far my favorite dish was the Pheasant. I marinated the plums in a young Marsala overnight. After searing the pheasant with leek, juniper and thistle honey I simmer in the plums, duck jus and a good splash of cognac. It slowly cooked for 3 hours in a 225f  oven.

The frog legs were a new approach for me. I marinated them overnight with thyme and buttermilk. To order I fried them in peanut oil after dipping them in a simple egg-beer-flour mixture that I firmed with some cornstarch. I had to cook up three batches; everyone kept asking for more.

I switched the fish from Ling Cod to Black Cod (Sablefish). The fish was overpowered by the Dijon but as a whole it turned out to be a very good Nicoise salad.

Everyone loed the Cromesquis. I used Mt Lehman duck livers and lightly whipped it with a touch of sauterne, braised leeks and black truffles then coated it with panko. When fried the duck livers became very creamy. Those who could wait for it to cool a little were rewarded with an excellent package.

After the dining was finished the food continued with more rustic dishes like ‘Le Chargement français de Saucisson avec Moutarde de Meaux' (pardon my French). This is sausage forcemeat sautéed with leeks, onions, garlic, fresh herbs and mushrooms and finished with grainy mustard and raw egg. It is then bound with raw bread dough and left to proof. When it is baked it becomes a drunken wine drinkers dream.

The lemon tart was the first dessert to disappear. I preferred the simplicity of the Coeur la Crème. Basically a soured yogurt and cream mixture enhanced with Tahitian vanilla beans that is allowed to hang in cheesecloth at room temperature for 3 days. The remaining ‘curd' is similar to a sweetened cheese that you serve with fresh berries and pastries.

Looking forward to the next event!

Chef Fowke.

Kits Daily Kitchen Picks its Favourite Winery Brewery for the Month of August...

Wine Pairing and BEER Dinner - R&B Brewery Co.
at Kitsilano Daily Kitchen Monday August 29^th, 2011

...this was really really simple. R&B Brewery Co. were early supporters of Kitsilano Daily Kitchens. They are an artisanal producer of BC's finest ales, lagers and beers.

Taking food to the next level - beer can be an important component of food, it is easily paired with food and as a whole both beer and food together are great with wine. An evening of understanding beer and its place in the world of fine food and wine.

The catalyst to this dinner was founded in 1997 by longtime friends and co-workers Rick Dellow and Barry Benson (the ‘R' & ‘B', respectively), R&B Brewing Co. They pioneered Vancouver's Micro brewed beer movement and mastered it as a product.

We will taste six courses of local, sustainable and organic (whenever possible) dishes that have been designed around six artisanal beers produced by R&B Brewery Co. Master Brewer. Some beer flavors you never expected. The beer with meld with each course and enhance the flavors. A local wine will then be paired with both the course and the beer to complete the culinary adventure.

"Their beer lend to our ability to produce the best of the best from the local markets and produce an unique menu everyday of four appetizers and four entrees."

Cut off for Reservations is midnight Saturday August 27^th, 2011 to allow the beer master enough time to prepare. The event is priced at $65 per person or $400 for a table of eight.

Please reserve your space through this email address.

Please note that this is a private event and not open to the public. By reservations in advance only.

Kits Daily Picks it's Favourite Winery of the Month:
Dunham and Froese

Kitsilano Daily Kitchen is proud to announce the first of three Winemaker's Dinners this summer on Tuesday June 14^th at 7pm. Availability is very limited and priced at $65 per person.

Award winning Kits Daily is known for its drive to source and prepare only sustainable, local and organic produce whenever possible. The name speaks for the passion - Daily... a menu created daily using only the best of the best from local markets.

Now in its 14^th month of operation Kits Daily has developed important relationships that we want to share with you and your guests. This summer we will feature our three favourite wineries; pairing six wines with six courses all sourced from our favourite growers in BC.

The series of dinners starts this Tuesday, with Chef's Fowke personal favourite producer; Dunham and Froese. This Estate Winery is a leader in Organic and Biodynamic methods in the vineyard and in the winery. 

Tuesday will include a ‘blind tasting' of an old world equivalent to Dunham and Froese's pairings to each of Kits Daily's six courses. Prizes will be awarded to the participant who can correctly name the varietal, region and producer of each ‘blind tasting'.

Wine by the case will be available by order at the end of the meal at a 15% discount.

Unique to this winemaker's dinner - we will be supplying all attendees with both tasting notes from the night and recipes of all dishes prepared, including where all the products were sourced.

This is going to be a great night. We look forward to our friends of Kits Daily joining us around the Chef's table and enjoying the wines of Dunham and Froese paired with BC's finest foods.

For reservations please email brian@kitsdaily.com

Space is limited; please reserve ASAP to avoid disappointment.

Kits Daily menu offers 'best of the best'

'Guerrilla chef' shops daily, returns to kitchen, then post and tweets that day's menu

  By Mia Stainsby, Vancouver Sun November 11, 2010    

It's the sound of one hand clapping and I do believe it's mine. Kitsilano Daily Kitchen has been open for about six months. The food is good, but there's little buzz. And that's in a town so restaurant-alert that when some-thing's good, there's normally a thunderous stampede.

I wondered if perhaps it was the star-crossed location where restaurants in the past have gone in, only to be spat out. After a couple of really good meals there, I thought it deserved the sound of more hoof beats.

The chef/owner is Brian Fowke, whose last endeavour, Metro, closed earlier this year. At Daily Kitchen, he's returned to an intimate scale. He's capping reservations at about 30 people a night and that certainly can put the buzz on mute. He's on his own in the kitchen and is in total control, cooking every dish.

And he's like a guerrilla chef: He shops daily, returns to the kitchen and then makes up the complete menu of four appies, four entrees and desserts. He then posts it online and tweets it out.

It was mid-afternoon when I called him and he had ingredients spread out on the counter as he created the night's menu. His breads were being proofed (made with wild yeast he captured on the North Shore some years ago) and he had an hour to go before posting the daily menu online and tweeting it out.

There is an organizing thread. He works systematically through large cuts or whole cuts of meat. If he's working with duck, he'll make carpaccio one day, confit another, duck broth for a soup another. He'll often finish with a braise.

"It usually comes together very, very naturally," he says. "Today, I picked up Pemberton raspberries, collard leaves, chanterelles and chard, so I'll use it with the bavette of Pemberton beef.

Fowke, I'm happy to say, has found himself again. I wasn't enthralled with his cooking at Metro but the food at Daily Kitchen (and before Metro, at Rare) is more refined and cooked with a lighter touch.

Appies are an average $13 to $15. Berkshire pork belly and beans featured delicious pork; Haida Gwaii crab cakes edged a little toward oily but featured very good crab and small cubes of potato. (Nothing seems to compare to crab cakes at Coast!) Golden beet salad with cipollini onions was very good but overpriced at $13.

As for entrees ($26 to $32), I was thrilled with the gorgeousness of the bavette of Pemberton beef (with truffle mashed potatoes that delivered on truffle flavour); Haida Gwaii deer with pot barley risotto and napa slaw was gorgeous (the deer feed on kelp!); Peace Country lamb ragout with rosti potato and organic veg stew was another winner; 'Jump-fried' spot prawns with couscous salad, burnt butter and caramelized lemon was good but since it's not spot prawn season, it didn't have that beautifully delicate texture or taste.

Still, Fowke is adhering to local and sustainable whenever possible.

Daily Kitchen offers other ordering options: four tapas-sized entrees for $39 or six for $65 (Culinary Adventure). "I had a lot of people wanting to try everything," he explains. "With the Culinary Adventure, I'm asking customers to trust me, let me take the best of the best for the day," he says.

Fowke says about 30 per cent of customers are from out of town, with groups from Seattle and Portland. "We made one of the Top 10 'must' lists and they're used to restaurants using what the farmers and growers tell them to use."

The wine list features hard-to-get B.C. wines and the small selection changes frequently.

Check out Fowke's fleeting daily menu on his website: www.kitsdaily.com.Past menus are posted, too.

mstainsby@vancouversun.com

AT A GLANCE

Kitsilano Daily Kitchen

Where: 1809 West First Ave., 604-569-2741, www.kitsdaily.com

Overall: 4/4

Food: 4/4

Ambience: 3.5/4

Service: 3.5/4

In the month of November we will be donating one dollar from every entree purchased at Kitsilano Daily Kitchen to the Vancouver Firefighters' Charitable Society. FOR MORE FUN - by the 2011 Fire Men's Calendar and see us on the March page.

Keep checking back - the firemen will be onsite.

   Kitsilano Daily Kitchen.

A fresh approach to unpretentious West Coast Cuisine.  

Daily visits to the local Markets and Farms of British Columbia to procure the finest local seafood, produce and meats at the peak of quality. Working the best the West Coast has to offer and prepping, cooking and creating a new menu every day.

Always in the season, local and organic whenever possible.

 A few reviews floating around the internet

Tiffany C.

San Francisco, CA USA

7/6/2010

If I had to describe Kitsilano Daily Kitchen in one word I think I'd choose "charming." Everything from the man who served us to the daily changing menu to the lovely cocktails practically charmed the pants right off of me.

Crystal H, Andrea R, and I stopped in here for dinner on my first night in Vancouver and we started our meal by sharing the pork and lentil soup. Chunks of salty pork in a dish usually means I'm going to like it and this was no exception. I also feel in love with the bread that came out with olive oil and sea salt to dip it in. Let's petition to get this at all of our restaurants, mmkay?

For dinner I chose the fish soup, which was really more of a seafood soup. It had crab legs, fish, mussels, red pepper, orzo, and probably some other things I'm failing to recollect in it. It was definitely soup-y and not as stew-y as I thought it might be. However, the flavor was fantastic and it left me room to try dessert so you won't hear any complaints from me.

Speaking of dessert - we ordered a flourless chocolate cake that was divine and a cheese plate. There were 5 different types of cheeses and I could have eaten 2 servings of them all if I wasn't full to bursting at this point.

Crystal told us that the neighborhood Kitsilano Daily Kitchen is in doesn't get a lot of foot traffic so you should make your way over there for a delicious dinner. After all an especially delicious meal easily warrants a special trip somewhere.

Andrea R.

Chicago, IL USA

7/2/2010

Obsessed! I kinda wanted to move in, which I think our waiter may have feared since we were there for a very long time.

Apparently their menu changes daily so be sure to check their website ahead of time or sign up for their emails, although I'm pretty sure you can't go wrong with anything here.

Our fabulous waiter made our dining experience extra special; I sure wish I could remember his name!  He suggested some tasty looking wines for my non-pregnant dining companions and even whipped up a virgin cocktail for me. It was so good that I asked several times if he could confirm there wasn't any alcohol in there...and apparently there wasn't.

After devouring a few baskets of soft, warm bread...dipped in oil and Hawaiian sea salt (um, yum) we split a lentil soup with pork in it. The chef was kind enough to divide the soup among 3 bowls and it was the perfect amount of food.  As for my main entrée I got the pasta with squid in it. As much as I love the idea of their menu changing daily they may need to make this one a staple because it was one of the best pasta dishes I've ever eaten.  And being a carboholic I've sure had my share of good pasta!

I was absolutely stuffed, but couldn't resist ordering the chocolate torte so I could have just 1 bite. My 1 bite turned into eating the entire dessert, but I just couldn't help myself.  I may have not done a very good of sharing dessert with my dining companions, but they seemed quite content with their cheese platter, which unfortunately included mostly brie and blue cheeses (no-nos while pregnant).

We have our fair share of good dining in Chicago, but I'm sure jealous of all the Vancouverites for having this gem of a restaurant.

Peter S.

Vancouver, BC

6/25/2010

Bison, Tenderloin, Veal tongue, and Marrow with fresh BC woodland mushrooms.

YUM!

This was my second time eating marrow on the "half shell" or femur/humerous! The first was in San Francisco a year ago and was done perfectly. The Daily Kitchen version was nearly perfect. It is such a rich dish, perhaps I had the wrong drink this time around (a Belgian cheery beer).
I tend to avoid foods that have originated in the animals mouth region, but I was pleasantly surprised with the veal tongue. So soft and tender, I have obviously never had tongue prepared correctly.
The mushrooms were just barely cooked (perfect!) and added a nice hit to the plate.

Unfortunately, I had no room for dessert, so I will update this review after my second visit.

Crystal H.

Vancouver, BC

6/24/2010 1 photo 1 Check-in Here

Every day I get an email that says what the menu is for tonight's dinner and tonight, I just had to try it out.

Tonight I dined on black squid pasta with arugula. Normally pasta is a sure fire fail for me when I order it out. It's generally too salty, too sparse, or just too blah. But Daily Kitchen's has me singing a different tune. The pasta was perfectly cooked the way I like: perhaps a little too underdone to some people's preference, but for me, the bite was ideal. The Monterey squid was magic. It's rare to be served squid that isn't deep fried, let alone seafood that is just ever so slightly undercooked - perfect!

This is a great concept, and I hope that it continues to do well, having just recently opened. Using locally sourced, fresh ingredients Chef Fowke shares insights on his emails like