The reason why I never reviewed Gastowns LAbattoir after it opened over a year ago is because I was working there, doing an inside job article for a glossy magazine on how restaurant service in 麻豆传媒映画was evolving. I was an expediter; the slowest of two traffic cops (my co-worker being 20 years my junior) facilitating the delivery of every one of co-owner/chef Lee Coopers plates during the restaurants first few weeks.
The brief stint saddled me with a conflict of interest hangover, the unease of which, I reckoned, should have passed after all the local critics (and several foreign ones) began heaping praise upon LAbattoir. But it didnt, not even after it won Silver for Best New Restaurant at the 麻豆传媒映画Magazine Restaurant Awards last spring. Why? Because I really liked LAbattoir. In fact, there was nothing about it that I didnt like.
But only a fraction of that affection stems from the research. Mostly, it has come as a happy consequence of the dozen or so dining experiences that Ive enjoyed there since. And so, seeing as there seems to be no one out there who disagrees with my general estimation of its prowess (LAbattoir just came in at #3 on enRoutes well-respected annual list of Canadas Best New Restaurants), the weight of the conflict now folds under the greater weight of supporting evidence.
Accordingly, here I am, the last writer at the trough, trying very hard not to tell you things that you already know. To remind you of how LAbattoir is a very good, well-served, casually sexy West Coast-meets-French restaurant with a funny name in the original Irish Heather location would be sheer, abject laziness on my part, even though Im on board with all of it. I like to think that youre already aware that they serve addictive confit tuna sprinkled with smoked pork fat and a Dungeness crab and garlic custard tower that totally bewitches.
Back in late 2009, when co-owner/frontman Paul Grunberg told me he was going into business with Lee Cooper, I had to admit that Id never heard of Cooper. Neither, it became clear during training and orientation, had most of the front-of-house staff. The primary draw was Grunberg, a management veteran (Chambar, Bao Bei) whod met Cooper while running the front of house at Market in the Shangri-La. Shaun Layton, one of the provinces most respected bartenders, was the other big attraction. Cooper was a virtual unknown. That anonymity, however short-lived, was just fine for Cooper.
Every chef comes with a pedigree, a stamp of professional DNA that tells me where he or she has worn whites over their careers. Lees was good, with stints at Londons famed Tom Aitkens and Gordon Ramsays Maze (not to mention The Fat Duck) to his credit. Nevertheless, his youth (then 31) so dampened expectations that when I was first shown the visual elegance of his compositions and given a taste of his delicate management of flavours, the pleasure was amplified by that rarest of things for a diner: the shock of discovery. Cooper was doing amazing things that were all his own and he still is, changing his menu line-up almost every week. None of it is ever too fancy. Its always just bright and cleanly simple, with a resonating emphasis on taste.
The impact that his surprise talent had on staff confidence was tremendous. If a staffer can go through an opening night without being on the shit-end of a kitchen miscue or having to endure the wrath of a dissatisfied customer, it is a rare, gracious thing. But what do you call it when it happens for weeks on end? I dont know. But it happened. I saw it. Though Im sure that some mistakes have been made since, they cant be coming very often. The kitchen here always calm, cool, precise is just too good.
Im loatheto paint a hagiographic portrait of any chef (this one is a Calgary Flames fan, which nullifies any real effort on my part), but theres no escaping the fact that Cooper has in the parlance of his generation mad skills for his age and experience. As the excellence of every dish Ive had of his since attests from poached egg littered with black truffle shavings on gnocchi and fat rabbit cannelloni bathing in mustard-flavoured blanquette of bacon to superb sous vide chicken and exquisite Steak Diane the proof is in the pudding, seven nights a week.
The rest of LAbattoir is just gravy. The music doesnt offend and the service doesnt preen. The space, much like the food, is a sequence of modern and heritage components that complement in individual ways without any piece or blend thereof ever coming across as remotely ostentatious. The attic-like mezzanine dining room, the well run bar, and the sunny, atmospheric rear atrium; they all just work. But you know all that already. You know that LAbattoir is about as flawless a casual restaurant as they come, and that theres no reason to believe that it wont keep getting better. The only thing we can do is ask for is more.
LAbattoir | 217 Carrall St. | 604-568-1701 | LAbattoir.ca
