24 - Friday, October 3, 1986 - North Shore News

SEAFOOD FIRST RATE

Ser

jio’s provides

cozy atmosphere

NORTH VANCOUVER
has jong needed its own
mid-town restaurant bar.

With the recent overhaul of
Sergio’s Oyster Bar, 304 Lonsdale,
that need has been filled.

In years past, Sergio’s has been
the restaurant adjunct to the occa-
sionally notorious Hippopotamus
Club,

But management has wearied of
providing a culinary detox centre
for young and restless disco war-
riors.

by Timothy Renshaw

Following its $300,000 remodell-
ing, which-has added a new outside
patio and 36 seats, Sergio’s is now
aimed at age groups several years
removed from those suffering
from chronic Saturday Night
Fever.

The 180-seat Lonsdale and Third
Street eatery is newly decked out in’
brass and soft blue pastel interi-
ors, and furnished with tropical
wicker and the pervading bubble
of Top 40 music nouveau.

Centre stage at Sergio’s is a
bright L-shaped brass bar sur-
rounded with stools and manned
by attentive bartenders. With a
color television set flickering a
constant stream of sporting events,
the resiaurant’s atmosphere has
the easy sociability of an American
bar — a place to drop in solo or
with friends and sop up the pleas-
ant surroundings of extended fam-
ily personability .

In the best traditions of a casual
bar and grill, the restaurant is a
touch smokey and comparatively
loud.

Sergio’s Oyster Bar menu
features a good selection of small
dishes ranging from a_ simple
vegetable platter ($3.95) through to
Buffalo Wings ($4.50) and a pair
of oyster offerings (on the half-
shell, $5.50, or Florentine, $5.75).

Entrees include fish, pasta,
chicken and steak standards.
Prices go from $7.95 to $12.45.

For those with g-eater thirsts
than hungers, Sergio’s offers a half
dozen sandwich or burger selec-
tions ($3.95 19 $6.75).

At the bar end of the restaurant,
domestic beer goes for $2.75 while
imported beer is $3.50. A small
wine list offers a reasonable range
of reds, whites and sparkling
wines,ranging in price from $8.95
to $33.50. Cuampagne is available
in $52.50 and $95 models.

On a recent Friday night visit,
my wife and I tested a Sergio’s
Fish Pot (bouillabaisse $11.95) and
an order of Barbecue Baby Back
Ribs ($9.75).

The fish pot was very good. Fish
portion and variation (a selection
of mussels, salmon, clams,
scallops) were both first rate.

Broth was a robust stock, thick
with tomato and affoat with a sea
of fish flavors.

Sergio’s ribs were meaty and

covered with a mildly spicy tomato
sauce.

Accompanying baked potato
came thankfully naked without the
crass tin toi} jacket that so often
cloaks restaurant potatoes.

Sergio’s Oyster Bar provides a
social watering hoie that has been
dry too Jong in North Van City’s
lower mid-town area.

With the right blend of bar am-
bience and good food, the restau-
rant is a good place to go when in-
timacy just won’t do.

In addition, a meal at Sergio’s
guarantees access to Hippo’s,
which, depending on musical
tastes, will be a blessing or a curse.

Though three-piece white suits
have long since departed, the club
is basically the same as when it was
Fast Eddie’s.

My wife and 1, rapidly aging
duo that we are, began a stroll
through Hippo’s that turned into a
dash for the nearest exit when the
roar of '80s disco bocm and a
bizarre video show featuring a
four-wheel drive rodeo hit us
square in fogey sensibilities.

Sergio’sis open daily.

TASTY MORSELS

P.J. BURGER & SONS, 700
MARINE DRIVE, NORTH
VANCOUVER

ONE OF NORTH Vancouver's
leading purveyors of gourmet
burgers has decided to move its
speciality to the back of the grill.

A new menu, featuring a wider
selection of entrees and salads to
fuel the ever-widening palates of
reformed burger addicts, will ac-
company P.J.’snew name.

The burger in P.J.'s title has
been retired to make way for the
more generic, P.J.’s Allstar Cafe.

A more indepth assessment of
the new menu will follow.

BERNARD CALLEBAUT
CHOCOLATERIE, 1836
MARINE DRIVE, WEST YAN-
COUVER

CHOCOHOLICS beware: Bernard
Callebaut has opened its first Van-
couver store.

For those who love top quality
Belgian chocolate, the new West
Vancouver outlet will be a glorious
bonanza.

The Callebaut chain is based in
Calgary, where the company’s fac-
torv began. It has since spread its
wonderful products to Edmonton,

Serving

The North Shore

For Over 40
years!

Open llam-llpm 7 days a week

Free

54°

SPECIALS * HEARTY SOUPS « ESPRESSO

921-B161 for reservations,

Partners Bistro
1209 Lonsdale, North Vancouver 988-3007

PASTA MADNESS

Valid after 3 p.m. daily. Expires October 31/86

© SUNOS ALUWIH © SIWIDIdS ATIVG © SUAZILaddV » S1UISSAC «

parking
117-260 W. Esplanade

986-2228

BAR © LICENSED e HOME MADE SOUPS * ESPRESSO BAR « &

Linguini or Fettuccini with
Bolognese, Cream sauce, Clam
sauce includes salad

AlRIV3H © SIWID3dS ATIVE © SUAZILAd

A smilesnothof banquets & private

Horseshoe Bay

parties.

Rey

NEWS photo Tom Burley

SERGIO PATRICX (left) and Ricardo Munoz relax with Sergio’s Oyster
Bar mascot, Ed the macaw, The restaurant, Iloccated on Lonsdale Avenue,
is proving popular with North Shore diners.

Banff and now Vancouver.

Callebaut features over 40
varieties of chocolates. Each is
made with pure ingredients. Fill-
ings include fresh creams, butter
creams, ganache creams, fresh
nuts, fruits and liqueurs.

Two hundred gram boxes, which
include 18 varieties, go for $12 and
increase by $6 for every additional
100 grams.

So toss caloric fears to the winds

Schnitzel Neptune
FRESH VEAL

2 tor 510%

Served with baked potato or
rice and fresh vegetable

CP |

and revel in the beauty of choco-
late the way it was originally meant
to be enjoyed.
ENGLISH BAY CAFE,
Beach Avenue, Vancouver.
AT the English Bay Cafe a daily
special list features such marine
exotica as marlin served with fresh
poached pear and blush wine
($13.95) and Thresher Shark, grill-
ed and served with Dijon Hollan-
daise and fresh dill.

1795

Spicy beef, chicken or lamb sate,
green beans, lamb curry served
with rice.

Special from 4:30-8:30 daily
Open for lunch and dinner from 11 am
Saturday from 10 a.m., Sunday from 5 p.m.
Resarvations 987-8812
1301 Lonsdale, North Vancouver

fas a sO a ed eS e

<
or
oe?

xe?

Entertainment & Solid
Gold cards do not apply F
to specials, a

La Bell

RESTAURANT

235 - 15th Street,

West Van

. Lunch Monday-Friday
& 11:00-30m

926-0861

Dinner Monday-Sunday §
5:30-11pm @