Cote d’Azure serves an
original taste of France

CHARLES AZNAVOUR
vocals and accordion music,
if you please sir.

table
hopping

~ by Timothy
Renshaw.

. La Cote d’Azure remains the
venerable old French gentleman of
Vancouver’s blossoming restaurant
family.

When the restaurant first opened

“418 doors in 1969, the city was.-still
wearing culinary short pants.

“:.Citizens consumed meat and

-. potatoes’. with. obtuse gusto;. the -

more adventurous © occasionally

‘ wandered into Chinatown for a stir

fry and some Peking Duck.

French restaurants resided in
France or provided the backdrop
to fancy-pants foreign films, as far
as Vancouverites were concerned:

Today few local commercial or
retail complexes are without
French restaurants or restaurants
with French names. .

But-despite the deluge of heavy
sauce and: flambe.competition, La
Cote d’Azure has continued to
thrive at its 1216 Robson Street
location.

Increasingly surrounded..by a
renewed Robson Street bustle

created by neon lighting and other .

ingredients of ‘architecture mod-
erne, the restaurant ploughs dog-
gedly on inside what was once a

private West End residence.

FRENCH PARLOR

Decor is what might be expected
in the parlor of an eccentric French

* aristocrat. Wine bottles containing

the: vintages that separate the
- authentic Frenchman from_ his
classroom counterpart line the res-
taurant'’s anteroom interior, locked

. safely behind steel meshing.

In the 50-seat main dining area,
walls are decorated with stuffed
pheasants and the occasional stag’s
head.

Manning the maitre d's podium
is Eddy Cordes, La Cote d'Azure's
affable and somewhat world-weary
owner.

Though the fabric of the restau-
rant is showing the odd sign of
comfortable wear and tear, the
basic eye of its ownership to quali-

ee Monday May 19
Morris Dancing 42:00-1:00.

ty food and wine retains its 20-20
vision.

Service is a half step behind the
sometimes overly aerobic pace of
newer restaurants.

Menus’ are bound in weighty

leather — a reliable warning to the
thrifty that immediate retreat or
drastic overhaul to the weekly
budget will be necessary.
. La Cote d’Azure’s wine manual!
comes ilustrated with detailed
maps of such revered French
viticultural regions as Bordeaux,
Rhone and Bourgogne — designed
to provide travel information while
patrons tour through the ‘restau-
rant's wine cellar.

Cuisine offered is classic.French.
Prices are above the norm.

On a recent Friday night sampl-
ing, La Marmite Dieppoise
(homemade fish soup for those
who have misplaced their
English-French dictionaries),
$3.95, proved an excellent ap-
petizer — a concise cross-section
of mussels, scallops, and salon
adrift in a hearty deep - brown
seafood broth.

Served with the soup was an ex-
clusive La Cote d’Azure mayon-
Nnaise, tomato paste, garlic and
cayenne pepper spread with which
to lace liberally upon dainty
melba toast.

La Cote d'Azure entrees gét off
to a running start with Le Foie de
Veau Fontenay (calf’s fiver in a
cream, shallot and raspberry
vinegar sauce) at $12.50, and dash
nimbly up the financial scale to Le
Steak au Poivre Flambe ($19.95).

See Restaurant's
Page 1

“for children 12 and under) _

Prizes!!! Prizesit! Prizes!!!

807 Marine Dr.

PRIZES!

“North Vancouver

17 ~ Friday,,.May 16, 1986 - North Shore News