Nick’s Place 4 The Great Greek perseveres Nick’s Place, The Great Greek, 107 West Esplanade, North Van- couver, 986-6211. Visa, MasterCard accepted and American Ex- _ press. Open every day for funch and dinner. Take the kids or __call a babysitter? You could do either. = HE GREAT Greek does not appear to be doing so " great. ’ “Nick Vavaris, the restaurant's owner and namesake, is watching a baseball game on the bar televi- : .sion set from a barside table. » Warm summer winds are blow- “-” 2jng through the open glass doors ..-of his restaurant, but few custom- ers are doing the same. _. 7. And the restaurant itself, once called Your Place or Mine, now - €alled either The Great Greek or .. Nick’s Place, is showing various - signs of fatigue. . It was, after all, the birthplace of the mighty Keg & Cleaver restau- ~ “3. rant chain two decades ago, and it has served Vavaris for the, past six years... gee Butits interior, whichwas . + : . Subterranean duzing the Keg’s | ~.- -. no-windows era, remains relatively dark, and the renovations invested >in the building by Vavaris are in_ need of another upgrade. - : “Si Interiordecor, however, has” _ never held back most thriving Greek restaurants. They survive as else. . Nick’s Place needs some at- mosphere. It also needs some soft hands in its kitchen. . ‘A recent sampling of.the restau- rant’s Greek Platter for Two - -~ ($26.95) found a good-sized plate , : featuring a cross-section of Greek * -:* salad, lamb and chicken souviaki, kalamari; tzatziki, pita bread, roast ° potatoes, prawns and scallops. - _ ’ But while the portions were “.*. generous, the: more delicate items, such as the prawns and scallops, —— |. were.deep-fried into unappetizing "Jumps. . may Perhaps Sensing all of the above, - - . - Vavaris attempted earlier this year to turn part of his place into a neighborhood pub. > His idea was to convert the building's basement, now filled with the debris of various restau- rant operations, and the southern portion of the restaurant's main - floor into a Greek-style rotisserie that would feature the informai “ sights and smells of an urban Greek souvlaki bar... ‘Its location in the back-alley courtyard of the.Keg building fac- "ing the commercial buzz of the . Lonsdale Quay and the adiacent culinary crackle of Anatoli Souviakiand Corsi Trattoria would POPMINO BIANCO. 1990. FRESCOBALDI. D.O.C. $11.95 (TALY} ’ HTS NOT true: that. plantings of “northern” European frapes like lonnay are recent ‘experiments in italy; the ch _Frescobaldi’s. ancestors were doing it in Tuscany pinot blanc and char Marchesi. di. : . well over a century ago. Nor is it true, as § have pointedly -.. been, reminded, that such non- _ Native grapes disqualify a wine for much on atmosphere as anything S Timothy Renshaw TABLE HOPPING be formidable. : Meanwhile, Nick’s pub would occupy the-Esplanade street level of The Great Greek’s north end drawing walk-by street traffic. ’ For Vavaris, who has been a res- taurant player in the Lower Lons- : dale area since 1972, the concept represented a new lease on life. But North Vancouver City Council'said no. * The area was already weil serv- ed by neighborhood pubs, they ‘argued. The perennial issue of parking in _ the Lower Lonsdale area was also a factor in sinking Vavaris’ pub idea. Although neighborhood pubs. are not theoretically supposed to ‘be places to which patrons drive, the area’s thriving Rusty Guill and . Sailor Hagar’s pubs serve clienteles that are made up of folks - from well beyond their immediate neighborhoods. But Vavaris alsa took some direct hits from the Tug’s pub fallout. oo . :. The Lonsdale Quay Hotel water- " ing hole was closed earlier this - year by hotel management after ‘the pub’s clientele began to - resemble more thugs than Tug’s. So Vavaris is left with his original Greek restaurant, for now. He plans to approach North Vancouver City Council with the pub idea again in 1993. The naturally congenial Vavaris knows his place needs more than the restaurant heritage location to be able to attract a competitive share of the clientele that fre- quents the extremely competitive Lower Lonsdale area. It's a challenge that could make or break Vavaris, but one he has faced before and beaten. They don’t call him the Great Greek for nothing. the D.O.C. status that is the Italian equivalent of the French Apella- _ tion Controllee (mea culpa). Here the hint of austerity from the pinot blanc and the_ floral ' complexity of well-established chardonnay, vines give this wine a ' tich texture and ‘size’ too often missing. in mass-marketed Italian whites. aae In last week’s Wine Spots special look at de-alcoholized wines, it was incorrectly stated that Loxton Sparkling Brut had an alcohol con- tent of 71.2%. Loxion Sparkling Brut, as- with all Loxton de- alcoholized wines, has an alcoho! content of ess than .5%. tn addition, Kevin Pfeiffer is the manager of the Loxton winery, not ‘Penfold’s Riverland Wineries. -by John Moore YHE GREAT GREEKS...Nick and Lia Vavaris in front of their North. Vancouv TRAVEL TO EUROPE @irst Class) A ow needn’t go toa , Y oreign country to learn how to be a Chef. British Columbia stands on its own when it comes to cuisine and we have the Chefs to prove _ it. Our 17 week intensive Professional ‘Chef Training Diploma Program can put you on. our way to an venturcus career. THE EUROPEAN ALTERNATIVE iy 738-3155 } JAPANESE. Teriyaki Shrimps : Teriyaki Chicken Teriyaki Chicken Skewer Teriyaki Pork “Curry Chicken Teriyaki Beef Skewer Teriyaki Combo — (1 Chicken & 1 Beef skewer) | FAST FOOD PRICES AUTHENTIC | Fr 0 0 D AT 5.50 4.50 4.75 4.50 4.50 5.00 .* All above items served with fluffy Japanese Rice & Salad | : HOURS: Monday-Saturday, 11am-9pm FREE DELIVERY -.5 km radius/TAKE-OUT -. | 2045 Lonsdale, N.. Van. $88-1868 5.00. _ NEWS photo Nei Luconte * er restaurant: 0: