Working class nosh served in aristocratic NV setting FORSTER’S COUNTRY RESTAURANT AT EMERALD PARK, 350 EAST SECOND STREET, NORTH VANCOUVER, 988-8353. VISA, MASTER- CARD AND AMERICAN EXPRESS ACCEPTED. WHEELCHAIR AC- CESSIBLE. OPEN FROM 11 A.M. MONDAY TO SATURDAY AND FROM 10:30 A.M. SUNDAY IF MEAT had been the main food of choice for Col. Alfred St. George Hamersley and his various North Shore hunting entourages, tnen the Emerald Park’s original owner would have heartily approved of Forster’s Country Restaurant. Following a recent hiatus in res- taurant activity at the lodge, the various grand rooms of the Hamersley estate are now filled with the slow-cooking aromas of roasting beef that would have received spirited rounds of Hear! Hear! from the assembled pio- neering blue-bloods. Forster's Country Restaurant at Emerald Park Lodge is the third restaurant operation to take resi- dence in the coione!l’s palatial old lodge. Two predecessors failed to keep the manor filled in the man- ner it must in order to survive in the unforgiving restaurant world. But Forster's has taken a slightly different restaurant approach to TIMOTHY RENSHAW table hopping up the regal Hamersley snout. Forster's management has been careful not to tart-up the lodge’s insides with too much modern fluff. Some mobile woodgrain piant- TEWS photo Moll Lucente DARRELL Walton, general manager of Forster’s Country Restaurant at Emerald Park Lodge, delivers a roast beef dinner to customers of the new festaurant located in the North Vancouver heritage home. Roast beef is a speciality at Forster’s. Emerald Park. Its menu cuts all pretensions to the upper crust, providing instead a meat and potatoes selection that recalls the overwhelmingly suc- cessful original launched by the Keg & Cleaver in the early 1970s. This is unadorned grub at unadormed prices: hamburgers ($4.50 to $5.95), steaks and roast beef ($8 to $10), chicken ($8 to $9), a little seafood ($6 to $9) and a dash of pasta ($6 to $7). There are also breakfast and lunch items and a seniors’ and children’s menu. And though there is nothing here the seasoned diner has not seen and savored in any number of chicken and steak houses, it’s a selection that remains perennially popular with a fot of palates. Elegant dining at affordable prices sayeth the Forster's slogan. Well... perhaps. What it does pro- vide is workingman nosh in aristocratic surroundings — the vpportunity for those who prefer basic grub to breathe the rarified patrician airs once drawn past the flowing handlebar moustache and IT’S PASTA MONTH All Pasta Dishes $595 with garlic bread North Vancouver location only #3 Lonsdale 984-3337 ers have been added to separate dining areas in the various lodge rooms, but the overall feeling is one of grand domestic warmth. My wife and | were seated in the non-smoking library beside a roar- ing gas fireplace and enough liter- ature to carry us through a year of ? Forster oxperiences. On what was a night of rain and sleet, the location was extremely welcome and extremely cosy. We were promptly offered a Fuzzy Navel (vodka, peach schnapps and orange juice, $2.25; Egads! what would the colonel have said? Dozens of turn-of-the- century cigars would no doubt have shot from assorted lodgers’ lips). We opted for the Hunter Valley Chardonnay ($15.95) from the red section of the restaurant’s wine list. | was intrigued by the prospect of getting a red chardonnay, but the selection turned out to be a wine list misprint. Our waiter was obviously new to the service game, but extremely eager. While our shoes and socks were set by Forster’s fire to dry, we began with the evening’s special Pea Soup ($1.95). Too institutional in flavor for me, it came with the small packages of salted crackers presented in most low-rent diners and was very bland. But the entrees were much bet- ter. My wife tried a Steak Diane ($9.95), while | ordered the house speciality Roast Beef Dinnez in the Cowgirl's Cut (six oz. $7.25), being an old cowgal from way back. Both the steak, presented in three medallions beneath a bran- dy cream sauce, and the roast beef, slow-cooked using Forster’s special moist-oven method, were wonderfully tender and moist. Accompanying edible ac- coutrements were simple and rela- tively uninteresting: Parisienne potatoes and broccoli with hollandaise sauce. Dijon mustard is available for roast beef afi- cionados. But while the cuisine could not be classed as haute, neither is it priced as such. | passed on desserts, not being a fan of Black Forest or cheesecakes regardless of whether they are made on the premises or not. They are too frilly and sweet for me. Forster's provides basic food, with an emphasis on first-class beef, at low prices in an interesting and grand North Vancouver heritage home. - =, WEST COAST AMUSEMENTS 7 This coupon gooa' for 6 RIDES FOR This coupon good for 6 RIDES FOR Lynn Valley Shopping Centre March 8 to 12, 1989 March 8 - 10 — Open at 3:00 p.m. March 11 - 12 — Open at 12 noon IIOARTTFTANCG BANAZAAN BA ZANY 1 VAS 21 - Wednesday, March 1, 1989 - North Shore News . Vee * : YS eo | THE WEST VANCOUVER SKETCH CLUB invites you to our SHOW FOR ALL WEEKEND Where all our painters, beginning, intermediate, & advanced, will show and sell their best work. Demonstrations, too! March 4 & 5, 10am to 4pm at the West Vancouver Seniors Centre 21st and Fulton | BILLY COWSILL | In the Eighties there are few acts that - capture the energy or § sentimentality of early @ rock songs, with as strong a sense of fun as does the rock } veteran Billy Cowsill. : : An act not } . to be missed. . Oo Tonight thru Coming March 15th - Saturday Tim Brecht . Rusty Gul/ NEIGHBOURHOOD PUB . 175 East Ist, N. Van 988-5585 A stunning panorama of the Vancouver area. Superb service... warm and relaxed. Innovative cuisine featuring the finést of regional foods. DINNER FROM 5 O’CLOCK LUNCH & SUNDAY BRUNCH MOUNTAIN 299-1155 ON @ BURNABY e® 100 Centennial Way, Burnaby Reservations