Burgoo, the Lower Lonsdale eatery named after a traditional American stew, has always appealed to me on the basis of its unpretentious perspective on dining that puts an emphasis on comfort and accessibility.
The room is large and inviting, with rustic, heavy furniture and an earthy colour palette that makes it feel warm and honest. I must confess, however, that despite these positive attributes, I have not been a particularly regular patron of Burgoo over the years. This is principally because I so strongly identified the restaurant with stickto-your-ribs, hearty fare that somehow seemed suited only to cold and rainy winter evenings. As I discovered on a recent visit, however, Burgoo has embraced a new, fluid approach to its menu that allows it to celebrate light and playful flavours right alongside the heavier mainstays with which I have come to associate the restaurant.
Historically served in the American South and Midwest, a burgoo is a straightforward stew that makes use of whatever ingredients are available and is often prepared in large quantities in order to facilitate communal meals.
In other words, burgoo is, by definition, a seasonally influenced, social dish. It is fitting, then, that the eponymous restaurant has developed a new program of frequent menu updates that are based on seasonally available ingredients, served in a space that is highly conducive to group seating and plate sharing.
On my visit, the appetizers page of the menu had launched with new fare just two days earlier, while the entrées portion of the menu, I learned, was to undergo an update within the following two weeks. These frequent, cyclical updates are never wholesale menu changes, but rather small shifts in either the selection or preparation of dishes that allow for long-standing favourites to remain on the menu while new items, designed with a view to harnessing the best ingredients available at the time, keep the menu dynamic and interesting.
I began my meal with Mussels a la Espanol, a thoroughly delicious dish of plump local mussels steamed in white wine with garlic, tomatoes, saffron and chorizo. Despite being billed as an appetizer, the portion of mussels was very generous and contained heaps of succulent, carefully diced chorizo. I was grateful for the accompanying basket of crusty bread, which I used to mop up as much of the rich steaming broth as I could before shamelessly turning to my spoon to finish the job.
Next up was a plate of Thai shrimp cakes, four densely packed spheres of shrimp meat flavoured with fragrant cilantro, basil, and curry paste, all bound together with sweet potato. This was a decidedly bright and scrumptious dish, miles away from heavy winter fare. A glass of Kung Fu Girl Riesling paired nicely with the Thai flavours, the bracing acidity and signature citrus notes of the wine providing a perfect counterpart to the heady curry in the shrimp cakes.
Pausing to consider what to order for my next dish, I surveyed the bar that spans nearly an entire wall of the restaurant. Reviewing the products that lined the shelves I noted with interest that an effort has clearly been made here to focus on wines, beers, and spirits that complement chef Teresa Meilleur's deftly crafted, expertly realized menu. The wine list, though small, is refreshingly considered and reveals a commendable skill at food and wine pairing.
For my next course I decided on a chicken salad. Tender cubes of white chicken meat, morsels of crumbled blue cheese and a generous handful of crispy bacon bits were piled high atop a bed of mixed greens and red grapes. The entire dish was topped with a rich, buttermilk-based dressing; this was not a sparse, appetizer-sized salad, but a full-sized meal, reasonably priced at $14.
Overcome with an inexplicably voracious appetite, I decided to persevere with my meal and ordered a final dish: a soup and sandwich combination called the Afterschool Special, which permits the diner to select a cup of any of the seven soups available and pair it with one of six sandwich options, all for $16. Succumbing at last to the undeniable comforts of hearty fare, I chose the Gooey Cheese Grillers with a cup of butternut squash soup. The sandwich was decadently satisfying, its stringy gobs of emmental, gruyere, mozzarella and white cheddar barely contained by golden, toasted and buttery slices of baguette. The soup elevated the natural richness of butternut squash with the addition of maple syrup and toasted hazelnuts, a combination that worked much better in practice than it read on paper.
I admire the direction in which Meilleur and her team have taken the Burgoo menu and I will happily make it a habit to check in more often for seasonal updates.
Burgoo is located at 3 Lonsdale Ave. in North Vancouver. Phone: 604-904-0933. burgoo.ca
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. A self-described wine fanatic, he earned his sommelier diploma in 2001. Contact: hungryontheshore@gmail. com.
