Read Drink & Be Merry

I was recently asked to help out at Richmond Magazine with their Top 25 Restaurants issue that just hit the stands a few days ago.  Tina E did a great job as my editor, taking my rather lengthy thoughts and condensing them down to a more reasonable length for the feature.  You should rush out a get a copy and read it – if that leaves you wanting a bit more then here is the full piece on Can-Can……

If I didn’t have a kitchen, Can-Can could easily provide me with all my meals.  Really, I mean it.

Except for Sundays – when Can-Can serves an excellent brunch – they don’t actually have a breakfast menu but what they do have is, in a way, much better.  Opening at 7:00 AM they serve a rotating array of pastries, croissant and fresh breads with jams – all baked in-house.  Sample a Pecan Madeleine or their amazing Almond Croissant and you’ll stop here rather than a fast food drive through any day of the week.  Pair that with a pot of fresh coffee, tea or hot chocolate and you’ll get up a few minutes early, bring your newspaper (or laptop – they do have wi-fi) and have a relaxing start to your day with someone else doing the clean-up.

Skip out of the office for lunch and get recharged with happy taste buds for the remainder of the day.  While some dishes are available year-round, Croque Monsieur or add an egg for the Madame, the menu rotates to take advantage of seasonal items and desires.  Cold winter days are made less nasty after a Braised Lamb Sandwich or a Fried Oyster BLT and if you’re under the weather try the Butternut Squash Soup, the creamy goodness won’t cure you but you will feel much better.

Don’t be concerned if you are running a bit late for lunch.  Can-Can does continuous service and has an afternoon café menu.  The burger is one of the best in town, with a difficulty bonus for being able to serve them rare or medium rare perfectly and without complaint, and the pommes frites are second to none.  If you’re looking for something else then try the Moules Frites, mussels and fries.  While the traditional white wine and garlic is excellent try the mustard, tarragon and pancetta.  The creamy flavor combination of the mustard sauce and mussels will bring conversation to a halt.

Dinner takes Can-Can’s French Bistro theme to its height.  From Escargot to Beouf Tartar for starters (most available in half orders so you can sample more) to Sole Meuniere or Grilled Hanger Steak Bordelaise for entrees you will forget you are in Richmond.  The French wine list can be a bit intimidating but have no fear, just flag down the beverage manager, Bob Talbot, who has probably forgotten more about wine then I currently know.  Starting in January they will also offer a prix fixe menu – entrée and soup or salad for $20 – a nice option in these tough economic times.

One can even swing by after a movie.  Can-Can doesn’t close till 1:00 AM (2:00 on Friday and Saturday) making it the perfect place to stop for a dessert (all, including sorbets and ice creams, made in-house) a cheese plate or an after-dinner drink.

What is possibly the most amazing thing is that Can-Can does all this and does it so well.  Most restaurants that try to do too much lose consistency and simply become mediocre.  Yep, I could eat all my meals here.

A while back I asked Chris, owner of Can-Can, about the number of children that I would see at Can-Can.  It didn’t matter what time of day I was there, brunch, lunch or dinner, there always seemed to be kids in the restaurant.  His reply was that they had tried to make the place family friendly from day one.  They had only started out with two high chairs, gone up to 4 and then to 8 and were considering needing more.  This is a bit surprising considering the menu has only a couple of kids items for lunch and brunch and none at dinner.  It succeeds, however, with good food, apps and sides that kids will eat and enjoy, and a staff that treats kids with respect.  The bonus is I’ve never seen a kid melt down or cause a scene in the place – they all seem to be well behaved and schooled on how to act in a restaurant.  No screaming kids like I’ve seen at Casa Grande or some of the chain places.

So, at the tender age of 4 weeks, we bundled up Elias and trucked him down to Can-Can for a Saturday dinner – his first real night out.  We even warned Can-Can that if things looked like they weren’t going well we might need our food to go.  They told us we were welcome regardless and the noise level on a Saturday night would drown out a crying baby.  Turned out it didn’t matter.  He slept through dinner, woke up for dessert and quietly had a bottle as we finished.

For dinner we had a slew of our favourites for appetizers and starters.  Nothing new here.  But, here in the latter part of winter, the ever changing menu offered us some new choices.

M was thrilled with the new Saturday special.  She spied what she called a ‘German’ plate and had no further need to look at the menu.  Pork cutlet, bratwurst, knackwurst, sauerkraut over corned beef, potato with parsley and a dollop of grain mustard.  A German plate at a French restaurant?  No actually Alsatian, no theme issues here.  She thought the knackwurst was ‘ok’ but really enjoyed the brat  and thought the sauerkraut was outstanding.

Another new dish on the menu was braised lamb.  I’m a real fan of braised dishes but a little hesitant in ordering them in a restaurant.  The time involved typically means the dish was made well in advance and can often taste as if it has been sitting on a buffet steam table for far too long.  If it wasn’t the meat comes out tough, from too short a cooking time, and has not had the opportunity to absorb all the flavours from the braising juices.  This was done perfectly.  Meat falling away from the bone, the fat slowly dissolved into the meat to give it the signature rich taste of a long, slow braise.  Umani!

Finn had his usual gougeres and then a dish of macaroni and gruyere.  Our dinner guest was in the mood for meat.  Can-Can has a steak frites dish that is good but can sometimes disappoint.  The strip steak is a little thin and mere seconds (or too long under a heat lamp) send the meat from medium rare to overcooked too often.  The pommes frittes also tend to shed some of the salt applied to them making the steak a little too salty.  It does make a good lunch dish and can satisfy that meat craving but I tend to pass on that choice for dinner.  I recommended that L get the hanger steak – a thicker and more flavourful cut that doesn’t rely on a sauce for taste.  She ordered, it came out beautifully sliced with mashed potatoes.  A perfect medium rare it satisfied her craving perfectly.

So, after coffee, after dinner drinks and dessert the another nice evening ended at Can-Can.  As we left the table next to us exclaimed that they didn’t even realize there was a baby as he had been so quiet (unconscious) throughout the meal.  We’re not ready to declare Elias a baby that can go out anywhere, like we did with Finn, but we are optimistic and will take it step by step.