With the future openings of Pinkys (the stop work order appears to be gone) and the Glowbal Group’s latest incarnation across the street, the east part of West 4th appears to be undergoing somewhat of a Yaletownification.
The rest of Kits doesn’t appear to be immune to this trend either. The newly opened The New Bohemian just strikes me as very Yaletown. The logo, the font, the “social lounge”.
Martiniboys made a pre-opening visit, and the food does sound pretty good though:
Chef Kevin Sanwell […] plans to use local and seasonal ingredients to create dishes such as a free-range pork tenderloin with curried quinoa and pineapple chutney, Salt Spring Island mussels, and organic sirloin steaks with sweet potato mash.
I am by no means against dining lounges or great new concepts coming to Kits. I’m just not sure if we really need two Yaletowns. But Martiniboys think that The New Bohemian may just bring us what we’ve been missing:
this group just might bring us the restaurant that Kits has been missing. Quality food, a relaxed atmosphere and an unpretentious attitude, now doesn’t that sound practical? Throw on your Birkenstocks and head down.
Birkenstocks? Seriously?
Last modified: May 13, 2008
Well if the attitude is unpretentious, it won’t be like Yaletown at all. To be truly Kits, the service will have to be utterly indifferent (think Noodle Box). I certainly hope Yaletownification isn’t happening, as Yaletown is the perfectly controlled existence. Walk here, stand there, play there, park there. Every area in Yaletown seems to fit one kind of activity, to the exclusion of all others.
There’s no sense of the organic bumps and dips that give the rest of the city a lot of its character in Yaletown, which is so sterile to the point it sometimes feels like a ghost town.
YUCK! Hate the name “the New Bohemian” – hopefully they’ll fail just like Fiction did – but quicker. Do they even know what “bohemian” means? I really don’t want yuppification in this part of Kits but fear that our pro-development municipal and provincial governments will continue to trod over our rights. I pray we never become a 2nd Yaletown but it is pretty likely. Kind of how Kits was the cool, hippie/artist area, then Commercial, then Main and now Kits is becoming more high end, I guess it will spread like a disease to Commercial and Main eventually.
Actually Frances, Fiction didn’t fail, but was sold (from what i understand at quite a high price) to the new owners so that the owner could pursue a new hotel project.
Isn’t it funny that the critics of these types of things are the ones who wont spend a dime supporting the local businesses who invest in their community, and then bemoan the loss of their ‘community’ joints to larger business interests.
You keep making the hippie bed, you’ll have to keep smelling like hemp my dear frances. Go back to the naam and eat your pre-packaged ‘vegan’ burgers. Yeah. . that’s great for the environment.