ON THE PLATE: Vancouver's Black + Blue packs a punch

Black + Blue owner Emad Yacoub and Chef Josh Wolfe are ready to dig into the 3.5 pound Tomahawk steak at one of Vancouver's best steakhouses.

Rob Newell

Last month, as some regular readers might remember, behemoth Black + Blue on Alberni St. came in at No. 3 on my list of Vancouver’s best new restaurants of the year. The choice, so I’ve been repeatedly told, was surprising, as I may have given the impression over the years that I’m a small, 30-seat room sort of diner. I can’t argue that, but it doesn’t mean that I’m not above being seduced, as I most certainly was in this instance.

In any event, because it was a list of 10, I didn’t have the editorial space to properly qualify my claim of Black + Blue’s worthiness, so this week, having returned for another supper, I’m going to break it down with a full review.

As is the case with all the restaurants in Emad Yacoub’s ever-growing stable (The Glowbal Group), Black + Blue is anchored by aesthetic drama. What makes the new, multi-million dollar, high-end steakhouse stand out from the rest, however, is how impactful that drama is. While Yacoub’s other rooms (Italian Kitchen, Society, Coast, Sanafir, Glowbal) are often blunt in their aspirational flashiness, Black + Blue is more refined. Supplanting the usual ostentation (for ostentation’s sake) that only an Abbotsford coke dealer could love is a plush sophistication softly expressed in dark fabrics, dark woods, white linens, and a huge Tom Dixon light installation that must have cost a fortune.

From its dominating, rectangular bar on the main floor (backed by a fetching glass, brick-backed cabinet hung with beef) to its gently lit, lofty mezzanine (lined with whisper-worthy, hideaway booths), it all looks as if Yacoub traded in his Spring Break party boat for a grand ocean liner of old. Put it all together and Black + Blue is more romance than raunch; more debonair than douche. And I love it.

The soaring space — beautifully expressed by local design firm BOX Interiors — also whisks one away from Vancouver more readily. Nothing about Black + Blue even hints remotely at the city outside (an ideal dinner solution for escapists).

While Yacoub and BOX may have aimed, you’d think, for Chicago or New York, the soundtrack rather suggests you’re on the Las Vegas strip instead. It’s painfully incongruous. On my most recent visit, at some point between the appetizer and the main course, it got worse than I could I ever imagined. Yes, I was amazed to hear Sisqo’s “The Thong Song.”

Now, I’m no arbiter of musical taste, but I daresay there’s room for improvement here. It’s perfectly alright to try and inject some fun into a soundtrack in order to modernize an aged restaurant aesthetic, but when the attempt causes diners to fantasize about burying the DJ up to his neck in a pit of angry scorpions and rabid badgers, it’s time to switch stations.

Mercifully, that’s the only thing that stands to disappoint about the Black + Blue experience. The rest is an absolute delight. Chefs Josh Wolfe and Dennis Peckham are dishing what I think to be the most solid steakhouse menu in the city without veering far from the classics. Oysters Rockefeller and prawn cocktail? Yes. French onion soup and chop salad? Check. Lobster thermidor and beef Wellington? Of course. They also prep a Caesar salad tableside from scratch that transcends its ubiquity with flawlessness, and pair a mean seared foie gras with Riesling-soaked apricots tempered by a syrup of black pepper. All the ancillaries are well represented; everything from creamed corn and Lyonnaise potatoes to sauces Bearnaise and peppercorn.

Wolfe and Peckham do lots besides, but the main draw, of course, is the beef. Remember that brick-backed cabinet on the main floor? The glowing, salmon-coloured bricks behind all the meat might look like marble from afar, but look closer and you’ll find that they’re made of Himalayan salt, which helps in the aging process by removing moisture. All the steaks — Reserve Angus, Double RR Ranch, Snake River Wagyu, P.E.I. Blue Ribbon — are aged 28 to 45 days, and the resulting flavours are clean and true. I’ve eaten several of their steaks now (tenderloin, NY strip, rib-eye), and have come to the easy conclusion that, locally, only Hy’s and Gotham are at this rarefied level when it comes to steaks. If any other restaurant in Vancouver is doing a better job, I don’t know about it.

But that isn’t the extent of Black & Blue’s reach in the excellence department. My hat goes off to the staff for their adroit service, the best I’d enjoyed since Hawksworth. From the bar to the booths, it is a well-oiled machine of talents pulled from some of the best rooms in town (on my last visit, I was lucky enough to get Tony Peneff, a legend formerly of Parkside and La Quercia). I’ve always appreciated attention to detail, and everyone who served me here had it in spades. Save for the music, top marks across the board.

1032 Alberni St. | 604-637-0777 | GlowbalGroup.com.