Nightingale –acclaimed Vancouver Chef David Hawksworth’s long awaited restaurant has finally opened its doors. And from what I could tell on a jam-packed Monday evening? Doing just fine, thank you.
No surprise. Hawksworth Restaurant in the Rosewood Hotel Georgia has been cleaning up when it comes to magazine awards since it opened in 2011, including Vancouver Magazine’s Restaurant of the Year and Chef of the Year for five consecutive years now, plus enRoute magazine’s top three Best New Restaurants, and Maclean’s magazine Restaurant of the Year. Prior to that in Europe, Chef Hawksworth has worked at Michelin-starred kitchens like Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, L’Escargot and The Square.
But Nightingale? Perfectly suited for Vancouver. Less ‘fine dining’ (for whatever that means in our current restaurant culture) and more casual. The “way people want to eat today,” says Hawksworth. Plenty of fresh, locally sourced vegetables, seasonal salads, pizzas, proteins and pastas. Sharesie, family-style plates, served in an industrial-chic two-level space, with seating for 176. Prices? Modest indeed, plates ranging from $12-$25.
Menu highlights? Too many to list. But impressive is the heirloom tomato salad with roasted eggplant and pistachio salsa verde, plus the 18-month-aged prosciutto di parma pizza, the ricotta tortellini with fava tips, pine nuts, and morel mushrooms.
The bar on the main floor itself is a stunner of a showpiece. Just sipping a classic cocktail there makes you feel like a million bucks.
Try the South Shore Sour – aperol, pedro ximénez sherry and grapefruit. Along with an impressive wine list, the restaurant has partnered with Main Street Brewing Company, to create a signature beer, named the Nighting-Ale. Clever.
Nightingale’s 7,400-foot interior was designed by multi-award winning Canadian design firm Studio Munge. A blend of refurbished light fixtures, exposed copper pipes, remodeled library furniture, marble countertops and light wood.
