L'Abattoir

Dinner Where the Jail Stood

3.5 of 5

Any restaurant named after a slaughterhouse, set beside Blood Alley, on the site of Vancouver's first jail, is daring you to take it seriously. L'Abattoir at 217 Carrall Street in Gastown takes the dare. The heritage space sits on Gaoler's Mews, and the room pairs industrial bones with a mezzanine that flatters everyone in it. The bar seats look into the kitchen, which is where I would rather be anyway.

Executive chef Jasper Cruickshank cooks French food with a West Coast accent. Michelin, which lists L'Abattoir as recommended, singles out the baked oysters, Fraser Valley duck with golden turnip, and a mille-feuille with salted honey cream, buckwheat and bourbon. Recent menus have carried a steak tartare with chutoro, fried shiso and oyster, which is surf and turf for people with opinions. The cocktail program is half the reason to come. This is a room that takes its bar as seriously as its kitchen.

Here is the inside play. Happy hour runs Tuesday to Saturday from five to six, with $12 spritzes and half-price bottles of champagne, and Wednesdays bring bar specials all night, including $10 martinis. Come early in the week, perch at the bar, eat the oysters, and stay for dinner if the mood takes you. A jail turned into a dining room is the kind of redemption story I can get behind.

Order this: Baked oysters, Fraser Valley duck, Mille-feuille with salted honey cream, A martini on Wednesday
The damage: $$$$
Go: Early in the week, starting at happy hour
Find it: 217 Carrall St, Vancouver, BC V6B 2J2