Pig, the really compact View Street spot that serves terrific pulled pork and beef brisket sandwiches, is about to move into much larger quarters. Customers are being told that the new Pig will open at the Atrium on Sept. 20. [Update: more likely to be late September, they're saying.] The new location will have way more seats - around three dozen inside, and another dozen or so outside. It will have a menu similar to the one at the Colwood Pig, with BBQ ribs and fried chicken joining the sandwiches.
The Atrium is the curvy building at Blanshard and Yates that's the new HQ for B.C. Ferries. Zambri's, the Italian restaurant, and Habit coffee will also be at the Atrium.
The existing Pig location will be transformed into a gourmet hot dog spot.
Pig's prices, by the way, have gone up with the arrival of the HST. For years, despite rising costs, they stuck to $5 (tax included) for all three of their star sandwiches - pork, beef and chicken. The pulled pork is now $6, and the beef and chicken are $6.50.
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I just discovered Cornichon.org, a wide-ranging Seattle food site that makes occasional visits to Vancouver Island.
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Many downtown restaurants are clearly hurting. In several strolls on recent sunny summer days, I spotted numerous nearly-empty restaurants at the supper-hour. And no lineups at places that often have lineups. A Times Colonist story quotes a B.C. restaurant official who says business has dropped for many places since the July 1 arrival of the HST. I'm sure there are exceptions. Not sure if it's normal, but on a recent Sunday, it took 45 minutes in line to get a table at a bustling Rebar, the vegetarian restaurant at Bastion Square.
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The I Hate to Cook Book, Peg Bracken's bestseller in the 1960s, has been re-issued with minor tweaking for our more-food-aware age; nytimes.com has a story. We have a copy of the original at our house. The recipes are heavy on canned and frozen ingredients. A lot of canned cream soups are involved. I can testify that cream soups can indeed be magical ingredients, turning dry pork chops into less dry pork chops.
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