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Arbutus Ridge: Quirky strip attracted La Buca to open shop

Nestled in a strip of single-storey small businesses along Macdonald Street south of West 24th Avenue, you’ll find an upscale but unfussy Italian trattoria called La Buca.
Andrey Durbach
La Buca owner/chef Andrey Durbach says the Arbutus Ridge area where his restaurant is located “has remained remarkably and blissfully consistent.” photo Dan Toulgoet

Nestled in a strip of single-storey small businesses along Macdonald Street south of West 24th Avenue, you’ll find an upscale but unfussy Italian trattoria called La Buca.

Co-owners chef Andrey Durbach and Chris Stewart opened the restaurant eight years ago with the intention of establishing a neighbourhood institution amid decades-old businesses. They include Kardynal Shoe Repair, The Garage auto repair and The Patty Shop, where Durbach, who attended the nearby Prince of Wales secondary, downed Jamaican patties as a teenager.

Unlike other commercial corners of the city, Durbach doesn’t expect this pocket to change anytime soon. “These pockets on the West Side, they used to be all over the place,” he said.

“There are a few quirks about this strip that I think will allow these businesses to be here for a while. Like, ordinarily, you might think that these things would be demolished and torn down for condos.”

He notes a narrow city easement separates the strip from the mature residential area behind it that he believes wouldn’t allow taller development.

Durbach and Stewart went on reconnaissance missions when their former West End restaurant Parkside, which became L’Altro Buca before they sold it, was slow. They’d heard buzz about Henry’s Kitchen at 4025 Macdonald St., checked it out and discovered good Mediterranean food in a setting where the owner’s children completed homework at a table and had their pictures from school tacked to the wall.

“We looked at the plastic lobsters on the walls and sat down at our table with a tablecloth and a glass top on top of it and kind of smiled and then looked around the dining room and said, holy crap, we know all these people,” Durbach said.

“They’re friends of my parents’ who live at 36th and Cypress, and Chris says I know these people from Bishop’s and we knew some of the people that would come for special evenings at Parkside and stuff and the penny dropped.”

Their expectation that neighbours would embrace their unpretentious but high-quality restaurant with its dark wood, burgundy banquettes, handmade pastas and Italian wine list has been fulfilled.

“The demographic is really quality here,” Durbach said. “They’re well-moneyed, people’s houses are paid for… they’re cultured and sophisticated people, travelled. They understand what an Italian restaurant is because they’ve been to Italy, probably more than once.”

Simon Lucken, one of the two managers who’s worked at La Buca since day one, says half of the restaurant’s clients are from Arbutus-Ridge and the surrounding area and half visit from elsewhere.

“I’ve got people here now that have standing reservations Saturday nights, they have for two, three years.” Lucken said.

One couple dines at the same corner table every Saturday night at 5:30 sharp, according to Durbach, 46. “In Vancouver, if you don’t have your neighbourhood as a base, you’re nowhere,” he added. “That’s your bread and butter on a rainy Monday night in November.

Lu Buca’s clientele are 35- to 60-years-old but the regulars from the neighbourhood don’t generally include Durbach’s schoolmates because they can’t afford to live in the affluent area. Durbach and Stewart also own Pied-a-Terre on Cambie Street, which Durbach says attracts area residents and diners from Richmond seeking a French meal, and The Sardine Can Spanish tapas bar in Gastown, which attracts the younger creative class on a night out.

Durbach has seen few changes in Arbutus-Ridge in the past eight years. “It has remained remarkably and blissfully consistent,” said Durbach who lives in Burnaby.  The only change is La Buca’s strip will soon be home to the Ridge Garden Restaurant that was forced to move from the demolished Ridge Theatre and bowling complex.

crossi@vancourier.com
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