Victoria’s Secrets (Part III of IV): Feel Superior

For the third in our four-part “Victoria’s Secret” series, ’twas a damp, overcast Wednesday night when your Hedonista and Ronaldo  – a.k.a. “Cornichon” – bedecked in vintage attire and traipsed over to The Superior, jonesin’ to catch a film noir flick.

Although naught but a few blocks from the main tourist attractions of Victoria – the Fairmont Empress, the Royal British Columbia Museum, the British Columbia Parliament Buildings, the Pacific Undersea Gardens, the Royal London Wax Museum, and the Hotel Grand Pacific – lies the lovely neighbourhood of James Bay. Located on the south side of Inner Harbour, James Bay is a rare jewel: it makes up the oldest residential neighbourhood (north of San Francisco) on the North American West Coast. It is here that we found yet another treasure….

HEDONISTA: Ever since I first tried this wonderfully whimsical  place, I’m now happy to say that I’m as close to a regular as one who now lives in Seattle can be. A small plates eatery with a focus on small local food producers and BC beer and wine, The Superior supports local artists and musicians. From the peaceful patio to the always-interesting interior, The Superior – which opened in October 2005 – is all about the ambiance. In fact, the entire restaurant serves as owner Lisa Boehme’s own personal canvas, which she redesigns seasonally (or whenever the mood takes her). Her goal as an artist and visionary: to challenge people to think outside of the box, to change the way one thinks and, by doing so, to make the world a better place.

Much like the interior and exterior, the menu at The Superior Café is also a blank canvas; for, here, art is food and food is art. Not over the top, mind you – just good, creative-yet-simple small bites served up with an artistic eye. They do weekend brunches (10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.) and evening meals Tuesday through Sunday (5:00 p.m. ’til “late”). (They don’t currently do lunches.) They do offer a “soup of the moment.” And their menu changes up weekly. In the evenings they host art and cultural events, be they movies, music, or even dating games.

That night – in my crushed black velvet dress, black stockings and patent leather Mary Jane-heeled shoes tied with black ribbons – we enjoyed the 1941 flick The Maltese Falcon – complemented by their version of a Cosmopolitan, sans rose: white cranberry juice, cointreau & vodka, served up with a lime wedge. Very nice – think gin & tonic meets lemonade…. Their noshies are very pleasant – their root chips, for example, get on like a house on fire with their beer, wine, and spirits  … not to mention their film noir (think a creatively classy alternative to the traditional movie fare of potato chips and popcorn).

RONALDO: Film Noir night at a cafe just off the Inner Harbour called The Superior. Film noir as in Bogie. It’s been almost three-score years and ten since the great writer-director John Huston and his gang of players (Bogie, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre) launched their concept: hard-driving, fast-talking, high-contrast urban adventures. Guns, dames, cigarettes, booze. Quick cuts interspersed with long, long takes. Actors who created dark characters; scripts that told a dark story.

Thus does Cornichon find himself, of a Wednesday evening, in ascot & leather jacket, watching the iconic Maltese Falcon. Best supporting actor for Greenstreet in his first movie. Bogie misquoting Shakespeare (“The stuff dreams are made of”) as the elevator takes Mary Astor away.

Lights up and The Superior’s owner, Lisa Boehme, appears. We recognize her, don’t we? From Toulouse-Lautrec’s sketches of Paris nightlife. Superior’s lofty space across from Fisherman’s Wharf Park was built as a gathering spot for under-age, off-duty seafarers; later it became a Unitarian church. Now it’s an arty restaurant, an eclectic performance venue and unofficial community center. Hundreds of shoes festoon a tree in the courtyard: a fundraiser for battered women, an expression of Lisa’s open-hearted, California-girl, earth-mother personality. There’s food and drink here nightly, as well as a popular weekend brunch. Organic, of course. A “culinary artist” named Torin Egan’s in charge of the kitchen. But the spirit of the place comes from Lisa, self-described “visionary,” who has the creativity to keep all the wheels spinning without going off the tracks.

(Want to feel Superior? Try this unique gem, and you will.)