Best New Design 2014

GOLD: HOMER ST. CAFÉ & BAR

In a city that’s grown used to candlelit caves, this year’s Best New Design award goes to a restaurant that looked past that brooding scene. Homer St. Café & Bar brought the French bistro back, and we’re deeply thankful. A multi­level space (with numerous private vignettes) gets a merry and airy treatment with antique floor tiles, a stamped tin ceiling, a century-old pastry station, and a cherry-red rotisserie grill. Designer Craig Stanghetta (principal at Ste. Marie Art and Design) is the brain behind gems like Bao Bei and Revolver Coffee, too; one of the things we love about Homer is that it pushes beyond those earlier successes to try something utterly new-and utterly missing from Vancouver’s dining scene. Honourable mentions to the 25-seat currywurst haven that is Bestie-a big ideas/small budget project with very smart functionality (a peg-hole wall that lets the owners rearrange furniture and artworks like kids playing with a Tinkertoy construction set); Cactus Club’s Coal Harbour location, which maximizes ocean views with tiered seating and put a twinkle in diners’ eyes with constellations of bulbous Bocci lights; and Burdock & Co., a rustic yet modern Mount Pleasant room where décor of wood and brick (including one brick made of honeycomb) inspires warmth and whimsy

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