Boulevard and WildTale Launch Seafood Boils

Special Sunday feasts celebrate crustaceans, bivalves, and all things delicious.

The summer seafood boil is a generations-old tradition throughout much of North America: in Louisiana, where crab, crawfish, and shrimp draw hundreds to backyards, community centres, and city streets; in New England, where clams are the focus; and, of course, in Eastern Canada, where lobster is plucked from local waters and then immersed in a roiling cauldron, to be served with corn on the cob, plenty of butter, and cold beer. Social as well as satiating, it gives friends, family, and strangers an opportunity to celebrate the season in one of the best ways imaginable.Beginning this weekend, two recent additions to Vancouver’s plethora of seafood eateries aim to make the boil a more popular West Coast pastime. Every Sunday from July 19 to Aug. 30, beginning at 6pm, Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar hosts one on its street-side patio. Limited to 24 seats each week, it features fresh crawfish, jumbo prawns, clams, mussels, and Dungeness crab, alongside accompaniments including wedge salad, bacon-jalapeño cornbread, and B.C. blueberry crumble. Tickets are $49 per person (two-guest minimum), not including beverages, taxes or gratuity. Ten percent of sales go to the BC Hospitality Foundation.WildTale Coastal Grill, the new seafood-focused Yaletown eatery from the team behind the Flying Pig, launches a crab boil Sunday, July 26, from 1-4pm. Dungeness crab is the star attraction, of course, to be served at a communal patio table with mussels, prawns, clams, sausage, corn, and potatoes. Tickets are $25 per person; call the restaurant at 604-428-9211 or stop by to reserve your spot. The boil returns on the last Sunday of every month. Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar845 Burrard St.604-642-2900 WildTale Coastal Grill1079 Mainland St.604-428-9211