The Revel Room lives up to its name.
This casual new Gastown boîte is lofty and funky, with lots of exposed brick, coloured lights, flickering candles and cool sculptured metalwork that is particularly pleasing to the eye.
The ambience is merry and boisterous. We are greeted at the door by a friendly valet who has just finished his shift, but takes the time to escort us in nonetheless.
Hmm, perhaps the room is a bit too festive: Our high-top table on the main floor, placed directly under a speaker, does not seem particularly conducive to the gossip session we have planned.
No worries. We simply move upstairs, where the ceiling is lower, the seating more intimate and the music - well, it's pretty loud up here, too. But the waitress kindly turns down the volume immediately after we place the request.
The bar features 15 easy-drinking wines available by the glass (a good third of them from the Okanagan), a short list of signature cocktails, six beers on tap and the standard selection of import bottles. The bar manager is Sean Hamilton (the former general manager at Cardero's), one of five owners in a partnership that covers almost every base in the industry.
Except teetotallers, it would seem.
What's this? No non-alcoholic beverages? My companion has just arrived from the gym and needs something quenching. The waitress promptly returns with a sparkling citrus elixir spiked with ginger and lots of water.
"Oh, is there something in there?" she says, peering at the ice in my glass. She retrieves the tumbler for closer inspection, pokes its contents with a fork and whisks it away. I have no idea what she saw and don't really need to know. Her response seems a tad brazenly casual, but I think she meant well. And the Revel Room certainly isn't a hoity-toity kind of place.
The best part of the package, however, is that the Revel Room stays open really late. The bar is licensed to serve until 2 a.m. and the kitchen doesn't announce last call until 1:30.
Chef Michael Pacey, who has put in time at the Rex, the Dockside Lounge and Brewery and Sean Heather's various kitchens, has created a small-plates menu that sails all over the globe.
The food is not fusion, as each dish steers close to its country of origin, but the skipper hits many ports. Seared albacore tuna ($12) is nicely seasoned with wild mushroom powder and perfectly salted. It's served on a tasty bed of yaki soba (wheat flour) noodle salad lightly tickled with chili oil. Mmm, we like.
Hawker-style satay ($12) is served the Balinese way, with a cilantro-licked mixture of minced chicken and prawn wrapped around a skewer of sugar cane. Again, very good.
Moroccan lamb meatballs ($12) are stewed in a spicy Harissa sauce and presented in a bubbling casserole dish topped with a cracked free-range egg. Interesting.
Then we hit rough waters around Italy. Seared beef carpaccio ($12) comes with a crumble of oddly bland blue cheese and red-pepper aioli. The experiment isn't working. What's wrong with olive oil and thin shaves of Parmesan?
I love that the "Knife and Fork" Caesar salad ($10) comes with whole leaves of romaine. I am not so crazy about the "crispy" bacon served in soggy chunks. I seriously dislike the dressing, which is light and bland.
Shrimp and jalapeno fritters ($11) fried in a cornmeal batter are dry puffs of cottony dough. The green-curry crème fraîche served on the side has a bite that sneaks up on you slowly. But unfortunately, for this dish it's too little too late.
One of the dessert options is a fun platter of assorted homemade cookies ($6). This type of comfort-food finale deserves a better selection of tea; the bar is only pouring orange pekoe. And it doesn't have any milk for stirring, only cream. Then again, this doesn't seem like a milk-and-cookies kind of place. It's more like cookies and brown cow doubles.
As a restaurant, I wouldn't call the Revel Room a destination. But it's a comfortably casual watering hole where you can kick up your heels with friends. And if you're in the neighbourhood and looking for a late-night nosh, you'll probably find some decent bites that are perfect for sharing without having to drop a huge wad of cash.
Revel Room: 238 Abbott St.; 604-687-4088
agill@globeandmial.com