Chef Robert Belcham (right) in the open kitchen at Refuel.

Credit: Andrew Morrison

ON THE PLATE: Refuel a triumphant makeover

It’s a hard thing to swallow when one of your favourite restaurants closes, and it’s often even harder to swallow whatever replaces it. But in the case of Kitsilano’s award-winning Fuel, which was recently shuttered and replaced a few days later by Refuel, a casual and more affordable variation on the original, it wasn’t hard to take at all. In fact, I much prefer it.

Refuel feels younger, looser, cooler, and more in keeping with the speed of the neighbourhood. Co-owner and sommelier Tom Doughty has traded in his suit for a pair of jeans and an open-neck shirt, while the kitchen crew — led by Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards “Chef of the Year” winner Robert Belcham and chef de cuisine Ted Anderson — have dumped their starched whites in favour of plain black T-shirts. Belcham, known as much for his cooking talent as his wash of colourful tattoos, has also grown a grizzly beard. “We never thought we were ‘fine dining’ in the first place,” Belcham points out. Doughty nods, adding that it wasn’t until Fuel started winning awards in that category that they were perceived as such.

The changes extend to the décor as much as the menu. The linen-draped tables have been replaced by butcher-block tops, and the elaborate place settings at the kitchen bar have been supplanted by utensils rolled in napkins. Gone, too, are the wine displays and flower arrangements.

But by no means has the room been stripped of all its character. They’ve added attractive wall panelling to give some texture to the peripheries; the once-bare rear wall has been painted over with a black-and-white farm scene interrupted by three backlit photo boxes, each one depicting a close-up of a seasonal ingredient (currently red cabbage, persimmon, and pomegranate); and there’s now a large circular table dominating the middle of the dining room (finally giving the eye a place to rest, where before it was just a sea of squares and rectangles). The wine list has been trimmed of its bigger guns, though a reserve list is available, and there’s now an equal emphasis on beer and cocktails.

What remains of Fuel are the three pillars that made me love it in the first place. For starters, the staff and management are almost all familiar faces (there are some great people who work here, both in the front and back of the house), all of them now seeming more at ease. Second, the kitchen bar is still an exciting place to watch meals get prepped, cooked, and plated. And third, the chefs have abandoned neither their high standards nor their attention to detail. While it’s clear the kitchen has clipped costs by staying away from Fuel’s pricier menu items, their passion for locally-grown, foraged, raised, and caught ingredients is unbowed. “I think we’d both sooner close and walk away before we made those kinds of compromises,” Doughty told me a few days before opening.

After a few visits, I can tell you this is the sort of food that might make you sway: dreamily creamy (and totally vegetarian) onion soup studded with garlic croutons, its surface dotted with an oil made from parsley and tarragon ($6.50); delicious and tender batter-dusted Humboldt squid ($9.50, although a little too small for that price); OMG-textured roasted bone marrow sprinkled with Maldon sea salt ($12.50); flawless, extra-peppery spaghetti carbonara with crispy pork cheek ($14); double-battered, buttermilk-fried Polderside chicken with a jalapeño biscuit, coleslaw, and gravy ($18); a thick and flavourful burger of Alberta prime beef, served rare on a pillowy bun, layered with bacon and cheddar, and served with delirium-inducing frites fried in beef tallow ($14.50); perfectly cooked keta salmon, sauced with a gentle rouille, and saddled with a tasty mash-up of leek, potato, and clam ($22); and a fabulously silky parfait of chocolate and peanut butter ($6.50).

Refuel’s food is not wholly dissimilar to Fuel’s. It’s still refined and idiosyncratic, with charmingly guttural accents here and there, but the “comfort” quotient has been amped up considerably, and the prices notably reduced. You can still get the Fuel menu’s dry-aged, 18-ounce ribeye steak for two, or the whole confit Polderside duck (both $55), but they’re off the menu, relegated to “feature” status so as not to bruise the impressions of cost-phobic first-timers during a recession.

That may be calculated, but it’s not unnatural. “What we would really like to give our regular customers,” Doughty told me, “is an excuse to visit us more regularly.” And so far, they have been. The customers are louder and less reserved than they used to be — a sure sign that they’re more at home in the new incarnation. Most importantly, there are more of them, which suggests Doughty and Belcham have strummed the chord they were aiming for.

Refuel
1944 West 4th, 604-288-7905, RefuelRestaurant.com
Food ★★★★ Service ★★★★ Atmosphere ★★★★ Value ★★★★