FEBRUARY 15 2007
AMERICANWAY 57
AW
MARk sEAl
is an
AmericanWay
contributing editor. His work
has also appeared in
Vanity Fair
,
Playboy
, and
Time
.
Every single thing they serve in that restau-
rant, the Raincity Grill, is wonderful. The
food is impeccable, and the service is really
great. Youwant tobe there at either sunup
or sundown. I don’t think they are open at
sunup. Dusk is the time to go there. It is
so stunning. The sun sets over the water,
right in front of the restaurant. I havebeen
to theCreekRestaurant
[
now theDockside
Restaurant
]
. It’s probably one of the most
high-end restaurants I’ve been to in Van-
couver. I went there, actually, before
Lost
,
on a sort of special night one time with a
guy. The Creek was on Granville Island,
and the food was pretty incredible. The
restaurant used to have a really great cigar
bar, if you happened to be a cigar smoker.
It had Cohibas and any other sort of in-
ternational cigar that you could dream up
for sale. There was this very old-fashioned
gentleman’s lounge, where you could go in
anddrinkwhiskeyand smokecigars.That’s
oneof thebeautiesofCanada.Cubancigars
are totally legal there. Iwas a cigar smoker
for eight years, believe it ornot.Andmy fa-
vorite cigar alwayswas aCohiba.
Is there any place where the setting is as
good as the food — and the smoke?
The
Sandbar onGranville Island is amazing. It
is such abeautiful restaurant, and it is very
West Coast. They serve amazing seafood
there, salmon and calamari and different
things that they catch locally. The view is of
the bay in Vancouver, so you can overlook
the city as well as the ocean. Granville Is-
land is also the place to go if you want to
see an outdoor theater play or an indoor
theater play, or if you want to go and see
live music, or if you want to go and check
out galleries or check out the art scene in
Vancouver.
Do you have any good stories from your
days as a waitress at Earls?
One time,
Clint Eastwood came in, and I served him
at the restaurant, which was kind of cool.
Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell came into
that same restaurant when I was work-
ing there. I wasn’t specifically waiting on
Clint Eastwood, but I was a bartender for
a few years aswell.Hehad just hadahouse
burn down that his former girlfriend and
their daughter were leasing in Vancouver,
and that night, they took their daughter
there for dinner. You would assume it was
because they didn’t have anywhere else
to go for dinner. They didn’t have a home
to be in, so they came to our restaurant. I
felt that, as an ironic, cheer-you-up joke, I
woulddoafire trick forhim. Idid this trick
withblack Sambucawhere I pour a shot of
blackSambuca intomymouth, tipmyhead
back, open my mouth, set the Sambuca
on fire, and then pour cinnamon over the
fire — it basically looks like I’m breathing
flames like a dragon. That wasmy attempt
to cheer himup andmake their experience
of having their house burndown a little bit
lessawful. I’m sure itdidn’thelpat all.They
were probably like, “Ohmy goodness, leave
us alone.” I was very impressed with him.
He was very kind and very sweet and said
thathe liked it and thankedme fordoing it.
Hewas very cordial; hewas aniceman.He
seemed verynatural anddown-to-earth.
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