Araxi is literally going that extra mile for Dine and Unwind, the program that sees Whistler restaurants serving up great deals on set-course menus from now until Halloween weekend.
Executive Chef James Walt is showcasing a 100-mile menu for the Whistler dining program, with every ingredient sourced, raised, produced and grown within a 100-mile radius of the restaurant.
The menu concept was inspired by the book The 100 Mile Diet by Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon. The B.C. authors penned the book after challenging themselves to gather food and drink from within 100 miles of their Vancouver apartment. The book challenges readers to do the same and with Araxi’s new 100-mile menu, there has never been an easier or more elegant way to do it.
Lamb from Pitt Meadows, scallops from Qualicum Beach, oysters from Sechelt and honey from Lillooet are a few ingredients diners can look forward to. The only thing straying from the 100 mile radius will be the salt — organizers couldn’t find any produced in the Sea to Sky corridor.
There are two to three options under each of the three courses. Dinner might start with the North Arm Farm pumpkin soup with toasted Aldergrove hazelnuts, follow with the Across the Creek potato gnocchi and finish with baked D’Arcy apples with Chase goat cheese.
The three-course dinner is $45 a person.
Many main courses from high-end restaurants in Whistler are priced as high as $30 to $40, but for an extra $5 or $10 diners can get an additional two courses as well as explore a restaurant their wallets might otherwise shy from.
Melissa Craig at the Bearfoot Bistro carries on her passion for foie gras with a sweet-savoury cheeky twist on breakfast: Quebec foie gras appetizer with bacon ’n’ eggs, pancake and orange granite on the $48 three-course tasting menu. Choose from Atlantic lobster or sterling silver rib eye for the main and honey peanut mousse or ice-wine-poached pear for dessert.
Quattro is also offering a great deal with a three-course dinner for $35. One way to begin is with the restaurant’s award-winning soup, a leek and smoked chicken chowder, then follow with amattraciana (Spaghetti with pancetta and caramelized onions) and finish with roast pork with a Marsala succo.
Other participating restaurants include Crepe Montagne, The Mix, Après, Bavaria, Cinnamon Bear Bar and Grille, Earls, Edgewater Lodge, Fifty-Two 80 Bistro, Kypriaki Norte, Monk’s Grill, Ric’s Grill,, La Bocca, Aubergine Grille, Elements Urban Tapas Parlour, and The Wine Room.
Just think of Dine and Unwind as palate in training with Cornucopia winemaker dinners just around the corner in November.
Preview of storytelling legacy
Catch a sneak peak of one of the four films screening at the Whistler Film Festival Nov. 29-Dec. 2 in Whistler as part of the Whistler Stories filmmaking-commissioning program.
The trailer of Vincent Massey and The Pots, directed by Armen Evrensel, can now be viewed at download.yousendit.com/B8A852C26E039B36.
The legacy program commissions four filmmaking teams a year to create five-minute short films based on stories in the Whistler area up until the 2010 Games. Each year the new films are premiered at the Whistler Film Festival with all films tying together for a massive screening at 2010.
There are three other films championing the cause.
Lenny Rubenovitch produced First To Go Up… On Snowboards, which will examine the snowboarders who christened the sport on Whistler Mountain.
Lisa Fernandez challenges the “old” person stereotype with Extreme Seniors riding along with Whistler’s most extreme and inspirational seniors.
Graem Luis looks at Myrtle Philip’s first historic journey to Whistler and how that journey paved the way to the 2010 Games in Journey To The Rainbow.
Sing into the Christmas spirit
The Whistler Children’s Chorus theatre department is hosting open auditions for the musical, A Christmas Carol, to be staged Dec. 15 at 4 and 7 p.m. at MY Millennium Place.
Auditions will be held Sunday, Oct. 14 at 4 p.m. on the second-floor multipurpose room at the Whistler Health Care Centre.
A Christmas Carol is a one-act musical based on the Charles Dickens’s holiday classic with words and libretto by John Higgins.
Rehearsals take place every Sunday beginning Nov. 4 with the final dress rehearsal on Dec. 9.
Performers from Grades 1 to 7 are invited to participate.
The cast will work with director Rebecca Ford. The certified music therapist holds a masters in arts as well as passion for drama and music.
Participants who are not members of the Whistler Children’s Chorus will be charged a fee of $45 to participate in the program.
For further information, contact Alison Hunter at 604-932-2979.
