Glowbal Thinking...

While new restaurants continue to pop up on the West Coast, one restaurant has been attracting the stars, tourists, and locals alike with ever-changing medleys of luxury comfort food. In five short years, Glowbal Restaurant and Bar has become a Vancouver fixture.

Owners Emad and Shannon Yacoub, together with friend Jack Lamont, exported their collective culinary assets from Toronto in 2001 to launch a longtime dream: a place for the world to gather. Glowbal, and the attached lounge Afterglow, are the proud results of their shared vision, hard experience, and good taste.

“Our goal from the beginning was to create a high-end, accessible experience,” said Emad Yacoub. “We wanted lots of energy without distracting from the focus on the food. With the open kitchen, our guests have come to know not only our servers but our kitchen crew by name as well. It feels like family.”

The management style is as fresh as the seasonally reflective menus. Its mainstays include spaghetti and meatballs so delicious that Hollywood North sends limos for pick-up. Their seven-spice ahi tuna, crab cakes, and tomato with buffalo mozzarella, along with the decidedly more decadent lobster poutine, all have their regulars.

Holding court in the kitchen, Chef John Crook’s cooking comes from the heart, a passion born in the U-pick blueberry patches of Edmonton. As rural legend goes, he was weighed both before and after each visit and his Mom paid the difference.

For Chef Crook, food is more than a vocation. It is fun. He is fascinated by the abundance of fresh product, especially the seafood with which he now works wonders.

“There is a tendency to mask food. Too much fat can hide the flavour of a dish. I always look for ways to elevate the ordinary. Find a familiar favourite, balance the richness and acidity, and emerge with something fresh and clean.”

Glowbal finds fresh inspiration year-round.

Recipes

• Watermelon and Cucumber Soup with Seared Summer Sea Scallop
• Couscous a la Grecque with Red Pepper Coulis
• Seared Sea Snapper with Summer Succotash
• Summer Strawberry Shortcake with Vanilla Cream and Strawberry Compote