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The Vancouverite Interview: Andrew Morrison, Urban Diner

Last week we had the pleasure of a knocking around a little Q & A session with the man formerly known as Waiterblog, Andrew Morrison. Morrison has parlayed his blogging into a real life career as a powerful food critic in Vancouver, writing for The Westender, Vancouver Magazine and EAT Magazine.

Now he’s hung up his apron, handed in his wine crank, sold his Waiterblog website, and is starting fresh at a new site called Urban Diner. About to launch, His new site, promises even more hot Vancouver dining action – including a resident ‘hottie’ writing about Food Porn among other awesomeness. Now for readers that follow his dining adventures, we talk to this foodie insider about his new site launching soon, his last table as a waiter, his best meal of the year – and his worst, his ultimate fantasy day of gastronomic pleasure and much more.

The Vancouverite: Okay, so how did Andrew Morrison become the waiterblog? And why are you giving all that up to become the Urban Diner? (Or are you just Andrew Morrison now?).

Andrew Morrison: I started Waiterblog on the skeleton of a lefty political blog called Times New Roman Online. This was shortly after Bush won re-election in 2004. I couldn't bear to continue writing about an administration I loathed with every pore in my body, so I shifted my focus to something that was more tolerably familiar: the restaurant scene.

I'm giving it up because there was only so much I could do myself. I had a lot of restaurants asking about advertising on the site. For restaurants, it was a good place to lay down a few marketing dollars, but I was too wary of a perceived conflict of interest, what with my work as a restaurant critic an all. I needed six degrees of separation. I talked with Paul Kamon, the former editor of WhyCook.ca, and hammered out a deal where I could concentrate on editorial and he could run the business side of things. With Urban Diner, there will be a clear division between Church (editorial) and State (advertising). If anyone asks me about advertising now I can say, "talk to Paul".

TV: How many tables did you serve after you decided to throw in the apron and wine crank? Or maybe to put it another way, do you remember the specific table or night where you thought, “Holy shit, I really don’t want to wait tables anymore?” And how was that last table?

AM: My last table sucked ass. For real. It was so fucking disappointing. A fourtop of class A wankers and a 10% tip. In this business, you dream of retiring someday with a glorious exit. This was a real whisper. My boss called the restaurant after we locked up and said I could drink my fill on the house. That was nice. I'd put in over four years at The Beach House, so I guess I'd earned a good drunk. Quitting was a long time coming. The double life of a waiter and restaurant critic is untenable. That I did it for so long seems ludicrous in retrospect.

TV: Everyone kind of knows you as “Waiterblog”. What does the post-Waiterblog world look like for Andrew Morrison?

AM: I don't know. I was at a shi-shi restaurant opening last week, and news that I'd quit working as a waiter and sold the website had spread. Annabel Hawksworth, a soft-spoken princess of PR, whispered to me that I was mad to abandon a successful brand. I don't know. Urban Diner will be much cleaner, much tighter, and much more entertaining than Waiterblog ever was.

TV: What is Urban Diner?

The most kickass dining guide the restaurant word has ever seen. There will be restaurant reviews, commentary, interviews, news, gossip, all the good stuff. Waiterblog's discussion board, "Waiterforum", is being bundled into it as well. It has largely replaced eGullet in Vancouver as the place to dish about food, wine, and restaurants in BC. I'll continue posting on Waiterblog until Urban Diner launches and then I'll do a re-direct. We aim to hit the ground running.

TV: When does it launch?

AM: Barring any sudden impacts from outer space, early October.

TV: Why Urban Diner? How’d you come up with it?

AM: I'd like to say we had it tested in a focus group of savvy Gauloise smoking twits, but I can't. Paul and I were banging out some names and it just popped out.

TV: Are we still going to get the same mix of reviews, news, and scuttlebutt on the Vancouver restaurant Scene from “Urban Diner”?

AM: Absolutely and then some.

TV: Lets talk about some food…. What’s the best meal you’ve had in Vancouver in 2006 so far? What was it? Where was it? Why did it rock your socks off?

AM: Gosh. Vij's, maybe. Or West. Most restaurants that are considered "fine dining" in Vancouver serve .22 caliber food in .357 rooms. There are only a handful that could fall into the "socks rocked off" category. I like Chambar plenty. They're always messing about, trying new things, and I can dress like a monkey and they don't give a shit.

TV: What’s the worst meal you’ve had in Vancouver in 2006 so far? What was it? Where was it? Why didn’t it rock your socks off?

AM: Shiru-Bay in Yaletown. The service needed a damn strobe light to make it look busy and we were served chicken wings that still had a few feathers on them. If that meal was a day long, I'd have the worst day of my life. The chilled sake in bamboo flutes were the only highlight, but when you start leaning on booze for a silver lining, you're in trouble.

TV: Describe your ultimate fantasy meal? What is it? Where is it? Who else is there?

AM: Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, Gandhi and myself are being served by Dick Cheney, Richard Nixon, and Richard Perle in the crypt at St. Paul's in London while the Stones serenade us with an acoustic version of Sympathy for the Devil.

TV: Where should readers go to dinner tonight?

AM: Anywhere independent and inexpensive. Whineo's, Bin 941, Abigail's Party, Lolita's, The Flying Tiger, Mistral. Leave Earl's and the Cactus Club to the Apathites. They get enough money anyway.

TV: Whatever celebrity gossip there is in Vancouver centers around where the stars go to eat. They mostly seem to go to Cin Cin, Joe Fortes, Gotham and West? Are those really the four best restaurants in town?

AM: Not at all. Perhaps these are the four restaurants that are shamefully indiscreet with gossip reporters.

TV: Are you going to still be contributing to The Westender and Vancouver Magazine?

AM: Like any writer, I serve at the publisher's pleasure. I'll stay on at the Westender as long as they'll have me. I have few things coming up in Vancouver Magazine and EAT Magazine, too.

TV: Can you tell us something about your upcoming TV show adventures? I kind of envision you being a kind of a “Anthony Bourdain” - getting drunk with chefs and bartenders all over Vancouver and beyond and getting the real dirt? Am I close?

AM: From your lips to some ballsy producer's ears. No, Jamie Maw and I will be doing a restaurant-themed episode or two with Urban Rush. That's all. Should be fun.

TV: If it was your last day on earth, and you were so inclined, what three (four) places would you want to eat at during the day? Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Drinks?

AM: If it was the last day on earth, I'd take my wife and kids with me, bum rush a gun shop, steal the most menacing weapon I could find so I could kidnap and force Rob Feenie, Michel Jacob, and David Hawksworth to make breakfast for us at the Vancouver Aquarium in front of the otters. Lunch would likely be on the upper deck at the Beach House. Champagne under an umbrella. Dinner at Vij's or Lumiere. Drinks at Chambar, then Bin 941, then Lolita's, then breaking a hundred city ordnances with several bottles stolen from La Gavroche at Spanish Banks, waiting for the impact while cursing at stray dogs.

Thanks very much for taking the time to join us at The Vancouverite, Andrew. Don't forget to check out Urban Diner coming soon!

Posted by Jackson Murphy | Link | Comments (0)