it's hip, but not hipster. if you want to catch the gastown vibe (c'mon, you gotta say gastown has its own urban-but-not totally yuppified zeitgeist) tuc craft kitchen is a good place to hunt for it. the room is industrial chic, with half-finshed walls showing the building's muscular origins, and decor like massive factory chains flanking the bar -- but none of the ersatz "oldie-robilia" such as pepsi signs from 1948. but this is a food review website, not architectural digest. so how does it taste?
i'd label what comes out of tuc's kitchen as being "comfort food with neo-ethnic twists." for instance, my main was called faux lamb tangine, a basic lamb chunk and vegetable stew over something called "gnocchi romaine." the oogle machine tells me that's polenta cooked with milk or cream instead of water. it made a ricotta-soft base for the stew, but held its shape. there were also crunchy water chestnuts in the stew -- an innovative textural trick. my only quibble is that i wouldn't call this dish "tangine" -- no tunisian items such as preserved lemons, raisins, grapes, couscous, etc. but that's just wordplay. my stomach was happy.
also happy was the group of 12 self-described "fanatical foodies" i dined amongst. these are people who name-drop a lot of places they've eaten around town, and no one had any complaints about tuc. except for one undercooked piece of pork, and the staff was accommodating about fixing that. chef roy flemming even came out to apologize for rushing the meat to the table too fast. that's class!