There’s a prime seat with my name on it at the new Janevca lounge – it’s a velvety fuchsia stool at the white marble bar, next to the bustling open kitchen.
It’s the place to see executive chef Andrea Alridge and her team cooking prime steaks over an open fire and pulling crusty artisan breads and pizzas from the wood-burning oven.
The kitchen is the heart of the home and here it’s the heart of this historic property, a boutique hotel that’s had several memorable iterations since it was constructed in 1906 as a residence for a prominent Victoria family.
It’s that history I’m channelling tonight, nibbling a slice of charred sourdough slathered in silky chicken liver mousse, with a modern fig and whisky Nocturne cocktail in hand.
It’s just the first course to a delightful dinner of creative shared plates, and just one of the delightful surprises I’ve discovered around every corner.
“History meets discovery” – that’s the catchphrase the new owners of the property are using to describe the reimagined Rosemead House. Melding heaps of local history with the cutting-edge trend of wood-fire cooking, there’s nothing quite like it in the city, a restaurant in a remarkable setting, hidden along a side street in old Esquimalt.
Whether it’s Chef Andrea’s skills cooking with live fire or her eclectic sharable menu – a deft mix of Italian, Asian and Pacific Northwest flavours – this is approachable food with a twist of the unexpected. And like all the layers of lush fabrics, antiques and art in the interior design, there are many layers to the story that brought this historic property back to life.
This is Vancouver developer Lenny Moy’s first foray into the hotel and restaurant business. In 2015, when his Aragon Properties acquired the four-acre site for their Oakwoods residences, Lenny took a personal interest in restoring the historic home and gardens, the anchor and inspiration for his design.
“Rosemead House is part of the identity of the condo development, and there is a certain quality we want to maintain,” says Lenny of his aspirations as a hotelier.
In fact, his goal is “to have the best restaurant in Victoria,” and he’s gathered a team to bring that vision to life. It was Lenny’s love of the bold flavours of foods seared over open flames that led him to Andrea, after enjoying her live-fire cuisine at CinCin Ristorante and Osteria Savio Volpe in Vancouver.
The unusual name for the restaurant – Janevca – is a portmanteau, blending the names of his three children, Janelle, Evan and Cailee. Like many of the decisions made in developing this property, Lenny says, there was lots of discussion and even disagreements among his family and staff, but “the name was what I stood on.”
“First, it represents my three children, but beyond that it doesn’t mean anything,” he says. “I wanted a name that wasn’t pegged to a certain style or type of cuisine – a name that’s a mystery – to allow a fusion of flavours and ideas.”
Focus on fire
Chef Andrea says live-fire cooking is her signature style and it makes sense in the context of the historic hotel, where flames flicker in wood fireplaces and under the massive Grillworks Infierno in the central kitchen, open to both the lounge and the lobby.
“The warmth of the fireplaces, the warmth of the wood-fire cooking – honestly, I think it’s very cohesive,” she says.
Her menu is inspired by ingredients from Island farms and leans into both classic Italian and Asian flavours, with a nod to her Jamaican and Filipino roots.
Among Lenny’s favourites are a lightly charred gem lettuce starter with pickled red onions and smoked anchovy buttermilk dressing, and the wood-grilled chicken, brushed with house-made Chinese siu haau barbecue sauce.
A nose-to-tail chef, tonight Andrea features fresh halibut with scallion ginger sauce, offering the smoky grilled collar or tail for more adventurous diners. Others can stick with a AAA striploin or bone-in, 35-day dry-aged rib eye with a classic mushroom Bordelaise sauce, or, my current fave, tender pork cheeks with charred honey peaches and tangy pickled mustard seeds.
Andrea brought two of her sous chefs – Leighton Harsch and Cagan Kocabiyik – from Vancouver to open Janevca. She recently recruited a pasta chef and soon hopes to have six different artisan pastas on her menu. But tonight, it’s her ethereal ricotta gnocchi in a creamy sauce flecked with fresh fall truffles that delights.
Local pastry chef Brian Bradley (Tombo, Agrius, The Marina Restaurant) is behind the delicious desserts, ranging from a perfectly silky crème brûlée to layered mousse cake with black sesame ice cream.
And Victoria cocktail guru Nate Caudle is behind the bar.
Many of the wait staff worked together at Il Terrazzo, including food and beverage manager Rob Sales and sommelier Jacques Lacoste, and the servers circling smoothly through the restaurant are a cohesive team, adding to a seamless dining experience, even in Janevca’s opening weeks.
From dilapidated to destination
Beyond the great food and ambience, the allure of Janevca is the Rosemead House property itself. Arriving along the long drive you’re transported beyond the residential streets into a proper garden oasis, where statuary stands beneath tall firs and Garry oaks, with lovely nooks to explore, both inside and out.
Renowned B.C. architect Samuel Maclure designed this historic home, and his original Tudor Revival and Arts and Crafts signatures – half-timbered details and granite stonework, stunning stained-glass windows and elaborate wood wainscotting – are still prominent features, while new details reflect a contemporary British aesthetic.
Lenny literally filled a warehouse with furniture, draperies and art he collected on buying trips to London and through online auctions; some of the pieces once gracing the set of the British television drama The Crown, others from English estates and iconic hotels.
“The idea behind the evolution of the design was to keep it somewhat British, to respect the heritage of the English Inn,” he says. “But getting those pieces at auction, without blowing the budget, meant we had to be pretty flexible.”
You might recognize the silk draperies or Art Deco-style mirrored bar from a stay at The Dorchester, or the elegant china in the dining room from The Savoy. Deep green woodwork is punctuated by panels of William Morris wallpaper. Sumptuous Empire-style Louis XV armchairs, another Dorchester auction find, are covered in lush velvets for cosy lounge seating, while vintage Hepplewhite chairs and banquets in a modern block print dominate the dining room, where a faux Japanese maple in autumnal orange spreads across the ceiling, dappling the room in warm light and reflecting the flames dancing in the open fireplace.
Even the commodes in the tiled, unisex water closets are Instagram-worthy – faithful Victorian reproductions painted with vining morning glories like fine porcelain.
At this time of year, the fire beckons in the dining room but in other seasons it’s easy to imagine dining on the shady terrace, sharing a pizza from the outdoor wood oven, or organizing a family wedding here. You might linger with an aperitif or an after-dinner brandy in The Crown library, admiring the large reproduction Rembrandt, or overnight in a posh suite.
It’s a jewel box hotel with an ambitious food and drink program, sure to lure discerning locals and visitors alike.
This feature appeared in the winter edition of Boulevard Victoria.
