Foodie Experiences
A Top Chef alum runs the griddle at this pastel 1950s room on Pemberton, where the coin-tiled floor was laid by hand and the milkshakes are still spun to order.
Norgate, Pemberton Ave at Marine Dr
More infoDouce Diner is what happens when a properly credentialled chef decides diner food is worth doing right. Dawn Doucette trained at the California Culinary Academy, cooked under Judy Rodgers of Zuni Cafe, turned up on Top Chef Canada, and then opened a small pastel room on Pemberton Avenue with her husband and her sister. He rebuilt the old Corner Cafe; she designed the space around a hand-laid coin-tile floor, vintage pastel walls and the original counter stools. Open eight to three, seven days, with a patio for the dry months.
It runs 8am to 3pm every day of the week and takes no reservations, so either arrive close to opening or accept a wait around 10.30 on a weekend. Ask for the lunch counter rather than a table; the stools came out of the Corner Cafe that stood here before, they face the open kitchen, and it is the best seat in a very small room. Order a benny or the Denver-ish breakfast bowl, then finish with a hand-spun milkshake, they make sundaes and floats with Mario's gelato and it is the reason regulars stay an extra half hour. Look down at some point too, the coin-tile floor was laid by hand by the chef's sister. Parking is free on Pemberton and the residential blocks around it, though the closest spots go early, so budget a two-block walk.
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