12B: Vancouver’s underground restaurant

After reading the Global Peasant’s fabulous description of dining at Chef Todd’s apartment 12B I suggested it as an option for a dear foodie friend’s bachelorette dinner.

Here is the deal. You get 6-10 people together. You give Chef Todd a call. He sets you up with an amazing six course dinner for a minimum donation of $65.

You arrive at his apartment, 12B, on the night of to find a long table, benches, mason jars for wine glasses and a very adept man in his kitchen. You sit down. Get some wine flowing.

The chef flashes his dimples when serving his dishes, which are all impeccable. And thus, you’re won over at the first course. It’s BYOB. You can get as raucous as you want. It is, in short, a total score.

Here is what us lucky bastards ate that night (and no, I have no idea what we drank. Except there was LOTS of it):

Tarragon asparagus soup with truffled pecorino

Oven roasted figs on puff pastry with Landshire cheese and green beans and sultanas in a citrus vinaigrette

Seven-spice rubbed duck breast with pomegranate mandarin jus and honey glazed beets

Quail à la marengo stuffed with olives and roasted garlic. Served with duxelle artichoke hearts and fennel tomato sauce

Beef tenderloin with sweet onion balsamic demi, mashed potatos and buttery minted peas

Honey chai ice cream with fireball poached asian pears, cantaloup, blueberries and champagne grapes

The end

(above: roasted fig goodness)

(above: the magic duck breast)

(above: honey chai ice cream, hello! Meet my grateful tastebuds)

12B: A unique restaurant idea
Somewhere off Main St
Telephone: 778.389.7295
Hours: Thursday, Friday & Saturday evenings

tags: $$, BYOB, dinner, underground restaurant

August 26, 2008

Andrew Morrison said,

Nice! Sounds like a lot of fun.

Anne said,

It was! If you go, do give Chef Todd my best.

Diane said,

I’m glad you gals had as awesome a time as we did! I think it would be great if we had more places like 12b to eat beautiful food, let the wine flow and just generally get our ya-ya’s out.

August 31, 2008

lyndsay said,

i love the idea of concept dining! food looks truly lovely. thanks for posting.

February 16, 2009

WorldWideWaterCooler » Blog Archive » 12B said,

[...] – I can’t think of a more perfect way to describe it. Diane at Global Peasant and Anne at Food & Tell do a great job of describing the experience and the atmosphere. I couldn’t agree more with [...]

March 05, 2009

michelle said,

Chef Todd catered my bridal shower in Calgary when he was here – as a special favour. It was fantastic. Everyone had such an amazing time. He makes amazing food and Todd has a personality to match. When we come to Vancouver we will go out of our way to plan a dinner with him. Fantastic idea and he has the talent to pull it off.

June 17, 2009

Berlin’s Hidden Restaurants | Food and Tell said,

[...] of the most popular posts on foodandtell.com is the post on Vancouver’s hidden restaurant, 12B. Since then I have seen this phenomenon covered on CNN, and most recently on the New York Times, [...]

August 04, 2009

Julia Child’s Chicken, reninvented. Hungry? | Savory Tv | Delicious chef recipe videos said,

[...] a fashion shoot, does he have a 5 star restaurant in NYC? An underground secret venue such as Chef Todd in Vancouver perhaps? What is his last [...]

August 12, 2009

Ron said,

Unpretentious location, great food, lots of fun. BUT,Chef Todd does have a potty mouth. A crude ending to an otherwise great evening…

September 21, 2009

Secret Supper | Food and Tell said,

[...] the spirit of 12B, I came across a list of underground restaurants being compiled at saltshaker.net. Not only [...]

March 07, 2010

NFA, underground goodness | Food and Tell said,

[...] Vancouver underground restaurant scene now boasts 4 restaurants: 12B, Secret Supper, Swallow Tail Supper Club, and the newest entry, [...]

March 08, 2010

PHFBlog said,

Just gave this an honourable mention for our FOMO list.