ould you like another motherpucker?”
“No thanks, I’ll try your banana hammock.”
It’s not often that customer service exchanges go this way, and then again, I wasn’t at the average Mount Pleasant establishment. No, I wasn’t visiting one of Vancouver’s famed porn dens or bath houses; thanks.

Located on Vancouver’s ‘Gore-Tex row’ of MEC, Taiga and all things rain, mountain, and snow proof, West Broadway’s Hennessey Dining Lounge provides the 'hood with a splash of uptown. It’s clear that money, time and design were invested in this dining room. Leather high-back chairs, Sweden-meets-Tokyo furniture, plus varnished cement floors make the medium-sized room (dining capacity: 75) look larger than it is. A stage sits at one end of the lounge. It’s a small outcrop with enough room for a drinks-only table, accompanying red cube ottomans, a DJ stand, and an antique Chinese cabinet. Regular weekly events like Sunday night improv and Wednesday night jazz must be intimate.

To compliment Hennessey's striking aesthetic, the staff is eye candy. Luckily, the service isn’t cavity sweet; it's more sass than (vapid) stare.

Kevin and Eduardo Roza-Peirera and Mersad Khatami espouse a multi-cultural ethos at Hennessey. “Vancouver’s so multicultural. We wanted the décor and food to represent that.” Chef David Hartono, previously of the Ordinary Café, Marriott Hotel, and River Rock, matched the philosophy of the Roza-Peireras and Khatami exactly. Hortano has worked under Italian, Indian, Greek and French chefs, so his approach to creating Westcoast dishes with global ingredients matched their fusion ideals.