he last place you’d expect to find a high-design restaurant is the beach, but there it is. And for a split second, the clouds part and you’ll think you've kenned a glimmer of quality in Kitsilano’s Watermark. The dining room is a streamlined space by restaurant-design standards, located, as you must surely know by now, in the structure overlooking Kits Beach, where a concession stand takes over the main level.

From the outside, with lights shimmering through the glass, Watermark looks quite handsome. Inside, the room is a lively art gallery of a place encased in glass. The drinks had something to do with this, and so did the crowd, a boisterous mix of uptown regulars and couples dressed for the evening.

When it opened this past summer, Watermark was greeted with the kind of glee reserved for the blonde senior who's not only class president but prom queen, head cheerleader, and valedictorian. The resto-lounge’s deliberately dissonant décor - three distinct areas in a splendid two-story structure coating the beach - struck an affectingly urban chord in a neighbourhood jump-started by the protective energy of Kits Beach.

Watermark’s oh-so-grand structure, set against an undulating wall of white waves, is not only a fitting centerpiece for a restaurant bold enough to open on a beach, without a theme, it is also a voyeur's paradise. Negotiating or watching others navigate this two-story descent is riveting theater. What's more, at either end of the staircase is proof that at least one man thinks the beach can be classier than a carnival.

The entire layout (designed by A.A. Robins Architects) is more concerned with being clever than constructive, spins more architectural tough-love validation to less effect in an effort to expand on something best left enigmatic. Still, it’s a striking space divided into a main level (concession), second floor (dining room) which flows into a roof-top (patio). At sunset it's a welcoming scene, with soft shadows playing off the back concrete wall and exposed retro-industrial metal features, covered by wide spanning ceilings