The Butler Did It’s hearty lunch fare at reasonable prices keeps patrons coming back
Mia Stainsby
Sun
The Butler Did It is just what the neighbourhood needed — a really good lunch spot. Photograph by : Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun
If anyone’s out to get you, I can tell you one of the safest places for lunch would be at The Butler Did It.
If the butler does anything, it sure won’t be anything criminal because this place is crawling with police at lunch with VPD headquarters just down the street.
The Butler Did It started off as a teeny little place on West First near Granville Market with about eight seats and more activity around the catering end of their business. They moved two years ago to this much bigger space and they’re still frantically catering 35 to 50 corporate lunches a day, plus weddings and corporate barbecues, but the front of the house has a lot more activity too.
A good lunch spot was much-needed in this neighbourhood as the line-ups to the cash suggests.
The menu is arrayed before you, under glass: Salads, panini, entrees, baked goods. As the cafe is often the testing ground for some of the catered affairs, you can expect the unexpected and for a really good price — entrees like stuffed chicken leg with cranberry salsa and risotto and pyrogies, sausage and sauerkraut for $4.50 to $5.95. They’re lunch-sized portions but great value.
“We’d rather have people come back three or four times a week so we try to keep everything under $6,” says Darryl Ray, one of the owners. There’s usually six entrees on offer. Salads are about $2.95 unless you want a fill-‘er-up size, which is $4.95.
Dishes are constantly changing in tandem with the catering end of things. Recently, salad offerings included Tuscan white bean salad with spinach, olives, sundried tomatoes; frisee, radish and greens with mushrooms and shrimp.
The other thing, in the realm of the unexpected, is the quite agreeable wine list with offerings including Mission Hills and Yellow Tail.
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THE BUTLER DID IT
340 West Second Ave. 604- 739-3663. (www.butlerdiditcatering.com)
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007