About Au Petit Chavignol - Opening February 2009

About Au Petit Chavignol - Opening February 2009

Alice and Allison Spurrell, owners of les amis du FROMAGE, along with Joe Chaput, are almost ready to open the doors to Au Petit Chavignol, a 40 seat cheese and wine bar located at 845 East Hastings Street in Vancouver's Strathcona neighbourhood, next to the newest location of les amis du FROMAGE.

The food menu consists primarily of cheese, house made terrines, freshly sliced Iberico Ham, Prosciutto San Danielle and cheese accoutrements. Unlike most wine bars, Au petit also has a full kitchen where we prepare salads, soups, fondue, raclette, tartiflette, croque monsieur and other cheese based specialties. We make everything fresh daily and in-house.

We offer several wines by the glass, ½ litre and bottle, along with bottled and draught beer. Our reserve wine list is made up of wines that vary from familiar to the obscure; to cheese friendly favourites and our favourite varietal...Riesling. Any of the reserve wines can be ordered by the glass if you commit to ordering at least two glasses.

About the Building

The heritage assessment of 845 East Hastings was put together by Donald Luxton & Associates. Along with a rich history, we learned how the front of the building would have likely looked.

We discovered that the building was originally used by the Royal Canadian Naval Reserves. There had been rumours that it had been used by the military, but up until the assessment, they were unconfirmed. It has since been the home to several companies including The Dustbane Company and most recently a restaurant named Korean Garden. The original date of construction was around 1922-23, and the original architect was Maurice Helyer.

The building is also home to the newest and largest outpost of les amis du FROMAGE, where you can expect the same selection and quality service as you would at any of our other locations.

About the Architect

Maurice was in partnership with his father J.S. Helyer, and together they ran a successful firm responsible for numerous small buildings and large commercial structures. The most famous of their designs is the Beaux-Arts skyscraper on Victory Square known as the Dominion Trust Building, 1908-10, at the time of its completion the tallest building in the British Empire. The firm also erected the Renaissance style, ten-storey Metropolitan Building on Hastings Street, 1911-12, and the poured-in-place concrete Board of Trade building at Homer and Cordova, 1909, arguable one of the earliest local uses of concrete as both a structural and finishing material. One building where he was responsible for the design was the sophisticated Medial Arts Building on Granville Street, 1922-23.

About the Designer

With the help of John Shields of Sculpinfish Design, we've taken a wonderful old building and given it a breath of fresh air and a new lease on life. The transition from old to new would not have been possible without his help.

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