Breaking: The Team Behind Heritage Asian Eatery Is Bringing New Concept to Main Street

We’re big fans of Heritage Asian Eatery—I mean, what’s not to love about handmade dumplings, baos stuffed to the brim with house-barbecued duck or delicate-yet-flavourful wonton soup? When the Broadway location of Heritage closed in 2023, there was a collective disappointment in losing one of the city’s top-notch Chinese restaurants to the area’s seemingly continuous construction. Luckily the Pender location has still been slinging its approachable yet technique-driven fare, and now we’ve gotten word that the team is adding a new restaurant to its repertoire slated to open October 8. This one though, has a whole new POV.

We sat down with the the team behind the new Heritage Restaurant and Bar at its upcoming Main Street outpost to chat about the expanded and elevated menu—and the first thing of note is how beautiful the space is. “The bones were just so good,” explains owner Paul Zhang. “We saw we could do a proper reno in here, and [thus] do a proper elevated evening experience.”

And the three and a half-month reno has been transformative. The open-concept, jewel-toned restaurant, designed by Sarah Desaulniers of Moor Interior Design, features rich velvet banquettes, burnished brass lighting and the star of the show: a 50-foot U-shaped bar that features seaglass-meets-jade coloured tiling and brass details. With a bar like this to anchor the 82-seat room, it only makes sense that the beverage program is set to go above and beyond as well.

Helming the drink-space is Derek Granton (of Elisa; previously Bao Bei and Araxi). A vet in opening Vancouver instant-classics, the beverage director explains how he’s establishing a program that’s meant to encourage regulars: “my whole thing is I want people to be able to come in, and they can have a full dinner or they can have a couple of drinks…and we have enough space for people to do that,” he says, indicating to the ample bar seats and various sized tables.

The menu will feature classics done right (think Hemingway daquiris, or Clover Clubs), as well as innovative, original cocktails informed by the culinary side of things; there’ll be beer, too, including a co-branded brew made in partnership with Slow Hand Brewery. But all in all, the plan from this perspective is creating a space where you feel like it’s your neighbourhood joint that just so happens to also make killer cocktails. “I just can’t wait to see what everyone’s drinking [in this neighbourhood]. I love regulars, I know what they drink and what they like. It’s why I do this, I feel like it’s in my blood. It’s like you’re in my house,” Granton says.

The food menu brings the same sort of vibe—it’s elevated, yes, but elevated doesn’t mean stuffy here. Vancouver local Executive Chef Jimmy Lam (previously of Bao Bei) has built on the beloved flavours and time-honed techniques that Heritage Asian Eatery is known for (Chinese barbecue, dim sum and baos), but his tightly-focused menu intends to raise the stakes with technical dishes like local Dungeness crab with steamed ginger and garlic, Peking-style duck served with house-made crepes and Nova Scotia lobster with house-made kombu butter and wok-fried XO sauce.

Chef Lan explains that like the drink menu, the food menu is meant to evoke “a place where my friends can come in and eat my food and just chill or have a drink.” But that the space and menu are also for those who “want to come in for a family meal or they want to come in on a date night or come in with a group of friends travelling…or even if they want to come eat Chinese food by themselves.”

I saw firsthand how the size of the plates contribute to that, too—big enough to build a share-able meal but also worthy of a solo bite. Like the ridiculously delicious fried eggplant (a curiosity-inducing take on bistro fries), succulent deep-fried squid (coated in duck egg-yolk batter and topped with Lan’s take on MSG—a.k.a. mushroom powder, sumac, garlic and ginger) and a crunchy palette-opening cucumber salad (with wood-ear mushrooms, smoked tofu and incredible fermented chili, white soy and vinegar sauce).

Zhang reiterates that the menu is designed for sharing based on the dish-size as well. “We really want to make it accessible for two tops and four tops to be able to… order the variety but not have massive dishes.”

By reformatting dish sizes, using classic Chinese techniques and adapting ingredients to match the Vancouver vibe, Heritage Restaurant and Bar seems to be aiming to reflect the dichotomy of the eater in all of us. “The type of food we’re doing pairs really well with drinks and a fun vibe,” Zhang says. And it seems they’ll be doing that in spades thanks to features like a live seafood tank and a menu that allows for sharing, as Zhang explains. “Here the whole guest experience is the top of the list. The key thing for us is we want it to be serious cooking—the chefs are very serious about their craft, same with the bartenders—but we don’t want it to be pretentious, we want people to be in a loud environment and just have fun.”

But that very same approach lends itself to the casual eater, too. Sometimes we want to pop into our favourite neighbourhood locale, have a pitch-perfect negroni (perhaps made with in-season watermelon), and a bowl of delicately-fried squid. If meeting with the team behind Heritage Restaurant and Bar has informed me of anything, it’s that this restaurant might just become one where everyone knows your name—and you keep coming back for more.

Heritage Restaurant and Bar

Hours: Tuesday through Thursday from 5PM – 10PM; and Friday and Saturday 5PM – 11PM.

4242 Main Street