Union Pacific Coffee - Restaurant Review No.4
UP After Dark is the evening incarnation of Union Pacific Coffee on Herald Street.
At night the candles come out, the music is chill and it’s a wine bar with great food, well-edited wines and the kind of service other restaurants should take note of.
UP After Dark works like your typical wine bar, (charcuterie if you wanna get fancy about it), making it the perfect meal before a night on the town. You have a choice of different plates – you can pick just meat (called the carnivore plate) or just cheese (aka the artisanal plate) or combine them. Along with the meat and cheese come garnishments like figs, almonds and honey. Two plates for sharing is plenty for two people. To get the best of all worlds, go for one each of meat and cheese.
Next up is your wine pick. UP After Dark has a nice little tasting menu and it’s a great way to try new flavours without the commitment. Or you can let one of the servers help you select the right wine for food choices. Or you can just wing it. Really, there are no wrong combinations.
Back to the service, though. You won’t be disappointed. This is where UP After Dark shines. On my first visit, I dined with a friend who has a gluten allergy. On our nights out, I’ve seen a range of responses to her allergy, most of them worrisome. Not so here. Our server, Laura Bemister, Assistant Manager, made sure my friend had gluten free crackers. Most impressive? Laura also substituted the usual mustard served as a side, with a gluten free version. It’s a small detail, but it stands out as an example of exceptional service.
Laura isn’t just hip to gluten, she also knows her wines and went out of her way to make sure our wine selection from the tasting menu kept flowing, glass after glass. And, when we wanted to switch to port, she made a great recommendation that’s become a new fave. (Dow's Quinta Senhora da Ribera, '04).
On my third visit to UP After Dark, I found my first and only chink in the armour. Despite stellar beverages, mains and charcuterie, the dessert menu isn’t very impressive. This is puzzling considering the plethora of baked goods available during the day when it’s a coffee house. Many of those baked goods could easily transition to evening (I’m talking about you carrot cake!).
After a quick glance at the desert menu, my guest and I settled on the chocolate fondue – the only option. We expected it to be a decadent finish to our meal. When it arrived, we were impressed with the aesthetics – there was a great selection of fresh cut fruit laid out, some cookies and pieces of fruitcake for dipping into the chocolate. But the chocolate itself was lacklustre. Instead of tasting like something guaranteed to stop my heart, it was runny and not very rich. A better choice would have been a ganache with good quality Swiss chocolate or even a simple dark chocolate.
Once UP After Dark takes desert to the same level as their mains and beverages, they’ll have their position as Victoria’s best wine bar carved out and uncontested. In the meantime, don’t miss a chance to get treated to a great dining experience with amazing service.
Union Pacific Coffee & Up After Dark
537 Herald St
250.380.0005
unionpacificcoffee.
Submitted February 2, 2010
by : Brooke Finnigan originally from Brooklyn, New York, has been a jounalist and freelance writer for the last fifteen years and enjoys sharing her passion for the arts, wine, food and fashion
