Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar set to open at Sutton Place Hotel this summer

A new restaurant will open at the Sutton Place Hotel (845 Burrard Street) this summer. Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar is set to debut in July.

Boulevard has replaced Fleuri restaurant, which was best known for its chocolate buffet. The new 290-seat restaurant will focus on West Coast cuisine, particularly seafood. The room will also feature an oyster bar, cocktail and champagne bar, lounge, private dining room, and outdoor patio.

Alex Chen, who represented Canada at the Bocuse d’Or culinary competition in 2013 and placed ninth, will lead the kitchen. The executive chef, who attended the culinary arts program at Vancouver Community College, previously worked at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto and Chicago as well as the Beverly Hills Hotel in California.

Chen will be joined in the kitchen by chef de cuisine Roger Ma, a Vancouver native who cooked for Daniel Boulud in New York, and pastry chef Jason Pitschke, who has worked at Cioppino’s and Whistler’s Bearfoot Bistro in the past.

The front-of-house will be managed by director of operations Steve Edwards and maître d’ Brian Hopkins. Edwards joins Boulevard from Cibo Trattoria and UVA Wine & Cocktail Bar, and Hopkins previously worked at West Restaurant for 13 years. The wine program will be managed by Lisa Haley, who was formerly at Burdock & Co., and Justin Taylor, who served as head bartender at YEW Seafood + Bar for seven years, will manage the bar.

Boulevard will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day as well as brunch on weekends.