1 of 4 2 of 4 Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday. Sign up for our free newsletter . When life-turned-business partners Karri Green-Schuermans and Nico Schuermans opened Chambar 20 years ago, they faced a lot of skepticism.
Their idea was to create a place where you could get high-end food at a reasonable price—basically unheard of at the time. “How could we provide a way for people to have an experience with food?” Green-Schuermans recalls, sitting inside her restaurant, “without it being like, ‘Sit up straight. Which fork do I use?’ ” The naysayers were plentiful.
It won’t work. The recipes are too bold. People in Vancouver only want West Coast food.
But she was given one piece of advice that proved to be invaluable: don’t listen to what anyone else says. It’s been her guiding light ever since. Over the past two decades, Chambar has asserted itself as a Vancouver culinary mainstay.
Green-Schuermans runs the business side of things, while Schuermans crafts the cuisine. Drawing on Belgian, French, and Moroccan influences, the inventive menu—think: moules frites with tomato coconut cream and smoked chili, or game hen three ways with olives, chickpeas, and preserved lemon—has paired perfectly with the restaurant’s lively atmosphere. It’s what Green-Schuermans calls “civilized debauchery,” and it’s the ultimate example of one plus one equals three.
Born in New Zealand, Green-Schuermans landed in Canada at age 14. .
