Today we were on The Drive to get a more intimate look at a couple of restaurant participating in the first ever Spaghetti Disco.
Hosted by the same folks who have brought the city the up coming Country Club and Rose Disco. Spaghetti Disco is expected to have the same fun and festivities, but positioned as a festival to celebrate both wine and pasta. And what better place to look for participating restaurants than Vancouver’s Italian restaurant hub on Commerical Drive?
Our first stop was Bar Corso. They are an intimate modern Italian cicchetti bar known for its date-night atmosphere with small plates for sharing. Despite the beautiful sunny day and their cozy patio out front, we receded into the dark of their candle lit corridor, over looking their well stocked and handsome bar.
We started with a couple glasses of sparkling to set the mood. And followed it with some white wine in anticipation of our meal to come. They have a terrific list of local and Italian wines to best suit your tastes. I was especially happy with my glass of dry white wine that is no longer on their menu. It was full bodied with honey and a heavier olive oil mouthfeel, and it was bold enough to run parallel with all the punchier flavours below.
We started with the Ricotta e Pomodoro as an appetizer. This was a beautiful presentation of House-Made Goat Ricotta, Heirloom Tomato, Cucumber, and Balsamic Pearls. Served with Toasted Semolina Sourdough slices as base. Without the bread it ate like a salad, with crunchy and juicy bites. Smearing the cheese over the bread made it an open face sandwich and more filling. Either way the delicate balsamic pearls were the most memorable and enjoyable as they popped in your mouth.
For our entree we were enticed by the daily specials of either local mussels in a white wine garlic sauce over angel hair pasta or a meatier pork leg in a white wine ragu with tagliatelle. However, we ultimately went with our server’s favourite regular menu item.
The Granchio Aglio e Olio was perfectly prepared, gentle Angel Hair Pasta swirled high and coated in a Dungeness Crab, Garlic, Chilli, and Anchovies sauce. It was both light and oily with the spice of chilli to add depth. I could have used more saltiness and some umami that I didn’t find from any of the supposed anchovies present. Nonetheless I was impressed by how much crab meat there was in this. Every bite of pasta had plenty of sweet crab shreds to coat the strands of noodles with.
Seeing how much we loved it, our server then recommended a slice of their house made focaccia to use as a mop to clean up the plate with. We took him up on this offer and were glad that we did as there was still so much flavour left on the plate and none of it went to waste.
And instead of the traditional dessert, we had a glass of their house Amaro, flavoured by their staff. Each member choose a botanical to add into the batch. The restaurant was an aperitif unlike any other. The over arching flavours were lemon verbena, raspberry leaf, and black tea. It had a nice herbal mix that reminded me of kombucha, but without the fermented kick back.
We had such an amazing dinner at this was just a regular, normal every day. So I can only imagine what Spaghetti Disco has in store. The event takes you through 10 Italian wine regions at Grandview Park on August 22nd, 2026. Tickets are $75 for general admission. They drop on July 28th and if you sign up for early bird access now, you get $20 off. Each ticket includes two glasses of wine, four plates of pasta, fine food samples, and a souvenir cup and tasting plate with built in wine holder. For more details on the event and were sign up for tickets visit the link below.
