'POT PASTA' ON COMMERCIAL DRIVE MENU

Scan the list of entrees offered at most Italian eateries and you're
guaranteed to find the classics -- pasta alla Bolognese, pasta alla pollo
and pasta alla puttanesca

But pasta alla marijuana? You'll only find that dish on Commercial Drive.

La Cantina Ristorante has taken its support for the controversial Da Kine
Smoke and Beverage Shop from the streets to the table with an unusual menu
offering.

This week the "rustic Italian" eatery and pasta bar in the 1400-block
Commercial has added a "pot pasta" to its specials, a dish devised by owner
Tony Raffele as a way of voicing displeasure with the raid on Da Kine on
Sept. 9.

Vancouver police busted the Da Kine pot cafe after media reports it was
selling marijuana over the counter.

Manager Carol Gwilt was arrested and charged during the raid with
possession for the purposes of trafficking and possessing the proceeds from
a crime.

Gwilt went back to selling the drug at the cafe to people needing it for
"medicinal purposes" and was picked up again last Thursday on a charge of
breaching bail conditions that required her to stay clear of the drug or
any premises selling it.

Gwilt will appear at a bail hearing today. She vowed to continue to fight
in the courts for Da Kine's right to sell marijuana.

Though Da Kine's over-the-counter sales may have ceased, support for
legalization hasn't.

"We support what Da Kine is doing," Raffele said yesterday. "We'd rather
see [marijuana] sold in a store than by all those punks on the street."

La Cantina kitchen manager Daniel Wagner said he wasn't surprised by the
raid and subsequent arrests, but thought that intense scrutiny of the cafe
was misguided.

"I didn't know how long it could last. But there are a lot more problems on
this street than it was made out to be," he said.

Wagner doesn't expect the cops to bust down his doors anytime soon, even
after they read the restaurant's sidewalk chalkboard, advertising: "We
Support Da Kine. New! Ask about our pasta with hemp oil."

That's because pasta alla marijuana is much tamer than it sounds. It's
based on a traditional pasta alla oglio and olio and topped with a drizzle
of certified organic cold-pressed hemp seed oil for $12.95.

Da Kine supporters should note it contains absolutely no THC, the active
ingredient in marijuana.

"We called it marijuana pasta, but it's hemp oil. It's totally legit,"
Raffele said.

In other words, pasta alla marijuana may buzz your taste buds, but it won't
buzz your brain.

Meanwhile, city hall will review Da Kine's business licence on Oct. 6.

Coun. Jim Green, who sits on the review board, said yesterday he thinks
marijuana "should be regulated and should be legal, but I'm not in a
position to make that decision. What I am in a position to do is to see if
they are living up to their licence," Green said.