With dramatic mountains, shimmering waters and towering high-rises, Vancouver is the city jewel of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest: one of Canada’s overall great destinations. It’s a brutally expensive city in which to live due to an intense housing market and taxes, as locals will be quick to tell you, but its accessibility gives the region impressive range.
Nearby towns, like Richmond, are home to a deep Chinese population, and thus excellent Chinese food. Vancouver is the gateway to skiing and snowy vacations in Whistler, just barely an hour and a half drive away. British Columbia and its Okanagan Valley are famed for some of Canada’s best wines and produce alike. Vancouver Island is another BC favorite, home to the enchanting town of Victoria. The region is a dramatic wealth of mountains, bay, ocean, vineyards, forest and farmlands.
Digging into small-batch distilleries across the province via helpful resources like BC Distilled (https://bcdistilled.ca/british-columbia-distilleries), it’s clear that, like in much of the US, the distilling explosion continues. British Columbia is home to more than 100 craft distilleries open or about to launch. But some local drink industry folk, from bar managers to distributors, find consistency with local distillers an issue. From a blind tasting perspective, they find a number of local distillates don’t necessarily hold up with international offerings in the same categories, often suffering from inconsistency bottling to bottling. Other bar managers are quick to support local spirits, though many of the same spirits show up on local bar menus.
In Vancouver, a number of city-based distilleries are popular on backbars or cocktail menus, including Long Table Distillery (http://longtabledistillery.com), Odd Society Spirits (www.oddsocietyspirits.com), Resurrection Spirits (http://resurrectionspirits.ca) and The Woods Spirits Co. (www.thewoodsspiritco.com). Nearby Vancouver Island and Victoria are home to bartender favorites, from Sheringham Distillery (www.sheringhamdistillery.com) to Victoria Distillers (http://victoriadistillers.com). Wayward Distillation House (www.waywarddistillationhouse.com) was also often mentioned as an industry favorite, whose Dave Brimacombe is our distiller interview this issue.
What of the bar/cocktail scene? Ever since John “Gassy Jack” Deighton—whom Vancouver’s Gastown neighborhood is named after—built the Globe Saloon in the mid-1800s, Vancouver has been a drinking city quick to warm chilly nights with a dram.
Vancouver and Toronto have long led Canada into the modern-day cocktail renaissance. Pioneers like Jay Jones (our bar manager interview this issue) have worked through obstacles like outrageous import taxes that make even a standard spirit double or triple what we might pay in the States. A government-run liquor system keeps many imported spirits from even making it to Canada. For instance, even at an absinthe bar (Prohibition, with its absinthe fountains), there were only three absinthes total during my last visit, which they tell me is all they can get imported to the province. These challenges would be daunting for any bar trying to offer world-class service. Thankfully, the lush produce of the Okanagan Valley and the camaraderie of Vancouver’s parallel dining scene keep bartenders motivated and thinking outside the box, even when limited in spirits selection or costs.
The aforementioned Gastown offers vibrant nightlife, an easy ‘hood in which to make a crawl of the bars packed into historic buildings. Belgian restaurant Chambar has been a Vancouver cocktail trailblazer since 2004, launching some of its best bartenders who went on to open notable bars.
Certainly, Vancouver was years behind the cocktail renaissance instigators—New York and San Francisco—but came on strong when it got into the game. There are a couple odd elements I noticed, most notably a trend toward imbalance (drinks veering too sour in a reaction too sweet), which even over the past year has improved between my visits and extensive bar/restaurant tastings.
Vancouver does seem to benefit from its tight-knit, almost “small town in a big city” feel, whether showcasing cocktail classics or in utilizing local ingredients on the culinary cocktail side. As always, a vibrant dining scene holds the challenge out to the bartenders to keep in step, and they are taking on that challenge with increasing focus each year.
Here are 10 places working to ensure Vancouver’s cocktail scene leads the way in Canada and stays a vibrant player in North America.
The Keefer Bar
Since opening in 2010, The Keefer Bar is easily one of Vancouver’s best bars. Set in Chinatown with live music, industry regulars, Asian design and dishes like Peking duck or kung pao chicken tacos keep it fun and original. Most importantly, drinks are effortlessly top-notch on an imaginative menu that calls on Chinatown markets, teas and herbalists for inspiration.
What to Drink: You might go bright and boozy with a house classic like The Tokyo Drift, melding the apple/green tea notes of Suntory Toki Japanese whiskey with a nutty amber vermouth, tart kumquat gomme syrup and smoky tobacco bitters. Or go for a vivid winter with Wintergreen, a drink combining gin with spruce, citrus, Fernet, soda, a kick of reindeer lichen and ba xian quo, a dried, salted Chinese fruit.
www.thekeeferbar.com
Botanist at Fairmont Pacific Rim
With its towering views of mountains and bay, Fairmont Pacific Rim made a name for itself with cocktails and sushi in its popular, festive Lobby Bar—also a Vancouver bar worth drinking in. But in 2017, the hotel went a few steps farther, unveiling the ambitious Botanist upstairs. Botanist checks off boxes of restaurant, cocktail bar with lab and garden dining room. Employing the principles of botany from design to food, Fairmont Pacific Rim creative beverage director Grant Sceney and head bartender Jeff Savage go experimental and artful with drinks served on driftwood or set on fire in lanterns.
What to Drink: Pacific Northwest seasonal ingredients represent natural elements like the ocean, forest floor or Pacific air in drinks like Can’t Beet A Root (aged rum, carrots, yellow beets, ginger, lemon, kale) or Rye ‘N Reynolds (rye whiskey, Cognac, cascara, nectarine oils, house-fermented Reynolds bitters).
www.botanistrestaurant.com
Vij’s
Vij’s is an Indian food pioneer and Vancouver legend since 1994. Vikram Vij opened Vij’s in 1994, serving the city’s most exciting Indian food with sustainable ingredients (think rainbow trout in coconut curry or jackfruit in black cardamom cumin curry). Vij and Meeru Dhalwala went on to open more restaurants, write books and launch a frozen foods line. At the flagship restaurant, one of the city’s original drink pioneers, Jay Jones (our bar manager interview this issue), showcases his passion for local beers on draft and thoughtfully made spirits.
What to Drink: Jones’ cocktails smartly play with BC spirits and bitters whenever possible in drinks like The Last Jedi (Long Table Distillery London Dry Gin, Midori, maraschino liqueur, lime, Bittered Sling Western Haskap Bitters) or The Look of Love (Sheringham Akvavit & Seaside Gin, Contratto Vermouth Bianco, Bittered Sling Grapefruit & Hops Bitters).
http://vijs.ca/vijs-restaurant
Royal Dinette
One of downtown Vancouver’s celebrated restaurants, Royal Dinette is a showcase for chef Eva China’s farm-to-table cuisine. Bar manager Kaitlyn Stewart was named Diageo World Class 2017 Bartender of the Year and crafts her own ingredients like a white peppercorn mezcal honey or cranberry shrub.
What to Drink: The Black Betty has been one of her hits, a tequila, Odd Society crème de cassis liqueur, lime juice and housemade black sesame orgeat drink dusted with dehydrated beetroot-sugar. Try cocktails like Kumbaya with its base of hickory-smoked rye, Amaro Montenegro, cherry cedar bitters and a burnt cinnamon marshmallow.
https://royaldinette.ca
L’Abattoir
Gastown’s L’Abattoir is housed in what was the city’s first jail a couple hundred years ago, the restaurant known for chef Lee Cooper’s Pacific Northwest-meets-French fare. Open since 2010, the packed, intimate downstairs bar has long been popular for cocktails, namely the Avocado Gimlet (rosemary and olive-infused gin, Lillet Blanc aperitif, avocado, fresh lime), while its food makes it a Vancouver must for food and drink alike.
What to Drink: Watch for fun glassware, classic cocktails and house drinks like Little Sparrow (Reposado tequila, strawberry, marigold rooibos chai, lemon, plum and root beer bitters) or Elysium (Blended Scotch, Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc, lemon, orange and juniper bitters).
www.labattoir.ca
Tocador
Brand-new since late February, Tocador brings something not typically found in Vancouver: a bright Cuban restaurant and bar lively with bossa nova and exotica music, brown booths and colorful tiles, a mural and floral wallpaper. Opened by industry vets Dale Styner and Guy Stowell (Dale managed at neighboring Cascade Room for years and also tended bar at Bao Bei, The Mackenzie Room and Kissa Tanto in Chinatown).
What to Drink: Alongside classics like Mint Juleps, Daiquiris and Hotel Nacionals—paired with Cubano and jackfruit Cubano sandwiches—delightful house drinks include a Tamarindo Daiquiri or Electric Hot Tub (hop-infused gin, absinthe, California white sage, lime, Peychaud’s bitters, sugar syrup).
www.tocador.ca
Hawksworth & Prohibition
in the Hotel Georgia
Hawksworth is one of Vancouver’s best destination restaurants. Chef David Hawksworth and team turn out inspired fine dining alongside Bryant Mao’s award-winning wine program. A separate, elegant front lounge with striking Spanish granite bar makes the celebrated bar easy to stop in on its own right. Also in Hotel Georgia, Prohibition is marked by a green light outside, essentially another speakeasy but a massive, subterranean one with live music.
What to Drink: At Hotel Georgia, a 65-year-old recipe named after the hotel was unearthed in recent years and is a Hawksworth signature (also served at Prohibition). It’s a gin- and egg-white-based cocktail subtly nuanced with orgeat, fresh grated nutmeg and orange blossom water. At Prohibition, the Inception Negroni centers around a slowly dissolving Negroni ice sphere. With gin and dry vermouth, they play with either Suze or Luxardo Bitter Bianco instead of Campari.
https://hawksworthrestaurant.com; www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/hotel-georgia-vancouver/dining/prohibition
The Shameful Tiki Room
With a second location in Toronto since 2015, the original Vancouver location opened in 2013 in the Riley Park neighborhood, bringing full-on tiki to the city in a tiny but transporting room. The Polynesian vibe, bites and scheduled thunderstorms atmospherically mist the bar, set to an exotica soundtrack, in what is one of Vancouver’s most fun bars.
What to Drink: Tiki classics abound, from the usual suspects like Three Dots and a Dash to a Jet Pilot. But you’ll do right choosing from one of the few house drinks, like Day of the Dead, a bracing blend of rums, juices, coconut, bitters, Pernod, soda and spices.
http://shamefultikiroom.com
Uva Wine & Cocktail Bar
Laid-back and chill, Uva Wine & Cocktail Bar is a casual industry hangout where cocktails shine alongside the wine selection. It’s a European-inspired espresso bar and café by day and at night it’s Italian food and drinks. The bar is one of the city’s great sources for small-batch spirits, thanks to bar manager Sabrine Dhaliwal. Themed daytime happy hours run in fun themes like Film Noir or World Whiskeys.
What to Drink: There is a robust low-proof cocktail section and changing drinks like the complex, layered Cita: rum, Campari, orgeat, lime, crème de cacao, pineapple juice, Bittered Sling Lem-Marrakech bitters.
www.uvavancouver.com
The Diamond
With a bar hidden upstairs overlooking Maple Tree Square in the Gastown neighborhood, The Diamond has been one of Vancouver’s bar greats since 2009. The restaurant side is about nigiri, sushi and teriyaki. But the inventive cocktails are the ultimate draw in the seductive space. Over visits this year and last year, the creativity is not quite what it was during my initial visit but a sense of balance remains steadfast.
What to Drink: Cocktails were stronger during my 2017 (vs. 2018) visit. The top two being the silky blue of It Happened in Athens, imparted from a touch of blue curacao with gin, Greek yogurt, coconut, lime and a touch of ouzo. It’s as delicious as it is visually lovely, a prime example of a unique but drinkable cocktail that pulls from the culinary side. Another example: The Malibu is lush and herbal-sweet with coconut-washed gin, dry vermouth, dill and strawberry, given salty-bitter backbone from salted Aperol.
http://di6mond.com
Interview with Distiller R. Dave Brimacombe of Wayward Distillation House
As Dave Brimacombe tells us, BC has grown from 12 to 50 distillers in just four short years. He’s part of this distilling explosion in the Canadian province of British Columbia, opening Wayward Distillation House (www.waywarddistillationhouse.com) with his wife, Andrea, in December of 2014, quickly becoming a local’s favorite, beloved by top spirits and cocktail industry folk in Vancouver and beyond.
The key difference between Wayward and other BC distilleries? They distill with honey as the base, all from the same apiary located in wild clover fields of Northern BC. Not unlike Vermont’s Barr Hill Gin (https://caledoniaspirits.com/spirit/gin), Wayward’s spirits (Unruly Vodka, Unruly Gin, Drunken Hive Rum, Depth Charge Espresso and Cacao Bean Liqueur, Krupnik Polish Spiced Honey Liqueur, Elixir 151 high-proof vodka, bourbon barrel-aged gin) gain silky texture and wild depth with a honey base… without being sweet. Sourcing their own glacier water, their honey base is unpasteurized, utilizing a specialized yeast. They use their own custom-designed still created specifically to handle the delicate requirements of a honey-based spirit.
A Vancouver native, Brimacombe’s credentials range from the military to an alcohol enthusiast who, with his wife, would travel to distilleries around the globe. An avid snowboarder and adult dodgeball league player in his spare time, he had never worked in the drink industry prior to opening Wayward distillery. He describes himself and his team as “a rowdy bunch of drinkers just looking for joy in life.”
In his own words, Brimacombe talks more about his background, adventures as an “alcohol tourist” and what advice he’d give to fellow distillers looking to get their spirits into notable bars.
1. Tell us a bit about your background:
I grew up in the small oceanside town of Pender Harbour on the Sunshine Coast. I left my home immediately after high school and moved to Vancouver where I enrolled in an engineering program at BCIT [British Columbia Institute of Technology].
After one short semester, I left academic life to join the Canadian Armed Forces as a combat engineer, transitioning to aircraft structures technician seven years later. Military life took me all over the country for the next 15 years. From coast to coast and northern Alberta, I dragged my wife, Andrea, with me, moving every three years or less.
Finally, we got posted to the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island to work on search and rescue aircraft. It was here that Andrea and I decided to put down roots. We had finally found our home.
2. What led you to distilling and spirits?
I’ve always been an avid fermenter, making mead, cider, wine and beer at home. But the secret alchemy of spirits drew me in. The mystery, the history and the art behind my favorite tipples was intoxicating.
Andrea and I traveled the world searching for unique spirits. [We were] alcohol tourists long before we were alcohol producers… hitchhiking Speyside, breweries in Europe, rum in Jamaica, baijiu in China or caravanning from Vancouver to Portland visiting craft distillers. We visited as many different producers as possible and saw many different visions of distilleries, from tiny distilleries mashing in a literal bathtub to multimillion-dollar facilities. When I finally wrapped my head around the science and craft of distilling, I didn’t lament the loss of that alchemist feel, I celebrated. I can do this and I can do it with my own personal vision.
I left the military early, before being pensioned, to start Wayward. Craft distilling was just taking off in BC and I wanted to be at the front of that wave.
3. What spirits do you consider your flagship spirits?
My three favorites are Unruly Gin, Krupnik and Drunken Hive Rum. When we opened, we decided to go against the grain, to forge our own path. These three are great examples of that. Unruly Gin is Canada’s first gin distilled entirely from honey, crisp, balanced and very easy to drink.
I love the look on my guests faces when they taste my Krupnik. Toasted honey, spice and served at 40%, Krupnik is a huge departure from more familiar liqueurs that constantly surprises people.
No other spirit epitomizes our ethos as well as Drunken Hive. [As] rum made from honey molasses instead of sugar cane molasses, there is nothing traditional about this one.
4. Tell us about your distilling process:
Wayward is Canada’s first distillery that ferments and distills 100% BC honey. The flavor variances in different varieties of honey are exaggerated by fermentation and concentrated through distillation. That’s why we’ve partnered with a single apiary for all our honey. Every drop of our spirits is crafted from unpasteurized, unprocessed and unfiltered clover honey from the same fields in BC, ensuring consistent quality and flavor profile.
We ferment our honey in wine tanks, essentially making mead before distilling on two custom stills: a manual continuous stripping still from Dehner Distilling [Editor’s note: Red Boot Stills] and a custom designed 200L hybrid column still from Artisan Still Design.
5. How does living in BC determine the style and focus of your business?
The BC government has defined the contentious word “craft” in regard to spirits. In this province, to qualify as craft you must be independent, small (under 50,000L of finished product per year) and you must ferment and distill your own spirits on-site from BC ingredients. Distilleries that follow these rules enjoy total provincial markup exemption, although still owe federal taxes.
These parameters both allowed me to open and define my business. There is an ethical and financial advantage to being craft, to being a small independent business that only ferments local ingredients. We are focused on sales in our own province, where we are markup exempt and internationally where we avoid the costly Canadian markup.
6. How have you grown your brand at bars and beyond?
We taste people on our spirits and answer their questions. That’s the secret to our success: Get out there and pour it! At our price point we’ll never be a “well spirit” but that’s OK. We focus on bars and restaurants that are willing to partner with us and put effort into communicating to their guests what sets us both apart.
7. What advice would you give to fellow distillers looking to get their spirits into notable bars?
Own your neighborhood, borough or region and look to the craft beer world for inspiration. Be authentic and don’t try to please everyone. Make spirits that you want to drink and find other people who share your taste.
8. What is exciting you most about small-batch craft spirits right now?
It’s the Wild West out here! BC has gone from 12 to 50 distillers in four years. The diversity and creativity coming from all these talented distillers is amazing. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Interview with Jay Jones, Bar Manager
In every city with any kind of viable cocktail movement, there have been pioneers, those championing quality spirits, balanced cocktails and proper ingredients long before it was trendy. Jay Jones has been just such a bartender in Vancouver for over 20 years. He has bartended, managed, consulted on and launched over 40 drink programs across Greater Vancouver and Whistler — and even written about drink for Montecristo Magazine and Urban Diner.
As a founding director of the Canadian Professional Bartenders Association since 2010, he’s been instrumental in furthering the cocktail scene in Vancouver and Canada as a whole, including helping to organize Tales of the Cocktail in its Vancouver runs in 2011 and 2012.
Jones is the Beverage and Social Media Director of Vij’s Group, crafting the menus and training staff at each restaurant, including the flagship Vij’s Restaurant, long celebrated as serving some of the best, most innovative Indian cuisine in BC. He launched his own Barjonesing consulting company, creating and launching many menus and bars in the region, as well as supporting event management, staff education and media services.
While he has won awards from GQ’s Most Imaginative Bartender Vancouver (2012) to being inducted into the British Columbia Restaurant Hall of Fame (2013) — the only bartender ever named — what stands out in sitting at the bar with Jones is his unassuming hospitality and casual perfection. His drinks exhibit impeccable balance but his manner is all about his guests’ ease.
Through mentorship, Jones utilizes his hard-earned expertise to further the next generation of bartenders. As he runs Vij’s Group bars and his consulting company, he also judges in awards like the Vancouver International Spirits Competition and the Vancouver International Wine Festival Wine Program Excellence Awards.
In his own words, Jones talks about his background, where eats and drinks in his city and what advice he’d give to distillers looking to get placed in bars.
1. Tell us about your background:
I was born in Richmond, a small city to the south of Vancouver [and spent] young life on a tree farm — the family business — then the family moved to Vancouver… I’ve travelled plenty, but always want to call the Vancouver area home. I’m now happy to live in the Royal City of New Westminster, half an hour east of Vancouver.
2. What led you to bartending?
Dad had a wine cellar in the basement, so foundations of booze began early. [I] was an aspiring visual artist out of high school and so went to art college in Seattle. Being a traditional graphite illustrator and pen & ink graphic designer, I became disillusioned about being a professional artist in an industry which was (at the time) shifting into reliance on computer rendering.
So I removed myself from that trajectory and took a job back in my birthplace at Cactus Club Café, on a whim, in the mid-‘90s. A “break” turned into a career. Casual dining and brewpubs was my start, but I shifted to fine dining and fine wine with a move to Whistler in the late ‘90s at renowned Araxi, where I eventually was given reins to the beverage program.
I’ve been running bar and wine programs and bartender teams ever since, as well as plenty of consulting, educating and writing. Writing and social media management has been a significant complement to my bar work. I’ve been involved with marketing photography and content development with Shangri-La Hotel, Donnelly Group, Canucks Hospitality and now Vij’s Group.
3. How does living in Vancouver influence your bar style?
Being part of making Vancouver an increasingly vibrant and world-class hospitality destination has long been my motivation. We have such incredible access to a veritable bounty of natural products that representing local quality is the only thing that makes sense. Add a world of cultural representation and influences living here, and you have all the inspiration you could ask for.
Now that I’m past my competition days and a couple of decades behind the wood, my other motivation is to support and inspire the incumbent generation of career bartenders. We’re really very lucky and grateful here for the industry we’ve been able to nurture and for the support of the drinking and dining world. We’re small city with big city aspirations.
4. What is your philosophy on deciding what brands/bottles to stock and to invest in?
When you’ve been bartending for a while, you develop a natural set of go-to bottles, a working core of flavor profiles with capacity for versatility and appealing to a range of guests’ interests and curiosities. My philosophy has always been that less is more, as long as you offer the right fundamentals: classic varietals of wine from established regions, a full range of essential spirits from quality producers and an enticing selection of beers from passionate brewers.
While it’s great to support locally made products, I’m not motivated to represent them for the reason of regional proximity alone. Every bottle has to earn its place on my backbar with considerations of quality, versatility, flavor impact and cost effectiveness. While I certainly have emotional connections with select products, business is business and less is more for most venues’ efficiencies.
5. How do you and your team educate customers on new and quality spirits?
A good backbar should invite exploration and prompt queries from guests by naturally being an enticing and well-arranged display. The cocktail menu is the workhorse of any drinks program and the best vehicle for introducing interesting spirits in approachable and exciting ways.
This is a natural process in best cases that makes the guest feel like they’re part of discovering a new idea or flavor, as opposed to feeling like they’re having things insisted upon them. Allow the patron to be inspired to ask questions and explore their curiosities. Then have sound product knowledge to back it up and skills to facilitate their experience.
6. What advice would you give to distilleries looking to be represented in quality bars?
Make a quality product at a fair price and deliver on what you advertise it as. It sounds simple, but it’s incredibly complex, especially in a region like ours that has suffocating regulations and crippling taxation. If I buy a gin, I want it to smell and taste like gin and be applicable as such. By all means, make it unique and interesting, but it still has to fit the classic guidelines of the spirit in questions. The pursuit of being different has led to many small distilleries trying too hard to stand out and consequently failing at being simply well-made and categorically correct.
7. What are some micro-distillers/small-batch brands that are exciting you right now?
I continue to love what Long Table [in Vancouver] does. They’re committed to getting the basics right and making pure, clean and vivid flavors. Their London Dry gin and Texada Vodka can stand up to any international comparisons. Sheringham [from Shirley] is making some delicious bottlings, especially their Seaside gin that showcases accent flavors of influence from the West Coast island shores, including local kelp. Sheringham also makes an excellent aquavit.
8. What are your greatest interests?
Star Wars, steak and liquor — in that order. Star Wars has been a lifestyle for me since 1981 when my parents first let me watch it. For 36 years it has been a constant in all aspects of personal and professional life. My ever-growing collection of toys, books and cosplay items is a significant part of my home aesthetic.
Cooking in general is a great love, but sourcing and preparing the perfect steak is an endless pursuit. My incredible butcher (Pete’s Meats) has been crucial in that endeavor.
Spirits and creating delicious cocktails is critical to my professional life, but I’m a beer guy at the end of the shift. We’re lucky to be enjoying an embarrassment of riches that is our local brewing community. However, if I could only ever drink one
type of beverage for the rest of my life, it would be wine: my first and always true love. And dogs.
9. Besides your bar, what do you think are some “can’t miss” or personal favorite food and drink spots when people are visiting your city?
If I’m not behind my bar, I’m sitting at someone else’s. So in terms of consumption recommendations, I’ll preach what I practice:
Japanese: Suika Snackbar (featured sake & chicken karaage)
Vietnamese: Truong Thanh (Pho #17)
Cantonese: Kwong Chow Congee & Noodle House (spicy chicken & spinach, congee with fried oyster & preserved egg)
Dim Sum: Floata (everything)
Pizza: Corduroy Pie Co. (whatever’s on tap & the feature pie)
BBQ: Dixie’s (Peach Punch with Bourbon & ‘The Bubba’)
Pub: The Railway (local beers & pressed sandwiches)
Hotel Lounge: 1927 Lobby Lounge at a Rosewood Hotel Georgia (Hotel Georgia Cocktail & truffle fries)
French: St. Lawrence (Yacine’s cocktails, steak tartare & Côte de porc)
Fancy Italian: CinCin (Italian wine & anything off the wood-fired grill)
Sports Bar: Bells & Whistles (craft beer, chicken wings & ‘Fat Stevens’)
Local Craft Beer Immersion Bar: The Alibi Room
Hidden Bar: Campagnolo Upstairs (Peter’s cocktails & ‘Dirty Burger’)
Brewery Touring: Brewers Row, Port Moody
Coffee: Old Crow (pour-over coffee & leek pastry)
Dessert: Glenburn Soda Fountain & Confectionery (cherry cola soda & sweet & salty pretzel)
Lunch: Longtail Kitchen (local beer, chicken wings, roti & pad thai)
