Bar Bites

A knockout read

November 30, 2018 No Comments

Blood, Sweat & Beers celebrates Aprons for Gloves, a noon-profit organization that provides community outreach in the Downtown Eastside.

In 2012, a handful of local bartenders slipped on some boxing gloves and started fighting for a cause. Aprons for Gloves, they called it, a non-profit organization with the aim of providing community outreach in the Downtown Eastside through the sweet science of boxing and the annual Restaurant Rumble charity boxing match.

Now there’s a gorgeous hardcover book celebrating the event: Blood, Sweat & Beers is written by wine writer and boxer Laura Starr and features some 450 photos by Guy Roland, who has been documenting the event since the beginning.

Bar Bites

Sweet launch for bitters line

November 23, 2018 No Comments

Bitters by Christos took home three double gold awards at the San Diego Spirits Festival. Central City Brewers and Distillers photo

It’s not even available for sale yet, but already Christos Kalaitzis’ new bitters line is reaping the kind of recognition a crafty bartender could only dream of.

Bitters by Christos, created by the spirits brand ambassador and mixologist for Central City Brewers & Distillers, just took home not one, not two, but three double gold awards at the prestigious San Diego Spirits Festival, the premiere West Coast celebration of spirits and cocktails. (Central City’s Lohin McKinnon Peated Whisky also won double gold.)

Bar Bites

Spirited sips at the Hotel Vancouver

November 16, 2018 No Comments

This cocktail from the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver was inspired by the Lady in Red, a gracious spirit said to haunt the halls of this grand dame of a hotel. Fairmont Hotel Vancouver cocktail.

Glance up at the sloping green roof of the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, and you might just catch a flash of scarlet at one of the windows. Wave hello to the Lady in Red, a gracious spirit said to haunt the halls of this grand dame of a hotel.

Bar Bites, Recipes

The lady in Red

November 15, 2018 No Comments

This recipe, courtesy of the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, is inspired by a gracious spirit said to haunt the halls of this grand dame of a hotel.

• 1 oz Hendricks Gin
• 0.75 oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur
• 1.5 oz cranberry juice
• 0.25 oz lemon juice
• Sparkling wine

Bar Bites

Vancouver’s winning cocktail

November 5, 2018 No Comments

Another day, another competition under the belts of Vancouver’s extraordinary bartenders.

To chants of “Back to back!” on Thanksgiving weekend, Chris Enns of the Lobby Bar at the Fairmont Pacific Rim made it into the top-20 round at the Diageo Reserve World Class competition in Berlin. Australia’s Orlando Marzo took home the overall title this year, but Enns made it all the way to number eight in the world, with a trio of Vancouverites cheering him on—last year’s global winner, Kaitlyn Stewart of Royal Dinette, as well as previous World Class Canada winners Lauren Mote and Grant Sceney. “Until next time, friends,” Enns said on Facebook. “May your hearts be filled with love and your glasses filled with World Class cocktails.”

Bar Bites, Recipes

Hay, Hoe, Let’s Grow

November 4, 2018 No Comments

Created by Max Curzon-Price of the Botanist at Fairmont Pacific Rim.

• 2 oz Bombay Sapphire gin
• 1 oz acidified parsnip juice
• 0.75 oz bee pollen syrup
• 3 dashes Hay and Burdock Root Bitters
• 1 egg white

Bar Bites

Sipping Tofino

August 10, 2018 No Comments

Wolf in the Fog’s bar manager Hailey Pasemko. Wolf in the Fog photo

When you’re surrounded by wild bounty the way Tofino is, it only makes sense to use it however you can. And so Wolf in the Fog’s bar manager Hailey Pasemko transforms huckleberries into bitters, infuses gin with salal or spruce tips, and fat-washes vodka with salmon.

Now she’s looking beyond Tofino, to the great spirits being produced across B.C., for her new “Local Legends” cocktail program.

Bar Bites, Recipes

Locals Only Negroni

August 9, 2018 No Comments

Created by Wolf in the Fog bar manager Hailey Pasemko, this variation on the classic uses all B.C. products.

• 1 oz Sheringham Seaside Gin
• 1 oz Odd Society Bittersweet Vermouth
• 1 oz Legend Distilling Naramaro

Bar Bites

World class city

August 3, 2018 No Comments

Home Team cocktail. Photo courtesy of Chris Enns.

With Christopher Enns’ recent win in Montreal, that’s four times Vancouver bartenders have taken home the prestigious title of Diageo Reserve World Class Canada champion since the competition started in 2013.

Enns, who mans the shakers at the Fairmont Pacific Rim’s Lobby Lounge, also recently won the Woodford Reserve Manhattan challenge in New York. “It’s been very busy, that’s for sure,” he says.

Bar Bites, Recipes

Home Team

August 2, 2018 No Comments

Chris Enns prepared this cocktail for the World Class Canada 2018 national finals. “This drink came from the Wanderlust challenge where we came up with a cocktail inspired by both home and an away location,” he recalls. A twist on the Sazerac cocktail, the Home Team is inspired by the feeling of “home” he found at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, as well the home-team support among the World Class bartenders. Here it is served in a Scottish quaich cup; however, a chilled Old Fashioned or Sazerac-style glass would be fine.