Vancouver is the host city for North America’s 50 Best Bars 2025 and that means several awesome cocktail events with visiting bar stars
Vancouver will host the announcement of North America’s 50 Best Bars of 2025. Leading up to the event was first the revelation that three local bars have been named to the expanded rankings, including Prophecy. Several events in the city will showcase our fantastic cocktail pros along with visiting guest bartenders from around the world. Photo courtesy of North America’s 50 Best Bars
What’s shaking in Vancouver? Quite a bit, when it comes to the cocktail scene.
The announcement of the 2025 North America’s 50 Best Bars rankings takes place in Vancouver for the first time on Tuesday, April 29, and there are several prominent local and global bar stars stirring up some excitement as part of the festivities.
Leading up to and capping off the awards ceremony there will be numerous events showcasing incredible spirits and talented cocktail pros, including those visiting from around North America and beyond. Top spots for tipples across the city will be opening up their bars for collabs, showcases, seminars, and guest shifts.
Along with Vancouver serving as host city for the first time is another thrilling first: An extended list of rankings honouring spots 51 to 100 was recently revealed.
Tara Davies (left) and Erik Vazquez are back behind the bar with Chupito at the Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand spot’s new home in Mount Pleasant. Rubén Nava/Lessnoise Studio
“A new chapter is unfolding!” shared Chupito via email this week. Specifically, the former shipping container bar and seasonal hangout known for its excellent cocktails and elevated but approachable Mexican dishes is ready to welcome guests in a new indoor-outdoor space in Mount Pleasant.
The new French meets West Coast brasserie will be “a space unlike any other in Vancouver thus far.”
Cambie Street’s highly-anticipated debut June has set an opening date for early April 2025 and will feature an exciting drinks menu and French-inspired West Coast food. Photo by Luis Valdazon/courtesy of June
Located in Cambie Village in the former Biercraft space, June is a bi-level French-inspired brasserie from the team behind Vancouver’s award-winning Keefer Bar.
The 4,500-square-foot space features seats for 100 in the upstairs dining room, with 35 more seats downstairs in the bar area coming soon, along with three planned patios.
The gem, known for its inventive, French-inspired cocktails and effortless charm, is awarded for delivering exceptional hospitality and a transportive guest experience
The Bar Pompette team. Photo courtesy of North America’s 50 Best Bars
Toronto’s Bar Pompette has been announced as the winner of the Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award, part of the fourth annual North America’s 50 Best Bars awards, sponsored by Perrier. Created to recognize the importance of hospitality in the bar experience, the Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award is voted on by the 300-plus members of the North America’s 50 Best Bars Academy, who are asked to name the bar where they have received the single-best hospitality experience within the 18-month voting period. The Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award is the first award in a series of special awards announced leading up to the highly anticipated awards ceremony for North America’s 50 Best Bars 2025.
Bar Pompette is a refined yet relaxed Toronto gem, known for its take on modern and classic cocktails. Located in the heart of Little Italy, the bar’s minimalist-chic design evokes the effortless charm of a Parisian café, which is juxtaposed with the creativity and inventiveness that drives the cocktail offering. Since earning a spot on the list in 2023, Bar Pompette has continued to elevate Toronto’s cocktail scene, with a seasonally rotating menu that highlights innovative flavors and expert craftsmanship. Guests can choose how they want to experience Bar Pompette, whether it’s imbibing casually or experiencing the process behind each drink, including a guided visit to the cocktail lab. With small bites from its sister French brasserie, guests are offered a taste of France while remaining grounded in the vibrant energy of Toronto. At Bar Pompette, the drinks, ambiance, and hospitality create a seamless blend of past and present, somewhere for people to linger, glass in hand, time and time again.
Emma Sleight, Head of Content for North America’s 50 Best Bars, says: “It’s been incredible to see Bar Pompette’s growth since its first recognition on the list in 2023. From the expertly curated cocktail menu — where each drink tells a story of seasonal creativity and truly impressive craftmanship — to the inviting ambiance of its open-air patio and cosy, Cognac-colored banquettes, Bar Pompette creates that rare alchemy where world-class drinks and genuine, welcoming service collide. It’s a transportative destination, offering a taste of France with every sip, while managing to remain firmly rooted in the heart of Toronto’s dynamic cocktail scene. It’s that magical synergy between exceptional drinks and a welcoming atmosphere that keeps guests coming back to Bar Pompette. ”
Innovative cocktails abound at Bar Pompette. Photo courtesy of North America’s 50 Best Bars
Co-founder Hugo Togni, a former chef, contributes culinary expertise to the bar’s creative yet approachable drinks menu. Signature drinks like the Nitro Colada — served on tap with centrifuge-clarified pineapple juice and coconut oil-washed rum — and the Cornichon, a Martini-inspired cocktail featuring dill pickle distillate, showcase the team’s playful creativity. Even with these sophisticated methods, Bar Pompette remains a true neighborhood bar, where the focus is always on making every guest feel welcome.
Hugo Togni, Co-Owner of Bar Pompette says, “We are truly humbled and grateful to receive this award. More than just a bar, Bar Pompette is built on passion, dedication, and a genuine love for hospitality. Our team—many of whom have been together for nearly three years—has become like family, and that chemistry is what makes every service special. To us, it’s not just about making great drinks, but about creating a space where people feel at home, whether it’s their first visit or their fiftieth. Hospitality is at the heart of what we do, and we’re excited to keep sharing that experience with our guests every day.”
Matt Magliocco, Executive Vice President of Michter’s Distillery, says: “Bar Pompette is a wonderful bar, and their hospitality is second to none. Congratulations to Maxime Hoerth, Hugo Togni, and the entire Bar Pompette team on this extremely well-deserved recognition.”
The North America’s 50 Best Bars 2025 awards ceremony will take place in Vancouver, on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. This represents the first time the awards ceremony will be staged in Canada and recognizes the region’s presence on the global cocktail scene. North America’s 50 Best Bars aims to provide consumers with an exceptional list of expert-approved drinking destinations across North America.
The countdown of the list of North America’s 50 Best Bars and the awards ceremony will also be broadcast to a global audience who are not able to attend in person, and bar and cocktail lovers will be invited to join through the 50 Best Bars TV YouTube channel.
Higher taxes, a production cap: B.C. distillers push for wine-like treatment
Okanagan Spirits principal Tyler Dyck has been lobbying for years for the B.C. government to change liquor policies. Submitted photo
B.C. craft distillers have told BIV that there are several specific ways in which the B.C. government is treating them less favourably than it does wineries.
For one thing, government mark-ups, or taxes, on spirits is higher than it is for wine.
Another beef is that craft distillers have a production limit that they must stay below to gain some tax advantages. Wineries do not have that restriction. Finally, wineries get financial kick-backs, or reimbursements, when they sell products in government-run liquor stores. Distilleries do not.
Macaloney’s Island Distillery takes top honours at 15th annual Canadian Whisky Awards
Macaloney’s Island Distillery Peat Project Moscatel Barrique single malt is the Canadian Whisky of the Year. Macaloney’s Island Distillery photo
A peated whisky from Vancouver Island — Macaloney’s Island Distillery Peat Project Moscatel Barrique single malt — has just been named the Canadian Whisky of the Year and upended all our perceptions of what Canadian whisky can be.
The Fettercairn Tropical Highball from the VCW 2024 Green Garden Gala. Living Room Creative photo
As we were putting this issue of The Alchemist together, an atmospheric river came roaring through town. It was dark, cold and gloomy, with raging torrents of water pouring outside. It was, in other words, whisky weather.
It’s no secret that we love whisky over here at The Alchemist, whether it’s a refined single malt with plenty of age and a touch of peaty smoke in its lineage or a spicy rye, corn-sweet bourbon or the latest elegant expression from Japan. We love whisky neat, on ice and in cocktails; most of all, we love that it’s a thoughtful spirit, one we can linger over while enjoying a good conversation.
Mexico City’s Handshake Speakeasy tops The World’s 50 Best Bars
Phot courtesy of Worlds 50 Best
If you think the speakeasy trend is over, well, think again. When The World’s 50 Best Bars 2024 were announced on October 22, a Mexican City speakeasy took the No. 1 spot—the second time in recent years that a speakeasy has won. (The Barcelona speakeasy Paradiso, which is accessed through a pastrami shop, won in 2022.)
It’s the first time CDMX has topped this global chart, but anyone who has visited knows it is a terrific city for cocktails. The winning Handshake Speakeasy is a terrific example of what makes it so great. Secreted behind a black door marked with a silver number 13, it is a Prohibition-themed enclave where bar director and co-owner Eric Van Beek has built a shrine to molecular mixology. It’s a must on any cocktail-loving travellers’ list.
The spirits have been scheming at the craft distillery
North Van’s Sons of Vancouver distillery has resurrected the short-lived Dark Manor Inn, the haunted house-themed bar that closed in 2019, for its 2024 Halloween celebrations. Photo courtesy of Sons of Vancouver
It’s alive! For the duration of spooky season, Vancouver’s dearly departed haunted house-themed cocktail bar has been resurrected as a pop-up experience at a popular craft distillery.
Sons of Vancouver has brought back The Dark Manor Inn, the quirky and short-lived cocktail bar that never made it to its first Halloween, by way of decor and inspired sips taken right from the late watering hole, which closed in the summer of 2019. (The Dark Manor, which was tied to Vancouver’s popular Shameful Tiki Room, ran out of a Fraser Street address that next became the Michelin Guide-endorsedSay Mercy! restaurant.)
A new location of Heritage restaurant brings the chance to expand its menu and join an exciting food neighbourhood
A new second Vancouver location for popular modern Chinese comfort eats restaurant Heritage means the chance to expand the menu and the dining experience in a new neighbourhood. Photo courtesy of Heritage Asian Eatery
A Vancouver restaurant that closed one of its locations last year due to Broadway Subway construction is starting a fresh chapter with an expanded concept in another part of the city.
Heritage Asian Eatery, known for its approachable menu of Chinese comfort classics, like dim sum dishes, loaded bao, and BBQ meats served to share or as plates with rice or noodles, is nearly ready to welcome guests to its new location in Riley Park at 4242 Main St. The restaurant replaces Alphabet City and Bingo Taco, which closed back in June.
Opening day is set for Tuesday, October 8.
Heritage Restaurant and Bar marks a new second location for the local restaurant, which began on Pender Street in Vancouver’s financial district in 2016 before its second outpost launched a couple of years later at 382 W Broadway. However, in January 2023, owner Paul Zhang shared he was forced to close the West Broadway location due to the significant disruptions to his business caused by the ongoing subway construction.
Salted egg yolk fried squid joins the menu at the new Heritage location in Vancouver.
New Heritage location means expanded menu offerings
The new Main Street venture is a prime example of how timing – and location – can help an established restaurant brand like Heritage expand its scope.
While the long-planned Heritage location on the North Shore at the revitalized Lonsdale Quay remains in the works (with hopefully a wintertime launch), conversations with Zhang, and Heritage’s chef Jimmy Lam about how the restaurant could grow its concept to serve a nighttime clientele evolved into a wish to embark on another location.
This spring, the former Alphabet City/Bing Taco space became available, and it was an undeniable opportunity for Zhang and Lam, who shifted into a shared ownership deal and got to work planning for Heritage on Main.
The deal closed fast, Zhang shared with V.I.A. during a visit to the new space, so they got to work on the design and then moved into the construction phase.
“The bones were great,” describes Zhang. Those “great bones” meant that the space only needed cosmetic changes, shaving months and plenty of dollars of what could have otherwise been an extensive build-out.
“We’re really psyched about the huge bar,” Zhang adds. It’s a 50-foot, 18-seat horseshoe bar that runs the room’s length, right in the middle. So the team leaned into the bar as a central focus and the natural division of the remainder of the room it creates. Various seating options include a large table with a lazy Susan located at the front by one of the two garage-door-style windows that flank the entrance.
Heritage’s new location features 82 seats.
Contemporary take on traditional Chinese dining
“We wanted to have some elements that reflected classic Chinese restaurant in a more contemporary setting,” explains Zhang, noting that communal dining with larger groups is typical of higher-end Chinese restaurants.
Date night, pre- or post- dinner drinks, celebrations: the core of the concept of Heritage on Main is to join the ranks of the neighbourhood’s celebrated spots in offering a dynamic destination in Mount Pleasant for cocktails (or mocktails) along with modern Chinese fare.
The neighbourhood in particular signalled an exciting opportunity for partner and chef Lam, whose childhood memories of growing up in Vancouver stretch from walks through Chinatown to shop for ingredients to seeing countless Chinese restaurants lining Main Street. Now, says Lam, Main Street is an explosion of global cuisines, and it has him fired up to put his 14 years in the culinary industry into the mix with Heritage.
“I feel like being on Main Street gives you another level of cooking,” Lam observes, noting nearby spots lauded for their Peruvian, Vietnamese, or West Coast fare.
Heritage Restaurant and Bar on Main Street will have an expanded cocktail program created by Derek Granton
Expanded menu offerings with cocktails
Lam also says Heritage’s new location is an opportunity for him to showcase what it means to be able to express his Chinese-Canadian heritage through food, and to reconnect with some treasured ingredients, techniques, and traditions, with his own contemporary spin.
To that end, the menu for Heritage on Main will not only include the restaurant’s signature line of approachable, comforting Chinese eats like dumplings and BBQ, but also new and exciting snacks or share plates. Crispy fried squid with salted egg yolk, a cucumber and wood ear mushroom salad, and tender fried eggplant with house made XO sauce will join classic items like Peking duck with handmade crepes.
Near the kitchen is a familiar feature from Chinese restaurants, a tank for live seafood. Heritage will be serving up crab and lobster in a variety of preparations, with plans to do things like steamed lobster with a kombu butter sauce.
While Heritage’s Pender customers know the restaurant’s beer and wine program, the Main Street restaurant is dialling up the bar offerings thanks to the talents of Bar Manager Derek Granton. The drinks program builds on classic cocktails with a twist, like an Old Fashioned made with honey and five spice. The idea is to focus on technique and simple ingredients with excellent execution.
“We really want to do some cocktails where there’s nothing to really hide behind,” describes Zhang.
One of the new dishes created by Jimmy Lam for Heritage on Main is a salad of cucumber and wood ear mushrooms
Celebrations, solo snacks: Many ways to experience the new Heritage
For Lam, the chance to work with Granton is a reunion, as the two were both at Bao Bei previously, some nights cooking and cocktail-shaking non-stop at a dizzying pace, the chef recalls. Now they are able to team up to offer Main Street a place to experience great cocktails – or zero-proof mocktails – with modern Chinese food and experience Heritage’s relaxed but celebratory atmosphere.
There’s a welcome flexibility to what Heritage is set to offer on Main, which means guests can experience the food, drink, and elegant space in multiple ways.
Zhang describes Heritage on Main as the ideal spot to stop in for a drink before a baseball game or ahead of dinner reservations elsewhere in the neighbourhood, or as a spot for date night or a group celebration.
To that end, while there is the one big table, the room and the menu are designed so that ordering multiple dishes to share works well for groups of two or four – smaller numbers than what most traditional Chinese banquet-style restaurants cater to.
“We want to share the culture and the way of dining, family-style, and it’s difficult at some classic Chinese places where you need six to 10 people. The dishes are huge,” explains Zhang. So at Heritage’s new location, the portions are smaller and the prices lower so that smaller groups can still dine family style.
Or, as Lam describes, a solo diner can pop in and have a seat at the bar for a cocktail and a snack. “I like that!” shares Lam. “Sometimes I like to just be alone and have my own dumplings.”
Dumplings will certainly be on the menu come dinner time, as Heritage will launch with evening service from 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday to start. The plan is to extend service to seven days a week with later weekend hours and daily lunch service within the first two months of operation.
