Rub shoulders with international bar stars and brand ambassadors at Vancouver Cocktail Week
Hisatsugu Saito mixes cocktails at the Nikka bar at 2024’s Green Garden Gala. Living Room Creative photo
Stop in for cinq à sept at one of Vancouver Cocktail Week’s participating bars and you never know who might be perched on the bar stool next to yours. It might be an out-of-town cocktail lover, a global brand ambassador or a rock star bartender from overseas. Hanging out with VCW visitors is one of the most exciting aspects of the whole week.
Here are just a few bar stars we know will be in town, and where you can see them — note that many will also be at the Black and White Gala.
Can’t decide what events to go to? Start with these
Experience top brands’ cocktail creations at Vancouver Cocktail Week. Living Room Creative photo
Each year there are those cocktail week events that you find yourself telling your friends about over and over—or that you forever regret having missed out on. Here are five that will be all the buzz this year; if you don’t have your tickets yet, what are you waiting for?
This year’s VCW event lineup proves that great cocktails and great food go hand in hand.
Living Room Creative photo
Vancouver Cocktail Week isn’t just about the drinks—it’s a full sensory experience where food plays just as much of a starring role.
From March 2 to 9, 2025, VCW will offer plenty of ways for food lovers to indulge, from cocktail-paired dinners to whisky tastings and creative twists on afternoon tea. Whether it’s a multi-course Italian feast, an exploration of Japanese hanami traditions, or a deep dive into agave spirits, this year’s lineup proves that great cocktails and great food go hand in hand.
Presented by The Alchemist—a sibling publication to V.I.A.—VCW 2025 will bring together some of the city’s top chefs, bartenders, and international guests for a week of immersive dining experiences.
Here’s a selection of standout VCW events where the food is just as exciting as the cocktails.
The city’s best party returns March 2 to 9 with more than 40 events, dozens of spirit brands and VCW-partner venues all across the city.
Living Room Creative photo
With fewer than 30 days left until the fourth annual Vancouver Cocktail Week presented by The Alchemist magazine, it’s time to nail down your tickets for the best seminars, most exciting pop-ups and unmissable signature events like the closing Black & White Gala.
VCW25’s schedule is packed with more than 40 events, starting with the traditional Signature Sunday Cocktail Brunch (this year at ARC Restaurant at the Fairmont Waterfront) and featuring seminars, tastings, master classes, parties and burlesque and drag shows. Plus there are cocktail-paired dinners, tea parties and other culinary events, including the Cherry Blossom Tipsy Tea at Notch 8 in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver and the “Festa della Primavera” dinner at Carlino.
And that doesn’t even include the popular (unticketed) Cinq à Sept series of elevated happy hours, which will be held at VCW partnering bars all over town.
In fact, one of the best ways to discover those venues and explore the city’s talented cocktail culture is by joining one of the neighbourhood cocktail crawls that offer a taste of what the city’s most exciting bartenders are shaking up.
But if there is one event not to miss, it’s the closing night Black & White Gala on March 9. The signature event of Vancouver Cocktail Week will be held in the gorgeous Spanish Ballroom at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia and features live music, a DJ, elevated bar snacks, more than two dozen premium brand sponsors and, of course, more cocktail creativity than you could fit into a bootlegger’s bathtub.
And, because no celebration of community can go without supporting those who make it possible, Vancouver Cocktail Week is proud to announce that a portion of ticket sales will go to our charity partner, Mind The Bar, a Vancouver-based organization that supports mental health wellness in the hospitality industry across Canada.
Tickets for Vancouver Cocktail Week presented by The Alchemist are now on sale. For tickets or to browse the Vancouver Cocktail Week 2025 program guide, visit thealchemistmagazine.ca/vcw/. A print version of the program guide is also available at bars, restaurants and private liquor retailers around Vancouver.
The city’s best party returns March 2 to 9 with all your favourite events and brand-new ones, including the unmissable Black & White Gala.
Living Room Creative photo
Tickets are now on sale for the fourth annual Vancouver Cocktail Week presented by The Alchemist magazine. Save your seat for the best seminars, most delicious cocktail-paired dinners and unmissable signature events like the closing Black & White Gala.
“We are proud to promote and support our incredible cocktail community and culture here in Vancouver. VCW’s success is due to the collaboration between all of us in this industry—the bartenders, the venues, the brands and the consumers,” says The Alchemist publisher, VCW event producer and co-founder Gail Nugent.
Raise your glasses! Vancouver Cocktail Week presented by The Alchemist magazinereturns for its fourth annual round of spirited fun, March 2 to 9, 2025.
This highlight of the March calendar is filled with seminars, master classes, tasting events, cocktail-paired dinners, neighbourhood crawls, guest shifts and spectacular parties, all supported by dozens of brand sponsors pouring their best products for you. Expect to see all your favourite local bartenders in action, as well as top talent from across Canada and around the world.
Vancouver Cocktail Week 2024 began and ended with the signature events you wouldn’t want to miss
Vancouver’s own Evelyn Chick dropped by from Toronto to chat about her new book and serve up her Green Haka Cooler at the Signature Sunday Cocktail Brunch. Gail Nugent photo
From seminars to neighbourhood crawls to cocktail-paired dinners and bar-star guest shifts, Vancouver Cocktail Week presented by The Alchemist has something for everyone who enjoys raising a glass or two. But the biggest, best, most unmissable parties are the signature events that open and close the week—and this year was no exception.
The Baijiu seminar by Hope & Sesame co-founders Bastien Ciocca and Andrew Ho ran through the major styles of baijiu, and how to use it in cocktails. Charlene Rooke photo
The Seminars
Chinatown speakeasy Laowai opened its freezer-style door to an international cohort of bar colleagues, who gave daytime seminars recounting their personal journeys to world-class status, then held court in the evenings with guest shifts showcasing their creations.
On March 3, the co-founders of Chinese bar Hope & Sesame, hospitality school pals Bastien Ciocca and Andrew Ho, recounted their journey bringing the first speakeasy-style modern bar to southern China, in Guangzhou. Today, they have several bars plus a spirits consultancy (catering to the likes of Ralph Lauren’s hospitality group) in their mini-empire, ranging from café-fronted speakeasies to heritage-themed Chinese bars and elegant, tasting-menu cocktail flights. Their San You bars feature all-Chinese spirits and produce, a perfect segue to their brief session on baijiu, the Chinese spirit in which Laowai specializes (with 50-plus bottlings, the largest selection in Canada). Illustrated with bottlings from SinoCan agency, Ciocca and Ho ran through the major styles of baijiu, and how to use it in cocktails. Bartenders in the room took notes on creating split-base cocktail and using baijiu smartly, as in Hope & Sesame’s famous Moutai Milk Punch, a clarified cocktail with Black Forest Cake flavours, served later that night of Laowai.
Vancouver Cocktail Week features events for everyone, in support of the city’s hospitality industry
Vancouver’s Kaitlyn Stewart was the World Class Global Bartender of the Year in 2017. Living Room Creative photo
Unlike some boozy events, Vancouver Cocktail Week isn’t just a big party (though it offers plenty of opportunities to raise a glass and get your ya-yas out). And unlike other boozy events, it’s not a trade show where you wander from booth to booth sampling wee sips of things (though it does feature loads of exciting new spirits, bitters and cocktails to taste and try).
What Vancouver Cocktail Week is, is a celebration of community, and not just the community of talented bartenders and industry professionals in this city. It’s also a celebration of you, the guests they serve, the whole reason the industry exists in the first place.
That’s why VCW events take place, not in a convention hall, but in the bars and restaurants where the city’s best bartenders can show you what they do best.
And it’s also why VCW24 has something for everyone, whether you are only just discovering cocktails or want to add to your collection of recipes for your next dinner party, expand your knowledge as an industry professional or simply enjoy a fun night out on the town.
Here are just some of the exciting experiences you can discover at VCW24, March 3 to 10.
One of the most exciting aspects of the third annual Vancouver Cocktail Week is the unprecedented opportunity it offers for guests to taste international flavours and meet bartenders from far-flung regions of the planet. Here are just some of the festival’s great dinners, seminars, guest shifts and other events that bring the rest of the world home.
