The Alchemist

4 of Canada’s 50 Best Bars of 2024 are in Vancouver

No Comments
Continue Reading

The Alchemist

Honouring a Bartender Handshake

No Comments
Continue Reading

The Alchemist

Exploring BC’s best: Over 200 artisan spirits to be featured at BC Distilled

No Comments
Continue Reading

Bar Bites

Tidbits: news from the spirits world in Canada and beyond

No Comments
The Aperol Spritz is one of Google’s 10 trendiest drinks for 2022. Getty Images photo

Barrels of Awards

Spring is awards season, and B.C. bars and distilleries have been picking up shiny gold trinkets all over the place. Just a few of the honours: Botanist Bar won the prestigious Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award from North America’s 50 Best Bars and at #19 was the only B.C. bar to make the list. Clive’s Classic Lounge in Victoria was named World Whisky Hotel Bar at the World Whiskies Awards, which also recognized Macaloney’s Island Distillery with a trio of top prizes. The Keefer Bar was nominated Best Canadian Bar by the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. And Okanagan Spirits was named Artisanal Distillery of the Year at the 2022 Canadian Whisky Awards.

Continue Reading

The Alchemist

11 of Canada’s 50 Best Bars of 2023 are in B.C.

No Comments

Some new names and usual suspects, including several here in Vancouver

11 B.C. bars were named in Canada’s 50 Best Bars list 2023. Here they are. Canada’s 100 Best photo

There was a lot of jostling for position and some surprise inclusions in this year’s just-released list of Canada’s 50 Best Bars.

Usual suspects from past lists such as Botanist, The Keefer Bar, and Laowai made the cut yet again, though they’ve been bumped down a few places by bars in Toronto and Montreal. Civil Liberties in Toronto is returning champion and took home the title of Canada’s Best Bar for the second year in a row.

Botanist came in fourth place, and The Keefer Bar was eighth, with Laowai rounding out the top 10.

Continue Reading

The Alchemist

A new jungle-themed restaurant and cocktail lounge is opening in Vancouver

No Comments

It’s “Vancouver’s first jungle-inspired cocktail lounge.”

The Jungle Room is a new cocktail lounge and restaurant located on Denman Street in Vancouver’s West End. The official opening date is April 28, 2023. @jnglroom/Instagram

Keen-eyed Vancouverites have been watching the West End space at 961 Denman St since late 2021, when signs went up for a “health bar and cocktail lounge” called The Jungle Room moving in where the Dover Arms pub stood for many a year.

Continue Reading

The Alchemist

A massive artisan spirits festival returns to Vancouver with 40 distilleries

No Comments

BC Distilled is back.

After three years, BC Distilled is returning to Vancouver. BC Distilled photo

After three years of cancelled and modified events, BC Distilled, the massive artisanal spirits festival, is returning to Vancouver.

Forty distilleries and hundreds of locally produced spirits, several of which are new additions to the festival, will take over two rooms at the Croatian Cultural Centre on Commercial Drive this May.

Continue Reading

The Alchemist

North America’s 50 Best Bars names Botanist Bar the continent’s most hospitable

No Comments
Botanist Bar’s creative beverage director Grant Sceney and bar manager Jeff Savage reflect on their Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award. Supplied photo

We already knew it, but now so does the rest of the world. In a first for Vancouver and for Canada, Botanist Bar at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel has won the Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award, given by North America’s 50 Best Bars.

This prestigious award recognizes the single-best hospitality experience across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Continue Reading

Last Call

Great world bars we love: Maraca

No Comments
Instagram.com/maracasdq photo

On a nondescript street, just steps from the busy souvenir stores, pubs, cigar shops and touristy restaurants of Old Town Santo Domingo, lies a teal building devoid of signage, but accented by a strikingly curved red door. It’s not immediately obvious that you’ve arrived, but push open the door and you’ll know you’ve found Maraca. 

Continue Reading

Vancouver Cocktail Week

It’s a wrap for Vancouver Cocktail Week 2023

No Comments

The second annual festival brought global bar stars and festive good times to the city

The Golden Era Cocktail Revival Gala at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver’s Pacific Ballroom may have been one of the best parties Vancouver has ever seen. Living Room creative photo

It began, as all good things do, with brunch, and wrapped with one of the best parties Vancouver has ever seen. Vancouver Cocktail Week 2023, presented by The Alchemist, has come to an end, so let’s raise a glass to the week that was, and to what’s ahead.

Continue Reading