Canada's only magazine dedicated to distillers, spirits and cocktail culture.
The absence of the Canada’s 50 Best Bars list (there hasn’t been one since 2020) means that this year’s entry has an extra celebratory zeal behind it. Canada’s 100 Best even declares “Pour us another. Bars are back!”
The North Shore will forever hold a piece of Canadian brewing history, as West Vancouver holds the distinction as the site of the country’s first ever microbrewery.
Horseshoe Bay Brewery started brewing beer for the nearby Troller Bay Pub in 1982, long before the craft beer boom exploded on the West Coast decades later.
Horseshoe Bay Brewery is no longer pumping out the suds on the North Shore – although it spawned some other B.C. breweries that are still very much alive – but in its place are now a dozen North Vancouver breweries, a number that seemingly rises each year.
Many of those establishments are clustered in the City of North Vancouver’s burgeoning Brewery District, a neighbourhood that now boasts seven breweries within easy walking distance of each other.
Food industry judges from across Canada have determined that Vancouver’s Published on Main is the best restaurant in the country.
That restaurant ranked No. 1 in the 2022 edition of the foodie guide Canada’s Best 100 Restaurants, which was released today.
One of the statement pieces of Copperpenny Distilling Co.‘s emerald and gold, peacock-esque cocktail lounge is a bunny lamp that made the 7,581 km trek from London to North Vancouver segmented in co-owner and mistress of distilling Jennifer Kom-Tong’s hand luggage. The shade, stashed under the seat in front of her, forced Kom-Tong to spend the nine-hour flight with her legs shoved to the side—but it was worth it.
A Saanich distillery has settled a long-running branding dispute with the Scotch Whisky Association.
Graeme Macaloney, who has operated Macaloney Brewer and Distillers since 2016, is slightly changing his distillery’s name and re-labelling some of his brands, moving away from popular names and places in his native Scotland. The Scotch Whisky Association claimed the brands were misleading, making Canadians believe the whisky was made in Scotland.
For proper cocktails, head uptown the small, dark and sexy new Tailor Shop (look for the vintage sewing machine in the green hedge). If they’re wheeling the cart, have an Old Fashioned mixed at the table, or declare your Canadian cred with a Spifflicated Butterfly starring Empress 1908 Gin. Japanese whisky and mixology fans should head straight to Sandfish (same owners), a sushi restaurant with inventive cocktails and a killer whisky list topped with Yamazaki. On the LGBTQ-friendly strip of bars on Arenas Road, choose Blackbook for a seriously comprehensive, bourbon-heavy whisky list.
The toughest reservation in town is Bar Cecil, where you want to be sitting at the pretty vintage-inspired bar ordering a French 75 Regal, topped with Moët & Chandon. Truss & Twine‘s big, horseshoe bar is a late-night industry hang, and serves an excellent Hanky Panky. In the same uptown ‘hood, the poolside Colony Club bar at the Colony Palms hotel and the house Negroni on Birba‘s patio are also worthy stops. In a town with few rooftop bars, the High Bar at the Rowan Hotel is a mountain-view, poolside spot to grab a drink..
Like many Western Canadians, I’ve been to Mexico too many times to count—but typically on holidays, not at work as a drinks writer and educator. On my latest trip, I was determined to go beyond margaritas, and way beyond even some of the excellent agave spirits we’re now able to purchase in Canada. Here’s what I found.
The Audience Choice winner at Vancouver Cocktail Week‘s Fun City Gala, this cocktail is inspired by Aki Restaurant, which opened in Vancouver in 1963 and was the first Japanese-Canadian owned Japanese restaurant in Vancouver.
Born in Steveston, Richmond, a young Aki Takeuchi and his family fled to Osaka, Japan, early in the Second World War, avoiding the internment camps. He returned to Canada as an adult, settling in Vancouver.
When Takeuchi opened Aki Restaurant he was the first to bring authentic Japanese food to Vancouver. At the time, the few other Japanese restaurants in existence only served cooked food and were more like a Chinese-Japanese fusion style of cuisine. Takeuchi was the first to serve raw fish in his restaurant.
The restaurant could not obtain a liquor license and so they would hide saké in teapots. This cocktail celebrates Japanese culture in Vancouver with a Japanese Gin, Saké and tea-focused drink.
• 2 oz Tio Pepe Fino Sherry
• 0.5 oz lemon juice
• 0.5 oz simple syrup
• 6 mint leaves
• 1 pinch of salt
There are few places I’d rather be right now than the Explorers’ Bothy at Johnnie Walker Princes Street in Edinburgh. This glam new rooftop whisky bar not only features stunning views of the Edinburgh skyline, it also offers 150 different drams to sample. Then again, its neighbour, 1820, has equally breathtaking views and craft cocktails. Hmm, which to choose?