Cocktails

VCW25’s visiting VIPs

February 27, 2025 No Comments

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.

Vancouver Cocktail Week

5 must-attend events at VCW

February 25, 2025 No Comments

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?

The Alchemist

Sons of Vancouver is serving spirits from its haunted bar

October 24, 2023 No Comments

The award-winning North Vancouver distillery has a morbid menu of blood-curdling cocktails

Sons of Vancouver bartender Amanda MacMullin, dressed as Lydia from Tim Burton’s ‘Beetlejuice,’ serves a spooky slush in a silver chalice. Nick Laba / North Shore News photo

One local distillery is putting the “boo!” in booze.

Throughout the month of October, Sons of Vancouver is dead set on giving guests chills up their spines, with a cocktail menu so morbid it would make a wicked witch cackle.

The Alchemist

Why brunch-time happy hour is a growing trend in Vancouver

February 26, 2019 No Comments

While not everyone digs AM drinks, a Caesar or a Mimosa does spark joy for many Vancouver brunch-goers

Brunch at the Rumpus Room. Rumpus Room photo

Sometimes, what separates brunch from breakfast is the addition of some adult beverages. While not everyone digs AM drinks, a Caesar or a Mimosa does spark joy for many Vancouver brunch-goers.

Happy hour, on the other hand, is a construct in its infancy in B.C., where the practice of offering and promoting discounted drinks during off-peak hours has only been allowed by the powers that be since mid-2014. Restaurants have largely embraced the trend, using it as a way to add on service hours ahead of dinner, or bridge the gap to offset lulls.