Canada's only magazine dedicated to distillers, spirits and cocktail culture.
…You better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a -changin’ —Bob Dylan.
If Covid-19 has yielded one major positive, it’s the way in which government and the hospitality industry now interact.
It’s improved. Considerably.
Plexiglas is so 2020.
With dividers now the norm in restaurants and bars, more places are getting creative with their pandemic shields. As long as partitions are “washable, rigid and impermeable” and measure at least 1.2 metres from the tabletop, pretty much anything goes.
The hospitality industry has been among the hardest hit by the pandemic. Now a new initiative is aiming to help those who’ve experienced employment setbacks due to COVID-19. Call it a photo finish to a brutal year.
The food service industry support hub Breaking Bread, in collaboration with restaurateur Brad Roark (Nook, Oddfish) has launched a photography fundraiser called “Beyond the Plexi” that will raise funds to directly help hospitality works whose careers have been affected by COVID-19.
B.C. alcoholic beverage producers are joining forces to encourage British Columbians to support local businesses in an effort to mitigate the economic devastation wrought by COVID-19. The “Time to Buy BC” campaign was launched on Tuesday in a joint effort between the B.C. Craft Brewers Guild, the B.C. Farm Crafted Cider Association, the Craft Distillers Guild of B.C. and the B.C. Wine Institute, together representing more than 500 breweries, cideries, distilleries, wineries and alcoholic beverage producers across the province.
The campaign’s website, TimeToBuyBC.ca has a complete list of local B.C. craft breweries, cideries, wineries, distilleries and refreshment beverage companies you can support.
In a historic move to save the foodservice industry, several hundred restaurant owners, chefs, culinary leaders and celebrities across Canada have joined forces to support Canada Takeout to make every Wednesday #TakeoutDay. This movement encourages Canadians to order from their favourite local restaurant offering takeout or delivery, with a nationwide kickoff on Wednesday, April 15, 2020 for #TakeoutDay.
Ryan Reynolds appreciates the work our bartenders do. As the Vancouver-born Deadpool actor tweeted last week, “In fairness, I wouldn’t be the father I am today without bartenders.”
Now he’s returning the love.
In these surreal times, it’s been extremely heartening to see an overwhelming number of BC distilleries find innovative ways to help the most vulnerable in their surrounding communities. News of distilleries producing and distributing sanitizer to the those on the front lines of this pandemic broke last week with a growing number of producers (including some breweries and wineries) quickly following suit. Over the weekend, the B.C. government further validated these efforts by granting temporary permission to all distillers to produce and distribute alternative products as long as they meet certain federal regulatory requirements; primarily that they contain a sufficient amount of alcohol to kill the virus.
Surely, it’s a role many distilleries never envisioned they would fill, but, in this new reality, it’s inspiring to see how communities are able to come together in trying times, with other local businesses generously donating bottles and essential ingredients to the cause.
While many distillers have shifted their production to focus on producing hand sanitizer for the time being being, many are still selling their products online. Here we’ve compiled an evolving list of B.C. distilleries that are helping keep your spirits up during these trying times with delivery services and online bottle shops.
A week ago, Peter Hunt had just returned to Victoria from a trip to New York when he decided to go shopping. But customers concerned about COVID-19 had gotten there before him.
“I was in the stores and there was no hand sanitizer around,” says the president of Victoria Distillers. “Then I was chatting with my wife, who works in the public service, and my aunts and uncles, who are paramedics, and they were having trouble finding hand sanitizer, too. Trying to find it was stressing them out.