Victoria

The secret’s out at Wind Cries Mary

January 20, 2023 No Comments

Follow the signs to great food and drink in Victoria’s Bastion Square

At Wind Cries Mary, the brick walls create a welcoming space, and the well-stocked bar promises fine drinks to enjoy. Photos courtesy of Wind Cries Mary

A sign pointing you to fresh oysters and another just above the door are the only clues that one of Victoria’s most exciting food and drink experiences can be found here, tucked away in historic Bastion Square.

Follow the stairs down to find a dark and moody candlelit space, where the canopied bar gleaming with bottles of local and international wine and spirits is a sure sign that this is the right place to come for a good drink.

Boom time

July 12, 2022 No Comments

Vincent Vanderheide leads a talented bar at Victoria’s Boom + Batten

Beverage director Vincent Vanderheide. Photo courtesy of Boom + Batten

Boom + Batten is a dazzling contemporary hot spot with a prime location on Victoria’s Inner Harbour. It’s also one of the city’s best places to get a well-made cocktail, thanks to the skills of beverage director Vincent Vanderheide and his team. “I always like to say it’s not a bad office,” he says with a laugh.

Bar Bites

Five great cocktail bars to visit in Victoria

July 4, 2022 No Comments

Enjoy the Last Train to Paris at the Q Bar in Victoria. Photo courtesy of Q Bar at the Fairmont Empress

We love hopping over to Victoria for the great food, beautiful gardens and charming vibe. But most of all we love visiting B.C.’s capital city for its great cocktail scene.

Bar Bites

Seven fall and winter cocktail events you don’t want to miss

October 11, 2019 No Comments

With so many exciting events coming up, you won’t have a moment of boredom all winter long.

Toronto Cocktail Week

Get your kicks in the Six this fall: The six-day festival of all things boozy returns
October 15 to 20, bringing together bars, brands and bartenders—as well as consumers, of course—to celebrate the city’s evolving cocktail scene. TCW will be shaking things up with a neighbourhood-focused bar guide, themed gala events, guided, seminars and pop-up bars featuring familiar faces from Vancouver. torontococktailweek.ca

Art of the cocktail

The Alchemist is pleased to sponsor Western Canada’s most important cocktail festival October 19 in beautiful downtown Victoria. Some 900 attendees will gather at the Grand Tasting to sip and sample cocktails and products from 40 exhibitors pouring more than 60 spirits. Plus there will be masterclasses, guided tastings and more fun than you can shake a cobbler at during this fundraiser for the Victoria Film Festival. artofthecocktail.ca

Bar Bites

Mark your calendars with these 5 cocktail events

July 10, 2019 No Comments

The Weather Network has forecast a hot, dry summer for B.C., so get out and make the most of it at these upcoming events.

Deighton Cup

Don your fancy chapeaux and hoist your glasses! The ponies hit the track once again on July 20 for the 11th annual Deighton Cup at Hastings Racecourse. Some 5,000 people gather at the track to gamble on the ponies while enjoying swish fashion, buckets of bubbly, fine cigars, gourmet cuisine and, of course, cocktails. The event includes an annual mixology competition, plus sweet summer sippers to enjoy trackside. deightoncup.com

Night on the pier

As the sun sinks to the west on August 8, some of Vancouver’s top bartenders will start shaking things up at this chill party on West Vancouver’s Ambleside Pier. This fundraiser for local arts programs is part of the Harmony Arts festival (August 2 to 11), and there will be food, fun, gorgeous views and plenty of great cocktails to enjoy. harmonyarts.ca

Guides, Have Glass Will Travel

Spirit of Victoria

December 14, 2018 No Comments

12 great places to get a drink in the Vancouver Island city

The B.C. Parliament Buildings are the centrepiece of Victoria’s vibrant Inner Harbour. Tourism Victoria photo

You could say that Matt Cooke has distilled the spirit of Victoria into his cocktails. The general manager at OLO Restaurant transforms Vancouver Island spirits and local produce into the kind of creatively food-friendly sippers that complement chef-owner Brad Holmes’ fresh comfort food so well. There’s often whisky or gin—Victorians love the smoky and botanical flavours of the British Isles—and a subtle nod to the classics. At the same time, Cooke conjures flavours that are completely new, and often made from scratch.

And he’s not alone. Despite its relatively small size, with a population about an eighth of Vancouver’s, Victoria has a vibrant cocktail scene that makes it truly a great place to get a drink, especially at these 12 watering holes.

Still Life

It all comes out in the wash

November 26, 2018 No Comments

Brewer-distillers have unique advantages over their still-only colleagues

Early visitors to Yaletown Distillery on Vancouver’s Hamilton Street may have tripped to—or rather, over—its connection to Yaletown Brewing, a block away. Originally, the fermented base for the spirits came through a hose in the sidewalk. “The wash comes through this pipe now,” says brewer-distiller Tariq Khan, pointing toward the ceiling.

That supply chain of fermented-grain wash is a key advantage of local businesses that make both beer and spirits, including relative newbies The 101 Brewhouse + Distillery in Gibsons and Moon Under Water in Victoria, as well as veterans like Deep Cove Brewers and Distillers in North Vancouver. Brewing on site guarantees a pipeline to so-called distiller’s beer, the essential raw material for making spirits.

Features, Recipes

Apple Flip

October 24, 2018 No Comments

At Olo, the Apple Flip is served with a side of Julien Fremont Calvados to round out the apple experience.

INGREDIENTS:
• 2oz House Spiced & Solera Aged Honey Shine ‘Rum’ by Devine Vineyards
• 0.5oz Sea Star ‘Prose’ Riesling & Apple Dessert Wine
• 0.5oz Apple & Shiso Syrup
• One whole egg
• Okanagan Spirits Taboo Absinthe Spritz

Bar Bites

Mark your calendars

July 16, 2018 No Comments

Sure, you could enjoy cocktails alone in your back yard. Or you could join the crowds having fun at these great events here at home and abroad over the next few months.

Deighton Cup

Don your fancy chapeaux and hoist your glasses! The ponies hit the track once again on July 21 for the 10th annual Deighton Cup at Hastings Racecourse. Some 5,000 people gather at the track to gamble on the ponies while enjoying swish fashion, buckets of bubbly, fine cigars, gourmet cuisine and, of course, cocktails. The event includes an annual mixology competition, plus sweet summer sippers to enjoy trackside. deightoncup.com

Features

Whisky raid

March 27, 2018 No Comments

Why did BC LCLB agents seize an estimated $150,000 in whisky? And could it happen to your favourite tipple, too?

Provincial liquor inspectors remove bottles of whisky from Fets Whisky Kitchen in Vancouver. Fets Whisky Kitchen photo.

It was a scene that might have been straight out of Prohibition—were this not 2018.

On the morning of January 19, 2018, plainclothes teams of B.C. Liquor Control and Licensing Branch agents descended upon two licensed establishments in Vancouver and Nanaimo: Fets Whisky Kitchen and The Grand Hotel. Later that day, in Victoria, they visited The Union Club and Little Jumbo Cocktail Bar. What were they after? Illicit booze, grey market goods being sold as the real thing, or maybe something even more heinous?