hired belly’s best restaurants and dining
Calling all hopheads: Tickets go on sale at midnight tonight for Vancouver Craft Beer Week (May 18-26) Can it really be a year already since the last VCBW? Already, VCBW has quickly become one of the town’s hottest tickets. Last year many events sold out faster than you can say ‘cheers!’ What’s driving [...]
Encounter with a perfect pint, Tim Pawsey photo If there’s one thing the Hired Belly finds hard to resist it’s a decent pint, particularly when it's properly poured, and at the right temperature. I’m sure it’s one of the many very sound traits inherited from my dad—who I still sorely miss. Growing up, beer [...]
Most people know the Wine Festival’s Vintner’s Brunch as the festival’s flagship food and wine event. It usually sells out within minutes of tix being available—even more so now that it’s held in the dazzling surrounds of the new Convention Centre West, with its sweeping ocean-mountain vista. Few realize that beyond [...]
We reckon we’ve eaten our fair share of meals on the rubber chicken circuit. But I don’t know why I’m even saying that here, because the food at Vancouver Trade & Convention Centre is just about as far removed from standard convention fare as you can possibly imagine. Last week's Vancouver Playhouse International [...]
Regular visitors will know we’ve recently developed a bit of a thing for sardines. We’ve found some pretty good canned filets, that do just fine for our pissaladierre recipe. But nothing comes close to the fresh caught fish. A heads up: this is the last week for chef Frank Pabst’s Unsung Heroes Festival, [...]
We get more than our fair share of press releases in this age of hyper-communication but here’s one with a difference. We like it both for its clarity but also for its tone. And, as we've come to expect from someone who’s given so much to Vancouver as Bud Kanke, its class. In fact, kudos [...]
A truly tasty, healthy budget bite ... Tim Pawsey photo A few weeks before Christmas we dropped into Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks to take a peek at what’s hot in the culinary book world. And, as usual, we wound up picking up a couple of things that would make fun gifts—but somehow [...]
Last week it was fun to see people’s reactions to the latest Zagat Survey. As the Vancouver editor, I’m deeply involved in sorting through the immense amount of data that goes into compiling the reviews and, hence, the final scores. What might not be apparent to the casual observer is that no review gets past [...]
Trafalgars / Sweet Obsession owners Lorne Tyczenski (l) and Stephen Greenham with their composter. Tim Pawsey photo Calling all restaurateurs! When it comes to how you dispose of your garbage, if you have even the slightest hint of a social conscience (and from my experience most do), this one’s a game-changer. What [...]
eTap burger: worth a bite, Tim Pawsey photo UPDATED, August 27th, 2012. Sadly, Dale Mackay has had to close both Ensemble and Ensemble Tap. Here are the pertinent excerpts from today's press release... “I learned quickly that opening a restaurant in the heart of Vancouver is something I should have done after building my business [...]