hired belly’s best restaurants and dining
The Hired Belly has decided there are probably two very good reasons why he doesn’t live closer to Granville Island. One is the proximity to nearby Les Amis du Fromage. The other is the newly renovated Bistro 101 at Pacific Institute for the Culinary Arts–or PICA as it’s known. Last night we dropped [...]
One of our few regrets, we never seem to have enough time to get the photograph we really want. Images are becoming even more crucial these days, especially in the more visually driven on-line world. We like this shot of winemakers Howard Soon and Stephanie Leinemann for any number of reasons, none the [...]
We can’t get over how easy it is to grab a quick bite on Vancouver streets these days. Heading down to the Wines of Chile trade tasting last week, we realised we’d need some pre-sipping sustenance. The answer? How handy! Almost across the street from the Fairmont Pacific Rim (well, at Hastings & [...]
We had an excellent tasting recently with the folks from Languedoc and Roussillon. It’s a region that gets surprisingly little attention, especially considering the character of the wines and the value they deliver at most price points. Over the years, however, I think the entry level wines in particular have suffered from being [...]
Is it possible there’s anyone in Vancouver who still doesn’t know it’s Spot Prawn season? Probably not. Even in the pouring rain, some 1100 or more of the faithful showed up last Saturday to the Fifth Annual Spot Prawn Festival for their first taste of the 2011 catch. The Chefs Table Society prawn [...]
Vancouver’s Mayor Gregor Robertson is one of the most polished and enlightened politicos around. But he gets extra points in our book for (a) officially proclaiming Vancouver Craft Beer Week and for (b) showing up to tap a keg of Collaboration Ale. Not only that, he did it cleanly and nobody [...]
WHERE Vancouver (to whom the Hired Belly supplies considerable calorific content) yesterday unveiled the 15TH Annual Where to Dine Awards. The well attended (and well-run) event was hosted in superb fashion by Blue Water Café, who, as usual, catered to their industry peers with an array of seafood towers, sushi and more, not [...]
Time to mark the calendar for May 2nd. Yes, it’s Election Day in Canada but more to the point, it's the day the Kiwis roll into Vancouver for the annual New Zealand Wine Fair, this year at The Roundhouse —so you can take the Canada Line to right across the street. [...]
As far as we know, everyone seems to have survived yesterday's Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards relatively unscathed. It is, unquestionably, the industry insider’s event of the year. And even though we’re usually tearing our hair out by the time judging deadline rolls around, being as objective as possible, we think this year’s results [...]
We’re still scrambling to catch up on myriad Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival experiences (maybe it’s time to come up with a niftier handle?) that we’ll distill down and share in coming weeks. Out of 30,000 bottles, we figure did more than our share of tasting. The big news (and worst kept secret) [...]