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 [...]
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 & [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
One of Vancouver’s flagship restaurants, Diva at the Met celebrated its 15th anniversary last night with a gala dinner (benefitting Big Brothers) that featured an extraordinary array of culinary talent. The hotel business is by nature a mobile affair, where personnel—including those in food and beverage—move around frequently. Hence it was [...]
Vancouver’s been abuzz this past week with speculation concerning the imminent closure of what was supposed to be the long running extension of iconic lumiere and dbBistro, on March 13th. It’s a sad development, considering the role that lumiere has played in Vancouver’s culinary ascendance. We won’t ruminate too much—except to say that the [...]
All too often, the role of BC wine has been overlooked... As you can see from elsewhere here, and from the crescendo this week of the on-line buzz surrounding the live launch of this year's 200 plus menus, Dine Out Vancouver has more than earned its place as the country's biggest restaurant promo of its [...]
It should have come as no surprise. But John Bishop's 25th anniversary celebrations were as understated as the man himself. Just before Christmas, on December 14th, 2010—25 years to the day when Bishop’s first opened—it was almost business as usual in the modest, west-side Vancouver room that still holds considerable sway in the [...]