Nigel Springthorpe is the co-owner and omnipresent life force behind the very kickass Alibi Room on Alexander.

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SCOUT Q&A

The thing that you eat that is bad for you that you will never stop eating: Chunky Kitkats.

Default drink of choice: If there’s no quality beer available, I’ll take a scotch with a drop of water.

Drink you’ll never have again: Molson Canadian.

The one place you’d move to: Savary Island.

Beer of choice: Dead heat between North Coast Brewing – Old Rasputin Imperial Stout, and Central City Brewing – Empire IPA.

The best thing about your job: Converts. Some dude who comes to the bar asking for “a bud” or “just gimme any kind of lager” and ends up with one of BC’s biggest juiciest IPA’s and LOVES IT!!

Book you’re reading: Oz and James Drink to Britain – two dudes who take a Bentley with a caravan attached all over the British Isles visiting various wineries (yes, there are wineries in the North East of England), micro breweries and whiskey distilleries.

Last place traveled: The Algarve

Biggest fear: Losing everything.

Under what circumstances would you join the army: If I lost everything.

Best sneaker in the world: Every year me old mum sends me a pair of UK Adidas Sambas in the mail [ed. note: your mum is awesome].

Place in BC that you love escaping to: My father-in-law has a small organic blueberry farm in Powell River. It’s a perfect spot to escape the city for a couple of days.

Your paternal grandfather’s personal story: It’s heavy. I never met him. He stabbed my grandmother then committed suicide one afternoon. Whoa! Told you it was heavy.

What are you proud of: Of course, my daughter Frankie & my son Fynn. And lately I’ve been feeling quite proud of my wife, my sister and I for taking the Alibi Room from the brink of death three years ago and turning it into a place people really seem to enjoy coming once again. Yeah, I’m really proud of that.

The thing that makes you the angriest: Don’t want to be predicictable but the only time I really seem to lose my marbles is when confronted with rude drivers. I don’t mind fast, I don’t even mind crazy drivers. It’s the pushy fuckers usually driving one of those BMW SUV’s nudging their way in this, squeezing their way in that, not waiting their turn the other…actually I’ve noticed the newly crowned asshole king of the road is the Ford Edge driver. Motherfuckers.

Saddest thing about Vancouver: It’s been sad to watch Vancouver turn from a big city with a small town soul into just another big city. I think it started when the bus bumpers had the very friendly “thanks for the brake!” with a Thumbs Up sign, replaced with “YIELD! IT’S THE LAW”, that was the beginning of the end for me…Although, the Gastown Steam Clock is still a major tourist attraction.

Favourite restaurant in Vancouver: I’m a casual diner. Cascade is a personal favourite. I read a lot of mixed things out there on the web about their food, but I think they have it figured out perfectly. I’ve never been disappointed.

Talent you wish you possessed: Well, I do wish I was an ace ballet dancer…and boxer. But not one without the other.

The game you’re best at: Soccer

Three songs on your current playlist:

My Bloody Valentine – Come in Alone
Black Mountain – Angels
T.V. on the Radio – Wolf Like Me

Somewhere within an hour of Vancouver that few may have heard about but is worth checking out: About 10 years ago a friend of my wife bought a book of logging road maps of BC from the ‘70’s. There was a map to a lake called Starvation Lake. The lake doesn’t appear on any other maps. Its just before Squamish. You can only drive so far along a very bumpy old logging road then you have to hike in. You cross the rail tracks on the way. Leave a penny on the tracks. Spend the day basking in a very quiet lake. Then pick up the squashed little souvenir of your perfect day on the way back. Special.

The scariest situation you’ve ever been in: The moment the flood level of the water caused by the Monsoon I was in touched my testicles. I froze. I was scared.

Two things of no monetary value that you will keep until you die: the placenta in my freezer (it’s already been three and a half years, what’s another fifty?). I also have a lock of my son’s hair from his first cut.

BC chef that you admire most: Jeff van Geest

Best concert experience ever: Fugazi – Burnaby 2001

How you waste time at work: Dreaming up ways to get the dosh I need to own a brewery whilst intermittently picking on my business partner.

The thing you wished people cared more about: Giving the friendly wave when another driver does you a good turn.

The thing that makes you the most nervous: How uncertain the future is always being made out to be.

Town you were born in: Gateshead, UK

Old television shows you can tolerate re-runs of: Seinfeld

Album that first made you love music: Faith No More – From Out of Nowhere (I was 13)

The career path you considered but never followed: Motorcycle mechanic – I went to trade school. I had the opposite of Midas thing going. Everything mechanical I touched turned to shit right before my eyes.

Biggest hope: Don’t want to sound like a sap but… I feel that my generation has had a great deal of uncertainty thrown our way. There always seems to be a new crisis or disaster lurking around the corner each more heinous than the last. Whether it be war, a pandemic, a tsunami, financial melt down or terrorist attack. I just hope my children will have less fear to distract them from the simple joys of life.