Seen In Vancouver #259: Bigfoot Will Eat If You Don’t Buy This…

Sasquatches are bad-ass gas station jerky marketers. Deliciously terrifying…

Seen In Vancouver #258: Coolest Font Ever Signals Meaty Arrival

That’s my youngest son, Pip, looking mighty enthusiastic about the coming of Bernhard’s Bratwurst Import Shop on East Georgia between Phnom Penh and the recently opened London Pub (really, though, he’s just stoked to discover that one can write with sausages and mustard). Though the sign says it’ll be open in time for Oktoberfest, that ship has sailed. Here’s hoping it won’t be too long…

Seen In Vancouver #257: Getting A Hair Cut For $9 Without Risk…

My man Douglas at the unfortunately named “New Gore” barbershop on Union St. (just east of Main) is an artist who cuts for just $9. While I suppose there are equally capable clippersmiths about who are just as cheap, what I dig about Douglas is that he’s all business. No small talk. He hardly says a word. His forté? The standard short back and sides. Veer from that, boys, and you’re on your own.

Seen In Vancouver #256: At Last Night’s Long Table “Kin” Supper

A mighty long table meal went down last night at Seymour’s “560″. A lovely setting, no? There’s more on the way, too. The next “Kin” supper is October 27th (details here). Last night’s menu after the jump… Read more

Seen In Vancouver #255: Ancient East Hastings Beauty For Lease

The building that houses the 60 year old Ted Harris Paint Store at 757 East Hastings is up for lease. I’ve always liked the frontage at this address, but I especially love the sign. Mark Brand and Sean Heather are busy with other projects, and I see Ernesto Gomez has his hands full at The Waldorf. So who’s turn is it?

Proviso: you have to call whatever business you put in there “PAINT”. Seriously, if you touch that old sign you will be damned forever…

Seen In Vancouver #254: Times They Are A-Changin’ In Gastown

A purple (yes, purple) Bentley Arnage was parked in the loading zone on Carrall St. in front of Cork & Fin and L’Abattoir for close to three hours last night and it didn’t receive a single scratch. A couple of drunk Surrey douches fresh from The Blarney may have peed close to one of the tires, but beyond that…yeah…not a scratch!

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
rapidly fadin’
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.

Scout Photos: Eating & Sipping Our Way Through New York City

Michelle and I took some time off in New York City last week. We’d done all the touristy things in past Big Apple trips, so the bulk of our time was spent engaging in various self-indulgent behaviors. When we weren’t passed out in the marvelous Ace Hotel, we were drinking lots of really good booze, staying up to ridiculous hours and walking, walking, walking and people-watching in the blistering heat with good food either in our mouths or on our minds.

The trip was a barn burner: too much fun every day. In the midst of all the good times, however, I couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed as a Vancouverite. New York is a very permissive town in comparison to my own. I could buy a single can of beer at a corner store at midnight, be ridiculed in my hotel bar for asking if they’re still serving drinks at 3:00am (“Of course we are! You must be from Canada…”), and eat just about anything I wanted from an almost obscene abundance of street food vendors.

People weren’t dropping dead on every street corner as a consequence of those petit freedoms. They were having a jolly fine time of it, and really, I’d never seen New York look and feel so vibrant, clean and healthy in all my life. It made me wonder at how much better Vancouver could be if City Hall and the provincial government just loosened the reins a little. We have our strengths, sure, but the barriers to enjoying oneself freely as they do in so many cities elsewhere are often so hard to surmount that it makes it tricky to muster the will to even bother sometimes.

The more I walked around the more I asked myself what it was that our municipal governments were so afraid of back home. If it’s mayhem on the streets, I don’t see it. If it’s food poisoning or rampant alcoholism, I don’t see it. While I realise that there have been baby steps toward progress here (the fumbling toward street food; the addition of an hour to liquor licenses), the generally restrictive attitude remains firmly entrenched, an ugly birthmark disfiguring our potential. Indeed, if I took one thing home with me from this trip, it was a tired sigh rather an epiphany. I love my city more than any other, but it would be especially nice if it took its damn nappy off and grew the fuck up.

That said and cast aside (I do like to bitch), here are a few of the things we ate, drank and saw. Enjoy… Read more

Scout Photos: Later February, We’re So Bummed To See You Go…

It’s that time of the month again, when we unload handfuls of Scout photos from the preceding four weeks. The Olympics made it a fine month, as did the Mixlympic games at George, but there was plenty going on besides, including Chinese New Year, neighbourhood walkabouts, and a date with Monsters. Have a peek… Read more

Scout Photos: Goodbye January We’re So Bummed To See You Go…

Michael Eckford photobombs competing barman Geoff Robinson (who would ultimately win) at the Inniskillin icewine cocktail competition held at The Diamond on January 18th

It’s been a good and interesting month. It began with my friend Nathan, notorious dog gobbler and sous chef at Lumiere, inviting my wife and I to dine at the Relais Gourmand restaurant. Not since a lunch with the CCC folks at West a couple of months ago had I done a fine dining, multi-course affair with paired wines and petit fours or felt compelled to don a jacket while in a restaurant, so this was something of a special occasion. For certain, I’d been on a tear reviewing inexpensive restaurants for the newspaper, and felt like I’d paid enough dues in poutine, ramen, and burgers to warrant a little foray back into the world of refined excess. I don’t mean to say that I had deserved or earned it, but rather that I supped and drank heartily and naturally in good conscience. Read more

Scout Photos: Later September, You Were Pretty Dang Awesome

From Scout’s bad to marginally alright cameras comes a variety of shots taken during the month of September… Read more

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