The GOODS from Sons Of Vancouver

North Vancouver, BC | Fable Restaurant is reinventing a few cocktails with a special release of Amaretto they have been working on with the Sons of Vancouver Distillery.

Fable owners Trevor Bird and Ron McGillivray talked about having honey bee hives on the roof of Fable since before opening. After a year of looking they reached out to a bee keeper (Jenny) and started the hives. It complemented well with their roof-top garden since the bees help pollinate what they already grew. “It’s a shame there’s so many rooftops with nothing growing on them in cities,” says Trevor.

In the first year honey can not be harvested since the initial hive needs what is collected to feed them through the winter. This year, year two, Fable had their first harvest of 25kgs.

The recipe for Rooftop Amaretto was pulled together by Sons of Vancouver and is very much different then their original No 82 Amaretto. The standout notes come from the Fable honey and organic apricot kernels supplied by The Pie Shoppe (721 Gore Ave). The rooftop honey brings clover, sarsaparilla and an orange bomb to the liqueur with a long, sweet finish. The fresh apricot kernels bring the marzipan and cola notes to the party. The batch called for 6Kgs of honey producing 31 bottles for the restaurant.

Last weekend, Fable added a new item to their cocktail menu which features the liqueur. Here’s the recipe:

Rooftop Amaretto Sour

1oz SOV special batch Amaretto
.5oz Buffalo Trace Bourbon
.5oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
dash simple syrup
Angostura Bitters
Peach Bitters
Egg White
Shake well and double strain into a champagne glass
Garnish with Brandied Cherry

DETAILS

Sons of Vancouver Distillery Ltd.
1431 Crown Street, North Vancouver, V7J 1G2
Web: sonsofvancouver.ca | Facebook | Twitter: @SOVjames @RichardSOV | Instagram

Gallery

photos: Katie Huisman

Proprietors

James Lester | Owner, Operator, 25
Richard Klaus | Owner, Operator, 24

About Sons Of Vancouver

Sons of Vancouver is a really, really small batch distillery set to open on Vancouver’s North Shore. James Lester and Richard Klaus are the two righteous dudes dedicated to bringing you their craft Vodka, Chili Vodka and No. 82 Amaretto. How they got here is a bit of a story.

Friends for a decade, they have been brewing beer and learning the finer points of alcohol and the community surrounding it for years. Originally meeting in Northern British Columbia, James and Richard worked together in oil and gas. Promised prosperity and a good life, they were let down and quickly grew unhappy. Tired of selling their lives for dollars in an ugly trade, they took their hands-on skills in process control and vowed: to never do anything they didn’t want to ever again. With this new motto, it felt appropriate to do what any old married couple ready to enter their golden years would do, and threw a great big retirement party and headed off to Mexico. It was during the resulting 40 day and 40 night adventure down the west coast and back that the guys began crafting the idea of a business together.

This idea went on hiatus in its infancy, with James becoming a travelling bartender and Richard journeying through Latin America. However, after a healthy break of separate growth and experience, James and Richard met back up and started working with distillers south of the border to learn the market and skills. There the two gents learned how to make Vodka, Gin, Bourbon and Lemoncello. The desire to open a distillery really came organically and was a natural progression of James and Richard’s shared backgrounds in brewing, bartending and process control. James, brewing beer since junior high and Richard, who spent more time brewing IPAs in college than he did attending school; it was always clear that alcohol and the process of making it would somehow become a part of their lives. Often asked, “why not craft beer?” James will always joke that it was because he couldn’t grow a big enough beard. In reality, with a city full of great beer these two guys drew from their personal and professional backgrounds to bring great craft spirits to Vancouver, an emerging market with a great future.

After two years of blood, sweat, and man tears, the Sons of Vancouver Distillery is nearly open, and the two guys behind the curtain are ready to welcome you in with a smile. Featuring rustic repurposed stills, a beautiful tasting room, and killer product, the guys hope to be welcoming you into their new space on the North Shore in early 2015.

They intend to serve as an inspiration to all those with almost impossible dreams, that following a path with integrity and dedication, the impossible can indeed be achieved. They are excited to be a part of the growing market of distilleries in British Columbia.