A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

Ten Things That You Should Absolutely Do Between Now And Next Week

img_6062

The main objective of this website is to scout out and promote the things that make Vancouver such a sweet place to be. We do this with an emphasis on the city’s independent spirit to foster a sense of connectedness within and between our communities, and to introduce our readers to the people who grow and cook our food, play the raddest tunes in our better venues, create our most interesting art, and design everything from what we wear to the spaces we inhabit. The Scout List is our carefully considered, first rate agenda of super awesome things that we’re either doing, wishing that we could do, or conspiring to do this week, from our calendar to yours!

CITY | If you’re interested in city planning, community building and Vancouver’s social fabric, you’ll want to head down to SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts this Thursday to join Frank Cunningham, Meg Holden and Trevor Boddy for Who Gets to be Part of the City? The free lecture and discussion focuses on the urban incarnations of utopia. From SFU: “How does utopian thinking inform contemporary theories and practices and, to the extent that it does, is that a good thing?” Listen in, ask questions, share your thoughts and engage!
Thu, Oct. 27 | 7 pm | SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings St. | DETAILS

ENGAGE | Looking to connect and create? Hit Groundswell Cafe info session this Thursday night. Groundswell is a non-profit information hub for social entrepreneurs. It provides support to people who want to build meaningful livelihoods and social ventures. Rather than go into the details of what that means on a practical level, check out the list businesses that have come out of the program in the past: Rebel Soup (reducing food waste, one bowl of soup at a time); Wood Shop Coop (upcycled wood products at a reasonable price); Another Space (innovative arts-based wellness studio); The Good Food Project (delivering organically grown seedlings to your door); Vancouver Fix-it Collective (fix vs throw away) The Nettle’s Guild (Permaculture inspired courses, custom garden builds) Attend and discover more!
Thu, Oct. 27 | 5:30-6:30pm | Groundswell Cafe (566 Powell St) | DETAILS

LAUGH | What better way to finish a work week than a cold beer and a good laugh? Make your way to Hot Art Wet City Gallery this Friday night for an evening of giggles at We Know Nothing About Art. From event organizers: “Do you love art? Does art confuse you? Have you ever though that art historians could just be making everything up on the spot? Join comedian Abdul Aziz and his friends as they do their best to make sense of the world’s most treasured works of art, with little to no formal training in the field (or training of any sort actually… to be honest, we’re seriously considering going back to school).”
Fri, Oct. 28 | 8–10pm | 2206 Main (@ 6th) | $7 in advance/$10 at the door | DETAILS

MELT | Good things have been happening on Gore Street. When Pie Shoppe sisters Andy and Stephanie opened a new location of their famous Chinatown pie shop in the Hastings Sunrise neighbourhood (1875 Powell St), they held on to their tiny Gore location and have been letting it out to cool local peeps who want to mess around in a kitchen and present their delicious results to the public in temporary pop-ups. If you hustle down there this week, you’ll find a chocolate shop. The woman behind the handmade chocolates, Kate Mathewson, is currently the operations manager at Rain Or Shine Ice Cream. She also has a number of years experience working at Thomas Haas, so we’re thinking that with such a strong relationship with sweet stuff, she’s going to have some top notch offerings! Expect to see chocolates, truffles, caramels, barks and bars until October 31st..
Now through Oct. 31 | 11am to 7pm (or sell out) | 721 Gore Ave. (between Union & Georgia) | DETAILS

BEER |  Get yourself down to the Terminal City Glass Co-op in East Van this Saturday night for their annual Hot Glass Cold Beer event. It pairs a craft beer tasting with glassblowing demonstrations. Pours from 9 local breweries will be on offer, plus fantastic music, food carts (Chickpea and Disco Cheetah will be on site), a pumpkin carving contest and costumes. $55 gets you in the door and furnishes you with a handblown taster glass and 7 handy beer tasting tokens. Art and beer? You can’t go wrong!
Sat, Oct. 29 | 7-10pm | Terminal City Glass Co-op (1191 Parker St.) | $55 | DETAILS

SCORE | Outfit yourself with a solid assortment of Autumn reads at the Friends of The Vancouver Public Library book sale this weekend. Thousands of discarded and gently used books go on sale starting Thursday – all of them for less than $2.50 each. That’s pretty darn cheap for words and ideas, wouldn’t you say?
Oct. 27 (10am-9pm); Oct. 28-29 (10am-6pm)| VPL Main Branch (350 Georgia St.) | Free | DETAILS

ART | I’m so stupidly excited to check out the wall of the Vancouver Art Gallery this weekend. The VAG is featuring more than 200 black and white and colour Walker Evans photographs from the 1920s through to the 1970s. They’re also using Evans’ advice to “Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something.” as the inspiration for Stare, a show of photographic works that “evoke a fixed and concentrated gaze on the part of artist and viewer.” Walker Evans: Depth of Field and Stare both open October 29th and continue until January 22nd. Bonus: get into the VAG on the 29th and you can also squeeze in the last day of Harry Callahan: The Street and Stephen Waddell Dark Matter Atlas (both of which come down on Sunday).
Oct 29–Jan 22 | Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby | $24 | DETAILS

SHROOMS | If you’ve noticed curious specimens of mushrooms popping up on lawns and in local forests lately you are not alone. Mushroom season is in full swing and there’s much to know. As luck would have it, The Vancouver Mushroom Show goes down this weekend! Hook up with experts from the The Vancouver Mycological Society – a crew of fungi lovers that can fill you in on everything shroomy. Ask questions, check out displays and identification tables, and get the scoop on what to look for and what to avoid. From edible and medicinal to poisonous, dubious and deadly, there are scores of mushrooms on the scene right now and it’s good to be schooled on the tasty, trippy, tricky little things.
Sun, Oct. 30 | 11am-4pm | Van Dusen Botanical Garden (37th & Oak) | $3 | DETAILS

PARADE OF LOST SOULS | Every year on the last weekend of October a shadowy procession of characters meanders through the streets of East Van. No one knows precisely which streets the parade will claim until the last moment, but when the crowd starts to gather and the lanterns are lit, the magic spreads throughout the whole community. Inspired by Day of the Dead celebrations, parade goers are encouraged to join the procession in costume, remember friends and family members who have departed, and celebrate life as they wander through dark streets enjoying pop-up performances, live music and art installations. Check the Facebook event page (here) at midnight on October 28th to find out the coordinates of the parade for the 29th.
Sat, Oct. 29 | Various times and places | Free | DETAILS

HEADS-UP | Cornucopia 2016 kicks off on November 10th and carries through until the 20th. With a sweet line up of educational wine seminars, multi-course dinners, huge tasting events, after-parties and some wellness workshops to balance all of the indulgence out, there’s more than enough to keep you busy for a weekend, a full week or – if you’re super keen – a really amazing 10 days. While some events are free, most are ticketed and have the annoying habit of selling out, so book yours on the quick. Whistler throws a heck of a food and wine festival and we don’t want you to miss out!
Nov 10-20 | Various locations throughout Whistler | DETAILS

 

Transition Into 2024 with Some Quality Downtime

From our calendar to yours comes this carefully considered agenda of cool things we are doing, wishing we could do, or conspiring to do in Vancouver, from now until January 8th, 2024.

Scout List, Vol. 601

From our calendar to yours comes this carefully considered agenda of cool things we are doing, wishing we could do, or conspiring to do in Vancouver, right now.

Scout List, Vol. 600

From our calendar to yours comes this carefully considered agenda of cool things we are doing, wishing we could do, or conspiring to do in Vancouver, from March 30th to April 5th, 2023.

Scout List, Vol. 599

From our calendar to yours comes this carefully considered agenda of cool things we are doing, wishing we could do, or conspiring to do in Vancouver over the days and weeks ahead.