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

Don Your Best and Get Bookish at Upstart & Crow’s Book Party, Nov. 7th

Don’t you just love it when a bunch of your (seemingly unrelated) favourite things – books, booze, and community – conspire to come together in one cohesive and fun event? Well, that’s exactly what’s happening on Thursday, November 7th at Upstart & Crow’s Literary Arts Studio: Party in a Bookshop!

If you value local bookstores and what they bring to the city as much as we do, then this shindig is not to be missed! Just for the event, the staff are making an extra effort to highlight some of their personal all-time favourite books available in store, which will be sitting pretty beside some of the season’s most anticipated releases. Guests will get to take it all in among the good company of your bookish peers, while enjoying wine, beer from Persephone Brewing, and cocktails by Please! Beverage Co.

Tickets are $50 each – which might at first seem steep, until you consider everything that includes: a $20 Upstart & Crow Gift Certificate; one drink of your choice; entry in the night’s prize draw; personalized reading guidance from the on-hand U&C experts to help you make the most of the aforementioned GC; and your assistance in funding the shop’s invaluable not-for-profit efforts, including writer residencies, literary workshops, and other upcoming programs supporting climate change solutions and writers with children. There’s no doubt that it’s worth it! Don’t wait. Get yours for one of two sessions (6pm or 8pm) here.

To learn more about Upstart & Crow and what it’s all about, read our 2023 interview with the Granville Island bookshop’s co-founders, Zoe Grams and Ian Gill, here.


Upstart & Crow
Neighbourhood: False Creek
1387 Railspur Alley, Granville Island
604-558-1124

Niwa Heads to Hazelmere Farm for a Mid-Summer Feast, July 25th

The crew at Niwa and Hazelmere Farm have been pals for years, so it was probably only a matter of time before somebody had the good sense to set up a table. On July 25, Chef Darren Gee cooks dinner at the source, with Naty King's fields helping decide what's on the menu.

A Neighbourhood-Wide Invitation to Wander Chinatown

When summer foot traffic slowed, a group of Chinatown businesses responded the way the best neighbourhoods often do: by working together. Their month-long Chinatown Passport is an invitation to wander, eat, drink and rediscover the neighbourhood.

How About a Week in Italy, With Wine as Your Focus?

Got plans this fall? If not, spending a week eating and drinking your way through Italy seems like a pretty good place to start.

Shincha, Foraged Greens, and the Arrival of Summer

Created in collaboration with Japan's oldest tea house, this one-day Mæst Food dinner offers a thoughtful look at what early summer has to offer.