The James Beard Foundation has announced its nominees for this year’s awards, which take place in early May. Check out the full list of nominees here.

In celebration of the arrival of spring, here are six local restaurants offering cherry blossom-inspired dishes around town.

The excellent Life Behind Bars podcast examines the awesomeness of the dive bar and opines on whether or not it’s an endangered species:

These humble establishments are a sacred tradition, dispensing affordable shots of potent whiskey and pints of cold beer to the thirsty masses. They likely date back to a subterranean Buffalo joint that opened in the mid-1800s along the banks of the city’s canal. Soon the term and style of bar spread across the United States. The popularity of dives usually ebbs and flows with the state of the country’s economy but they’ve always attracted a diverse and eclectic crowd. Sadly, in many cities rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods mean that dive bars are now often closing or are being renovated.

This time lapsed video of artists creating colourful, cartoon pancakes is oddly satisfying.

Local artist Grace Lee will be hosting a two-part Bento Box picnic workshop beginning this week. Tickets available here.

Much-loved local food truck Disco Cheetah will be setting up its first brick and mortar location in Davie Village.

How a local Syrian catering company is creating opportunity and community for refugee women in Vancouver.

The Vancouver Sun’s Mia Stainsby heads to Cibo Trattoria and breaks out the happy dance for Chef Curtis Luk’s Italian-inspired fare.

Hold onto your hats, Mac and Cheese lovers: Vancouver will be getting a festival dedicated to the gooey stuff this summer.

Love it or hate it, Yelp has had its fair share of influence on the restaurant industry and apparently the company is ripe for a comeback.

Eater asks how we best support workers employed at restaurants owned by men accused of misconduct.

The internet lost it’s f*cking mind this week when some dude announced that he preferred his bagels cut vertically.

On Tennessee Williams, his habit of drinking to excess and how his consumption worked its way into his writing.

Eating via Instagram honours this week go to @panda.dlights who just took the whole “put an egg on it” thing to the next level:

 

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A post shared by Dominic W. (@panda.dlights) on Mar 31, 2019 at 6:01pm PDT

I’ve heard of hiding your booze at the beach in water bottles, cola cans and plastic cups…but vodka in a sunscreen bottle is certainly news to me.

Vancouver would absolutely be cooler if we had a vegetable stand run by a Shiba Inu.

In an art installation imbued with layers of symbolism, Cosimo Cavallaro is building a wall made entirely of expired Cotija cheese.

When traveling it is of the utmost importance to know where to find good coffee so here’s a list of the very best in every state according to the folks at Food and Wine.

This week in food and science: why one researcher is infusing everyone’s favourite Easter marshmallow with 12 kinds of fungi.

“Welcome to the weird world of #fungalpeeps in which Matthew Kasson, the mycologist at West Virginia University and the fun guy behind this experiment, is studying whether common fungi can survive, and potentially thrive, under extreme conditions — like the sugary, chemically preserved, water-deprived bellies of marshmallow peeps. He hopes to show how a simple, silly experiment can illuminate the basics of studying fungal biology and ecology.”

The Globe and Mail on the alcohol-free drink trend within the cocktail community and a few recipes for all of your non-alcoholic drink needs this spring.

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