I hadn’t heard of the Vancouver Island Feast of the Fields until my favourite ‘Winey Wednesday) bartender Heather told me she would be having a stall there this year. When not working the bar at Doubles’ in the Executive House Heather is busy making chocolates, cakes and other sweet treats for her company Vin Coco. [...]

 I was going to sample a red this week but when my brother phoned to say he had caught a salmon (a rare feat for a guy whose nickname is ‘Fishless’) I changed my mind and went for a white. What better combination for a summer afternoon barbeque than straight-from-the-water Pacific Salmon accompanied by a [...]

When it rains in August I think of London so what better drink for the clime than stout. This week I tried Lighthouse Keeper for the first time and was pleasantly surprised to find a local stout that can compete with best from the other side of the Atlantic.         Lighthouse Brewery describes Keepers as “Irish [...]

A high-powered executive told me how he was using the rather posh public washrooms in the Hotel Vancouver when his cell phone rang. The call was from an important client in Edmonton so the exec opened his briefcase and proceeded to combine business with…er business. When the user next door was leaving he knocked on [...]

Visitors to British Columbia might be surprised to learn that it wasn’t so long ago that you couldn’t drink in a restaurant or bar on a Sunday. The big change came in 1986 when Vancouver hosted the World’s Fair. The then Social Credit government decided that Europeans would be aghast at the Province’s then outdated [...]

While watching the Olympic women’s triathlon in my local last Sunday I developed such a thirst just seeing those competitors working so hard in the heat that I ordered a pint of Race Rocks. The ice-cold ale really hit the spot and I was able to finish the race without breaking a sweat. Race Rocks [...]