2009 Vancouver Official Travel Planner Guide - (Page 13) Dining & Nightlife Photography: O’Doul’s Restaurant ©Tourism Vancouver; Patio dining at Sandbar Restaurant ©Tourism Vancouver/Sandbar Restaurant Accolades! Blue Water Café In a recent issue of Robb Report, Vancouver’s Blue Water Café is listed among an elite group of 100 favourite restaurants worldwide. It is one of only two Canadian restaurants mentioned and positioned alongside gastronomic greats such as Alain Ducasse’s Beige in Tokyo, Grant Achatz’s Alinea in Chicago, The French Laundry in California and Le Gavroche in London. bluewatercafe.net What’s New? Edible British Columbia’s Audi Escape Weekends Edible British Columbia is proud to partner with Audi Canada to offer new culinary weekend escapes to Vancouver Island and the Okanagan Valley. These fun-filled weekends showcase the best of the province’s food-and-wine scene behind the wheel of a brand new Audi. Features private chef dinners, food and winery tours, and opportunities for relaxing. edible-britishcolumbia.com Vancouver’s dining scene is one of North America’s richest environments in which to enjoy a meal. Jostling with Montreal and Toronto for the position of top Canadian dine-out city, Vancouver is regarded by many as the hands-down winner for its far wider array of great ethnic food. This ranges from multi-course Chinese feasts to European-influenced tasting plates and perhaps the best sushi available outside Japan. West Coast cuisine has enjoyed a renaissance in the city in recent years, largely due to a rediscovery of the region’s uniquely flavourful ingredients. Whether it’s live music, dancing, cocktails or just drinks with friends, the nightlife options in Vancouver are as rich and varied as the dining scene. Many of the hottest nightspots are located downtown, but there are places to enjoy the after-dark hours in just about every Vancouver neighbourhood. Key Restaurant Districts Vancouver is teeming with distinctive dining areas. These include Robson Street, with more than 50 restaurants ranging from Korean noodle houses to super-chic movie star hangouts; Yaletown, where the city’s beautiful people come to feed at the best eateries; Kitsilano, with its vegetarian haunts, quirky coffee houses and fine dining; Denman and Davie streets, housing the city’s best selection of good-value, mid-priced restaurants; Broadway, a street with almost every type of restaurant imaginable; Commercial Drive, with its independent coffee bars and diverse ethnic eateries; Granville Island, with its public market, fine dining and casual eateries sharing great views; and South Granville, combining a couple of the city’s best restaurants with a highly browsable shopping area. Minter Gardens’ Valley Culinary Tour Guests enjoy a self-guided visit to the gardens and a delicious lunch; a guided tour to Farmhouse Natural Cheeses and a visit to the Simply Fine Foods at Limbert Mountain Farm in Agassiz; and, finally, a tour of Campbell’s Gold Honey Farm in Abbotsford, to see the process of making beeswax candles, tasty honeycomb and honey soaps. mintergardens.com B.C.’s Burgeoning Wines The majority of the province’s 131 wineries and 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) of wine country is located in the Okanagan Valley, a dry, near-desert region 400 kilometres (250 miles) inland from Vancouver. Initially focusing on Germanic-style wines, producers such as Inniskillin, Nk’Mip Cellars and Sumac Ridge now focus their energies on popular whites like chardonnay and pinot gris as well as reds like merlot and pinot noir. Perhaps the region’s most famous tipple is ice wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine. For more information, visit winebc.com or greatestatesokanagan.com. Sample Culinary Experiences Harbour Air Fly ’n Dine Snug Cove Escape by seaplane from downtown Vancouver’s vibrant Coal Harbour to tranquil Bowen Island for a delicious dinner! harbour-air.com A Wok Around Chinatown – a Culinary & Cultural Walking Tour of Chinatown Get to know this colourful district from a culinary and cultural perspective with the entertaining and knowledgeable Robert Sung. awokaround.com Regional Beer B.C. is one of North America’s leading craft brewing beer makers, with distinctive, lipsmacking brews in production at small facilities across the province. Take a tour of a regional microbrewery or brewpub, or simply have your clients ask for a regional brew on their next visit to a local pub: they might find themselves sipping a cream ale, honey lager or maple beer at one of many local pubs or restaurants such as Steamworks Brewing Company or Yaletown Brewing Company. West Coast Air Fly & Dine Fly a scenic loop in a floatplane and then land at the Cannery Seafood Restaurant where West Coast cuisine and views await. westcoastair.com Dine Out Vancouver Each year from mid-January to early February, Vancouver’s food frenzy hits an alltime high. Local food enthusiasts and tourists indulge in Dine Out Vancouver, an event that showcases some of the city’s top restaurants at incredible prices. Participating restaurants serve special three-course menus at a fixed price and highlight British Columbia-produced wine pairings. It’s the perfect opportunity to taste food from some of Vancouver’s finest chefs without breaking the budget. To add to the fun, diners can vote for their favorite Dine Out dishes, wine pairing, service and more in the Best Bite Awards. c a l l 6 0 4 . 6 8 2 . 2 2 2 2 t o d a y f o r m o re i n f o r m a t i o n Edible British Columbia Unique and personalized culinary experiences. Services can be as simple as an exclusive reservation in any one of B.C.’s top restaurants or as elaborate as a complete multiday culinary-focused holiday. edible-britishcolumbia.com 13 http://bluewatercafe.net http://edible-britishcolumbia.com http://mintergardens.com http://winebc.com http://greatestatesokanagan.com http://www.harbour-air.com http://awokaround.com http://westcoastair.com http://edible-britishcolumbia.com
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