You’ll be forgiven for thinking that The Magnolia Hotel & Spa has been a landmark for decades. Just a few steps off of Victoria’s Inner Harbour, the boutique hotel’s stately presence, elegant architecture and understated but confident attitude has the air of...
Across the Pacific Northwest seedlings are sprouting, birds and bees are “buzzing,” and new life is being born again. However, it’s not just nature that’s giving life to new blood—throughout the region, new craft breweries are popping up left and right, opening...
Craft beer and craft bread—doesn’t get much better than that. Victoria’s Lighthouse Brewery has collaborated with acclaimed artisan baker Byron Fry in this new limited release titled Sauerteig. Sauerteig Farmhouse Ale was created by Lighthouse head brewer Dean...
Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse knows all about apples, growing organic heritage apples for their traditional, English-style ciders. The apples in this (very coolly named) cider however are not all grown on their oceanfront site on British Columbia's Saanich...
Is it possible to be too popular for your own good? So well known for excelling at one thing that people think that’s all you can do? The Seinfeld curse? The “unpigeonable” Shawn Soole has proven that curse a fictitious one. Lauded internationally for his cocktail...
In addition to the culinary/agritourism powerhouse of Cobble Hill, BC's Merridale Estate Cidery (bistro, ciders, events, etc.) is their distillery. Rick Pipes, co-owner of the Cowichan Valley’s popular Merridale Cider with his wife Janet Docherty, decided to study...
"What would you do if you knew you could not fail?" Okanagan Valley's Nagging Doubt Wines poses this question on their labels to wine drinkers—nay, Nagging Doubt Wines baits its consumers with this question. Answering the call and challenge of doubt themselves,...
A hotel with multiple personalities? Find out what guise you are when you stay. Tell me what hotel suite you choose and I'll tell you what you are. Okay, so maybe that’s a poor paraphrase of Miguel de Cervantes’ famous quote, but the sentiment is shared. At OPUS...
As the name suggests, this is Left Field Cider Company’s big, dry cider. In comparison to their Little Dry, which is, well, you know, lesser dry, the Big Dry, their driest cider, will appeal to those looking for a traditional English styled cider. Crisp, sharp and...
Bitters. So you’ve heard about them in cocktails and food recipes. It’s now a buzzy, bandied about word, you see teeny bottles lining back bars, but you’re still not quite sure what it is or how to use it? Chef Jonathan Chovancek and mixologist Lauren Mote created...
