Category: Locals

Cumberland Brewing Co. (Cumberland, BC)

Shawn 4 Comments

Cumberland BreweryCumberland is my favourite place in the world right now. It’s chock full of great people, great cafes and nerdy 2nd hand stores, great mountain biking culture and repair shops, great location – right between the Comox Valley and CR. It’s got a vibe that’s just so… Great!

And after spending a blindingly-sunny afternoon thrashing up, down and all over Cumberland’s legendary MTB trails with my wife and our friend Jen, I found one more reason why that town is so damn great: They have a brewery! Read More

The Sooke Harbour House (Sooke, BC)

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Sooke Harbour House 1It’s been 35 years since The Sooke Harbour House opened on the tip of Whiffen Spit overlooking the Juan de Fuca Straights, a mere hour or so from our province’s capital. Owner and slow food proponent Sinclair Philip and celebrity chef Edward Tucson built North America-wide cred by sourcing local, sustainable foods and focusing on clean unobtrusive flavours decades before it became the standard. The Inn has won boatloads of awards (both as a hotel and as a restaurant) and been profiled by every food, drink and travel publication you can think of.

That was then, and this is now. The majority of praise for the South Island institution has grown a tad quiet as of late. Chef Tucson moved onto other projects years ago and according to the spiteful whispers that prickle at the edges of our industry, when he left a lot of the Inn’s hard-won reputation left with him.

Neither Crystal nor I had ever been to the Inn during its halcyon age, but we had always kept it in mind as a sort-of “bucket list” type destination. Someday we’d try it, how could we not?

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Ultimate Steak, Part 1 : The Gunter Brothers Saga

Shawn 6 Comments

Gunter Bros 1Every time we drive through Black Creek, I stare out at the rolling pastures packed with cows and think of Gary Larson’s Far Side comic strip.

You know the one: A field full of cows are standing on two hooves, conversing with obvious intelligence when one yells “Car!” Just as two humans drive by they drop down on all fours and pretend to be witless bovines. When all’s clear they stand back up and get on with their day, the humans never suspect a thing. *chuckles*

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