Tag: bc

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

Eight More BC Summer Beers

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More BC Summer BeersIt’s been a scorcher this summer.

Not that I’m complaining… I like getting to work with dry socks and I love spending my weekends in the great outdoors!

It’s been a big change to have two days off with my wife! *laughs* Go ahead and insert your off-colour marriage joke here… But really, Crystal and I have been mountain biking, hiking, taking the dog to the beach and adventuring to new restaurants, farmer’s markets and junk shops. In short, we’ve enjoyed ourselves a lot.

Consequently, I haven’t spent as much time on the blog as I suppose I should… Sorry y’all.

During all these shenanigans I’ve discovered a handful of new, local beers that have accompanied and enhanced said shenanigans in all the right ways.

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Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar (Vancouver, BC)

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Blue Water Cafe 1It’s Valentine’s weekend, the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal is choked full of exhausted island travelers grimly thumbing through their neglected emails. The tension in the airless, reeking waiting room is so thick with worry that you could slice some off and sauté it. Two ferries have been canceled thanks to the hurricane currently pounding on the windows, and the lady with the tinkly voice on the intercom says it’s possible no-one will be returning to the island tonight… And yet, my wife and I are in pretty good spirits. Read More

The Nest Bistro (Nanaimo, BC)

Shawn 1 Comment

The Nest BistroCrystal and I spent almost twenty minutes prowling the middle of freaking nowhere Nanaimo looking for The Nest Bistro, a highly recommended chef-owned joint which we had made dinner reservations for. We’d already passed a Phillipino mother smoking and breastfeeding in her doorway, a drunken soon-to-be domestic call two doors down and an elderly man with no shirt and one shoe chasing a cat back and forth across the road. It felt, magically, like we were back in our old neighbourhood in East Van – At first glance kind of ghetto, but the Tibetan prayer flags over everyone’s door made it okay. Read More

Ten BC Beers You Have to Try This Summer!

Shawn 5 Comments

BC BeersSummer. Beer.

No two words have ever been so flawlessly in simpatico. One is the perfect complement to the other, it’s twin and companion. Without one, the other is incomplete. There is nothing like sun, surf and a beer that has been freshly plucked from a slightly sand-crusted cooler’s cold, slushy recesses. Big sunglasses and good tunes naturally accompany such moments and bikini parties are sure to spontaneously occur. It’s science. Read More