Bar entertainment in Vancouver
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Stella’s Tap & Tapas Bar
Leading the Drive’s friendly neighborhood bars, Stella’s is a pilgrimage spot for fans of great Belgian brews. Leffe and Stella Artois are on tap but it’s the multipage bottled list that’ll do you in. Try fruity Mort Subite Kriek, coppery Chimay Rouge, strong Golden Draak and dark X.O., a brooding, end-of-the-night beer made with cognac. And don’t forget that other nutrient group: moules et frites (mussels and fries) is recommended, or a cone of addictive fries (served Euro-style with mayonnaise) is always a good idea. There’s also a more food-forward Stella’s on Cambie.
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Diamond
Look for the unassuming entrance and head upstairs and you’ll suddenly find yourself in one of Vancouver’s best and coziest cocktail bars. This high-ceilinged, renovated heritage room is studded with sash windows – try for a view seat – and while it’s popular with local hipsters it’s never pretentious. A list of perfectly nailed cocktails (try the warming Penicillin of blended scotch, peated scotch, ginger, lemon and honey) is welcoming, but you’ll also find a roster of intriguing, Asian-focused tasting plates, such as pork gyoza and green-tea noodles.
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George Ultra Lounge
One of hedonistic Yaletown’s favorite haunts, George attracts the local glitterati with its perfectly executed high-concept cocktails – anyone for a Sazerac, featuring bourbon in an ‘absinthe-washed glass’? Work your way down the menu as you hone your chat-up lines on the locals, or just sink into that lip-shaped sofa in the corner and try to figure out what the giant swirly glass thing above the bar is. Food-wise, it’s all about tasty side-dishes (the pork buns are especially recommended), while the DJs hit the turntables on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
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Salt Tasting Room
Tucked along a cobbled back alley reputedly named after the area’s former butcher trade, this chatty and atmospheric little brick-lined wine bar offers around 100 interesting tipples, most of which are unusually offered by the glass. Beer fans will also find a small menu of treats, including the excellent Anchor Liberty Ale. From your communal table perch, you should also peruse the giant blackboard of house-cured meats and regional cheeses, then go for a $15 tasting plate of three, served with piquant condiments – go for Brit-style piccalilli.
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Narrow Lounge
Push through the door just around the corner on 3rd Ave – the red light above tells you if it’s open or not – then descend into Vancouver’s coolest small bar. Little bigger than a train carriage and lined with stuffed animal heads and junk-shop pictures, the hipster-luring Narrow is an atmospheric nook where the absence of windows means it always feels like midnight. Ask the friendly bar staff for recommendations (cocktails like the Bramble or beers including Blue Buck Ale are popular) and refuel with an ‘unburger’ – meatloaf on a baguette.
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1181
The West End’s coolest gay bar, this loungey spot combines a chatty, sofa-strewn front space with a cozy back area that feels a lot more intimate. Separating the two is a sidebar staffed by friendly servers ever-ready to offer you tips on the local scene: this is also where the singletons sit, so you can expect to be the subject of some flirty attention as soon as you arrive. There’s a good wine list and plenty of tempting cocktails, including the signature 1181 Margarita, made with Cointreau and lime-infused tequila.
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O’Doul’s
Live nightly jazz attracts savvy locals to the watering hole of the Listel Vancouver hotel, where there’s an impressive winelist of Old and New World classics and a surprisingly smashing BC beer selection from brewers like Crannog, Storm and Turning Point: go for the Hermann’s Dark Lager. The shows are cover-free and you can also expect performers to drop by for some late-night jamming during the Jazz Festival. Service is excellent here and there’s also a good grease-free bar menu.
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Cascade Room
A great way to fast-track your way in with the local hipsters, this is the perfect contemporary reinvention of the trad neighborhood bar. Choice bottled beers like Anchor Steam and Young’s Double Chocolate Stout feature, but the excellent 50-strong cocktail list is recommended: try a Cascade Room Cocktail of bourbon, pressed apple, lime juice, vanilla bean, bitters and egg white. Food is of fine gastropub quality, with the wine-braised beef and bubble and squeak worthy of praise. Drop by on Mondays for quiz night.
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UVA
Possibly the city’s best wine bar, this little nook combines a heritage mosaic floor and swanky white vinyl chairs that add a dash of mod class. But despite the cool look, there’s a welcome snob-free approach that will have you happily taste-tripping through a boutique drinks list carefully selected from Old and New World delights plus some exciting BC wines: go for the citrusy Joie Riesling. Combine your drinks with tasting plates from charcuterie to tangy cheese – make sure you have the sardine bruschetta.
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Keefer
A dark, narrow and sophisticated new bar that – along with nearby Bao Bei – is changing the face of Chinatown from old-school to mod-cool. Claimed by the hipsters as soon as it opened in 2010, you’ll find an intriguing menu of extremely well-crafted cocktails (they start north of the $10 mark, so they should be) plus Asian-fusion tapas. Try something new and you’re almost bound to be blown away (if you need help, go for the Opium Sour or Keefer Fizz).
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Chill Winston
Gastown’s best patio is the highlight attraction of this large, brick-lined bar overlooking Maple Tree Sq. Snag a spot under a parasol on a sunny afternoon and you’re unlikely to move much for the rest of the day. Drinks-wise, you’ll find a wide array of tipples, from flirty cocktails to New World wines, as well as a good boutique selection of interesting beers from Quebec, Belgium, the UK and beyond. Refuel with some sharable tapas plates.
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Afterglow
Tucked at the back of Glowbal, the city’s tiniest lounge is an intimate, brick-lined room studded with low-slung couches and little white coffee tables: it feels like a den for fashionistas. Pull up a vinyl stool and you’ll soon be experimenting with flirty cocktails or a selection from the restaurant’s wine list. Take a break from all that quaffing with a handful of lip-smacking satay sticks or some black truffle popcorn.
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Bacchus
A roaring hearth on a chilly day is the main attraction at Bacchus, a decadent bar with a gentleman’s club ambience on the lobby level of the Wedgewood Hotel & Spa. Sink into a deep leather chair, adjust your monocle and listen to the piano player as you sip a signature Red Satin Slip martini of vodka, raspberry liqueur and cranberry juice. There’s a good small-plate menu for the incurably esurient (go for the cheese).
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Sylvia’s Lounge
Attached to the permanently popular Sylvia Hotel, this was Vancouver’s first cocktail bar when it opened in the mid-1950s. Now a comfy, wood-lined neighborhood bar favored by in-the-know locals (they’re the ones who are hogging the window seats as the sun sets over English Bay), it’s a great spot for an end-of-day wind down. Go for a 1954 vodka and Chambord cocktail, along with a side-dish of seafood-stuffed mushrooms.
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