Showing 1-24 of 24 results
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Afterglow
The city's most intimate lounge is tucked at the back of Glowball Grill & Satay Bar. With a frosty-pink interior, silhouettes of naked women a la James Bond and flirty cocktail list that includes You Glow Girl and Pink Pussycat - perfect for washing down those finger-licking satay sticks.
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Alibi Room
Alibi's low-ceilinged basement lounge creates an ideal setting for Vancouver's filmmakers and design crowd to brood over their martinis. The moping ends upstairs, where a menu of ridiculously good comfort food perfectly matches the drinks selection of fortifying martinis.
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Aubar
Top 40, hip-hop and house blast from the speakers at this popular, mainstream near-Gastown haunt, complete with three bars and a smallish dance floor. Drop in on Wednesday for cheap beers, highballs and Jägermeisters, or save yourself for Rockstar Saturdays, when the locals writhe around each other with abandon.
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Bacchus
This decadent lounge has a heady air of sophistication. The carved limestone fireplace, cherry-wood paneling, leather chairs and gold silk accents make it the premier place to warm up when the weather won't cooperate. Choose from a wide selection of martinis, whiskey and scotch, while a piano man jangles the keys.
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Balthazar's House Of Comedy
The West End's favorite Tuscan-look lounge hosts a once-a-week stand-up show where you can expect to see a handful of local comics strutting their stuff while you sip on a round of cocktails that will make you laugh at anything. If you're a student, whip out your ID at the door for half-price entry.
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Bar None
Yaletown's favorite haunt for young professionals has a scrubbed beatnik appearance, but within its exposed brick-and-beam shell the main topic of conversation is perfect cocktails and real estate prices. The great and good come to sip and sway at Thursday's Uptown night (hip-hop, soul, disco and funk) and Friday's Open House (house, retro and pop mixes).
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Bimini's Tap House
A Kitsilano institution that's been recently refurbished, Bimini's is a trad-looking bar-restaurant where customers are just as happy sipping cocktails or knocking back a couple of beers. Drop by on Tuesday, when draught domestic beer and hi-balls are happily priced, and consider returning to the scene of the crime for Sunday brunch.
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Caprice
Originally a movie theater - hence the giant screen evoking its Tinseltown past - Caprice is one of the best mainstream haunts on the Granville strip. The cavernous two-level venue is a thumping magnet for all the local preppies and their miniskirted girlfriends, while the adjoining lounge is great if you need to rest your eardrums and grab a restorative beer. Expect to have to line up here on weekends when the under-25s dominate.
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Celebrities
One of the city's big gay clubs, Celebrities hosts a series of sparkling, sometimes sequined event nights throughout the week, including a raucous Wednesday drag night and Saturday's massive dance party, when go-go dancers, live singers and occasional circus performers strut for your viewing pleasure. If you're on a budget, Tuesday is cheap highball night.
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Denman Street Freehouse
A compact but swanky reinvention of the neighbourhood pub - think polished hardwood floors, modern furnishings and waiting staff all in black. The main draw here is the boutique selection of draught European beers, plus the fab patio views across English Bay. It's an ideal place to catch the sunset with a glass of cheery Belgian beer.
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Honey
A refreshing alternative to the Granville St party rabble, this laid-back resto-lounge venue transforms into a hopping club on weekends and is especially renowned for its Friday night Mod Club, when a welcoming and pretence-free crowd of young hipsters dresses up for a night of pop-soul-and-everything-else fun. Good drinks specials, too.
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Irish Heather
Not only does this popular pub pour the best Guinness in town, but it also shows genuine Irish hospitality by offering up excellent country fare, live music most weekdays and a glassed-in back patio among its labyrinth of rooms. Seek out the Shebeen Whisky Bar in back, where 140 varieties lie in wait.
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Mill Marine
The food is a little overpriced but the spectacular panoramic views of Stanley Park, the North Shore mountains and the seaplanes descending on Burrard Inlet more than make up for it. There's a small but impressive selection of draught beers available - try the Whistler Export Lager - as well as specials on offer throughout the week.
Arrive before 5pm on summer evenings or you'll have to wrestle someone for a table.
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Odyssey
The city's number one gay club, combining regular drag nights on Wednesdays and Sundays with a host of ever-changing special events throughout the week, Odyssey is a thumpingly fun night out. You don't have to be gay to dance here, but it certainly helps if you're planning to meet someone. The vibe is entertainingly risqué - hence Thursday night's Shower Power, when local beefcakes lather up in front of the slavering crowds.
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Plaza Club
Another converted Granville St cinema, the Plaza offers a hopping, mosh pit-style dance floor backed by a circular bar that always seems to be crowded. The music is of the mainstream variety - Saturday's R&B, Top 40 and old-school night is best - and the crowd includes plenty of nonlocals in from the suburbs for their big night out on the town. The club is increasingly showcasing live acts, and low-priced bands are also starting to appear.
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Republic
If you make it this far up Granville, you're in for a loungey change of pace from the noisy clubs at the Robson St end; Republic attracts those sophisticated over-25s who have strayed all the way from Yaletown. Start your visit with a cocktail on the 2nd-floor patio while you look over the human wreckage of staggering late-night drunks. Then hit the dance floor, open nightly. Fastlife Thursdays is recommended for great 80s, electro and house.
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Roxy
A raucous old-school nightclub that still has plenty of fans - including lots of partying youngsters who seem to be discovering it for the first time - this brazen old hussy is downtown's least pretentious dance space. Expect to be shaking your booty next to near-teenage funsters, kid-escaping soccer moms and UBC students looking for a bit of rough. On Sunday, don your buttless chaps and drop by for a wild western night out. Open nightly.
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Royal Unicorn Cabaret
A grungy, uninspiring old-school lounge throughout the week, the Unicorn is transformed on Salbourg Saturdays into perhaps the city's best alternative night out, when it's packed to the rafters with indie lads and lasses celebrating a relentless barrage of ironically cool dance music. They're certainly not here for the beer selection, which runs all the way from Coors to Kokanee. Arrive early to avoid the line ups.
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Shine
With music from electro to funky house and hip-hop, Gastown's sexy subterranean Shine attracts a younger crowd and is divided into a noisy main room and an intimate cozy cave with a 40ft chill-out sofa. The club's Saturday night Big Sexy Funk (hip-hop and rock) is a local legend, while Thursday's 1990s retro night appeals to all those ancient 25-year-old hipsters out there (you know who you are).
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Sonar
Many Vancouverites don't know it, but double-roomed Sonar is actually the city's premier club for experimental DJs and live club shows from all over the globe. On any given night you're likely to find progressive house, jazz fusion, soul, hip-hop, reggae or electronica. It's definitely worth braving the atmosphere - which can sometimes be thick with attitude - if you know exactly what you're looking for.
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Urban Improv
The best place to tickle your funny bone in Kits, Chivana is a restaurant and lounge most of the week but a live improv comedy venue on Mondays. Expect to see many of the usual improv suspects who appear at Vancouver Theatresports, plus a host of other well-oiled performers who know just how to spin an audience suggestion into a jaw-achingly funny good time.
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Vancouver Theatresports League
Vancouver's most popular improv group concocts energetic stage romps, loosely connected to themes such as Shakespeare, Star Trek or the Olympics. If you're sitting near the front, expect to be picked on or called to the stage, unless you're naked - they tend to leave you alone if you're naked. The recommended late-night Friday and Saturday shows are commendably ribald and if you think it looks easy, try one of their improv classes.
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Yaletown Brewing Company
This classic Vancouver brewpub is something of an icon in the city's pub scene. Outside on the enormous patio or inside playing pool, you'll find a casual crowd comparing notes on the fine microbrews and savouring the great comfort foods on the menu.
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Yuk Yuk's
Stand-up comics from around the city and across North America perform at Yuk Yuk's, part of a Canada-wide chain of dedicated comedy clubs. Tuesday and Wednesday are improv nights, while famous faces usually appear Thursday to Saturday. If you're happy for soup to erupt from your nose at any moment, you can also splash out on a dinner-and-show package.
Showing 1-24 of 24 results
