Ensemble Tap (990 Smithe Street), or eTap as commonly referred to, is the second urban eatery from Chef Dale MacKay, winner of 2011′s Top Chef Canada.  eTap opened in December 2011, and offers casual dining with an extensive beer on tap, as the name suggests.

eTap is a 130-seater pub-style restaurant offering tap-house favourites like chicken wings, meat pies, ribs, fish and chips, burgers and sandwiches – food that pairs with fabulous beer or wine.  A 35-foot bar, made from reclaimed fir and galvanized barn lights spans across the first floor of the restaurant.   A 40-seat private party area in the mezzanine overlooks the bar and is situated above the keg cooler.

Although MacKay’s niche and forte may be in fine dining, his love of simple, classic foods stem from his mother and his Prairie background.  For instance, eTap’s bone-on pork rack chop with sauerkraut signifies one of MacKay’s favourite childhood meals.  This signature dish is soaked in brine for eight hours before being smoked, grilled, and served.   Other notable dishes include the Top Chef-winning pulled pork sandwich ($13) with MacKay’s famous BBQ spice, Mussels and Fries ($18) in a Thai Curry Broth, and Thai chicken wings ($12/pound).

ensembleTap is located on Smithe Street by Scotiabank Theatre and is a perfect pre or post-movie dinner spot, or a lively location to watch the game.

By no means a pub crawl, explore Gastown’s exciting craft beer scene on Vancouver Food Tour’s beer-centric culinary tour.  Upon signing up for the craft beer and bites tour, we knew we’d be stopping by four different destinations during the three-hour tour, but the locations aren’t revealed until you meet your tour group.  We met our tour guide, Nicole Coetzee, and the other 8 – 10 members of the tour at Waterfront Station in Gastown.

The four Gastown locations we went to were Rogue Kitchen & Wetbar, Pourhouse, Clough Club and Bitter Tasting Room.   Each destination features unique aspects of beer including beer history and brewing process, beer cocktails, modern gastropub snacks and how to pair beer and food.

At the first location, Rogue Kitchen and Wetbar, all three beer selections were from British Columbia – Central City (Surrey), Driftwood Brewery (Victoria) and R&S Brewing Co. (East Vancouver).  We had a lobster macaroni and cheese, a hearty, spicy chilli and a bite-sized vietnamese sandwich to pair with our drinks.

Our Vancouver tour guide, Nicole, was really knowledgeable and personable.  She was well rehearsed in her tour speeches, yet the way she spoke about her craft beers was in a conversational, storytelling style, rather than a textbook lecture.  Nicole was able to describe craft beer with the five senses:

• sight - how beer should look, the significance of the glass beer bottle colour
• sound - what the “pop” of a beer cap should sound like to ensure the beer is fresh
• smell - the typical aromas of different styles of beer
• touch - the texture of beer on your palette (is it creamy? smooth? velvety?)
• taste - the actual flavour of the beer and the styles of food it would be best paired with.

In addition, not only was she able to give us the spheal on the beer itself, she also produced snippets of information on Gastown history as we hopped from location to location.

Next up was Pourhouse. There, we sampled another beer from Driftwood Brewery, but were also introduced to two American brewery creations – a Pale Ale from Mirror Pond (Oregon) and and the Imperial 8 Ball Stout from Loast Coast Brewery (California).  For food pairings, see image below:

Most of the patrons of the beer tour came in pairs.  In our group, most of the people were from Vancouver, although we had a couple from New Zealand as well! In general, I found that conversation flowed easily with everyone in the group.  Because we switched locations every 40 minutes or so, conversations didn’t run stale because you could sit beside a new person at the next location.  If you ever ran out of things to say, you could always divert your attention back to food and drink.

At the Donnelly Group’s newest restaurant, Clough Club, we were served an “orange hop-sicle” beer cocktail which consisted of 2 oz of Cointreau, 3 oz of Driftwood Far Tug IPA, 1/2 oz dash of simple syrup and 3 dash Peychaud’s bitters to round it all out.  The cocktail was strong, with contrasting flavours of sweet and bitter.  Keep your eyes peeled for more and more innovative beer cocktail concoctions – that seems to be a recent alcoholic beverage trend in Vancouver.

Lastly, at Bitter Tasting Room, we had another flight of beers paired with dessert.  Dessert was made up of multi layers of cream, nuts, cake and cherry, served in a jam jar.  At the last location, we were encouraged to stay as long as we liked to continue to social with our tour group.

Convinced?  Hop on board and meet fellow beer devotees as you taste, sip, and bite through historic Gastown.  With a passionate beer educator as your guide, curious beer lovers and serious beer enthusiasts alike will discover, enjoy and discuss craft brews alongside a variety of food pairings.

The next Craft Beer & Bites tour will be on April 3.  The $80 tour includes beer tastings at each of the 4 destinations, hand-selected food pairings and an informative and interactive guided walking tour.  Click here for more information and to register online for the tour.

By Joanna Lee, Modern Mix Vancouver writer

The Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival is an annual event that attracts some of the largest players and international vintners in the industry. It is a week-long festival where owners, winemakers, and representatives converge from wineries around the world. In its 34th year, this year’s festival featured over 1,700 wines, 181 wineries, 15 countries, and brought over 25,000 attendees from around the world. The festival hosts a trade show, public wine seminars, and events held in conjunction with Vancouver’s top restaurants and hotels. Its most anticipated event is the three-day International Festival Tastings held at the Vancouver Convention Centre, where wines are available for sampling and paired with various foods.

MMV had the opportunity to attend the first night of the International Festival Tasting, where more than 750 wines from 181 wineries and 15 countries were showcased.  This year’s regional theme was a focus on Chile, which is the world’s eighth largest wine producer and the fifth largest exporter. Chile also has some of the largest organic vineyards in the world. 35 Chilean wineries in total were present in one special section of the Tasting Room, where three different types of Chilean wine – Sauvignon Blanc, Carmenere and Cabernet Sauvignon – were on hand for attendees to sample. Chile’s signature grape variety, Carmenere, was few in the room. However, what one Chilean winemaker noted was that aside from its uniqueness, when the grape is ripe, it can be delicious. Some notables include Concha Y Toro’s Terrunyo 2008 Carmenere, Vina Santa Carolina 2009 Reserva De Familia, and Tamaya 2010 Winemaker’s Selection Carmenere.

Some of the world’s finest and most affordable wines – Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Syrah, Merlot, Carmenere – are produced in Chile. Its appeal is its warm climate and proximity to the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains, which create ideal temperatures conducive for growing grapes. The “vinestars” and more well-known wine proprietors of the country are Eduardo Chadwick, Miguel Torres Jr., and Alvaro Espinoza, all of whom presented at various wine seminars during the week.

The Vancouver International Playhouse Wine Festival is a fundraiser for the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, and is one of Canada’s best festivals, if not one of the world’s best. Since its inception in 1979, the Festival has raised over $7.5 million to support the theatre company, enabling it to produce over 200 productions and develop outreach and educational programs for the arts community.

Every January for 18 years, Liberty Wine Merchants hosts a fundraising event to start the bar high for the new year. Liberty is once again recruiting British Columbia’s finest food and beverage purveyors for Taste BC: a fundraiser for the BC Children’s Hospital’s Oak Tree Clinic.

BC Children’s Hospital’s Oak Tree Clinic provides specialized HIV care for infected women, pregnant women, partners, children and youth, and support services for affected families.  This event has raised a collective total of $186,336.00 since 1995 to benefit the Oak Tree Clinic.

Modern Mix Vancouver was there in 2009 and had enjoyed going from booth to booth, learning about new wines, sampling food pairings and bidding on silent auction items.    This year’s 18th annual celebration of local food and drink takes place January 24, 2012 (4:30-7:30 p.m.) at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Vancouver. Guests will taste, sip and experience BC’s finest wine, beer and spirits accompanied by tasty fare from local restaurants. Along with excellent food and drink, attractions include live music, door prizes, and a silent auction that rivals any other. Silent auction items include luxury items, local experience packages, destination packages and delicious products made by British Columbia’s own.

Tickets are $49.99 and available at Liberty Wine Merchant stores.

MMV Giveaway:  Modern Mix Vancouver is giving away a pair of will-call tickets to Taste BC.  Leave a comment below telling us your favourite wine and a random winner will be chosen from the comments below.  Be sure to leave your email address so we can contact you if you’re a winner.  Contests ends Sunday January 22nd.  

For additional entries, you can do the following things;

• For a second entry: Follow @ModernMixVan on Twitter and tweet “I want to win a pair of tickets to @taste_BC from @ModernMixVan http://bit.ly/ylLWkc RT to enter!”
• For a third entry: “Like” the Modern Mix Vancouver Page on Facebook and post on the wall “I want to win a pair of tickets to Taste BC from Modern Mix Vancouver! http://bit.ly/ylLWkc” 

Tales of the Cocktail arrived in Vancouver last week (March 13 to 15, 2011) for the first time ever.  Originally an annual event held in New Orleans, the organizers decided to bring the event to Vancouver given our city’s bar culture, appreciation and passion for cocktails and spirits.  The three-day event brought together mixologists, authors, bartenders for a celebration of the history and craft of cocktails.  Created with industry professionals and cocktail enthusiasts in mind, the event featured seminars presented by top mixologists and special events such as the BC Bar Crawl and Chambord’s Palais Royale.

Tales of the Cocktail was founded in 2003 by Ann Tuennerman, who was driven by her passion for the history of New Orleans and fine cocktails.  Through The New Orleans Culinary and Cultural Preservation Society, also founded by Tuennerman in 2006, Tales of the Cocktail is made possible and produced annually as part of the non-profit organization’s vision to preserve New Orleans’ culinary history.  A smaller scale version of the original event, Tales of the Cocktail on Tour is expected to be an annual event in Vancouver with additional locations planned for the near future.

The official cocktail for Tales of the Cocktail on Tour Vancouver is the Dalhousie Cocktail, created by Vancouver’s own Jonathan Smolensky of Brix Restaurant and George Ultra Lounge.  Featuring plum-infused Gibson’s Canadian whisky mixed with a Chinese spirit (Domaine de Canton) and an Eastern European spirit (Zwack Unicum), the cocktail speaks to the diversity of Vancouver as the ingredients used represent the immigrant groups brought together to build the city.  The name of the drink, Dalhousie, originates from a train station in Quebec from which the first Canadian Pacific Railway train departed.

During the event, specialty cocktails were prepared by mixologists from Grand Marnier, the world’s first liqueur, and Don Julio, one of the world’s finest tequilas, at the Fairmont Pacific Rim.  Featured were the Grand Smash (my personal favourite), Grand Marnier’s twist of the classic mojito, and Don Julio’s Agave Drop made with Tequila Don Julio Blanco and agave nectar.  Don Julio ambassadors were on hand to introduce their three drinks.  Delegates were asked to choose one of three cards and three personality traits were printed on each one.  On the back of the card was a drink made with premium Don Julio tequila that was based on your personality.

Other notables included exclusive tastings of Root and Snap, two soon-to-be launched spirits from Art in the Age in Philadelphia, and Canada’s cocktail, the Caesar.  The premise of Root and Snap is that they are both certified organic neutral spirits and made with a slew of North American herbs and spices (birch bark, cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, clove, anise, wintergreen, spearmint to name a few), pure cane sugar, fresh ginger and molasses.  Guests were invited to mix their own drinks using the two spirits in a private suite as well as sample special drinks prepared on site.

The Best Caesar in Town competition, presented by Mott’s Clamato, took place on March 14 at the Fairmont Pacific Rim and was won by Vancouver’s very own, Arthur Wynne of The Cascade Room, winning with 51.5% of overall votes.  Recipes were submitted during Mott’s Clamato’s call out in January and were judged by Len Fragomeni, the Dean of Caesar School, and a panel of experts from Mott’s Clamato.  Two recipes were chosen based on originality, taste and presentation and the finalists Wynne and Lauren Mote (The Refinery) prepared their drinks during Tales of the Cocktail on Tour Vancouver.

Crowned “King of the Caesar,” Wynne’s drink entitled Liquid Brunch Caesar was voted as the winner and beat out Mote’s Denman Street Caesar.  The uniqueness of his creation comes from the use of his roasted garlic and bacon infused vodka, which is infused for three days.  Similarly, Mote used Isi rapid infusion to create celery and nigella-seed bitters for her cocktail, which took second place in the competition.

The three-day event closed off with the BC Bar Crawl featuring the city’s top bars with stops at The Keefer Bar, L’Abattoir, Pourhouse, The Refinery and The Cascade Room.  Guests sampled unique and original cocktails prepared by the city’s finest bartenders made with special spirits before being whisked to a “secret” location in Gastown (later revealed as The Lamplighter) where the party started at exactly 11:59pm.

Chambord’s Palais Royale, the exclusive and final event to celebrate the end of Tales of the Cocktail Vancouver will take place March 21 at The Refinery.  Specialty cocktails will be mixed by The Refinery’s award-winning mixologist, Lauren Mote, using Chambord’s Black Raspberry liqueur crafted from raspberries and blackberries, Madagascar vanilla, Moroccan citrus peel, honey and cognac.  Modern Mix Vancouver will be present at the event.

This year’s Tales of the Cocktail returns to New Orleans July 20 to 24, 2011 with even more extensive seminars, culinary events, competitions, and special events showcasing products from the world’s top brands.  For event details, visit www.talesofthecocktail.com.

Has it been a year already??  For the second year in a row, Modern Mix Vancouver was at the exclusive Bombay Sapphire event with Master Mixologist Merlin Griffiths. As you may remember, last year the event took place at a loft at the Shangri-La Hotel. This year, with an equally chic environment, the event was held at a Gastown loft on Cordova Street- the perfect venue for a patio party with summer cocktail pairings and BBQ essentials.  This year, it was officially titled the “inspired entertaining party” and as per the year before, we were served Bombay Sapphire cocktails with the recipes in a press kit to try for ourselves at home.  Out of a group of 30+ media members, I volunteered to help Merlin out with the Sapphire Sangaree – a colorful gin cocktail, with fresh berries, reminding me of a sunny day sangria.  Feel free to browse the gallery at the bottom of this entry for more drink and event photos.

Sapphire Sangaree

Ingredients (Makes 4 cocktails)
4 oz Bombay Sapphire gin
2 oz Ruby Port
2 oz Cointreau Liqueur
3 1/2 oz Lemon slice, seasonal berries and mint leaves for garnish

Method
Into a chilled pitcher, add the lemon juice, orange liqueur and BOMBAY SAPPHIRE and stir to mix. Pour into rocks glasses filled two thirds full with cracked ice and gently drizzle 1/2oz of ruby port over the mixture. Finish the cocktail with a thin shimmering layer of cracked ice and ornament with a lemon slice, seasonal berries and clutch of mint leaves.

Mixology Tip: Cracked Ice
Take a large zip lock bag and fill 3/4 full with ice, and then fold a tea-towel (cloth) around the bag. Take a rolling pin or muddler and firmly, but not furiously, crack the ice with smart firm taps. The ice should reduce to popcorn-sized pieces; this improves dilution, chilling, and appearance for “sip and stir” style drinks.

The Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival, Canada’s premier wine show, runs from April 19 to 25, 2010. The Playhouse Wine Festival is one of the biggest and oldest wine festival events in the world. The featured theme regions for 2010 will be Argentina and New Zealand with the global focus of rosé. The festival features a week of special events including a gala auction, wine seminars, wine minglers, winery dinners, lunches and brunches at fine restaurants and hotels.  To purchase tickets online, click here.

George Ultra Lounge is the Godfather of Vancouver’s cocktail culture. Modeled in the London style, George pioneered the cocktail kitchen concept in Canada when it opened in 2005. Today, with award-winning Shaun Layton behind the bar, George continues to pour proper classic and market-fresh cocktails, complimented by a dinner and late night menu through 2 a.m

George Ultra Lounge (1137 Hamilton Street) is taking a page from the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and holding their own “Mixlympics”, a competition featuring ten bartenders (6 international, 4 local) competing head-to-head in a black box style event. Sponsored by Martin Miller’s Gin & Arc’teryx, these masters of mixology will be vying for the top prize – $500 cash provided by Martin Miller’s Gin, but there will be medals too. Gold, silver and bronze, just like the athletes competing in Vancouver and Whistler. The event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 12:00 pm but it might be best to get in line a little bit earlier.

The international contestants are:

• Joe Stokoe – Bar Manager for all three All Star Lanes, London, UK
• Abdul Kpekawa – Bartender, All Star Lanes, London, UK
• David Grieg – Bartender, All Star Lanes, London, UK
• Ola Carlson – Bartender, Box 101, Stockholm, Sweden
• Nicolos de Soto, Bartender, Experimental Cocktail Club & Curio Parlour, Paris, France
• Charles Tan – Bartender, China Club, Paris, France.

Representing Canada will be:

• Mark Brand – Owner, Boneta and The Diamond, Vancouver
• David Wolwidnyk – Bar Manager, West, Vancouver
• Jay Jones – Owner, The Pourhouse, Vancouver
• Darryl Macdonald – Bartender, Port, Toronto

The space has been given a sleek makeover that has drawn both thankful regulars and new clientele. Smiley’s Public House delivers the style of a modern, British-style pub while retaining the warmth and character of a traditional pub. The open-concept room boasts 240 seats and a range of table sizes, including 16-seat picnic tables. Guests come in to loosen their ties, tuck into modern pub food, watch a football match and engage in good-natured banter around the pool table. The dance floor brims on busier nights, and a DJ spins to the after-work crowd on Fridays.