Dine Out™ Van Fest does brunch!

Posted on December 2, 2015 by mywinepal

Tourism Vancouver Dine Out Festival and Vancouver Foodster presents: Dine Out™ Van Fest does brunch! Presented by Vancouver Foodster, these events are sure to please anyone who loves brunch. Visit 6+ restaurants in each of the neighbourhoods as you taste all sorts of dishes in this Brunch crawl using your “passport” as your guide.

3-Crawl Ticket Pack: Choose any 3 crawls for $115 provides the best value where people can choose any 3 of the 6 brunch crawls and save over $20 per ticket. For single tickets, Early Purchase Discount: Save $15 before December 31st, 2015. Regular price tickets are $60 after December 31, 2015.

Tickets are now on sale through Tickets Tonight

January 16, 2016 — Gastown Dine Out Brunch Crawl

Participants include some of Gastown’s finest restaurants, including Bao Down, Capilano Tea and Soda Co., Prado Café, Small Flower, Zero Zero Pizzeria and more.

January 17, 2016 — Olympic Village Dine Out Brunch Crawl

Participants include some of Olympic Village’s finest restaurants, including Bao Down Gastropub, Milano Coffee, Solly’s Bagelry, Whole Foods and more.

January 23, 2016 — Downtown Vancouver Dine Out Brunch Crawl

Participants include some of Downtown Vancouver’s finest restaurants, including Marquis Wine Cellars, Meinhardt Fine Foods, Saj & Co., Truffles Fine Foods and more.

January 24, 2016 — North Van Dine Out Brunch Crawl

Participants include some of North Vancouver’s finest restaurants,including Cook Culture, Rosemary Rocksalt, Two Daughters Bakery, Bowen Island Pizza Co, Bean around the World and more.

January 30, 2016 — Yaletown Dine Out Brunch Crawl

Participants include some of Yaletown’s finest restaurants, including Bella Gelateria, Lime and Moon Pie Co., Small Victory Bakery + Coffee, Xoxolat, Zend Conscious Lounge and more.

January 31, 2016 — Main Street Dine Out Brunch Crawl

Participants include some of Main Street’s finest restaurants, including Radicle Juice, Rosemary Rocksalt, The Honey Shoppe and more.

* All brunch crawls run 10am-2pm.

General Admission: $60*
Early Purchase Discount: Save $15 before December 31st, 2015
3-Crawl Ticket Pack: Choose any 3 crawls for $115

Tickets now on sale through Tickets Tonight

Tasting Plates Downtown South on Sept 16 – Get Your Tickets

Posted on September 6, 2015 by mywinepal

The latest Tasting Plates is coming up September 16; This one featuring restaurants in the Downtown South area of Vancouver. I am quite excited with the list of restaurants, especially C Prime Modern Italian Steakhouse & Wine Bar, as they participated in the Calamari Challenge in June and made a FANTASTIC tasting dish with cheese stuffed calamari, bathed in a wonderful tomato sauce. I can hardly wait to try their Tasting Plates offering. You will see me there, and the other venues so please sign up before the tickets sell out. It will be a lot of fun. Here is the announcement by Vancouver Foodster.

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Tantalize your taste buds at several restaurants and establishments in the Downtown South neighborhood (between Bute to Yaletown’s edge and Burrard to Nelson). This tasting extravaganza goes from 6pm until 10pm and is presented by Vancouver Foodster.

Each restaurant will be serving up Tasting Plates and Tasting Cups for guests to enjoy and you will have a chance to visit many different types of restaurants throughout the event, meet some new food loving friends, meet the chefs, and learn about each of the participating restaurants.

If you haven’t been to our previous Tasting Plates events, Novus TV featured one of our previous events on City Lights (view here).

Visit our Tasting Plates site and view our past events, photos and more!

Bring along a friend or two, your significant other, your family or come solo.
A food networking dinner event connecting Vancouver’s vibrant food community.
Visit each of the participating restaurants and establishments at your leisure by walking, transit, bike, moped, car, or carpooling.

Registration: C Prime – this is where you will show us your printed or digital tickets and will pick up your Tasting Plates Cards and menus.

Participating Restaurants:

C Prime Modern Italian Steakhouse & Wine Bar

1015 Burrard Street, Vancouver

Web: http://www.cprime.ca/

Twitter @cprimesteak

Instagram: cprimesteak

C|Prime is a modern and sophisticated approach to authentic Italian cuisine. C|Prime delivers incredible food and a fashionable atmosphere, all while taking guests on a bold flavour journey through upscale Italy, while incorporating hints of New York City.

beyond

Beyond Coffee

1015 Burrard Street, Vancouver

Web: http://www.century-plaza.com/beyond-coffee/

Twitter @dine_at_beyond

Beyond coffee located in the Century Plaza Hotel & Spa, open for breakfast lunch and dinner featuring housemade gelato, Illy coffee, paninis and more.

los amigos

Los Amigos Taqueria

1118 Davie Street, Vancouver

Web: https://www.facebook.com/losamigostaqueria

Twitter: @losamigostacos

Cuisine: Mexican

Serves authentic Mexican Tacos that are healthy, fresh and fast.Back in 1974, in the heart of Downtown Mexico city, our first Taqueria was open. The authentic recipes past on by generations bring you today a taste of Mexico in the West End, Vancouver. Our Menu includes fresh ingredients, gluten free, and vegan friendly. An option for everyone, with a variety that promises quality and unforgettable flavour.

ganache 2

Ganache Patisserie

1262 Homer St.

Web: http://ganacheyaletown.com/

Twitter: @ganacheyaletown

Cuisine: Desserts Café

Since opening in 2003, Ganache has established a reputation for its creative modern twists on classical recipes and desserts.

Truffles Fine Foods Café

785 Davie Street

Web: www.trufflesfinefoods.com/café

Twitter: @trufflesfoods

Cuisine: Café and catering

Truffles Kitchen features homemade sandwiches, entrees, and more along with baked goods, desserts and a full range of hot and cold drinks to enjoy side, plus a grab and go case to take-out.

Saj & Co.
813 Davie Street, Vancouver
Web: https://www.facebook.com/sajco
Twitter: @Sajnco
Cuisine: Lebanese, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern
Home style freshly baked lebanese saj breads with a fine selected natural ingredient mixes blended live on the saj top.

bella

Bella Gelateria Yaletown

1089 Marinaside Crescent

Web: http://www.bellagelateria.com

Twitter:@BellaYaletown

Cuisine: Pizzeria & Gelataria

Italian Napoletana pizzas, unique Italian desserts married with gelato from award winning Maestro James Coleridge.

Purchase Tickets Here:

Early-Bird Tickets: $29 per person before September 8, 2015

Advance Tickets: $40 per person after September 8, 2015

Regular Tickets $60 per person after September 14, 2015.

Note: Eventbrite fee and GST is extra on all tickets purchased online.

Ticket price includes tasting plates at each of the participating restaurants throughout the evening. (Beverages are included at some restaurants which will be noted, you are welcome to purchase wine, beer, cocktails or mocktails at each of the participating restaurants).

Note: ALL Tickets must be purchased in advance online. All ticket sales are final. No exchanges or refunds; however you are welcome to transfer the ticket to another person for the same event if you notify us at least 48 hours in advance with name (s) of who will be attending in your place. Participating restaurants subject to change. Event produced by CMI Chat Media Inc. This is an all ages event.

Dine Out Vancouver Downtown Brunch Crawl Delivers Tastiness

Posted on January 26, 2015 by mywinepal

This is my Dine Out Vancouver Brunch Crawl for this year. The first Brunch Crawl was in Gastown and was very filling. The second one I attended this weekend was in Downtown, more specifically the area east of Hornby, with Hastings to the north, and Yaletown to the south. A bit of a hike to get to all of the venues, but needed in order to devour all the offered bites. The venues we visited were:

Kingson Taphouse & Grill
Trees Organic Coffee & Roasting House
Nourish Vancouver
The Copper Chimney
Bella Gelateria Yaletown
Small Victory Bread & Coffee
Shuraku Sake Bar and Bistro
Frankie’s Italian Kitchen & Bar

This was the order that I tackled the venues, but anyone attending could visit them in any order, except for Kingston Taphouse & Grill which was the starting point, where you picked up your registration card. Below are some pictures of the food I enjoyed at the Downtown Brunch Crawl and comments. Enjoy.

There is one more Brunch Crawl you may want to attend, is on Commercial Drive on Sunday, Feb. 1. Commercial Drive Brunch Crawl tickets are at this link.

Kingston Taphouse cornbeef hash, banger, and gravlax

Kingston Taphouse & Grill offered us corn beef hash, banger with confit cherry tomato and gravlax with dill & chive hollandaise on a buttermilk biscuit. Of the three I liked the banger the most as it had some pepperiness to it, and I liked it with the acidity and sweetness of the tomato.

Trees Organic spinach and feta scone, raspberry white chocolate scone, and Peruvian coffee

Trees Organic Coffee & Roasting House freatured a savoury spinach & feta scone, a sweet raspberry white chocolate scone and a single origin, fair trade, organic coffee from Peru. The two scones were nice and soft, melting in my mouth, but the savory scone did have a sugar coating on, which made it a bit odd tasting. The raspberry one was fantastic. And the coffee was top quality. A nice place for a weekend morning coffee and pastry.

The Juice Box cold pressed juices

Nourish Vancouver offered us three different items to enjoy. The first as shown in this picture were two cold pressed juices. The first was “Light Green”, which was a cucumber-based juice, with ginger and other ingredients. It tasted healthy and refreshing, but even better to me was the Carrot Orange Ginger juice, which had a smooth texture, with a nice balance between the orange, carrot and ginger flavour. I would go back for this juice.

Nourish Vancouver frittata in spelt wrap with leeks, kale, radish sprouts, and shitake mushrooms

Their breakfast sandwich was next, a frittata made with fresh eggs, filled with roasted leeks, kale and shitake mushrooms, served with a kale hazelnut pesto wrapped in a spelt flatbread. It was also topped with radish sprouts. Again, another tasty dish, meatless, that was packed with lots of healthy ingredients. Great for a after gym workout (along with the juice).

Living Lotus chocolate ganache

The last sample from Nourish was a Dark Chocolate Ganache from one of their partners, Living Lotus. Not much to say, other than you can’t go wrong with a Dark Chocolate Ganache.

The Copper Chimney butter chicken, basmati rice, and garlic naan bread

The Copper Chimney was my favourite stop at the Downtown Brunch Crawl. They served us their Butter Chicken served with Basmati rice, and garlic naan bread. This was the best Butter Chicken that I can remember eating in a long while. It was not overly peppery, and had a wonderful mix of sweet spices, like cinnamon and ginger. I am definitely coming back here to have a full meal of Butter Chicken. To this the Basmati rice was nice and fluffy, and the naan had a light garlic flavour, which was nice to dip in the Butter Chicken sauce. Highly recommended.

Bella Gelateria Yaletown italian toast, Il Tricolore brunch pizza, and chocolate cookie

Bella Gelateria Yaletown provided us with a plate containing an Italian Toast (similar to French toast, this one using an Italian Brioche, and topped with some pureed kiwi fruit), Il Tricolore Brunch pizza, made with roasted peppers and eggplant, scrambled organic free range egg and fior di latte, and last a Chocolate G Cookie with Tahitian vanilla gelato. I quite enjoyed the Italian Toast. The bread was quite dense and absorbed the flavours of the egg coating. I also really liked the Tahitian vanilla gelato. I do like good vanilla, and you could tell that this was made with real vanilla.

Small Victory bakery chocolate hazelnut croissant, almond and blueberry brioche, and a surprise

Small Victory Bread & Coffee By this time I think we were all getting quite full. Some pastries and coffee to calm down the stomach for the home stretch was needed. Small Victory is a very nice, upscale bakery and coffee shop. Gleaming displays of assorted pastries danced in front of my eyes. We were given a sample of three pastries: a chocolate hazelnut croissant, and almond and blueberry brioche, and a honey filo pastry (this one was a surprise, so I’m guessing on this one). The chocolate hazelnut croissant was my favourite. Nice and crispy, with a chocolate centre, and more chocolate on top together with the chopped hazelnuts. A perfect pairing for my coffee. Also very tasty was the almond and blueberry brioche. Also recommended to visit.

Shuraku Sake bar and bistro California roll, bbq back rib, and seasonal green gomaae

Shuraku Sake Bar and Bistro I would say was my second favourite venue to visit for savoury samples. They offered a California roll, Teriyaki bbq baby back rib, and a seasonal green gomaee made with broccoli and green bean. The Teriyaki bbq baby back rib was amazingly tender, and fell off the bone. The Teriyaki sauce was not overpowering or too sweet. A nice glass of Sapporo beer would have been the perfect accompanyment.

Frankies chicken and waffles, Monsieur Andre sandwich, and a mimosa

Frankie’s Italian Kitchen & Bar was my last stop and they offered Chicken and Waffles, which I was looking forward to. There was also a Monsieur Andre sandwich made with rye bread, filled with cheese, soprasetta and prosciutto, and topped with egg hollandaise. There was something bitter to me with the sandwich, so was not my favourite, but the chicken and waffles was nice.

Well that is the roundup of tastes for this Brunch Crawl. Stay tuned for my tweets and article on the Commercial Drive Brunch Crawl. Thanks to Vancouver Foodster for organizing all the Brunch Crawls. It is a lot of work.

Vancouver Dine Out Festival and Vancouver Foodster Presents 6 Crawls

Posted on December 15, 2014 by mywinepal

If you are a fan of our Tasting Plates events you are going to want to hear about the 6 events that Vancouver Foodster is presenting during the upcoming Dine Out Festival that kicks off next month. The Dine Out Festival always offers diners a chance to try restaurants they may not have tried before which is often for dinner, this year Tourism Vancouver has added many more food related events to get people out exploring and tasting even more. Earlier this year I produced two of the biggest Dine Out Van brunch crawls that Vancouver has ever seen, in 2015 I will be producing 6 Dine Out Brunch Crawls showcasing multiple restaurants in 6 different Vancouver neighborhoods.

These are the 6 events on sale at Dine Out Festival

Gastown Brunch Crawl
Date: Saturday January 17
Time: 10am – 2pm
Price: $40 Regular / $60 Club Amuse Bouche VIP

Visit 7+ restaurants through-out the Gastown area as you taste all sorts of dishes in this Brunch crawl. Enjoy the variety of dishes which may include juices, smoothies and coffees, to eggs bennys, pancakes, french toast, omelettes, pulled pork, hash browns, bacon, seafood, desserts and so much more.

Venues: Participants include some of Gastown’s finest restaurants including: Brioche Eatery Café, The Blarney Stone, Milano Coffee, Salida 7, Jamaican Blue Cold Brew and more to be announced soon.