Photo: Burdock and CoThis Sunday, Burdock and Co is set to host a 90-seat, alfresco farm-to-table dinner in support of Fraser Common Farm—a cooperatively owned and operated farming collective in Aldergrove, BC. Chef Carlson of Burdock and Co and Harvest Community Foods (Vancouver Magazines’ 2018 Producer of the Year)—will be creating a plant-based, multi course dinner featuring produce from Glorious Organics. Guests can indulge in this plan-based feast while taking in the music from acclaimed contrabass and cello musicians Torsten Mullër and Peggy Lee. When: Sunday, August 18, 4pm – 8pm ..read more

(Photo Credit: Odlum Brown VanOpen.)Make a Racket August 12-18 Court is now in session—watch emerging athletes and your favourite pros (including Canada’s serving star Eugenie Bouchard) compete at the Odlum Brown VanOpen, the largest men’s and women’s pro tennis tournament in the Pacific Northwest. The esteemed tournament’s lineup includes defending singles champion Misaki Doi, who’s coming in hot after snatching both the singles and doubles titles in the WTA 25K Series Swedish Open last month. Spend the week cheering on your favourites as they find fame, glory, and hopefully not love ..read more

Local designer Courtney Chew was raised by a fashion designer (her mom!), so the craft has always been in her blood. Also flowing through the 29-year-old’s veins? The ocean—metaphorically, anyway. “I was a swimmer; I grew up in the water,” she says, “so I have this connection with it.” That relationship, combined with a passion for the environment and a lack of swimwear options that suited her minimalist taste, led to the creation of Ocin. Pronounced like “ocean,” the eco-conscious line of men’s and women’s swimwear is ethically crafted from fabrics composed of recycled plastics. The pieces ..read more

I visited Seoul for the first time last year and, after only four days, had amassed enough brightening creams, Himalayan-salt-infused serums and hydrating sheet masks to last me through a zombie apocalypse and then some. Luckily, I had anticipated this and packed light, though my haul had nothing on those of my two travel companions, who acquired so many new beauty and skincare products during our short trip that they ended up purchasing carry-ons at a local department store so they could lug these, erm, souvenirs home. (Gotta take advantage of that international baggage allowance, folks ..read more

The scene opens not on the Pacific Ocean but at an unnamed temple of culinary excess in Las Vegas, where bread is flown in daily from France, Dover sole from England and, the chef explains in heavily accented anglais, “Ze oysters are Kusshi, from Breetish Columbia—ze best!” And he’s right. We’re smack dab in the middle of bivalve heaven: in addition to the Kusshi, with its salty-then-sweet profile, there’s the cucumber-y Fanny Bay, the tiny, almost floral Royal Miyagi and the meaty and plump Sun Seeker. All of the above are available at the new 20-seat oyster bar at Sandbar, in a Granville ..read more

Vancouver’s seventh annual Brewery and the Beast took place yesterday (July 28) and with it came a smorgasbord of opportunities for the region’s hardcore carnivores (and omnivores) to chow down on some of the meatiest, juiciest, most out-there dishes that this writer has seen. Founded with the intention of promoting locally and the ethically sourced meats, the event invites more than 70 chefs and restaurants from the Lower Mainland to craft barbecued, appy-style bites that can, ideally, be enjoyed with one hand while attendees balance beers, a rack of ribs and root-beer ice-cream floats in ..read more

Vancouver is set to mark a sombre anniversary as the city’s longest running tent city at Oppenheimer Park’s turns one year old this August.  Activity at the encampment has doubled in size in the past month—acting as a refuge and community for some of Vancouver’s homeless population of 2,223, with 614 of those living without shelter. The recent closure of SROs in the Downtown East Side may help explain why Oppenheimer Park is seeing its highest activity yet. The tent city is not only shining a spotlight on the struggles facing campers, activists and city officials—it’s also showcasing t ..read more

Coming in loud and proud with cocktail chocolates, classical music, and a half-naked hustle. (Photo Credit: Temper Chocolate and Pastry.)Cheers & Chocolate July 29 – August 4 Let your sweet tooth (and your boozy tooth) take over at Temper Chocolate and Pastry, where pride is being served sugar-style. This week, you can score a box of cocktail-flavoured rainbow chocolate domes – think mango martini, lime margarita, and negroni-flavoured sweets. These brilliant bonbons will match your pride outfit perfectly; plus, a portion of the proceeds go to the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation, an org ..read more

The Theme: All B.C, all the time, baby. Funnily, this is a trend that seems to have fallen a bit by the wayside ever since Jeff van Geest’s Aurora pioneered it (with our pal Kurtis Kolt) over a decade ago (and weirdly the wine list at Aurora is still online here.) You can view Forage’s list here. The First Impression: Wow. It starts more like a thin book than a standard wine list. The first page is a tight little infographic showing the all the province’s wine regions, right down to Lilooet (yay Fort Berens!) and the Kootenays (yay Baillie-Grohman). It shows how many wineries in each region ..read more

Succession, Season 1 I’m throwing you a bone here because season two of this under-loved HBO show starts August 11, so you have enough time to binge and be up to speed in time. The story is a thinly veiled take on the Rupert Murdoch empire, with the estimable Brian Cox, playing the Murdochian Logan Roy, an aging patriarch trying to keep his media empire together while playing his three children against one another. It’s produced by Adam McKay of The Big Short fame (he also directed the first episode) and it’s able to replicate that film’s rare ability to make business and finance seem fasc ..read more