La Femme in Vancouver, BC

Last month, K and I made one of our regular treks to the gritty, luminous city of Vancouver, British Columbia.  One of the distinct pleasures of living in Seattle is the proximity to British Columbia.  In a couple hours you can be over the border and in the land of maple syrup, Caesar's (the national cocktail of Canada), and Toonies.

Granville Island

K and I definitely have a routine when we go to Vancouver.  We always:  (1) visit Granville Island, (2) stroll Robson Street (Zara, please come to Seattle!) and the downtown core for shopping, and (3) enjoy cocktails at our very favorite haunt (more on that later...).  Granville Island is a marketplace for food, artisanal crafts and stunning views.  The island is pleasant to walk around on a beautiful afternoon and is always a must do.  The interior market area can get very crowded, but it is a must to wander around and gawk at the gorgeous produce, meats, cheeses and baked goods (and to wish you had a local kitchen to cook it all in!).  More than that, however, Granville Island has a plethora of fun shops to check out, including, but not limited to, a shop that sells only handmade brooms.  They also have a fantastic hat shop (have I mentioned, I look fabulous in hats?)

K and I usually spend our time in Vancouver just being flaneurs and exploring the city with stops for shopping and coffee (or cocktails.  No judgment.  Day drinking is perfectly acceptable on vacation, right?).  Vancouver is a diverse, cosmopolitan city and it bustles all through the day and night.  The neighborhoods are distinct, from the yuppy Yaletown, full of design shops and expensive restaurants, to the dilapidated but charming (and up and coming) Gastown.  I also adore exploring my beloved Kitsalano: great restaurants, cute shops and free parking!  Stunningly beautiful, Vancouver is surrounded by water and ruggedly pointed mountains, and the views from Granville Island into the city and from the waterfront into Vancouver Harbor are awe inspiring any time of year.  When it is sunny Vancouver is even better and biking the enormous Stanley Park seawall is a lot of fun (and a great way to burn off all those cocktails!).   There is something very wild about the landscape surrounding Vancouver that we don't have in Seattle even though it is just a few hours north.  I always get a sense of the Arctic when looking at the mountains to the north.

This time, After a leisurely freeway drive up to the border and the usually tense border crossing (well, for me.  I am terrified of immigration officials), and an unusually quick jaunt through the notorious George Massey  tunnel, we made it to our hotel.  K and I have stayed at many hotels in Vancouver, from the incredibly gaudy but surprisingly luxurious Hotel de Soleil to a nondescript Park Inn and Suites on West Broadway with an amazing balcony and view of the False Creek and the city skyline.  This particular trip we chose Hotel Moda, right off the Granville Entertainment District.  Hotel Moda had the veneer of a hip design hotel with the terrible plumbing of a crumbling, downtown city building - our room might be described as minimalist (or it might be described as cheap. As K would say, reasonable minds can differ).  But it did give us great proximity to downtown Vancouver and to Yaletown, a neighborhood we had yet to explore in depth.  K and I usually go across the bridge into Kitsilano, an adorable, hipster (oxymoron?) neighborhood in the west end of Vancouver.

Vancouver is undeniably a foodie town.  On our most recent visit, we had  two different but equally great meals.  The first was at Edible Canada on Granville Island.  Featuring local produce and products from all over the country, Edible Canada is where K and I always eat on Granville Island.  Their burger is to die for (with tomato jam, yum!), and everything we have eaten there is excellent, including the inventive cocktails.  They also have duck fat fries which, for better or worse, are really everything fries should be: crispy, flavorful, salty, and cooked in duck fat.  Fries often leave me disappointed, and I usually only eat about 10 when I get them, but these are an exception (and McDonalds; how the heck does McDonald's have such great fries?  Actually, I probably don't want to know). We also had dinner at  an unassuming little hole in the wall called Yaletown Antipasti (terrible name, I agree).  The kitchen was almost nonexistent, but the straight off-the-boat Italian chef made amazing pastas, and we had some great salami and bruschetta (one of my favorite things EVER). There is also Chambar, a lovely, immaculate (read, expensive), Belgian restaurant.  I was never a steak fan until a few years ago when we went there and I decided to be different and get steak. Seriously. It changed my life.  Chambar is dark and sexy and has great and interesting food. It is on the list once again for our next trip.

But biological sustenance and indelible edibles notwithstanding... you know it must be twelve o'clock somewhere, and there is only one place we go for cocktails.

Listen, I love Vancouver. Its a wonderfully cosmopolitan city, and I love to visit. But, I have been holding out on you.  I really only have one love in Vancouver, and it is called a bellini from Cactus Club Cafe.

The amazing bellini from Cactus Club  

Now, this is no ordinary bellini (made with champagne and peach puree). Oh, no.  This is, quite frankly, a masterpiece.  A frozen bellini with a sangria floater (you may be hearing angels as you read this).  As a lifelong slurpee lover, I couldn't believe it when we went here for the first time.  Cactus Club a totally ridiculous restaurant, a Canadian chain, vaguely clubby and faux hip, with decent food, it really is a desitnation for K and I.  We went to Cactus Club the first time a few years ago after our luggage had been searched at the train station customs and the trip was starting out terribly (I told you I hate border patrol).  The downtown location, a light-filled, glass building, just happened to be a block away from our hotel, so, crabby and starving, we walked into the bar to eat.  I can't even remember what I ate. But the bellini was amazing.  I like sweet drinks, K doesn't, but even he admitted it was tasty.  Kitschy, maybe a little tacky, Cactus Club is always fun to go to and K and I always make sure to visit daily when we are in Vancouver (now you know why we have to bike the seawall!).  Me for my bellini, he for his double Manhattan (that is another great thing about them, all cocktails are a double).  I am strangely thirsty now!

Vancouver is truly one of my favorite destinations, and I hope to return many times (and have many bellinis!).

Julie