Catching Up with James Iranzad + James Langford-Smith Calls In

Recently, I sat down with my good friend James Iranzad (Gooseneck Hospitality) for a long-overdue catch-up, beginning with a piece that caught both our attention: Substance Abuse, a column by Ed Elson in the Simply Put newsletter. Elson's provocative thesis suggests that the dramatic decline in alcohol sales isn't primarily about health consciousness, GLP-1 drugs, or cannabis legalization — it's about screen addiction. Together, we broke down his argument, and discussed what it means for the hospitality industry.

Next up: North America's 50 Best Bars returned to Vancouver last month, turning a spotlight on the city's growing international reputation as a beverage destination. What did the event mean for the local scene? Who showed up? And what does this continued investment in our city signal about where the global industry thinks we sit on the map?

Then, we run through the results of the latest editions of Canada’s 100Best Restaurants and the Vancouver MagazineAwards to talk about who made it, who moved up, and who got overlooked; as well as which patterns we're seeing across the lists — regionally, stylistically, and in terms of what the judges seem to be rewarding.

Finally: Earlier this month, a temporary pop-up plaza was constructed next to Bells & Whistles in what appeared to be an accelerated timeline, prompting a report by CTV News. Iranzad gives his account of how the application came together, what the original vision was, and where the project actually landed.

Midway through our discussion, James Langford-Smith (Pamplemousse Jus, June) calls in to fill us in about what's happening at the winery, and what consumers can look forward to from his latest vintage.

This is a fun one as always. Do enjoy!

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email at trackandfoodpod@gmail.com 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Coming up, another Triple J sort of episode with James Ironsad and a little bit of James Lankford Smith. That's coming up next. Today's episode of Track and Food is brought to you by Scout Magazine. If you're wanting to learn more about Vancouver's food and cultural sphere with regards to community news, new restaurant openings, central guides to some of the city's best offerings, as well as who's hiring, Scout is where you should go. You can find them at scoutmagazine.ca. That's scoutmagazine.ca. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the podcast today. I'm your host as always, Jamie Ma. You're joining me on a nice, lovely day today in early May. I just finished sitting with my good friend James Ironzad, who's a close friend of the podcast, always someone I love chatting with. I brought him on to talk about a lot of things that have been happening in the city of late, obviously with 50 Best coming into Vancouver in late April. Canada's 100 Best List just dropped, and obviously the Van Meg Awards were just recently happening. So there was a couple things we wanted to discuss. And it was nice, obviously, to just talk with James about things that are going on in his world and businesses. And he's about to go to Japan, so it's very exciting for him. And we were also lucky enough to get Mr. James Lankford Smith on the podcast briefly. He's in Calgary now, just doing some top job stuff. But it was nice to hear his voice and just talk industry. Nice catch-up. This was a fun conversation as always. I just came back from doing a trip out to Mexico, which was a lot of fun. I'm back at it now. Uh got into school. Gonna be going to do the Masters of Journalism program here at UBC in the fall. So I'm very excited about that. But overall, still working at the hotel, things are great and uh getting excited here for the summer season and this lovely weather, but also uh World Cup is another big thing that's happening in the city. So that's gonna be exciting. But this is a great episode, as always. James Ironside brings a lot of fun, nuance, and we have some good laughter and drink some great wine. So hope you enjoy it. And uh without further ado, I'll bring on James. Enjoy, hi everyone. Welcome to episode 115 of the Track Vu podcast. I'm sitting here with my good friend James Iron Z, who is on here quite often, actually. How are you, James?

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Very well, thank you very much. Jamie, how are you?

SPEAKER_02 2:30

I'm good. I mean, anybody that comes over to my house with a nice bottle of rose from Sea Star is uh always in my good graciousness. Wow. Yeah, so cheers to you, my friend. Cheers. Nice to see you. It's been a minute since we'd done a pod. April was a really busy month for me. I was a little I was away in Mexico for a bit and then I got really sick, and then we had my birthday, which was last week. Great party. We had a good time, actually. It was a great time. Even though I smoked to everyone a little bit. But I've actually been doing some work on that. I have a charcoal barbecue in my apartment, but I think I found some briquettes that are made from coconut shells that really that actually don't smoke, even though a bag of them is $160.

unknown 3:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

So, but I only go through about one bag a year.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

So I mean, fair enough, I guess. But the smoke is kind of worth it. Is it the winds were blowing the wrong way that day? Yeah, I know. They came all into the house. But man, it smelled good and the food tastes so good with all that. There we go.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

I know, I think that's what it three years in a row left in the at Big Park. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

A lot of meat. A lot of meat. A lot of meat.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

But yeah, no, anyways, we were supposed to have uh Triple J today, but unfortunately, Mr. James Langford Smith is he's he's on the road right now. Uh he's actually flying. I think he's actually just landing. I think I said we texted him this morning saying they see if he would be willing to take a phone call from us. So we might give him a call here during the city. He's off to top drop Calgary. Yeah. He's is he flying back from Calgary or is he going there right now? He's going there today. Oh, he's going there right now? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

I saw him yesterday at the top drop in Vancouver, right? Okay. The trade tasting. And today he flies out to do top drop in Calgary. Yeah, amazing. Pouring all the pompamoose.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Okay, so by the time this comes out, you're gonna be in Japan, which is very exciting. Yes, I will be in Japan. That's very exciting. I put a smile on my face. That's a very exciting thing for me. Just to hear it, because I've always wanted to go to Japan. Yeah, it's my first time too, bro. Two weeks? I'm going for 12 days, yeah. Yeah. Planned out, whole trip is ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Yeah, um, like a lot of plans, but uh gotta leave some room in there for just you know casual exploration and discovery.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

Are you thinking that it's gonna be a cheap trip too?

SPEAKER_01 4:21

You know, the exchange rate, I think there's a reason. Like everybody's going to Japan right now. And I think the reason is that the exchange rate against the Canadian dollar is like pretty great. So amazing culture, different than everything we've been going to recently and uh far from conflicts, thankfully. So yeah, anyway, we'll see. But I kind of already paid for a lot of stuff. My partner paid for a lot of stuff, and so you're just kind of ahead of it. You know, now it's just you know, I don't think it's gonna feel particularly expensive when we're over there, hopefully. We'll see.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

I mean, I try to do that with trips too. My family were supposed to do a big trip this fall to Japan and South Korea. Yeah, they're gonna be going, but unfortunately, I can't go now. Why? Because some big news happened to me last week. I'm going to be going back to school. Yeah, yeah. So this whole journalism thing. Congratulations. This whole journalism thing has kind of become a bug in my life. And so after graduating from Langera a couple years ago, I've been looking for work and it's been very difficult, obviously, because this industry has kind of changed. And I was just thinking about ways of maybe trying to beef up that resume. So I applied for the Master of Journalism Program at UBC. And yeah, good school, great program.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Yeah, so I got I got an acceptance letter last week. I didn't even know you could get into a master's program without an undergraduate degree. So you must be really smart. I mean, I yes, this is very true.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

I do not have an undergraduate degree. Uh it was an interesting process going through it. And, you know, I'm a mature student. I felt like I had a lot of credentials and things that I've done. I felt like I was on a good path, and I felt it would be they'd be kind of silly not to let me in, even though um I wasn't really keen on the idea of going back to school to get a undergraduate degree to do a program like this. But I'm very grateful. I'm very excited. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm very proud of you. It's there's uh huge internship component that's next summer, so that you can do anywhere. So when do you start? I start in the fall. Yes. So it's gonna be good. So I'm gonna be at Dork for another two more years. I love that. I don't think you'll ever stop being at Dork, but that's but I do love school.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

I think school's great. I think it's fun. I went to UBC for a few years. I graduated from there, and uh it's a great place to go to school, you know. It feels good out there. You're out in the forest.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

What'd you take?

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Art history and Shakespearean studies. Excuse me? Why? Because that's what you need to be a successful restaurateur, obviously. Were you 19? Well, I think I was like 20, I was 23 when I graduated, yeah. Have you used it at all? Well, I I it enriches my life.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Um I mean, I'm not I'm not judging. Um I just think it's I mean, it I know so many people who've I've talked to over the years who like have degrees or things that they don't even use and they still work in this industry. Like our good friend Tristan Young, who runs the now Canada's best bar, Kiefer. He graduated from UBC and I think he has like a political science degree. And so he I don't think he even I think that's what it is. But I mean he doesn't use it.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Well, you know, you can translate that into hospitality pretty well, right? We just makes us really interesting, erudite people.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

Yeah. I mean, I did six years of wine training, and I thought I was gonna be I wanted to be a winemaker and then decided to go do journalism. And so I mean, there's I mean, but obviously it's still I still work in the industry, so obviously that wine training is still very valuable. You enjoy wine and enriches your life. Yeah, so it's good. Shakespearean studies.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

There you go. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

I didn't know you were big uh did you read all love Shakespeare. Do you?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

I think the elements I've read are Julius Caesar and Choss or no, not Julius Caesar and Hamlet.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

I think those are I mean, I never read Macbeth. Those are tragedies, obviously. There's lots of like the comedies are great, like you can get into, you know, the the my boy Will had range, you know. Like, get into the writing, it's pretty great.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

I remember liking the movie Much You Do About Nothing when I was younger. That's a fun movie, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Yeah, and that's the Kenneth Brano one.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Yeah, but I remember a lot of people being finding it very controversial that they put Keanu Reeves in that movie and not thinking that he was a good one. Because he played off Denzel Washington and everyone was. But I think I think Keanu's a great Keanu's great.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Yeah. I love him in those Rogers Wireless commercials. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Did you hear the reason why he's doing them? I didn't understand why he was doing that.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

I was wondering actually, because the guy's worth like you know hundreds of millions because of the Matrix.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Why is he doing these commercials? Donating all the money to course he is.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Of course he is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

I think he's being paid a lot, but I think there's rumors that he's been donating all the money to I'm sure he does.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

There's lots of stories of his generosity around. Yeah. I mean, he's uh proud Canadian. Yeah. So we got a lot of things to catch up on. A couple things that I'd like to knock off. David Attenborough, now a hundred years old.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

I love David Attenborough.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Now a hundred years old. I think this is hard. I think that's pretty cool. And he's still working and still sounds great.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Well, he sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

Yeah, for 100 years old.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Did you see that thing that was going around that there's a conspiracy theory that David Attenborough is actually God and that he's back in town and he's just like making all these documentaries as a soft flex on you know how amazing nature is. That's basically David Ambro, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:54

I've not seen any of that.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

I mean, it's weird though, right? Because he's been an old man. Like I'm 50 years old, and he's been an old man my entire life. Yeah. And I've been watching these documentaries like since as long as I can remember. It was like the only TV my kids were allowed to watch was like BBC Earth and BBC Life. He's been doing them that long. Documentaries, yeah. I mean, there's like all these like photos going around right now of him with like uh with King Charles as a baby, you know, like so you can imagine like how he's been doing things like in a pretty high level for a long time.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

Well, I mean, that's one of the things I think about, like when I've had people ask me recently about the school thing, and they're like, Why are you doing it? I'm like, Well, I mean, I am 46, yeah, but I'm also like I'll when I graduate, I'll be 48. But I was just like, I think about it, and I was like, You just turned 50.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

He has literally lived your entire life.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

And that's how much more life you could potentially live. Absolutely, especially as we get older with medical advancements. Like, yeah, you certainly can. So I'm like, in my brain, is I'm like, what is two years of my life in my 40s? Like, I'm probably gonna want to be a journalist for another 40, 50 years.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Yeah. So, like, well, you you've got that curiosity, and I think that that would be a silly thing to it'd be silly to not take that path because it's gonna take two years for you to enjoy learning everything that you're is gonna benefit you.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Also, the other part is also just like you look at people like David Attenborough who are still very active, and I think the idea of just like finding reasons to be very excited about life.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

And I think that's really cool. Yeah, and I think I think the idea of it.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Not just lifespan in that binary sense, but the longevity and the joy, you know, that this man has.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

It's actually a really good segue because I actually sent you a column. So it I mean, this is something I may I want to touch on right now, but I mean, we can touch on a little bit, but talking about people's mental wealth and mental happiness and everything like this. And I sent you this column by this great um, I mean, I follow, we both follow Scott Galloway.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Yeah, I noticed that the article was on the Prof.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Yeah, so Ed Elson's like basically his like number one protege, I guess. Okay. He's starting to write it right on his own. And he wrote this column yesterday called Substance Abuse and just talking about, you know, looking at all the stats that are coming out in the United States. And I kind of looked it up in Canada. I mean, the conversation just wrote something about this about a couple weeks ago about how Canadians are drinking considerably less. CBC wrote something about it recently, and the numbers are actually quite stark. And then what's interesting in the conversation piece is that they're going across this idea of like, like, what are the reasons for this? And they're kind of going like increased health concerns, so people are a little bit more conscious. Inflation, affordability, post-COVID normalization, maybe immigration is having an effect on this. Obviously, the rise of low and no alcohol products is a lot more.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Yeah, there's more knowledge, more information about the detrimental aspects of alcohol in our bodies.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

Yeah, it's been nine years since cannabis is legalized, so maybe that has had maybe people are turning towards that more.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Although I think the article was stating that the legalization of cannabis has not actually made any kind of impact on alcohol sales in Canada. Yeah. And I don't think it has either.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Yeah. And what the other one is this uh the conversation saying here, they're thinking about like maybe how the increased use of GLP ones is maybe playing a factor, which I don't think it has. But I think the thing that's interesting is Ed writes this column, taking all this stats that are coming out, and he tries to think of another thing about it. And I mean, and he kind of hints at it. He goes, he's like, here's a hint, what I think it's actually dropping, is that youth especially are more drawn towards their phones and the addiction of that. And how that's become a more desired way of finding, I guess, the biomarkers of what people look for when they imbibe. Kind of like they're drawn towards that, and that's become a bigger addiction for us, and it's actually easier for us to use. But then what I like about what he says here is at the end of the day, he says, which is worse. Because a lot of people are kind of putting pointing towards this idea that, like, okay, drinking less, better for my health, but then we are we've kind of traded that for less for more issues with our mental health. So he's asks a question, he's like, which is worse, an alcohol addiction or a screen addiction. He's like, I'm not saying I have the answer, but he says, Well, you know, the way the article is.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

He definitely has an opinion on this, and it's not exactly anti-alcohol, you know. No, the soothing sounds of Chinatown.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

I love it. No, but he basically just talks about like he's like, and I mean it's Gat Galloway's obviously talked about this.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

You and I, you and I had uh he talks a lot about that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

But you and I had obviously Professor Slingerlin on here. We talked about this, and he basically is saying, depending on the trade-offs that we're having, willing. And he says here, you know, he's like he basically reflects at the end of the day, he's like, I went out for drinks last night with a couple friends, had a couple of Negronis, and I picked up the tab, and he's like, There was no phones, no screens. And I just think I thought the column was interesting, but I mean, as someone who's running a business right now, are you did you agree with some of his conclusion? And also, are you noticing this in your restaurant?

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Well, I uh yeah, I mean, I think all of us who work in the industry have noticed that our guests, our friends, our coworkers, everybody's got this heightened awareness about the health risks of alcohol, and we just seem to kind of naturally be choosing healthier paths a lot of the time. There's discussion in the article about how people meet socially through gyms and other kinds of like healthy meetups. I get that. I think there's a little bit of a gap in the statistics that he shares. Like he is quoting, you know, like a 15% drop in sales for huge corporations like ImBEV and Diagio. These are like monster corporations that make 25 million cases of, you know, Smirnoff Vodka a year or whatnot. I think what's being missed is like, I think part of the reason why those corporations have their sales coming down is that people are choosing better products and drinking more locally, drinking more craft-based spirits and beers and buying wines that are damaging the sales of those large corporations. And I'm all for that. I mean, all of our restaurants really like to focus on craft beers, and that movement's kind of obviously become pretty mainstream all over, you know, corporate restaurants and chains and whatnot. We see that as well. So obviously, people are drinking less, but I'm comforted by the fact that they're still getting out there and doing that and being social, hopefully in really healthy ways, not in terms of uh concerning kind of addiction kind of manners. And I thought it was interesting that his definition of of addiction is different than what you hear a lot. He was talking about addiction not necessarily being something that you must have, but rather something that you must have that is detrimental to your life. And I think that's an important distinction. And therein becomes the subjectivity of the argument, you know, like yes, alcohol is objectively corrosive to your physical health, but there are some emotional benefits that come along with going out for a drink, connecting with people, being social, certainly getting off your screens and your smartphones and developing relationships. And I think that's a lot of the stuff that Scott Galloway talks about.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

Yeah, I think what I really liked about this column is the fact that, like, you're seeing so much written about this, and we've talked about this. This isn't the first time you and I have brought this up, but there's so many things that people are pointing towards. Why is it going down? But he was the first one to kind of maybe think about well, not the first one, I should say that. But he was someone who's pointing, like, maybe it's just the phone that's really driving this.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

I had not put that connection together, I have to say, and that was the most kind of remarkable and interesting part of this article, I thought. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

It's just like he's like, it's the phone.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

It makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Yeah, he's like, it's young people are not going out, they're not drinking as much because they're on their phone all the time.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

They're they're insular. And we talked about this kind of phenomenon in one of our recent podcasts when we were talking about third-party delivery. We were talking about Uber, we were talking about DoorDash and how people are like post-pandemic, they've become kind of acclimatized to just staying home. And it's one of the reasons why it's concerning to see those delivery numbers going up, is because I just worry that people aren't getting out and being social. You know, we talked about just go, do people have the confidence to go and sit at a bar by themselves and order a meal, chat with the bartender, maybe meet somebody, not necessarily romantically, but like just, you know, connect with the rest of society and and feel a sense of community. And it's the same thing, I think, with regards to this conversation between alcohol and our dependencies on smartphones and all the applications that, you know, have become such a part of our life. Like he actually goes so far as to say in the article that your phone isn't really necessarily something that you pick up to use, but it's so part of our lives now that it's something that you occasionally just put down. And that's really poignant, you know, to think that you're online all the time, that this is essentially an appendage, like an extension of your body that's constantly in your hand. Like I know lots of people who get anxiety, myself included, sometimes, you know, if I don't know where my phone is or if I haven't checked my messages and whatnot on a regular basis. Certainly when I'm at work. So we should probably throw that thing off the balcony and just drink drink more rose.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

I mean, I'm trying to get better at it. I mean, I understand we all have our predilections of just being on there and looking at things and scrolling and looking. You know, my problem is I I find that I'm always curious about learning and reading new things. And yeah, so I find myself just going on there. I'm like, oh, I want to read this new column, I want to do this. But when I'm at work, sometimes this is a great example. Sometimes when I'm having to go downstairs or upstairs to pick up products and I'm waiting for the elevator with other colleagues, yeah, and you know, there's those few seconds or that you're waiting, I'm trying not to like grab my phone. But every single person, whenever they're like waiting for a few seconds, immediately grabs their phone. Yes. And just like I just see them doing the same thing with their hands or just scrolling. And I just think and I just and I think about it, it's like it's like it's this idea that we can't even be with our brains for 20 seconds. Yeah, there's just so much uncomfortability there. Yeah, and so I think if you're I mean, you gotta remember, we you and I are of a generation where we didn't grow up on phones, yeah. And so we might have a little bit different, but if you were your sons are 17 and 19, yeah, I mean, they've had this thing since they were that that's all they know.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

So it's this that's definitely all they know. Yeah, like how I mean it didn't take us very long, right? Are they on their phones all the time? They're on their phones regularly because it's you know, I guess it's just part of life. But I think it's also pretty interesting that and I hope that this is true. I haven't really necessarily seen it myself, but like you know, that you hear these stories about how this generation is actually starting to realize, similarly to how alcohol is being rejected, that some in amongst the youth of Gen Z or whatever are starting to realize that there's some really negative health concerns with regards to phone use, and they're just starting to use their phones less. And they're starting to get like, you know, apparently there's a surge in the use of landlines. Like, who even I don't even have a who's got landlines anymore? You know, like that's crazy, but it it is kind of heartening to hear that kind of stuff. And again, I hope it's true. Just like I hope that Canada follows through with following Australia's example of you know, Jonathan Hayes advice about denying social media to anybody under the age of 16. Like, even my kids at 17 and 19, they're like, Yeah, we don't you know now that they're past that threshold, they're like, Yeah, it's probably not a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

I don't know, I get bored with Instagram. Yeah, I go on for a few minutes and I'm like, I don't care. Like it's it's mostly just sports stuff and basketball stuff. I'm just like I swipe for a little bit and I'm like, I don't care. It's just I find a little bit tedious. I do I sometimes go on TikTok, but not very often. But uh what I miss sometimes with social media is the fact that I miss being able to catch my friend stuff more. Yeah. And sometimes it's a lot of stuff that I don't want to see, and I miss I'd rather see photos of you on your trip in Japan.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Yeah, you know, and it's well we all got hooked in with that, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:34

But I mean But the way the algorithm works now is you don't see your friends as much.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

I know, it's annoying. You know, I've got a few thousand people that I follow, let's say, on Japan, half the time. And obviously, they're not all my friends. Some of them are they might be related to things that I'm interested in. Obviously, like, you know, food and hospitality comes to mind, but I don't know. I wish you could have like different streams almost, you know, but of course they don't want that. You know, they want you to be exposed and and get that dopamine again. We're gonna bring it back to alcohol. This is like the substitute for the hit, the hit that alcohol was giving us before, and and doing that kind of self-regulation of your body chemistry. So I caught myself being up till one o'clock in the morning just trying to not sleep, but essentially just fill myself up, still stimulate and learn whatever I was learning, like going through Instagram, which is just like I woke up this morning at like six, just feeling like shit. Like, why did I do that?

SPEAKER_02 21:28

It's funny, huh? It's like a social media hangover.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

I watched my and it's like you know what? That's exactly what it is. It's like uh social media hangover this morning.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

But I mean, like wine is so delicious and beer is beer is so delicious, but it's just like this idea of like I've had friends tell me this before. My buddy Dan has said this to me before. He's like, he's sometimes I doom scroll, and he's like, I'll just sometimes have to grab my phone and throw it. Because it's just like you're just you're just he's just like, uh, get this thing away from me. And it's just like a vortex, and it's for some people, and it just pulls them in. And uh but it's designed to be that way.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Of settlement as well.

SPEAKER_02 22:01

But I just I think sometimes in my brain I'm like, is it like our brains are like reacting to the kind of the stimuli the way maybe alcohol is giving us and what we're feeling? I just wonder, I don't know, the booze just tastes way better.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

I know it does. And it was at least made with care and love. You know, you can't say anything about social media necessarily in that regard. I used to think that success for me long term would be being younger and like having multiple restaurants. I'd be like, oh man, one day I just want to like not have keys. I used to have this big fucking keychain, and I'd just be like, I'm just so tired of having all these keys and the weight, the actual as well as the emotional weight of the responsibility of having all of that. And I still have like these days I don't have as big of a keychain. I have like my personal keys, and I don't have like the work keys are kept separate and so on. But I used to think that hey, like one day I just won't have keys anymore, and that will mean like I'm calm. You know, maybe I'm like, you know, spending a lot of time out in nature or traveling or whatever, and I just won't have keys anymore. Now it's like I won't have a phone anymore. That's that's like that's I think the dream.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

I remember being in high school and having to fight with my brother and my sister to make phone calls at night because we had the land. Yes. My sister would be on the phone all night long. I'm like, I'm like, when are you gonna get off the phone? Get off. I want to make a phone call. I gotta call, I gotta call Harry. And she'd just be like, No, I'm on the phone. Yeah. And you'd just be like, I'm like, ah, God. And then we but those are the it's funny how when you think about your childhood, those are the things you remember.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Oh man. You know, like I remember my parents getting mad at me for having a two-hour phone call, you know. Um Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

It is what it is. So you went to Top Drop?

SPEAKER_01 23:33

I did yesterday. Actually, I went Monday for the opening party down in Yellowtown.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Well, you were saying you had a really good experience.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

It was awesome, yeah. The welcome party is great. All the producers are there, and lots of people from hospitality, and Curtis and Jeff do such a good job of like welcoming everybody and announcing all the stuff that's happening between the events and the parties and the seminars and so on. And then immediately after the welcome party, everybody spills out onto the street in Yale Town, you know, on these like gorgeous cobblestone streets where they have it blocked off and licensed, and all of a sudden you feel like you're in some like square in the south of France or a piazza in a little town in Italy, and you've got you know, a hundred people standing around drinking wine on a beautiful warm spring afternoon, early evening, you know. It's magic. And you're like Vancouver, why can't we do this more often? Honestly, it's just it's crazy that we can't do that more often. You know, my partner Ogi was just over in Vinitaly, which is one of the bigger wine festivals on the planet, and you know, from what I hear, one of the most fun as well. And so he's hanging out, you know, in Champagne Alley in Verona at like 11 o'clock when all the trade stuff and the seminars are done, just hanging out with everybody. And and his photos that I saw reminded me of what was happening in Yellown on Monday night. So cool. So speaking of plazas, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

Yeah, you guys are in the news. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, seemingly we got a little bit of uh Well, I mean, you sent it to me. I didn't even know about it, but then it came out. Robin Robin Gray told me about it yes uh a couple days ago.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

Yeah, I've had a lot of people send me the uh the article, and there was, I think, some video clip on CTV. The reporter in question was from CTV.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

So if anybody out there doesn't know what we're talking about, on May 11th, CTV News published uh column titled Did Vancouver Mayor's Office Fast Track a Public Plaza to benefit a staffer? It's written by Isabella Zavaris. Did you meet her? No, she emailed me with a couple of questions, which I answered and she included it in uh her article. The context basically is that right beside bells and whistles, yeah. You guys, I know this. I'm just saying this because not just because we're friends, because I know you've been talking about this for almost a year and a half.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Next door, you guys wanted to build a little plaza there for the World Cup.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Yeah. Well, just in general, actually, not just for the World Cup. We I mean that's why we started the process. Yeah. Yeah, the World Cup seemed to be kind of lubricating some more, I don't know, some willingness on the part of the city to have more interesting public spaces. So certainly that was in the back of our minds.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

I mean, they're building a great one right now at Maine 14th. They're not just great.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Yeah, but there's quite a few. It's not just us, like there's uh at least five pilots up right now, and you have to run it as an experiment as a pilot for a year. And so the experiment is see how the locals like it or how it's like exactly like just make sure that it works with traffic flow and like just make sure that there hasn't been some sort of oversight that would, you know, make it detrimental to the community or something like that. So they generally all get you know approved and they move forward. Like you, you know, there's beautiful ones outside of let's say JJ Bean on Maine and 14th. Yeah, that's uh that one right there. Yeah, there's a beautiful one at Cocoa and Olive in Liberty Bakery up on like I think that's 21st or so in Maine, Stable House, just on South Granville. They've got a couple of them, West Forth has a couple of them. So anyway, they're great. You know, they're just public gathering spaces where you can just go and sit and eat and have a coffee and whatnot. And yeah, like I said in the article, I I like the idea just because that little strip outside of bells and whistles on the case. It's not really used. It's just, you know, it's objectively ugly, you know, like it's got a gravel shoulder. There aren't really enough trees or any really on that street. And so here we had installed like this beautiful pop of color, picnic tables, accessible seating, some landscaping, and it's all just old furniture, you know, like that's been recycled from other plazas and a bunch of concrete barricades. Like is it up right now? Yeah, it's up now. Oh, it's up now? Yeah, yeah, it's great. And you know, the kids are out there like drawing on the street with chalk, like we've got like you know, cornhole and like uh one of those big Jenga sets, you know. And it's just it's just nice, you know, and it stops people from turning east on 17th from Fraser, which caused so many accidents in the nine years that we've been there. Yeah, because a turn is like oh bro, like there's been three cases when a car has driven into one of the buildings on that corner. Really? It hasn't been our building. Oh wow, but once to the insurance place and twice into the other building, which is actually used as like a martial arts studio for kids. So thankfully there was nobody in there at the time, but it's just crazy.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

So the controversy is the fact that this journalist comes out and says, Because Ogie now works your business partner.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Yeah, so my partner Ogi has uh transitioned briefly or yeah, so yeah, he's currently working for City Hall as director of communications, yeah. And he just started that like a month and a half ago. Yeah. So I guess the probe was the suggestion was that we got this plaza fast tracked because of his business quicker than than would be normal because of him being at City Hall, which is a load of bullshit.

SPEAKER_02 28:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

So did when she reached out to you, did you like say like this is how she didn't ask me that question, you know? She asked me why we wanted one, and I explained to her the same as I just said here, you know, with regards to beautification and community gathering space and and public safety. And she asked again about the she mentioned something that there had been allegedly some safety concern from someone, and I don't know where that came from because the feedback that the city got when they put out the proposal to the community, there was nothing of concern or note there. So that's obviously why it was approved, and that's why it happened. Everybody signed off. Emergency vehicles can get through, and uh you come enjoy the sun on the plaza. So honestly, at the end of the day, it's not like we make any money off of it, right? Like we canceled it almost because we learned that despite the World Cup and all this stuff, we're not allowed to do table service, we can't consider it an extension of the restaurant, it's not licensed. And frankly, we lost parking, and parking's kind of at a premium around there, so we almost called the whole thing off. But we went ahead with it, and I'm glad we did. But then, of course, now we're getting have you gotten a lot from it? A little bit of heat. Well, I mean, just this article, but I mean, at the end of the day, like I think you know, Ogie's new at the job, and obviously he wouldn't do something to um, you know, Ogie's got a a lot of integrity, you know. I really admire his moral compass, and there's no chance that he would have done something untoward, especially when there's no financial benefit anyway. So it's like, well, why would he risk his job and you know his career for a new job, too? Yeah, exactly, right? You know, like first month on the job to go and like ask somebody to speed things up. I mean, it's just preposterous. Like, so anyway, it is what it is. Hopefully, it's one of those. What do you think she was trying to get at with this? Or is it Pete Frye's? Well, apparently it's coming from Pete Fry, who, you know, as a Green Party counselor, I'm sure is at odds with the current administration. I've never met Pete Frye. And so, yeah, I mean, it just feels like uh a little bit of dangling, like a little bit of a fishing expedition, you know.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

It's like he's looking at it as like maybe making an example of it.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

Yeah, but he has he is he has no grounds to make that claim. He's just kind of dangling something out there, and I don't know. I just feel like that's just a bit petty. And I wish municipal politics wasn't like that. And I know Ogie feels the same way. Yeah. Is he okay? Yeah, I mean, he's sensitive, you know, like he he just started in politics, I guess, you know, like and he's just there to try to do some good. Like he liking the job so far. Yeah, he I think he enjoys it. You know, he likes the the team mentality, same as hospitality of trying to do some good things and the fact that you know he's got a lot of education in this, he's got a lot of passion, you know, for for politics. And I didn't know he wanted to do this, yeah. So you know, I mean, bless his heart, he's just trying to do some good. But yeah, I mean, politics is tribal, you know, and that's just the way it is.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

So yeah, I mean you brought it to my attention. I read it, I was like, okay, this is interesting. I knew this had been in the middle of works for a long time, so I wasn't uh thinking that there was anything fishy there. Nothing fishy. But what's the saying? Good press or any press situation.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

Well, I hope it's one of those no such thing as bad press situations. We'll see. Has anybody brought it up at Bells? No, yeah, it actually. I mean, it only came out a couple of days ago as we record this now. But as it happened, I we actually had a staff meeting yesterday at Bells and Whistles talking about summer and the World Cup and whatnot. And so I brought it up just because people are probably gonna ask about it. I'm sure some of our staff will get questioned about it, and we're close with the team there, and you know, we care about what we do, and I uh nobody wants to be misrepresented. So the insinuation that we did something on toward is just inaccurate.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

I think the the thing that you are saying right now is you're like, I don't even benefit from it, I'm not making any money out of it. Can you do any service out there? No, no, can't do anything. Okay, that sucks.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

It does, but I mean it's just the way it goes, right? I mean, otherwise it would be an unfair advantage that we have just because we happen to maybe be on the corner, you know, be on a corner that you know allows it to be.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

It's just weird that cities do that. Yeah. That like we have this really nice, awesome restaurant, you know, bar right there. Yeah, sports bar, or whatever you want to call it. And uh people probably sitting there, like, hey, can I just get a beer? Can they get a beer and buy one?

SPEAKER_01 32:36

And no, they can't do nothing. No, I mean we can't you can't you can't drink on I mean, you can obviously drink in like designated parks and beaches. Yeah, but it's just it's just weird that like you're sitting there and pour them a pint and let them go drink it out there. That's what I'm saying. It just seems so like I wish you could. I know, honestly. I think we all wish we could because you know, if you could do that, I think it would be it would be a more fun and interesting city.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Yeah, it just seems like it's a missed opportunity. It's just like if I'm sitting there with a couple buddies and it's a beautiful day out, it's summertime, it's 30 degrees out, and we're like, let's go sit outside.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

And there's more space there, and your patio's full, and it's like, why can't I just well yeah, and it'll be interesting to see what the World Cup does in that regard, you know. I mean, I can't help but to think about all of the legislation that changed because of the Olympics. Because of events, right? The Olympics changed a lot. Yeah, the pandemic changed a lot, you know. You know, before Expo 86, you couldn't even drink alcohol on Sundays in Vancouver in a restaurant or whatever. I mean, how wild is that?

SPEAKER_02 33:29

They had the first Sunday of Xpo 86, and all these people were here, and they're like, What do we do? And they were like, Oh shit, we should change this.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

Well, we've got this like ridiculous, like 19th century, like Neo-Victorian attitude about alcohol, and then all of a sudden the eyes of the world are on us in 1986, and it's like, okay, well, we're gonna we're gonna let people do that. You still had to close early, you know, midnight licenses or earlier, and all of these other rules would apply. But I mean, that's really what kicked the door open. And then later with the Olympics, and then later again with the pandemic. You know, it shouldn't take those kinds of events or like the fear of shame in the eyes of the world to be progressive with your policies.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

I love how that you can drink at every beach in Vancouver, yeah, except Third Beach and Wreck Beach.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

Yeah, which are the two beaches where everybody drinks anyways. Everybody drinks anyways.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

I'm like, what are we doing here? It's like, okay, what? You're worried that young people are gonna like what have fun? It's like, what? Just it's I don't know. It's just some stuff like this.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

Well, it just undermines the public authority, you know, because people are doing it anyway. They're doing it anyways, so you might as well just get on board and let them do it.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

Yeah, and like there's police walking around Greck Beach all the time, anyways, making sure that people are safe, which is great. That's exactly what they should be doing, which you should be doing anyways. It's fine. You know, the other one I get frustrated about is I'm like, you know, you should allow like little vendors to be down there and like that are like do that anyway, right? No, but like that are like that you're licensed license and everything. Yeah, I used to think about that when my buddy went used to go to Third Beach all the time. I was like, wouldn't it be kind of cool to have like a little licensed shack that's right on the beach at Third Beach where I could like me and you, we could I could just make like really rad margaritas. Yeah, like awesome. Oh my god, that would be amazing. Yeah, and people can just come up and get them. And I was like, it'd be so busy and it'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Yes, instead of drinking hay alls or whatever the dude is selling.

SPEAKER_02 35:08

You're just sitting there and you're like, oh wow, over there I can go get a really awesome margarita, like that quality, that level that you get at a great cocktail bar. Yeah, and you're just sitting at the beach at Third Beach, yeah, and it's just like, yeah, and you'd maybe figure out a way to be like, hey, if you bring back the paper cup or whatever it is, I'll recycle it for you so the beach stays clean. Like, you know, you can figure it out. But people want to keep these things. And I was just like, these are missed opportunities that you just I just think it's so silly. Yeah, but that's just me. However, we're gonna transition to a new topic. There's a lot of things that happened in Vancouver the last couple weeks. Yes, we're not in Vancouver, but happened to Vancouver. We had 50 Best. Fifty best. Can't 100 best just came out, and the Van Mag was last week. I was supposed to go with you, but I got really sick.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

I know, man.

SPEAKER_02 35:43

We missed you that day. So unfortunately, I missed that one. Let's go through for the first one, obviously. Fifty best.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

50 best.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

Did you go?

SPEAKER_01 35:48

I went to some events. I didn't go to the gala that night. I was in Mexico. Yeah. But there are a lot of things happened. Yeah, I went to the after party uh two, actually. We went to Chepito for one party, and then we went over to Mount Pleasant Vintage for a little takeover and whatnot that was happening for that night. How was the how was the vibes? The vibe was packed. It was just the energy was amazing. Yeah, it was a lot of people out, super positive. I mean, it's great that Vancouver got that a second year in a row. It's amazing, you know.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

Yeah, no, it's it's I mean, I think you know, I was away, obviously staying on top of everything while we were in Mexico, but you know, to see Vancouver represented the way it did, but not only that, but Vancouver showing up the way it did. Yeah, I think they showed up a lot. It's from what I've seen and talked to and spoken with everyone, it sounded like the city really showed up very pridefully. Yes. A lot of really good parties this year. I think the city was a little more organized. I think there was a lot more excitement for what this brings to our consumer base. And and then seeing the city perform so well. I mean, Kiefer Bar going from 28 to 7 is remarkable.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

Uh, June, who's been around for barely a year, landing on the list at number 17, which is pretty radic.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Which is um yeah, to be that high on your first show, yeah, is pretty great. And I just wanted to just kind of say something about that because obviously those bars are related, they have the same ownership and the same operators, and you know, Kief's been around a long time, right? Like maybe 16 years now, I think it is. And we were just at that anniversary party like a couple of months ago. Amazing. But what I really love about this story, and I actually ran into to Keenan and to Dunya at the restaurant awards last week, and uh got a chance to tell them too that just like I'm just so impressed, you know. Like they pulled a lot of talent out of the kefir bar to open June, you know, to pull out Amber and to pull out Riley Riley, you know, who's bartender of the year who just won bartender of the year. I mean, that's Satoshi, obviously. And you while Satoshi wasn't at the kefir.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

He was there briefly. Was he? Yeah, he was he was there for about six months. Oh, that's he was there, but that was mostly just tying over until they opened June because June got delayed. Yeah, because there was a bit of delay there.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

That makes sense. But you know, obviously Riley and and Amber had been at the kefir for a long time, and to remove them from there to build June and Lala, and like you said, for about a year it's been open, and they've been there obviously since before the beginning, like since the inception. And then for the kefer to jump, I think it was 28th last year, is that right? To jump up like 21 spots, it just shows like the pedigree is so solid, and and I love that. I'm I love that for them. I just think it's an amazing achievement.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Yeah, no, it's a lot of hard work. I mean, June's the hottest bar and restaurant in the city right now. Yeah, um, it has been consistently pretty much for a year, right? So they employ Scott Marshall. We love Scott Marshall, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

The Scott Marshall they employ a lot of people that we know and love and with and used to work with, and yes, and still work with, yes, totally. Yeah, lots of great people.

SPEAKER_02 38:37

James Langford Smith. Yes, yes, part of the Triple J podcast is run G is the GM there right now. So yeah, yeah. So he's he's like, dude, it's a beast, but it's awesome. I think you really enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

Yeah, definitely, definitely. It's a monster. I I like going there a lot, it's fun.

SPEAKER_02 38:53

And then also, who else is on this list? Oh, Prophecy, number 32. Yeah, which I think is a really big jump for them. They weren't on the list last year, they were like 52, I think, last year.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

So make the they got to the top half of the and then uh because it is actually 100 best.

SPEAKER_02 39:06

Well, see, this is where I think it's I this is Miles, the thing that I fucking get irritated about. This whole shit is it's North America's 50 best, but then we've decided to have the fucking honorary mentions of 50 to 100. Yes, 51 to 100. Like, I'm not bemoaning all those people, those bars that are on there, but I just think it's also just a it it deflates the whole concept of 50 best. Just do 50 best and shut up. Okay. We don't need to know about the 50 to 90 100. Great, I get it. You're awesome. You made it in the 50 to 100, you should be proud of that. People always say this to me. And it's great, it is, but it's just like it's 50 best. We don't need the honorary dimensions, but they've decided to do that and it's fine.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

Yeah, it's like when the Academy Awards decided to have like 12 nominees for Best Picture instead of like five.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

Well, the reason why that happened was because of the Dark Knight. In 2009, the Dark Knight doesn't get nominated for Best Picture. And they really yeah, and so they all of a sudden they just decide to change the awards, and that all of a sudden it goes to 12 because they were like, How can you have the most popular film of 2008 not be nominated?

SPEAKER_01 39:59

Popular in terms of like sales sales and emotional connections.

SPEAKER_02 40:03

When people were complaining about the fact that they're like, Oh, like most of the best picture nominees that happen at Oscars, most people don't even see them. Yeah, because they're all these arty films, and people are like, you know, that's why F1 got nominated this past year. Yeah, because it's uh it was a huge, massive box office success. So was it yeah?

SPEAKER_01 40:18

I mean, I never saw F1 and probably never will, but like I can understand that like a superhero franchise being nominated for best picture is a little bit far-fetched, maybe for some, but you know, you also need you need to shake your head out of that, right? It it's good writing and good filmmaking and great acting and so on. So Chris Nolan, all the way.

SPEAKER_02 40:36

Yeah, but then yeah, but so that's why they change it. But I mean Okay, anyway, but uh bot in the botanist botanist at number 38, four years in a row on the list, which is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 40:45

Uh that's fourth and final year, or is that gonna continue? Oh, of course it's gonna continue.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

Out of the way, of course they're gonna continue.

SPEAKER_02 40:51

Yeah, but it's nice to see my team on there. Uh, you know, I think just staying on this list and staying in the top 50 for this long, I think it's well, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:59

I mean, again, consists is such an important measure of success, I think, right?

SPEAKER_02 41:03

And and the swings are huge. I mean, yeah, a lot of bars that were super high two years ago are not even in the top 50 anymore. Yeah, so for botanists to be able to maintain that level of consistency for that long, I think it's remarkable to that team and everyone that works here. And so yeah, I see that team every day. So I'm very proud of them to be part of that. You know, I think my my bar should be considered. I think lobby lounge is pretty rad, but I don't think we'll ever get that kind of love. But yeah, no too.

SPEAKER_01 41:26

Well, you you'd have to. Um I think Mio should be on the top five fifty, though.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

I was kind of surprised.

SPEAKER_01 41:30

I'm actually surprised Mio isn't on there as well, and I think a lot of people feel that way.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:34

A lot of the friends and acquaintances that I have who work in some of these top 50 bars in other parts of North America, people from eastern Canada, the States, Mexico that came into town for the awards. Mio was on their list of places that they absolutely had to go to.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

100%. Well, and then if we just pivot to the Canada's Hunter Best, yeah, and then you look at their list for the best bars of 2026.

SPEAKER_03 41:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

Keefer at number three, prophecy at 18, Lala at 19, Botanist at 23, you got Lawa at 26, Mount Pleasant Vintage and Provisions at 35, Baguer at 43, and Good Thief at 44, but no Mio.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Yeah. Which I think is kind of you have to wonder if there's like, you know, do you have to self-advocate? Is there lobbying? Are there relationships with journalists or suppliers that would maybe politically influence this decision? Because knowing the lovely people behind Mayo, I wouldn't be surprised if that's just not a game they wanted to play. You know, maybe Tennis one.

SPEAKER_02 42:29

Does she play? But they did a big event though, during uh 50 best. They did that. They did that big.

SPEAKER_01 42:34

Absolutely. And so maybe next year, because of that, they'll get the recognition. I I think it sounds like we both, you know, believe they so deserve, but yeah, they should. They should, they should. Mayo's a great place for cocktails. And honestly, I think if Lobby Lounge wants to get on there, you just gotta step up the cocktail game a little bit, right? It is definitely a great bar. There's no doubt about that.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

Well, I mean, like if you look at the Canada's 100 best list here, I mean, I mean, I don't see why my bar shouldn't be on here. Mio, I think, should definitely be on here. And I don't know, maybe I'll send an email to Jacob Lush and ask him. Do it so well, I mean he's I wonder who votes this because it's such a Toronto-centric list. Is it? But if you look at the 50 best, or this is the Canada's 100 best restaurants, yeah. If we look at the Vancouver stuff, let me just go here. There's one at Saskatchewan, which I think.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

Is there? Yeah, congratulations. Do you feel represented? Of course. Do you know that bar? Have you been there?

SPEAKER_02 43:18

No, it's a restaurant, it's called Hearth.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

Yeah, I've been there.

SPEAKER_02 43:20

Yeah, it's good. I'm trying to go by City here. Come on, Jamie. Who is number one on Canada's 100 best from Vancouver?

SPEAKER_01 43:26

On Canada's 100 best? It's not the kefir.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

No, we're doing the restaurants now.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

Oh, the restaurants.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

It was uh Sumubiyaki Arashi. No. No, no. Sorry, they got en route number one. Yeah. Um for Best New Wrestling. So that was actually one of those. That's actually one of my questions. Actually, that's another thing. We forgot to mention that earlier.

SPEAKER_02 43:42

Right here. I said and one of my questions that I was going to bring up to you is could more restaurants learn from the success of Sumuyaki Orashi? Oh. I tried getting a seat there right now. Yeah. Good luck. Good luck, dude. Good luck.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

Yeah. Cannot get a seat. 14 seater. Where is it again? So it's on Broadway on the north side, right around Kingsway. Have you been? Twice. Good. Amazing. Yeah. How'd you get seats? Dumb luck, honestly. Did you go actually go on the website or do you actually like just make do you know people? Yeah, I mean I went early, somebody that I went with, Michelle actually, at a reservation and was kind enough to invite me. Thank you, Michelle. Michelle's rules, Scott Magazine. And then yeah, other than that, I'm acquainted with those lovely people over there. It's awesome. But uh it's amazing. I want to go. I really want to go. It's incredible, it's delicious. It's a very, very special place.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:22

Yeah. And it lives up to it, like all the hype. Absolutely. You will feel like you are transported.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

Yeah, so it's number 17 on Canada's 100 best. Yeah. KT at 15. Yeah. And Elena at number 12. So last night we were out at June. Yeah. And I ran into Jeff Parr.

SPEAKER_03 44:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:37

Anna Elena. And I apologized to him because I haven't been there in a couple years. And I was like, I'm making a reservation. He said right now that they're doing, he's like, they're really dialed in. And they've really kind of figured out some things. And Mikey's just he's firing at all cylinders. So I promised him I'd make a reservation within the next six weeks. I really like that. And I got it. And I got in. We're gonna be going in in two weeks. So I'm gonna go I'm excited to go down to Anna Lena and have a really good dinner there and experience that room again.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

They like, I don't know, man. They're like the Buster Rhymes of like Vancouver restaurant, you know? Like they just keep reinventing their style in a beautiful way. I want them to be. If Buster Rhymes was a better rapper, I want them to get two stars. They would be the Buster Rhymes of I want them to get two stars. Honestly, I think if you were to have a little polymarket prop bet on which restaurant in Canada. Not legal in Vancouver. Not legal in Canada. If you're gonna have a little bet on which of the Vancouver Michelin starred restaurants or otherwise was going to be the first to get two stars, I would definitely bet the house on uh Annalena. Yeah, I mean that's what I mean. Like, you know, they just closed and did another renovation, you know? Like I love yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I think they just reopened like they just did a rental last week. They just reopened, I believe, around just after a wine festival. Yeah. Oh wow. And they redid the bar. Oh wow. So the bar you can actually sit at the bar again, which is cool. Which is rad. Where James James Morrison is. Morrison is where yeah, so there you go. Go visit James Morrison at the bar down. And uh yeah, and so I love that they keep kind of challenging themselves in terms of both creativity and and all aspects of design as well, too.

SPEAKER_02 46:02

Publish on Main, number 20. Yeah, La Crocodile number 26, very cool. June number 29, Burdock 33, St. Lawrence 40. I was shocked. That seems low. That seems very low.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

It seems low in relation to La Crocodile.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

That seems very low. It just seems low in general. I mean, I'm used to seeing St. Lawrence in the top 10.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:19

I think that's a little bit of disservice there. I think that's very low for that restaurant. It is a bit of a surprise, I think. Yeah. Boulevard number 59. Yeah. Uh Boulevard's done very well lately, haven't they? Roger Ma just winning uh Chef of the Year. Chef of the Year, Van Meg. Congratulations to him. That's amazing. Yeah. Chase Lee number 60. I think that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

Mark on first year for them, right?

SPEAKER_02 46:35

And what it's uh killing it. The landing on that is great, yeah. Yeah. Botanist 64. Botanist is going through a transition right now. Yeah. Because they just lost Hector.

SPEAKER_01 46:43

Hector, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:44

That's a big loss. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, nine years, whatever it is, he's been there. Oh no, bless his heart. I mean, I talked to him about it the other day and I said, What are you gonna be doing? She's I can't remember where she's from. I haven't met her yet. Because I was away and I haven't had a chance to actually chat with her, but I've heard a lot of great things. I've heard she's really dialed in and I've heard that she's gonna really go for it, which I'm really excited about. I don't know what direction she's gonna be doing. I talked to Jens about it, and he said that botanists is open to whoever the new chef comes in and their vision, yeah, which I really think is really cool. Hector created something pretty amazing there, and I think his menu and his ideas and what he did shaped that kind of identity of botanists and I'm excited to see what the new chef is gonna bring in. I really hope they give her the green light to do whatever she wants to do. They're gonna be opening seven days a week, which is really cool.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

I didn't realize they weren't before. No, yeah, so really as a hotel restaurant, they weren't open seven days a week before.

SPEAKER_02 47:32

That was a Hector thing. I think he just didn't, I think team-wise, I don't think they had the bodies to do it, but I think the hotels decided that they want to be seven days, which I think is amazing. I don't know when they're doing it, but it's in the works, which is really cool. But Bacchus at 67. What's that something you had Bacchus?

SPEAKER_01 47:46

I actually went to Bacchus a couple of years ago for Is it good? A bowl of soups, some French fries, and a glass of wine or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 47:53

I've never I've never really eaten it.

SPEAKER_01 47:55

I mean, it's a cute, cozy little room. Like, I mean, who knows who the chef is? They've had a lot of turnover there over the last like 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 48:01

Yeah, but I mean I I've just it made me think I'm like, okay, is this a restaurant that I've kind of been overlooking or a lounge?

SPEAKER_01 48:05

Honestly, man, I don't think so. I mean, again, I haven't been in a couple years, so I, you know, I don't want to speak out of turn, but the food there wasn't particularly revelatory. It's not trying to push any boundaries, and it wasn't necessarily even uh when I was there the last couple of times, like a high-level representation of a classic. Well, I'm just I mean what are we doing here?

SPEAKER_02 48:25

Why why is it there? Why is it it's on this list for a reason? I don't know. Someone must like it. I gotta check it out. I'm not shitting on it, I just haven't been there.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

Well, maybe we are shitting on it.

SPEAKER_02 48:33

Maybe. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 48:33

I guess we're a lot.

SPEAKER_02 48:34

I think we'll have to uh we have we definitely are. We can shit on them where we want, I don't care. I mean, it's this list is interesting. I mean, a Lem at 80, which I think is cool. The only thing I was kind of curious about is a Lem. I mean, I'm very happy for that team. Yeah, they just picked up Jayton from Chase Lane, which I think is awesome. And I obviously have a lot of admiration for Vish, and I think I really admire his ambition. And I think they're really kind of I think they're making some good marks. I was a little surprised they won Best New Restaurant at Van Meg, because they've been around for about a year and a bit. So I thought that was like, you know, not saying they don't deserve it. I'm just saying they've been around longer than I thought for a new restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 49:09

Or maybe they just got overlooked and here they are.

SPEAKER_02 49:11

Yeah, like I think June would have gotten that because it's barely been a year.

SPEAKER_01 49:13

I think yeah. Interestingly, I think that June might be eligible for best new restaurant next year.

SPEAKER_02 49:19

Which I think is kind of weird because they've already been open a year.

SPEAKER_01 49:21

I don't know what the cutoff is, but obviously it takes time to um tabulate things. There's a big judging process for this. So even though the ceremony was in the beginning of May, I'm sure that the cutoff was a long time ago, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:33

So maybe they missed it. And then this other one, Cavita 96. Have you been?

SPEAKER_01 49:36

I haven't, and I'm dying to go. Yeah, I want to go. I heard it's I mean it's people that I love and trust and say it's really all about these things. Everybody speaks so highly of the food, the beverage program. Yeah. We've often talked about how get into certain kinds of restaurants where you know there's a specific ethnic focus. Sometimes the beverage program has been overlooked, and this definitely does not seem to be the case, and that's I think one of the many reasons why it's so exciting.

SPEAKER_02 50:00

Yeah, it sounds like a spot we gotta go. Yeah, I think the whole list of Canada Sun Best is good. I don't is there anybody missing?

SPEAKER_01 50:05

Like a whole bunch of Chinese restaurants are missing, and a whole bunch of Japanese restaurants are missing from that list. Big deal. You know, like you there you like you look at it. Like no Masayoshi. Yeah, like there's a whole bunch like there's no sushi hill. Yes, and there's also there's those two omokase sushi restaurants that have Michelin stars. Yeah, Michelin stars, which are not on the list, which I think is which is like it just seems like a big like an oversight or a gap.

SPEAKER_02 50:26

Not sure what's going on there, but but then Tsubayaki is getting all the love.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

You can't ignore those guys. I mean, they're just taking the world by storm right now.

SPEAKER_02 50:33

Like the fact that Niwa's not even on here. Yeah, I think it's uh Niwa's awesome. Or like Oka.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

Oka's not on it. That's ridiculous. Magari's not uh recently and had yet another beautiful meal. You know, like there isn't better pasta in Vancouver. You know, like I've had amazing pasta dishes that are as good as say quizatanto, la quercha, others, but nobody's doing better pasta. And also, by the way, I went to Angela. Did we talk about this? I went to Angela. We went to Angela's Pasta Fista. So I went to Angela actually on my birthday in February. It was so good. Yeah. Yeah, killing it. That whole street is really cool. Yeah. I mean, again, this pedigree of like of cooks, you know, is really strong, amazing young chefs in Vancouver.

SPEAKER_02 51:11

Oh, yeah, I was gonna bring it up. So, as the one who kind of is a pillar of Fraser, yeah, with bells. Yeah. My street is a little bit. Your street is blowing up right now.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

Oh, yeah, because uh Justin Isidro from Yeah, I just ran into him at Top Drop actually, and we had a nice chat on Monday.

SPEAKER_02 51:25

Former GM at KTE is now gonna be opening up his own space up there. Yes, and he's on the strip.

SPEAKER_01 51:29

He's on the strip where he's on the strip Bravo, Namo, uh he's around that 26th Avenue at Namos, and then you got obviously she Celine. Yes, yeah, so Celine, Bravo, Zap Bites, and these guys like a it's a small space Portuguese space, too. Uh huh. That's very exciting. And you know what's so cool, and I was just telling him about this because I have two boys, as you know. My sons are 17 and 19, and so Justin's doing this project with his brother. It's called Maria Celeste, and it just really yeah, so sweet, right? Named after their mom, of course. And uh and yeah, it just makes me happy. You know, I just think about my boys opening a restaurant together one day and it makes me want to weep. And so, you know, that photo on Scout of Justin and his brother, um, you know, just putting their loving hearts into celebration of their family and their heritage. It just I can't wait to go.

SPEAKER_02 52:14

Is his brother a cook? Oh, his brother's a cook. I've never met his brother. No, Christian Isidro is chef and owner. So he's the chef. Sweet, what a combo.

SPEAKER_01 52:21

Yeah, you know, I didn't use this. It's an incredible like hospitality leader, great Justin's wine knowledge is impeccable. Studio Roslyn's doing the uh Studio Rosalind's great. Have you used them? No, I we actually we chatted with them back in the day for Buffalo Edgemont and then ended up going with a different studio. But I really enjoyed meeting them, and and every time I see their work, I think it's because I think they did fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 52:44

They did uh Adam's work at uh Superflux in Victoria. The but um superflux cabana, yeah. Yeah, I ran it to him the other day.

SPEAKER_01 52:51

Yeah, you were saying he's doing good. He was at your bar.

SPEAKER_02 52:53

Yeah, yeah. He says they're eking out profits, you know, but the industry is tough right now, but they're working it out, and he's resilient. I I really I really appreciate what they're doing there at Superflux. I think it's good.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

He's got a high standards, and it's one of the things I mean, besides being a lovely human being, Adam has really high standards, and I just love anybody who like just holds himself, you know, too.

SPEAKER_02 53:12

He's like you, he likes a martini too.

SPEAKER_01 53:13

Yeah, he likes a martini. What can we say? We get along well. Shit. I just like I just started with martinis like basically a year ago. It's so funny. It's like I started drinking coffee at 45.

SPEAKER_02 53:24

I mean, I added uh what did I do yesterday? I made you two martinis yesterday. Just one.

SPEAKER_01 53:27

I made you two, you had two. You did?

SPEAKER_02 53:28

You had two. You don't even remember how many I made you.

SPEAKER_01 53:30

Look at you.

SPEAKER_02 53:31

We're gonna call the Australian right now.

SPEAKER_01 53:32

Really? Is he landed? Did he talk to us? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 53:36

So we're gonna see if he picks up. Hello? Hey buddy, what's going on? Okay. We're gonna call you and see if you want to talk on the podcast, but who are you tasting right now?

SPEAKER_01 53:56

Well, we're on right now, you're live. You're live? What are you tasting? So hold on, so people drink wine in Calgary? Do people drink wine in Alberta?

SPEAKER_02 54:19

Hey, say hi to the audience here, a part of the, you know. Say hi to everyone.

SPEAKER_01 54:24

This is so meta. It's okay, only a few thousand people are gonna listen to this.

SPEAKER_00 54:35

Lots of things, lots of delicious things.

SPEAKER_01 54:37

How's top chop?

SPEAKER_00 54:38

It was good, it was busy.

SPEAKER_01 54:40

Yeah. Did you tell them how I took over your table, your station at the uh trade tasting yesterday when you abandoned it?

SPEAKER_00 54:46

You took over my table for all of like four minutes.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

I helped myself generous pour. None of those one ounce pours that you were doing.

SPEAKER_00 54:53

I was looking you know what? The economy is tough these days, and I didn't want anyone to get too intoxicated. I'm always thinking of responsible service to alcohol.

SPEAKER_01 55:01

See, there you go. There you go. Should we tell everybody, James, that you finally cracked into Bufala and we're finally selling Pompa Moose?

SPEAKER_00 55:08

Oh, what? Yes. Yeah, I think he's gonna print it on the menu and everything.

SPEAKER_01 55:11

Years of harassment on air recorded in multiple podcasts has led to some pet nat being poured by the glass at Bufala Edge.

SPEAKER_02 55:19

Did you make this happen or did James just do this voluntarily? I like to think that he did it voluntarily, but the reality is I probably he just got it signaled.

SPEAKER_01 55:25

No, tell the truth.

unknown 55:28

He sent email and ordered. I think didn't he?

SPEAKER_01 55:30

I think I'm getting soft in my old age. Wow, you caved. Wow. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_00 55:35

You know what? He didn't even ask me for a discount I offered, and he said no.

SPEAKER_01 55:39

Oh wow, that's true, actually. You know what it was? I went to see him at June and he he gave me a glass of it, and I was like, this is delicious. What is it? And he told me it's Pomplamoose. I was joking. Like, yes. That's me. I'm just joking. I'm joking. I'm joking.

SPEAKER_02 55:55

Tell the audience what you think. Good job, James. Good job, Jordan. Good job, Tyler. Tell the audience what they should be drinking for Pomplamous this coming year.

SPEAKER_00 56:00

We have a lot of we made we have 17 different wines coming out this year, total, like throughout our production in 2025. But we have six wines in the market right now.

SPEAKER_01 56:10

Um What was that Koferman? I tasted a top drop yesterday. That was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 56:14

Yeah, that was just released. So we make a koferman every year with Leon Young. It's really fun. So white white grapes grapes and red grapes taste and at the same time together. This one this year is a little water than previously, so that's why she wasn't. To me, it tastes like grapefruit. Like it's very grapefruity, very refreshing, very easy drinking. And then we have a very fun rose coming down the line that uh smells like Swedish berries and tastes like candy.

SPEAKER_01 56:56

Which okay, when you said the table wine is but that's not the sparkling Gavert Riesling I had, right?

SPEAKER_00 57:04

And yeah, that did very well yesterday. I loved it. Yeah, sure. Gigi's, as you know, my favorite little way to buy on the island. They are selling a lot of that right now, as they speak, as well.

SPEAKER_01 57:20

By the way, we gotta take a little road trip up there this summer. We're gonna take uh tracking food on the road.

SPEAKER_00 57:26

I really want everyone to meet.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

You've been raving about that place for years. I gotta go check it out.

SPEAKER_00 57:31

That place is still one of my favorite restaurants on the island. And I haven't been there for at least four or five months, so crazy.

SPEAKER_02 57:39

Nice, love that. Are you pouring right now?

SPEAKER_00 57:41

I'm just gonna tasting with an ocean wine producer and wine importers here because as we know the rules we can wine outside basically without having to choose the port and sketching on and wine tastings, and then we're going to the top drop ticket party and then tomorrow is the full day of trade tastings and then consumer tastings.

SPEAKER_02 58:07

Are Jeff and Curtis here?

SPEAKER_00 58:08

Jeff and Curtis are there, yeah. Jeff is, you know, not behaving himself. I shouldn't say that. Jeff was very good to me yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 58:18

That's good. Jeff's got a good photo of me pouring wine at your table.

SPEAKER_03 58:25

He sent it to me, and I was like, this is not good for Yeah, send it to me, please.

SPEAKER_01 58:29

I promise I will put it on Instagram.

SPEAKER_02 58:30

All right, James. Well, I appreciate you jumping on with us here.

SPEAKER_00 58:33

So yeah, I'm glad I just feel embedded, Jamie.

unknown 58:35

I was worried about you.

SPEAKER_02 58:36

Yeah, I was sick. Fuck. I was sick as hell. So yeah. All right, man. Have fun with that. All right, bye. There you go. Our first ever calling. So he finally picked up the phone. There you go. Sounds good. I think we've hit most things here today. What have we got? Everything else? I'm really sad about the fire that happened, shuttered Osterio Otto. Yeah. Otto, really, yeah, that was that was terrible. That was broken.

SPEAKER_01 58:56

See, there's stuff going on. You heard about Elisa as well, too, right?

SPEAKER_02 58:59

Yeah, they're still closed, huh?

SPEAKER_01 59:00

They're still closed. Thankfully, they're gonna be open for the summer and for the World Cup and everything. But I mean, that I mean it wasn't even in the uh It was upstairs, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but you know, the the grill was damaged. They've got this like unbelievable grill that creates all their beautiful stakes and and water damage coming down and destroying floors and whatnot. So thankfully, you know, between the insurance claim and the company itself shelling out, they were able to take really good care of all their staff, which I really admire and respect. And everybody's good and just ready and waiting for them to open the doors again.

SPEAKER_02 59:31

Oh, that's good. Yeah, I was at just at uh Sapio Volpe the other day and did not have a pork up, which is funny because I I got I had their ribeye steak, yeah, 33 ounce ribeye steak, yeah, which is massive and it was super delicious. And but they have a huge open fire. They do, and um Josper, uh yeah, is that what it's what's it called? Yeah. It's funny when I was there, I was I was saying to my girlfriend, and it was like, you don't smell anything.

SPEAKER_01 59:52

No, like I mean you have the very, very particular ventilation.

SPEAKER_02 59:55

Like what kind of ventilation do you have to have in there?

SPEAKER_01 59:57

You've got live embers going up there, right? So you need to have this special netting that catches them, otherwise, there's the risk of them coming up. You get grease buildup in the shaft, like there, your exhaust. And so that's you know, essentially it's combustible, right? So you need to make sure that there isn't like a live ember coming off the charcoal going up, being sucked up into the shaft, and then like lighting it up so the netting catches it. And yeah, it's just it's that's expensive, huh? It is, you know, it takes training to work that because you're you're dealing with temperature, you're burning a live fuel in the wood and the charcoal that's in there or whatever, and then you're adjusting the height of whatever's in there.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:33

Because Mount Pleasant Vintage has a fire too, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:36

Yeah, they do something different, it's not the same, but yeah, and uh Elisa's is like a really special piece. There's a Middle Eastern restaurant, like a kebab place, contemporary place called Safies in LA that I love. It's the same people who have bestia and bavel. It's just like yeah, yeah. So same guys, yeah. Fuck, it's so good. Yeah, and they got one of those as well. Just the best kebabs, like really, really good. Oh chocolate.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:57

Is this an indication of something you want to do?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:59

Well, it's gonna hopefully happen one of these days. The the Jimmy Swan song will be sung.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:04

But I mean, putting you didn't put something like that in it, uh Edgemont, did you?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:07

No, no, no. I mean, Edgemont has like an amazing pizza oven.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:11

Pizza oven, yeah. It's not the same that has Bufla has the other one, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:14

No, the original one in Carisdale. So it's just an oven. Yeah, exactly. This one is like a deck oven. Okay. Whereas the ones at River District and Edgemont are amazing, like yeah, Woodstone ovens.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:24

I gotcha. Okay. Those are okay, those are way more expensive. And different types of way more expensive.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:30

Yes, very much so.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:31

But the flavor profile is different, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

A little bit, yeah. You know, that's just one element of what makes pizza taste the way it does, right? I mean, obviously the flour and the starter and the sauce and and the water with which you make your dough, the consistency and the flavor of what pizza dough we make in South Vancouver at River District is wildly different than Carisdale and I shouldn't say wildly different, but it's noticeably different than Carisdale and North Vancouver, which is amazing. That's the magic of it. Businesses are good. Yes, thankfully. Yeah, winter was like so so, you know, and it was funny, like kind of chatting with everybody at the restaurant awards. Last week, it just seems like everybody was a little bit concerned about like, you know, first quarter. Everybody was slow this year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:10

I talked to even the hotel. Yeah, but since everybody was slow. Boom. Everybody everybody I talked to said weekends are good. Midweek has been a little bit slow.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:19

But I think a lot of people are very excited about the summer. I think they're yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:22

I mean, the weather's been amazing already, and obviously the world's coming here with the World Cup.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:26

So I think I have a question here for you. This is this gonna be good for the restaurant industry, World Cup. I don't think it is.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:30

I mean you don't think so. Yeah, there's been little articles going around about hey, you're like, are you restaurant's actually full?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:36

I think if you have a TV, you're gonna be talked.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:38

If you don't have a TV, you're gonna be dead.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:40

And I think I don't know. I mean, I'm pessimistic, but I'm also hopefully optimistic because obviously I don't want that to happen. Yeah. But I'm afraid that if you're like uh a regular nice restaurant, are you gonna be dead because everyone's watching the game and caught up in the hoopla of all the stuff? And not saying that they shouldn't be. Yeah, but is it only gonna help certain select numbers? I mean, we've seen this, we've talked about this with hockey games.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:02

When the Canucks are go far in the playoffs, it's terrible for all the other restaurants because they're all the other people just watching the games. Yes. They have sports bars. Yeah. And I know a lot of restaurants in Vancouver right now are like that are normal restaurants, are just like, I'm gonna put a TV in, because if I don't put a TV in, I'm gonna be dead.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:14

That's yeah, I I've heard the same, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:16

Yeah, and I mean I'm sure I wonder if you've even considered that.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:19

We are adding a couple of TVs, but you know, at the end of the day, uh it's gonna be interesting. Like it's the first time the World Cup's increased from 32 countries to 48 countries, and so you're getting a lot of countries in there that are maybe not necessarily deserving of being not really of well, I wouldn't say deserving, because I mean well, but they're not of the standard that we're accustomed to to qualify. And so there are a lot of those games, and a lot of those will be blowouts in the in the group stage. And you know, I don't think that uh during that time, you know, I'm not gonna name names of a country because I don't want to like disparage anybody, but like at the end of the day, like uh is somebody going to go and skip their dinner at Annalena because they want to stay home and watch so you know two obscure countries kind of playing against each other. I really don't think so. You know, there is a bit of a danger of like overstimulation with regards to how many games I'm a huge soccer guy, and like you know, how many games can you watch?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:09

You know, yeah, but the quarterfinal game that's here in Vancouver, that's gonna be insane.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:13

Uh round of 16, not quarterfinal.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:15

Oh, we don't get quarterfinals.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:16

We have a round of 32 and a round of 16. So round 15 will be both. For sure, but that's just one game. It's two hours in the afternoon.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:22

Like, so are you expecting major differences at Bells?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:25

You know, Bells and Whistles is gonna do well because I think personally, like besides BC Plays, it's the best place to watch a game in the city. Yeah. We are soccer people, it's a great bar. We've got room, we've got the vibe, we've got the knowledge. Like, it's just an amazing place to watch a soccer game. I would argue, as much or more than any other sport. The advantage for us is that the majority of games are during the day. So you're really just kind of like increasing your sales and your guest counts like during times like you're normally slow. Yeah, it's like Tuesday at noon, and all of a sudden it's like Canada versus Switzerland. We are going to be wall to wall. Normally on a Tuesday at noon, it's just you know, it's not gonna be as busy as that. So we're gonna see an improvement in sales for sure in that regard. Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:09

Yeah, a new ownership at Le Faux Bourgeois.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:12

So taken over by the Guy House Group, which is Namos and Ama and Celine.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:16

Have you been to Celine? I have been to Celine, yeah. Is it good? Yeah, it's pretty good. I want to go. It's one of the restaurants on my list. I know, and it just won Best Mediterranean category of Vancouver magazine, which for those of us who have affinity for Como was a little bit of a surprise, but good for them. And Como Mediterranean though? It was in the category. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, it's a Spanish restaurant, so they got put in that category. Anyway, those guys have actually been at Le Fort Bourgeois for about a year now. They just have just announced it now, and they're related to uh I've actually only been to the Faux Bourgeois once. Yeah. And that was back in 2010. Sixteen years ago? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:48

Seriously. I just never I mean, there's a couple of restaurants in the city that I've there's no reason why I don't go to them.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:54

Like La Crocodile. There's no reason why I'm not like I should go to the La Crocodile. I just honestly, I feel bad about this. I just forget. Yeah. That they exist sometimes. Does that sound I don't know? I don't know if it's that maybe I take them for granted. They fall bourgeois in around like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:11

There's just so many would forget, and there are lots, but I mean keep a list, and that's what I do.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:15

Like I went to Tovola with a couple friends a couple weeks ago, and I didn't been to Tovola in years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:19

Great time. I didn't even know it's still open.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:21

There you go. See? There you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:22

And it was packed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:23

It was like a regular servant to its community, right? Like at the West End. Yeah. And it was like, they're not doing anything that's blowing your mind. It's just like but it's delicious. It was good. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:32

It was nice. But yeah, Fort Bourgeois, like, you know, I actually went recently. I went with my girlfriend and a couple of friends. We were just kind of craving uh steak freeze, and like all five of us, because my friend's daughter joined us, and the five of us all had steak free, and it was so good. It was good, it was great. Awesome. We sat in that little side room they have, like they used to be the kids. I don't even remember what it looks like. It's adorable, and it was really well built because one of the original partners, Stefan, was a builder and he's just got exquisite taste and really good workmanship, and he did a great job. So we just sat in there, you know, had a teeny, had a glass of wine with the steak, and was out, and uh perfect neighborhood restaurant. Yeah, yeah. Is it on the same level as Au Comptoir?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:09

Like is it a similar menu?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:10

It's a similar menu, sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:12

Yeah, yeah. There is a restaurant group that I think is overlooked. Yeah, I think au contoire is overlooked by so many people. I think it's fantastic. Yeah, I love the food. I love it about it. Every time I go there, every time I go there, I sit in that room and I'm just like, I feel like I'm in France.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:24

I love those guys. Yeah, Max and Julian, they're great. And uh, shout out to them. You know, they just don't care, you know, they're not concerned about the accolades. I don't see them on any lists, I don't see people talking about them. And it's not because they don't deserve to be, but they don't lobby for it, and they just and I appreciate that Vancouver will actually go in a restaurant like that is as busy as it is and as successful as it is. It's like the it's like the best line. Even though it doesn't get on those, yeah. I mean, it's just a great time. And I yeah, I've gone for lunch there 10 to 1 on dinner.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:50

And because they get all that natural light inside. Yeah, it's just like if I go there at like one o'clock, I'm like, yep, I'm having wine. Yeah, it's like fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:57

Yeah, it's just oysters, yes. Steak freeze, yes. They have the best soup. Salad, always good soup. The soup is amazing, and the desserts are ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:04

Yeah, it's great.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:05

Yeah, so I feel like I'd like to.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:07

Welcome to our we should go. I know. And the other one I always forget about, and I feel bad about this because I love Fat Mao. I always forget about Maynam.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:14

I had dinner two nights ago at Maynam. Yeah, did you see that on my Instagram? I can't believe you just said that. I love it. Yeah, I went for dinner there on Monday night. And I have so much respect for Angus, and I love Mainam. Yeah, there were three of us. We shared a bunch of stuff, it was delicious. Yeah. Where'd you go? I went with my girlfriend and my buddy Ben, and his partner was uh sick and wasn't able to join us last minute. Was it busy? Yeah, I mean, for Monday night it was a good vibe for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:36

Love Mainam.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:36

Yeah, delicious.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:37

But I mean again, restaurants that have been around for so long, sometimes I just like yeah, you sometimes they I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:42

Is that don't take them for granted. Uh no, I'm not trying to. I know, I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to everybody listening. Yeah. Go and enjoy them, support them. They're they're doing wonderful things. As much as it's awesome that there's these cool, exciting new restaurants.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:54

Pigeon, another great restaurant. Pigeon's great. Fucking Brandon, Brandon's been killing it, and I just learned the other day that they're gonna be they do the burger thing on Monday nights.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:01

I didn't know this. They do burgers on Monday nights.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:03

Yeah, Monday nights, but I don't think it's gonna be going on for much longer, he was saying. But it's like they've he told me on Monday night they like sold like 70 burgers between and it only starts at 10. So I'm like 10 to 12. He sold like 70 burgers between like 10 and 12. That's a good thing. I bet they make a good burger. Yeah, of course. I think he said his chef is like super passionate about it and makes awesome burgers. Cool. So yeah, I haven't tried one, I want to try it, but it's awesome. And I love that space.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:23

Yeah, yeah. It's like this cute little shuffle days. Those were fun days. The shuffle? Well, you know, we would just like we would finish up service at Wildebeast, and then we'd just go around. You go pop in at you go see H for a drink, you'd go into Pigeon, you'd go into uh Calabash, um, maybe pop into Labattoire and obviously finish the night of the diamond as always. And uh just great. I missed those days. It was a great community. Remember Salt? I do remember Salt, yeah. Salt was fun. What was the one that was next door? Judasco.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:53

Judasco, yeah. I remember that one too.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:54

You know, I haven't been to Is This French or I wanted to see?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:58

There's another one.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:58

Yeah, we gotta go. Yeah, too many restaurants. Maybe that's what we need to do. We need to go on a little field trip and explore all these like restaurants that we haven't checked out yet.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:06

In one night.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:07

In one night.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:08

What? It's a lot of work.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:10

We I remember when we were opening Buffalo Edge Mall, we went to New York, Josh and I, and we went to 33 restaurants in three days. What? Yeah, why just going like just walking and eating and walking and eating and kept a list, kept a journal. Just disgusting. How'd you feel? Oh my god, caloric overload. And that's like a probably a beer at each one. Couldn't sleep, like yeah. This is for research for Edge Month. Shaking, yeah, foie gras, like 4 a.m. shakes. God, this was before it was August of 2019. Amazing trip.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:40

Yeah, that's that's a lot. The one place I will say I miss I miss sitting in the lounge at Benita.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:46

Yeah. The first Benita. First Benito, first Benita I liked a lot. Yeah, that was fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:50

And I'm stoked that uh Kozak has been able to make that space into something pretty awesome. Have they? Yeah, I go back. Yeah, Kozak, lots of times. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:58

Of course, you're from Saskatchewan.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:59

But I mean, I've I go there sometimes when I'm getting off work, and you can get you can get a lot of takeout food there. You can get like takeout borscht and pierogies, and they have such good cookies.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:07

Keep going. Is there anything other than borscht and pierogies? Yeah, they've got more things.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:11

They have cabbage rolls, but of course they but you can you can go there and get like a rad, like they have they do like a really good, like kind of like a shirkeri platter, and they do like it's awesome. The food's awesome. Yeah, it's great. I do like that. And if you buy a certain amount of food on takeout, they just give you a whole thing a loaf of bread. So it's like it's rad.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:27

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:28

Yeah, but every time I go there and I'm waiting, like it's a side thing, and the fucking restaurant's packed.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:33

Really? Packed. Oh, that's cool. Good for them. It's not a small space.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:36

No, so it's great. I'm good for them. And they just open a new location. What? They open a new location in Lawnsdale up in Northman, I think.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:43

Yeah. Oh my god. I gotta I haven't been to Gas Town in a while, I guess. Not for eating anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:47

Well, exactly. I know. That's the maybe the sad paradigm of where things about this like I think a lot of people kind of forget about Gas Town now.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:53

Well, yeah, I hope the city does what it needs to do to bring that amazing neighborhood back to life.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:57

Like, have you ever been to that restaurant that's across from Guilt? What's I went to Okupa?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:01

Monarcha. Oh, Monarca. Yes, I did go to Monarca once. Yeah. And uh more recently I went to Oku and that was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:09

But supposedly that skewer space that's in the old skewer space.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:12

Oh, yeah, that's pretty good. Supposedly it's really good. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:14

Yeah. But I don't know. And then Diamond's still sitting empty.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:17

It is because they're doing a massive renovation, restoring that building. And so there's up there. Yeah, we talked to them about doing a pop-up for the summer in the World Cup, but they asked you? We have to chat because that's same landlord as another restaurant.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:28

You would just go in diamond in the old diamond space?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:30

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We thought about doing like a four-month pop-up over the summer, but they're just doing the renovation right now. And so yeah, I mean it needs mega upgrades. Yeah, I was definitely not.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:40

Well, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:42

All right. Anything else? I'm good, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:44

Good chats.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:45

Yeah, you're about to go to Japan. So when this comes out, you'll be in Japan. You'll be you'll be drinking sake and ramen and six.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:51

Slipping slipping noodles off a milk crate in some shady back lane in China. What you want?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:56

You're going to Tokyo, then we're Tokyo, Kyoto, back to Tokyo. Okay. Kyoto. That's then just keep it simple. Just two of you?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:02

Yeah. Oh wow. Amazing. Yeah. I know. Can't wait.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:04

You staying you're gonna go check out the pheromont?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:06

No.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:06

It's in it's in Tokyo.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:08

Is it?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:08

Yeah, brand new. My boss just transferred over there.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:11

Really?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:11

Yeah. Oh, amazing. So text me, I can let them know that you're coming down.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:14

Yeah, I've got two hotels, one for each kind of of the four-day stints that were there. One of them is like a really cool onsen hotel. Amazing. I just ordered my tattoo patches. You can't go into the onsen spa without covering up your tattoos. Yeah. And the other one's like in this other kind of more locals neighborhood close to Shibuya. Make sure you don't tip. I can't believe you just said that.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:32

We don't tip in Japan.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:33

Really? Yeah. What do you mean? Is it like bad to tip?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:36

I think they don't take it. I don't think they extract it. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:38

Oh, wow.

unknown 1:13:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:39

That's gonna be weird. I don't know. I'm gonna be comfortable with that.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:42

Again, about tipping culture. Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:44

It's amazing, like these cultural differences. Okay, I will report back. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:47

I mean, tipping culture is weird. So, I mean, I you know me about all this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:52

I mean, I benefit from it because I work in an industry that's based on tipping, but it's just yeah, tipping's just an interesting thing. So okay. Well, I hope you have a really good time. Thank you very much. And we got James Langford Smith on the podcast, so this was a triple J episode. Yeah. Sort of. Yeah. And uh exactly. Awesome. Well, everyone out there, hope you're doing really well. Check out your local restaurants, do the thing that we were just talking about, and go check out all the spaces that are probably not getting enough love. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:15

And uh we did some restaurants that don't have TVs during the World Cup.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:19

And socialize, spend time with each other.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:21

Whether you drink or not, go chat with people and fuck your phone. Fuck your phone. Fair enough. You're probably listening to it on that.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:29

Yeah, and we'll uh we'll talk to you soon. Bye. Bye.