The Billy Bishop - 1407 Laburnum St. - www.billybishoplegion.org

This is the third year in a row we’ve posted this review. It’s not that we’re lazy - well, we kinda are actually - it’s that “The Billy”, its patrons & members, and its whole raison d’etre deserve the accolades and the support. Yours and ours. So read on…

‘K, we’re going to get a lil’ bit preachy here, so bear with us: This Friday is Remembrance Day. As we like to remind people, thousands of Canadian soldiers didn’t die or suffer unfathomable physical and mental injuries just so we could have a day off in November. So we at The Boozecan implore you to avoid the shopping malls and all the tacky disrespect of wanton consumerism for a day, and at least try to catch the Remembrance Day services on telly. Better yet, if you can make it down to the cenotaph in person, it’s doubtful you’ll ever experience such a moving ceremony on that scale.

But it doesn’t all have to be all doom and gloom either. There’s a kick-ass way to support vets all year long–with a drink at a legion. They (legions across Canada) have been having a tough time as of late. It’s partly due to a dwindling membership–there are just less and less old soldiers around–and it’s partly their own doing. Legions haven’t exactly done much to encourage regular folks to pop in for a drink. But hey, what better way to support something than via a pint glass?

But before your turn your nose up at the thought of drinking in the stereotypical echo-y legion hall with metal banquet chairs around beat up, stained formica tables and the walls yellowed by 50 years of stale cigarette smoke, remember, they’re not all like that. And one of the best lies in the heart of Kitsilano–Royal Canadian Legion Branch 176–The Billy Bishop. And this Friday, it’ll be packed to the rafters.

The Billy (as we calls it) is a different kind of legion. It’s nice. For starters, blink and you’ll miss it. If it wasn’t for the sign outside you might pass it off as a just an old house stuck amongst the apartment buildings of Kits. Yeah, it’s got the usual function hall on the upper floor, but below lies the heart of the Billy­–the pub.

More than a pub, it’s a living museum. The walls are literally covered with history–hundreds of regimental plaques from all around the globe, historical photos, paintings and other military memorabilia. But it’s got an authentic English pub feel to it–fireplace, beamed ceiling, dart room, dark wood furniture, padded booths and tiny self-serve bar.

The misconception out there, as we hinted at, is that you have to be a veteran and/or a member to come in for a drink. You don’t, you just have to sign in as a guest. But this is a legion remember. So good behaviour and respect are the order of the day (and guys, take your ball cap off if you’re wearing one–this is some old-school respect we’re talking about here). It’s not the kind of place you come to for a balls-to-the-wall night out–obviously. You come here to chill out over some pints in one of the few places in town where you can actually hear yourself think. No TV’s, no shitty music blaring, and better yet–no douchebags! That’s not to say it’s inhabited by monks 24/7. Friday nights there’s a lively English pub-style sing-song ‘round the piano, there’s semi-regular music acts, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding dinner specials and there’s the prerequisite (and by that we mean “awesome”) Sunday afternoon meat draw. There’s even a small beer garden outside for the spring and summer months.

As far as booze goes, you don’t really come here for cocktails (although they’re happy to oblige if that’s your tipple), you come for beer. And they’ve got a modest but respectable selection on tap at probably the best prices in the ‘hood starting at around a fiver a pint:

• Molson
• Piper’s Pale Ale
• Vancouver Island Lager
• Hermann’s Dark
• Smithwicks
• Guinness

So take your hat off, sign in, and soak up some Vancouver history along with your brews. And if you get the chance, buy a vet a pint and say thanks. It’s the least we can do.

For info on Billy Bishop (the person) Click Here

St. Augustine’s: hop-head Nirvana.

St. Augustine’s - 2360 Commercial Dr. - www.staugustinesvancouver.com

You know, we really weren’t sure if there was any point in reviewing St. Augustine’s. It’s not that it doesn’t deserve a write up—we’ve been big fans for a long while now—we just figured most people (especially beer lovers) knew about this place. Apparently not.

After canvassing friends, acquaintances and other assorted booze-hounds like us, we were actually a little horrified to find out St. Augustine’s wasn’t even on their radar (maybe it’s the stealth-like dark exterior decor?). Well, it’s high time we remedy that, oh ye of little adventure.

The beer selection here will blow your mind. But it’s not just the overwhelming choice that make this one of the best beer bars in the city. It’s that, to their well-deserved credit, the folks running the place have turned it into an Aladdin’s cave of craft and micro-brews—the majority all available on tap­. No big-brewery swill here, boyo.

There’s way too many to even begin to list here, but the 40 (count ‘em—four-zero!) beers on tap run the gamut from lagers and pilsners to ales, stouts and porters and just about everything in-between, and will run you from a modest $5.50 up to $7.50 a pint. Plus, a good few of these are seasonally rotated in order to confound your attempts at trying one of everything they offer (we kid—kinda).

Beers range from locally produced (think local, drink local) from the likes of Tree, Dead Frog, Central City, Storm and Driftwood breweries to imports from Washington, Oregon and California. St. Aug’s even serve certified organic brews, including the Crannóg Ales delicious stout, Back Hand of God, made right here in B.C.

Deciding what to start with can be a daunting task, so we suggest you dip your toes, figuratively speaking obviously, in the beery pool by ordering a sampler tray: four small glasses of any of draught beer for $8.50. It’s a pretty good deal to be honest. You’re probably getting just over a pint anyway for your eight and a half bones.

St. Augustine’s also features three of its own house brews, which we highly recommend: a pilsner, a lager and a stout. All muy tasty and cheap to boot.

As far as other kinds of drinks like cocktails or highballs, we haven’t even bothered to inquire. Why would we? This is like a candy store. A candy store that sells beer.

The pub itself is pretty big (100+ seats maybe?), but it’s often packed to the rafters. Especially if there’s a hockey game on. Which leads us to our one and only criticism: we’re cool with TVs, hockey, etc if they help you attract clientele. But honestly, there are so many screens in this place, it’s like walking into a Best Buy.

And if there isn’t a local game on, how ‘bout either turning them off, or at least showing something more cultured—like Bugs Bunny cartoons?

But for the kick-ass job the place has done at becoming a bastion of alterna-brews in our too-often mainstream supplied burg, TVs are a small price to pay.

Squeeze on in to Elwoods and get your drink on.

Elwoods - 3145 W. Broadway - www.elwoods.ca

If The Fringe Café were to have a kid brother, Elwoods would probably be it. Conveniently tucked away right across the street, you get the feeling it wants to be The Fringe, it’s just lacking that worn-in, rough-around-the-edges look that give its neighbour that extra bit of character. Or, maybe they just clean it too well.

But that’s not to say Elwoods isn’t a great little place to imbibe. It’s a bit larger than its big brother neighbour, but still relatively small and cramped (read “cozy”—we just hate that word). But that’s what makes good pubs good, n’est pas? Sadly, a lot of places around town, for whatever reasons, never seem that “social” to us. You’re either confined to a booth you can’t escape from, or you’re seated in a room that’s twice the size of an aircraft hanger and half as inviting. But if you’re elbow-to-elbow with your fellow drinkers, you’re going to start talking one way or another—whether you like it or not. And isn’t that half the fun of boozing with your fellow humans? Fortunately, Elwoods is of the elbow-to-elbow school of thought.

As far as hitting the sauce, there isn’t tons on the fancy/innovative cocktails front. It’s more of a pints and pitchers kind of hangout. That said, you can’t knock Elwoods Friday $3.99 highballs. And if you ask nicely, Colin the Bartender might show off some of his fancy-ass cocktail makin’ acrobatics, what with the flipping and the spinning and the twirling of the shaker.  (Word to the wise—watching the flipping and the spinning while inebriated can swiftly facilitate a painful introduction of skull to tiled floor.)

You also can’t knock the $10 burger and beer special everyday. They’ve got a decent selection of brews on tap too:

• GI Honey Lager & Pale Ale
• OK Springs Hefeweizen & 1516 Lager
• Big Rock Traditional Ale & Grasshopper Ale
• Sleemans Original Draught
• Rock Creek Cider
• And for you hipsters out there - $3.99 pints of Pilly!

Nothing out of this world, but better than a row of taps drawing big brewery piss—well, save for the Pilly maybe. They also serve the mind-fucking Snakebite should thoughts of blacking out or a good ol’ fashioned lose-the-plot gong show seem attractive to you. But hey, no judgment.

So next time you’re in this neck of the woods or you’re dying for a post-movie beer (The Hollywood theatre’s within spitting distance), squeeze into Elwoods and belly up to the bar.

So Cascade Room, we meet again.

The Cascade Room - 2616 Main St. - www.thecascade.ca

This here review needs a little backstory to set the stage: Rewind to a couple of years ago when The Boozecan’s debut issue as a humble-but-pain-in-ass-to-put-together e-newsletter was sent to an astounding thirty recipients, and The Cascade Room got the “honour” of being one of the first places we ever reviewed. So how’d it go? Well, let’s put it this way–summoning all the power of our sophistimicated wordsmanship, one bar received a glowing review illuminatingly titled “Bar of the month”. The Cascade’s review, on the other hand was brief, brutal, and bore the headline “Not bar of the month.” Yeah, in short, we trashed it.

Not to dwell on it, but it wasn’t a good experience obviously. We’d heard so much buzz about the place, and ended up being colossally disappointed (mainly by the drinks, to be honest). But before you hardcore Cascadians start baying for our alcohol-saturated blood, like many did after our first review, keep in mind that we did give them the benefit of having an “off” night and actually went back a couple of times, only to be let down twice more. So we wrote it off.

Fast forward back to the here and now, and legions of Main Street hipsters and thirsty Vancouverites have proved us wrong–obviously–‘cause the joint’s going gangbusters. So we thought it was about high time we put first, second, and third impressions aside and make a return visit. We’ve got to admit, we were a little bit nervous. It was kinda like repeating a blind date that didn’t pan out the first time.

Well, we’re happy to say it was a way hot date, yo. The place was packed, the tunes were pumpin’ and the drinks were…well, way tasty. And going by the wait to get in, the Cascade’s reputation for said bevvies precedes itself. You can sit at the moderately sized bar if there’s room, but there’s plenty of tables in all manner of configurations in a big cosy room decorated with a mash up of 1940’s style wallpapers. But let’s face it, we weren’t there to eat. And judging by the tables full of the hipster-elite crowd knocking back the sweet stuff, neither were they.

To their obvious credit, the ambitious folks at The Cascade offer up a metric shit-ton of cocktails­­­­–too many to list here–but most range from a bit over $8 to just under a tenner (and all containing a generous 2-3 oz of booze and made right with fresh, house-made ingredients). We recommend getting a drink before you start reading, lest you die of thirst before you make it through it. But so you’re not totally overwhelmed by choice, their extensive cocktail menu is nicely categorized:

• Vintage Standards (Daiquiris, Bloody Marys, Tom Collins etc.)True American Players (Manhattans, Bronx Cocktails etc.)
• Deeper South (think Mint Juleps and Old Fashioneds)
• Champagne Supernova (4 different champagne-based cocktails)
• Other European flavours (Sidecar, and for the brave/foolhardy – an Absinthe cocktail)
• Old School Classics (think Mojito, Pisco Sours and more)
• Martinis (more than you could probably name)

Specifically, we were digging the Ward 8 (Tennessee sour mash whiskey, lemon & orange juice and a dash of housemade pomegranate grenadine) and their signature Cascade Room Cocktail (bourbon shaken with apple & lime juices, vanilla bean, bitters and egg white). Actually, we were digging several of them.

They’ve got an admirable selection of seven local brews (Red Racer, Russell Cream, Driftwood Ale to name a few) and three imports on tap all in proper 20oz UK pints ranging from just over a fiver up to seven bones, AND they offer half pints at­­–wait for it­–just about half the price (huge shout outs for doing the right thing)! Plus, there’s a good 20 or so beers from around the world available in bottles or cans.

Our only real complaint was slow service. Hence the quote of the night: “Where’s that chick? I need more booze!” (classy, huh?). But hey, it was busy. So kudos to the Cascade. You won us over. At last.