Posted by Shea | March 11th, 2010 | Leave a comment »
Today’s wine, the Rippon Jeunesse Young Vine Riesling 2006, is quintessential Vancouver. I say this not because this is a B.C. wine, but because it is the perfect accompaniment for Vancouver’s favourite food: sushi. Most of us don’t think about drinking wine when we eat sushi, but the right pairing can be truly exceptional. One of my favourites is a dry riesling, which helps cut the fat of the fish while also being clean and crisp enough not to interfere with sushi’s delicate flavours.
This wine is from New Zealand and is made in an almost fully dry style (although there is a touch of residual sugar here). For those not familiar with riesling, this wine has one of the grape’s classic smells, which is kind of like petrol or plasticine. Now, this is not an offensive or negative odour, it is just unusual for the uninitiated. I also smelled nuts and some citrus. Basically with this wine you get crsip and clean citrus, and a dry and minerally finish. As an add value, this is a biodynamic producer, so you know that the wine maker is thinking about the vineyard as a holistic organism.
I love this kind of riesling, but not everyone will love it and it’s bound to be a bit strange for some. However, once you start pairing wines like this with the right foods, it’s hard to go back.
$29 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars
*Shea Coulson is the author of Justgrapeswine.com, a Vancouver based wine blog focusing on wine and beer reviews, education, and wine industry trends and developments.
Posted by Rob | March 11th, 2010 | Leave a comment »
The Quill & Quire is reporting that a former manager Kitsilano’s Duthie Books – Ria Bluemer – plans to open a new bookstore in Kits as early as this fall.
“We had just lost our jobs, and when we received our notice, I immediately started taking action to pursue the establishment of a new bookstore,” says Bleumer.
Although the lease has not yet been finalized, a retail space has already been chosen. The new store, called Sitka Books & Art, will be 3,500 square feet – slightly larger than the old Duthie’s location. According to Bleumer, the name comes from the Sitka Spruce, a type of tree known to grow quickly at a young age and live for up to 700 years; her hope is that those same characteristics of rapid growth and longevity will apply to the store, too.
While the new store will primarily be a book store, she also plans to sell unique art and crafts from local artists. According to Bleumer, Sitka Books & Art will employ about five staffers, some of whom will be former Duthie’s employees.
Interesting choice of names as Sitka Surfboards JUST opened a location at 1864 West 4th Avenue in Kitsilano.
Posted by Frances | March 10th, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Greens Organic and Natural Market opened over the weekend at 1978 West Broadway and Maple. Greens is independently Canadian-owned and operated, and advertises itself as one of the most environmentally conscious grocery stores in Vancouver.
After all, it’s one of the first grocery stores in Vancouver to take on the zero-waste challenge. According to their website, they’re aiming to join Metro Vancouver in achieving 70% waste diversion by 2015, and hit the 100% mark soon after that. They also promise to work with local suppliers as much as possible. Other green details include not having plastic or paper bags at check out other than reusable totes, as well as printing receipts on both sides to reduce paper wastage.
Of course, no matter how green they are, my main concern was how their prices compare with other stores. Greens told me that they’re still working out their pricing for the first month, and they will try to sell lower than Whole Foods. I was pleased to discover that they are indeed cheaper on some items compared to most green and organics stores. The last time I bought a carton of Almond Breeze for $1.99 was at East Van’s discount store, Sunrise Market. To have such prices offered in Kits is refreshing.
Greens is open 8am – 10pm everyday. They also offer an organic coffee bar and deli. Since Greens is located just a block away from Marketplace IGA, and with the strong presence of Whole Foods/Capers, it would be interesting to see how this competition plays out.
Posted by Rob | March 10th, 2010 | Leave a comment »
Kitsilano.ca would like to enter the Canadian Internet Registration Authority’s Showusyour.ca contest but we have no video skills and we need someone to give us a hand. In order to enter the contest we need to submit a video entry that tells the world that our .CA domain name is epic and that we’d be lost without it.
Here are CIRA’s rules for the video entry:
- be no longer than 180 seconds in length;
- in its entirety, be a single, previously unpublished, work of original material produced by the entrant for this Contest;
- contain content that only promotes the products or services offered by the Sponsor or the Entrant, and not include brand names, logos or trademarks of others;
- not contain material that violates or infringes another’s rights, including but not limited to privacy, publicity and/or intellectual property rights;
- not, in the sole and unfettered discretion of the Sponsor, contain material that is inappropriate, unlawful, indecent, obscene, hateful, tortuous, defamatory, slanderous or libellous;
- not, in the sole and unfettered discretion of the Sponsor, contain material that promotes bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.
Sounds pretty simple and they’re aren’t many entries yet, so our odds are good. If you’ve got some creative ideas and the skills to turn them in a video entry for Kitsilano.ca, read more about the contest and then send us a note telling us about your idea for the video. We’ll give you instant feedback so that you can get started on the video project right away.
This contest includes some wicked prizes but we’re only interested in the advertising promotion opportunity with CIRA – so if your video submission results in Kitsilano.ca winning one of the top three “physical” prizes, it’s yours:
- Grand Prize: One Apple MacBook Pro 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo notebook computer (model # MB985LL/A). Approximate retail value – $2,099.00
- First Runner Up Prize: One Apple iPod touch 64GB (model # MC011C/A). Approximate retail value – $429.00
- Second Runner Up Prize: One Flip UltraHD camcorder (model # U2120B-CA). Approximate retail value – $249.99
The contest closes on March 15 at 11:59pm EST, so you don’t have a lot of time to get this done.
Check out the current Showusyour.ca entries and let us know if you’re up for it by email.
Posted by Rob | March 9th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Starting April 1st, the Kitsilano 4th Avenue Business Association will have a new Executive Director. Russ Davies, currently the Executive Director for the White Rock Business Improvement Association, will become executive director for both the Kitsilano 4th Avenue Business Association and Point Grey Village Business Association.
According to the Peace Arch News, Davies who has been with the White Rock BIA since October 2005 was headhunted for the new position. Davies said he has achieved everything he wanted to with the White Rock BIA, including having the association renewed by its membership for a further 10 years at its annual general meeting in January.
I sure this has some of you wondering who pays for BIAs like ours?
Funding for Business Improvement Areas is advanced by Vancouver City Council as a grant and recovered through a special BIA property tax levy. Each year Council approves BIA budgets and staff prepare rating by-laws for Council’s enactment. Each rating by-law authorizes the imposition of a levy on every qualifying property within the BIA area. Funding is released to the BIA societies beginning in April and, after the rating by-laws are enacted, recovered through subsequent property taxes.
In the case of the Kitsilano 4th Avenue BIA, the Association submitted a budget for Council’s approval and requested a recoverable grant of $140,000 for 2009-10. Included in the budget were $64,000 for Business & Tourism Promotion, Advertising, Events, $36,000 for Street Enhancements – Banners, Clean Team, Pole Painting, and $41,000 for Staffing, Administration, Advocacy & Communication.
The complete budget is available online in Appendix O of this PDF document.
Posted by Rob | March 8th, 2010 | Leave a comment »
CTV is reporting that Vancouver police are asking for help to find a man they say sexually assaulted a woman in her Kitsilano apartment building Sunday.
The woman was leaving her building in the 2000-block of West 8th Avenue around 11:30 a.m. yesterday when she noticed a man loitering in the lobby, Const. Lindsey Houghton said.
The women returned home a few moments later. As she got off the elevator on an upper floor the man appeared suddenly and grabbed her breasts.
“She screamed and pushed him away and the man fled down a stairwell,” Houghton told reporters at a press conference Monday.
The suspect is described as a white man between the ages of 17 and 25. He has a very thin build and a clean shaven face. He was wearing a red hoodie-style sweater and baggy pants and appeared to be nervous or shaky.
Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call the Vancouver Police Sex Crimes Unit at 604-717-2634.
Posted by Frances | March 5th, 2010 | Leave a comment »
All week I’ve heard people bemoaning their Olympic withdrawal symptoms. I’m hearing comments like “Everything’s so quiet and uneventful now” and “I miss the energy and the lineups,” and these complaints are really starting to irritate me.
All this whining irritates me because Vancouver has always had a lot to celebrate, but there won’t be much celebrating with this sulky hangover. Not to mention that the complaints focus on a passing event instead of the locals’ contributions.
The games come and go, but the people who made all that fun possible live here. Have you seen the video of the crazy flashmob of 1,500+ people dancing on Robson? That was coordinated by Kits’ own non-profit organization, imagine1day. The other roaming dance parties were designed by Decentralized Dance Party, and DDP has been hosting roaming dances for a year with nary a billion dollar budget in sight.
The energy and fun expressed in the games wouldn’t happen without people’s participation. Don’t just passively whine about what this city lacks; go out there and make this city into the sort of space that you want to live in. And if you find yourself missing all those dances, there’s a flashmob workshop this weekend that could use your cooperation.
The next “Host a City Happening” Flash Mob event is happening tomorrow, on Saturday March 6. From 10 am to noon, participants will learn and practice the choreography at Kitsilano Community Centre (2690 Larch Street). Then it will be perfomed that very afternoon at 2 pm and 6 pm.
There isn’t much information on what kind of choreography or music will be involved, other than the fact that the dance will be 4 minutes long. Also, all ages are welcome, so you can certainly make this flashmob into a family occasion.
For more information, please call the Kitsilano Community Centre: 604-257 6976.
Posted by Shea | March 5th, 2010 | Leave a comment »
It’s not everyday that you see a Greek wine kicking around, which is odd given that Greece was the source of many of Europe’s vines. Greece is a fascinating wine growing country because, similar to Italy, it has maintained a healthy and very large array of indigenous grapes. While most of the world has ripped out indigenous vines in favour of the famous varieties from France (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, etc.), Greece has 100’s of local varieties still planted.
Today’s wine – the Monemvassia Winery Laconia Red Dry Table Wine - is made on the Peloponnesian Peninsula near Sparta (which today is somewhat of a sleepy little town). The grapes here are Mavraky and Agiogitiko. Heard of them? Me neither. There is a bit of Cabernet Sauvignon mixed in to the blend, but you wouldn’t know that from tasting this wine, which I might add is both fruity and elegant.
I would call this wine aromatically pretty. Many modern wines are fairly straightforward and singular in their smells – you know, chocolate, some berries. This is much more delicate with earth, spices, light red fruits, and a kind of floral quality. However, when you drink this it has quite a bit of fruit in it, which means that those of you who like fruitier wines will love this, just as those of you who like earthier wines will love this. I tasted cranberry, strawberry and some earth undertones – and at 12.5% alcohol you can drink more and feel less (something I appreciate these days). This will go with a wide variety of foods, but any sort of stew will work wonderfully.
One last note: I know the prices have been a little high lately, but I assure you these are good values and worth the extra couple of bucks. I will be pushing the price down in future articles, but this was so intriguing that I had to write it up.
$32 at Kitsilano Wine Cellars
*Shea Coulson is the author of Justgrapeswine.com, a Vancouver based wine blog focusing on wine and beer reviews, education, and wine industry trends and developments.
Posted by Frances | March 4th, 2010 | Leave a comment »
This Sunday, the movie industry’s biggest annual awarding ceremony is going to take place. Movies like Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, The Hurt Locker, and Precious are expected to win several of the coveted golden bald statues.
But is the Academy a good guideline for cultural relevance? In 1968, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey lost Best Picture and Best Director to Oliver! the neverending orphan musical. While I have nothing against Oliver!, musicals, or orphans, I just can’t remember any scene in that movie that is anwhere near as striking as an opening introduction of apes beating each other with a stick while “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” thunders in the background.
Who votes in these awards anyway? Well, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, that’s who. These are the people who gave Titanic 11 wins. That’s another example why it’s hard to take the Oscars seriously. Videomatica knows this, and this is why they are hosting the Alternative Oscars Contest.
There are eleven categories in their Alternative Oscars, ranging from Best Picture to Worst Picture to the coveted Best Non-Human Actor. You can clearly see why this is much more fun that the actual Oscars, so vote now before polls close at March 7. Besides, just for voting, you are eligible to win some great entertainment-related prizes, like a $100 gift certificate to Bistrot Bistro.
PS If you win that prize, please consider writing a review for us, specifically on the topic of how $100 worth of beef bourguignon tastes like.
Posted by Rob | March 3rd, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Thanks to kloppster for tagging this photo with “kitsilanoca” on Flickr.
If you would like your photos of Kitsilano featured here on Kitsilano.ca or included as one of the rotating images in our header, be sure to do the same.
Today’s wine, the Rippon Jeunesse Young Vine Riesling 2006, is quintessential Vancouver. I say this not because this is a B.C. wine, but because it is the perfect accompaniment for Vancouver’s favourite food: sushi. Most of us don’t think about drinking wine when we eat sushi, but the right pairing can be truly exceptional. One of my favourites is a dry riesling, which helps cut the fat of the fish while also being clean and crisp enough not to interfere with sushi’s delicate flavours.
