Vancouver Magazine, March/April 2019

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THE REAL ESTATE ISSUE

Just how screwed are we?

T H E R E A L E S TAT E I S S U E

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What Now? After a meteoric rise, our real estate market is finally showing signs of slowing down—and homeowners, speculators and those of us hopefully counting our quarters are left wondering what to do as housing investments start to look a little, well, wobbly. So we took real-life scenarios to the experts for the words of wisdom, reassurance and hard truths Vancouverites need to hear right now.

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VA N M AG . C O M

M A R C H/A P R I L 2 0 1 9 // VO LU M E 5 2 // N U M B E R 2

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City

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49 On the Rise Studio Lorem Ipsum embraces elegant simplicity.

19 At Issue Haida Gwaii leans in to luxury tourism; cannabis rebrands as a wellness product.

26 What It’s Like To How to cope when you find out you could have 40 secret siblings.

30 City Informer Leasehold properties look like an incredible deal. What’s the catch?

Culture

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50 Hot Take Hit the gym (or not) with sleek, workout -inspired style.

52 Lucy Loves Missing the millennium? Our style editor has got you covered.

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54 Modern Family Little Mountain Gallery is home base for the city’s up-and-coming comedians.

56 The Ticket Seat belt sculptures, rowdy rugby and teen angst should be on your to-do list.

58 The Dish Cracking open a can at Como Taperia.

60 Review Elisa updates the steakhouse cliché.

66 Sometime in Vancouver Photographer Grant Harder captures a slice of city life.

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YOU ARE ALRE ADY BE AU TIFUL LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE

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Publisher Peter Legge Editorial Director Anicka Quin Creative Director Catherine Mullaly Executive Editor Stacey McLachlan Food Editor Neal McLennan Associate Art Director Jenny Reed Style Editor Lucy Lau Associate Editor Nathan Caddell Videographer Mark Philps Contributing Editors Frances Bula, Amanda Ross Editorial Intern Ayesha Habib Editorial Email mail@vanmag.com Sales Manager Gabriella Sepúlveda Knuth Account Managers Trish Almeida, Judy Johnson, James Southam, Nicholas Stanley Online Coordinator Theresa Tran Production Manager Kristina Borys Advertising Designer Amanda Siegmann Marketing Manager Kaitlyn Lush Marketing Coordinator Christine Beyleveldt Sales Email gsepulveda@canadawide.com National Media Sales Gabriella Sepúlveda Knuth Email gsepulveda@canadawide.com U.S. Sales Representation, Hayes Media Sales Lesley Hayes, 602-432-4868 Email lesley@hayesmediasales.com

Suite 230, 4321 Still Creek Drive, Burnaby, B.C. V5C 6S7 Tel 604-299-7311 Fax 604-299-9188 Chairman & CEO Peter Legge, OBC, LLD (HON) President Samantha Legge, MBA Senior VP of Integration Brad Liski VP of Content Marketing Ryan McKenzie VP of Digital Kevin Hinton VP of HR/Admin Joy Ginete-Cockle VP of Finance Sonia Roxburgh, CPA, CGA Executive Creative Director Rick Thibert Director of Editorial Michael McCullough Director of Production Kim McLane Director of Circulation Tracy McRitchie Director of Sales Brianne Harper Marketing Lead Chris Hinton Systems Administrator Brian Fakhraie Accounting Terri Mason, Eileen Gajowski Circulation Katie Gajowski, Kelly Kalirai, Lori North, Rhiannon Jones Executive Assistant to Peter Legge Elaina Kohlhauser

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MARCH APRIL 2019

VANCOUVER MAGAZINE is published six times a year by Canada Wide Media Limited, Suite 230, 4321 Still Creek Drive, Burnaby, B.C. V5C 6S7. Phone 604-2997311; fax 604-299-9188. Copyright 2019. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the publisher’s written permission. Not responsible for unsolicited editorial material. Privacy Policy: On occasion, we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened organizations whose product or service might interest you. If you prefer that we not share your name and address (postal and/ or email), you can easily remove your name from our mailing lists by reaching us at any of the listed contact points. You can review our complete Privacy Policy at Vanmag.com. Indexed in the Canadian Magazine Index by Micromedia Ltd. and also in the Canadian Periodical Index. International standard serial no. ISSN 0380-9552.

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ED NOTE

this past weekend, I had the kind of gathering that makes me love where I live. I rent a turn-of-the-century (read: very large) one-bedroom in the West End, and to celebrate my birthday this year, nine of my friends piled into my place to cook food together and to carry on into the wee hours. We discovered that another friend a few floors up was doing the same thing, so we travelled en masse up the stairs with a bottle of Champagne to celebrate with him, too.

Part of the reason why I haven’t yet purchased a condo in this city is that I’m reluctant to give up the elbow room that allows for these kinds of gatherings. I couldn’t buy a 1,000-square-foot place in the West End, but for now I can certainly rent one while continuing to make my home the landing pad for many a Saturdaynight gathering. (Our get-togethers are frequent enough that the group on my birthday weekend suggested they all pitch in on a dishwasher. I didn’t object.)

I’ll admit I often have real estate envy. I’ve long felt the anxiety of watching our market skyrocket without enjoying the return-on-investment benefits that come with it. Lucy Lau’s piece in this issue, “Single and Looking (for Real Estate),” on page 44, is about how tough it is as a single person to get into the market, and if you’re in the same boat as I am, it will resonate. But recently we’ve seen a dip—so is now my time to attempt to get in on the action?

In this issue we’re following a handful of Vancouverites who have figured out how to work with the current wobble in our market. Should we be buying, selling or holding on for dear life? From a first-time buyer who opted for a now-less-expensive fixer-upper to a mid-career homeowner who’s choosing to hunker down and wait it out, they’re sharing their stories and getting counsel from experts like Thomas Davidoff, director at the Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate at UBC’s Sauder School of Business.

I particularly love this gem of advice he offers: “Breathe,” he says. “Most of the time it comes down to, Are you in a situation where you have to move, and thus if the market is down you have to sell into it? Because if you’re not and you like where you are, just continue to live there,” he says. “Just wait. Don’t worry.”

So I’m doing my best not to worry. And, meanwhile, I’m enjoying my new dishwasher.

Coming Up Next Issue The Restaurant Awards It’s our 30th anniversary of celebrating the best restaurants in this city!

The judges have dined, considered and dined so many more times, all to produce the definitive list of where to eat in Vancouver in 2019.

How to Brand a Restaurant You’ve got the magic idea for the food, but launching a successful restaurant in Vancouver these days is so much more than that. We chat with the city’s go-to branding agency as they walk us through what it takes from conception to opening day.

On the Web What to Do This Week Our Culture columnist, Alyssa Hirose, scours the city for ideas on how to spend your time each week, from drumming workshops to best bets for brunch.

FOLLOW US ON

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Anicka Quin editorial director

aquin @ canadawide . com

@ aniqua

PORTRAIT: EVA AN KHERA J; ST YLING BY LUISA RINO, MAKEUP BY MEL ANIE NEUFELD; CLOTHING COURTESY HOLT RENFREW, HOLTRENFREW.COM. CHEF CHEN: CHRISTIN GILBERT

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now

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PORTRAIT: EVA AN KHERA J; ST YLING BY LUISA RINO, MAKEUP BY MEL ANIE NEUFELD; CLOTHING COURTESY HOLT RENFREW, HOLTRENFREW.COM. CHEF CHEN: CHRISTIN GILBERT

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SPONSORED REPORT

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Given the EXchange’s historical and architectural significance, it was necessary for Swiss-based firm Harry Gruger Architects, (whose portfolio includes the iconic “Bird’s Nest”, Beijing’s National Stadium) to marry the buildings’ rich, art-deco character with modern flair. The result is the building’s stunning design features like the 32-storey pin-striped curtain wall and the immaculately preserved 1909 façade.

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CA N N A B I S G O E S G O O P / “ D I B L I N G ” D I S C OV E R Y / T H E T E M P TAT I O N O F L E A S E H O L D S

VA N M AG .C O M/C I T Y

City The swanky Ocean House is part of a $700 million Indigenous tourism industry.

Build a Luxury Eco-Lodge, and They Will Come A growing cohort of Indigenous groups taps into the “next big economy”: tourism. by

Masa Takei

photograph by

Ben Giesbrecht

“you’re on the seabus, and we’re on Haida Gwaii,” proclaims a man in suspiciously city-dude clothes, leaning in through the front door of the boat cabin. He and a few other guests have opted to embrace the wind and buck of the choppy sea from the foredeck of our 28-foot, custom-made aluminum landing craft. The rest of us choose to remain comfortably ensconced in the dozen or so shock-absorbing suspension seats of the enclosed cabin.

Just this morning, all of us had been closer to a Seabus commute than an ocean-going voyage. But after a two-hour flight from YVR’s South Terminal to the Sandspit airport, then a mind-bending helicopter hop—shooting the gaps between peaks like velvet-tattered antlers peeling lush vegetation—and a short boat ride, we arrived at Ocean House. The new Haida-owned floating eco-lodge is moored in an inlet on the serrated edge of this northern B.C. archipelago, islands with a mystique reaching near-mythic proportions.

In the past, much of the high-end tourism that came to Haida Gwaii

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City AT I S S U E joins over 400 Indigenous tourism businesses in the province that together generate over $700 million; an estimated one in four overnight visitors to B.C. will experience them.

During the days, when we’re not eating lavishly and getting pampered stupid, we explore the rugged coast.

Our guides out on the water include Shane Bell, a.k.a. Tuna— sporting a tiny cedar hat on a tight man bun—and our quiet driver, Nico York. Samantha Rullin, formerly with HaiCo and now with Indigenous Tourism BC, grew up with these two, and she points out an added benefit to the new operation.

“It’s a way for people from the Haida Nation to present their culture in a way that they find respectful, but it’s also

Kaakuns Collison, a weaver, artist-inresidence and member of the Council of Haida Nation, on a trip up Stads K’uns GawGa (Peel Inlet) in search of a plant medicine. The outer bark of the plant is so powerful, it has found traditional use in everything from promoting fertility to treating dry

Cultural guide Shane “Tuna” Bell

Nico York

a way for Indigenous people to connect with their culture.” The Haida themselves don’t necessarily have the means to visit these relatively inaccessible ancient village sites and see such things as an incredibly wellpreserved standing pole sheltered in an old-growth forest. Nothing compares to actually standing in the thick moss, feeling the energy of the land, and hearing Shelford present a song using a drum handed down from her great-grandmother.

One afternoon, we join Pansy-

Nothing compares to actually standing in the thick moss, feeling the energy of the land. skin, arthritis and depression. The exact details of its use are a closely guarded secret, preserved through generations. Yet what also proves powerful is spending the time out on the land together, hearing Collison’s stories. She sends us home with a small sachet of the plant as a souvenir, a gift that is lighter and more enduring than boxes of frozen fish. When we leave, we take nothing else from the islands but our shared experiences and a greater appreciation of the Haida land and culture.

K YLER VOS

didn’t have much to do with the Haida. A flight into the airport, a short walk across the tarmac to a waiting helicopter and straight out to a fishing lodge. At the end of the trip, the process was reversed, except with boxes upon boxes of Styrofoam coolers filled with fish.

Each year these sport fishers take tens of thousands of pounds of fish away with them but often not an ounce of knowledge about Haida culture. They also leave no significant contribution to the local economy.

From when the fur traders first came to what was then known as the Queen Charlotte Islands until now, that’s been the story of this place: mass resource extraction benefiting off-islanders. “Tourism is our next big economy,” says one of our young Haida guides, Jaylene Shelford, who had previously worked with another Haida tour operator down in the Gwaii Haanas reserve. “It’s really the only non-depletable resource. We need to move away from reliance on activities like mining, logging, fishing—things that take away from the islands.

The Polynesians and the Hawaiians managed to build a strong tourism industry. It’s something we can do, too, as a small community on a group of little islands.”

Now, almost 35 years after the internationally heard Lyell Island logging protests, the Haida, through a parent company, HaiCo, have made significant inroads into participating in and shaping how industries on the islands are run. With the purchase of Westcoast Resorts, HaiCo gained two operating fishing lodges and a 12-guestroom barge lodge that was in dry dock in Milbanke Sound. After a luxe renovation, complete with a longhouse-inspired bar, buttonblanket headboards, a full spa, and a rebrand as Ocean House, they towed the barge to this remote location. It

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RAW & SWAY COLLECTIONS BY HENRIK PEDERSEN

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City AT I S S U E

In a post-legalization world, the cannabis industry is chasing a lucrative new female demographic of wellness enthusiasts—but who ultimately benefits? by

Stacey McLachlan

back in 2016, April Pride, an architecture school grad with an entrepreneurial itch, pitched an investor group on her idea of reaching a female audience with a line of design-minded stash canisters. They were less than intrigued. “One of the comments was, ‘A cannabis smoker is a cannabis smoker. I don’t understand why you need to differentiate,’” Pride recalls. “ Today, I don’t think there’s anyone who would say that.”

Pride now runs editorial platform Van der Pop, which shares cannabis content specifically aimed at educating women and, yes, turns a tidy profit selling rose-gold joint rollers at a Tokyo Smoke “cannabis education centre” in Gastown that looks an awful lot like a Saje store.

Times have certainly changed. According to the Cannabis Consumers Coalition, the number of women using cannabis is growing dramatically, with ladies now outpacing dudes as the primary users of the plant. Today, the typical pot enthusiast is less likely to be a 25-year-old in his mom’s basement and more likely to be Mom herself. And the industry is realizing that, in order to reach that lucrative demographic (women are responsible for 80 percent of all consumer spending, with a powerful influence over friends and family), it might be time to tap into pot’s feminine side.

This new wave of cannabis users is not interested in dank bongs and eye-rollingly juvenile strain names

(“Wet Dream,” anyone?)—they’re stocking up on weed-infused bath bombs, nibbling on artisanal edibles and mellowing out after work with CBD oil. Women are turning to cannabis to improve distinctly female experiences: PMS. Menopause. Sexual discomfort. For the majority of these users, it’s not about partying, “it’s about having a life that’s more balanced,” Pride says. “People are curious about something that gives them 10 percent improvement in their life in some way, and cannabis can do that.” In a Van der Pop survey of 1,530 North American women, 90 percent of pot-curious women said medicinal reasons would be their number one motivation for trying it.

In some ways, it’s a return to a simpler time—up until the 1920s, cannabis was regularly used as a medical treatment for a variety of women’s health issues, including childbirth pain, anxiety and menstrual cramps. Advocates say that the plant has evolved uniquely to work synergistically and specifically with the female body, and there’s ample research to back that up: studies show significant interaction between the endocannabinoid system and estrogen.

In these self-care-obsessed times, this almost-mystical plant is well positioned to pivot from recreation to wellness ritual—and with the global market for health and wellness set to reach $815 billion by 2021, why wouldn’t cannabis producers want a piece of that pie? When viewed as a form of all-natural treatment instead of a tool for intoxication, the plant suddenly takes on a sheen of cleanliness and purity: pot, it seems, has become Goop-ified. With that new characterization comes light, airy, aspirational branding, a far cry from the cringy markers of the stoner culture of yesteryear. The pot smoker of

In these self-careobsessed times, the plant is well positioned to pivot from recreation to wellness ritual.

2019 reaches for a pretty handcrafted pipe made by a local ceramicist and a blend of indica and sativa (specifically designed for treating anxiety) displayed proudly on her countertop in a Scandinavian-modern stash jar.

This introduction of thoughtfully designed accessories has certainly played a role in attracting female consumers. “Products can change people’s minds,” says Pride. “If it looks like something pretty you would have on your vanity, there’s an acceptance versus an immediate distaste.”

Cannabis brand Dosist isn’t aimed explicitly at women, but the modern millennial packaging—white, sans serif—is not dissimilar to Glossier.

The company’s sleek multi-use “dose pen” delivers controlled, smoke-free hits of specially formulated strains labelled by intended purpose: choose from Sleep, Calm and Relief, among others. “We’ve made something civilized and beautiful,” says AnneMarie Dacyshyn, chief marketing officer for the company. (Dosist products aren’t available in Canada yet, as you probably guessed from

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its snarky “Not available in Canada” ad campaign, but it already has offices in Vancouver and Toronto.) “I live in L.A., and I can’t tell you how many times I’m out and see amazing women who have their things out on the table—beautiful bag, an iPhone, beautiful Dosist pen,” Dacyshyn explains. “This is not illicit and underground: you’re proud to have it out.”

No wonder, then, that a range of chic pro-weed magazines (Oregon-based Broccoli could be confused for a design publication) now line the shelves at Indigo, trumpeting pot use as a marker of a self-love lifestyle: this plant isn’t for escapism—it’s to make you a better version of you. “Men smoke weed, this line of thinking goes, to get high, whereas women, apparently, are meant to smoke weed to get better,” wrote Lauren McKeon, digital editor of the Walrus, in a recent post for Ontario media outlet TVO. “It’s marketed to us the same way everything else is marketed to us: as a way of fixing our supposed inadequacies, of buying our way into 2019-02-19 1:59 PM more appealing versions of ourselves.”

What makes this subtext slightly troubling is that despite the women educating on the front lines, boardrooms remain male-dominated. While momand-pop dispensaries are often run by women, in the C-suite it’s a classic business boys’ club. “It’s great there are so many female-run small businesses, but many just can’t survive because of capital needed to scale,” says Jessica Assaf, founder of online community Cannabis Feminist. For start-ups to succeed, investment is critical, and 98 percent of venture capital funding goes to men, according to research firm Pitchbook. “So many female brands need investors and leaders all the way through. We need everyone to accept and support and build,” she notes.

So, yes, women are spending big in the never-ending pursuit of wellness, but they’re ultimately not the ones profiting. Call it a grass ceiling.

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City W H AT I T ’ S L I K E T O

Sibling Revelry

How I found out I had 40 brothers and sisters.

by March Wallace*, as told to Stacey McLachlan

when my now-husband told my parents he was going to propose, my mom and dad decided it was finally time to tell me what they’d kept from me for 31 years. My mom sat me down and went through the whole story.

“It took a long time for your dad and me to get pregnant...” I already knew that part, so I was trying to figure out where it was going. I knew she wasn’t going to tell me I was adopted—I look exactly like her. What she told me instead was this: they had gone to a sperm clinic.

I was super-shocked. I’ve always been close to my father’s family, so to find out we weren’t biologically related was devastating. And I quickly found out that everyone knew: it was the big family secret. That hurt a lot.

I had a lot of questions, the biggest being, Who’s my donor?

They didn’t know; sperm donation was anonymous at the time, and the doctor is dead now. The clinic is closed, too, but they used to burn the records anyway. Doctors told parents, “Never tell your children. It’ll just mess them up.” And back then, at least, it wasn’t like on TV, where people pick their donor out of a book, like, “This one’s an astronaut, he has a PhD.” For my parents, the doctor just said, “You’re both white; I have a guy who’s Irish and looks like you.”

The doctor told them it was a UBC med student, but that actually turned out not to be true in the end: when I eventually found the donor, it turned out he was even older than my dad, who was 42 when I was born.

Once I got over the initial shock,

I’ve always been close to my father’s family, so to find out we weren’t biologically related was completely devastating.

I immediately did 23andMe and Ancestry.com DNA tests. From my 23andMe results, I found out I had a half-brother. I was so excited. He got back to me right away and told me, “We have a dibling [what we call donor siblings] chat group, and there are four of us”—so I suddenly had three sisters, too. My newfound brother had been raised knowing he was a donor kid: his mom told him at the age of three. One of my new sisters had lesbian moms, so she knew that she was from a donor, too. But there were two sisters in the group (from

*Name has been changed for privacy.

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the same mom) who found out because of an ancestry test.

I became the fifth of the diblings. They were excited for me to join the group and wanted to meet right away. It was six weeks between learning about my background and feeling like my whole identity was shattering to finding this group of people I feel a connection with. It’s like an instant therapy group. We all talk nearly every day.

After some more sleuthing on my part, I learned that our donor was pretty prolific and had donated over 400 times. It was a part-time job for him, basically: he was a stay-at-home dad and would donate for $40 to $50 per batch.

We have no idea how many kids came out of that, because not every donation leads to a pregnancy and not every pregnancy goes all the way, but the number is likely to be 40 or more. Today, he has self-published books and a Twitter account all about living forever through your DNA. A pattern has developed over the years: every six months, new diblings crop up. With all the Black Friday sales for 23andMe and Christmas gifts, we’re expecting a lot to come up soon.

We’re up to 14 confirmed now.

There are donor kid forums, and lots of people on there who are upset about finding out, so I think my diblings and I are pretty exceptional in the way that everybody’s cool with being a donor kid and happy to have each other. We had our own Dibling Christmas. Ultimately, all our parents wanted us enough to go through the donor process. They had the money to do it; most of us are only children and had lots of attention and love; none of us had a terrible upbringing. It’s hard not to feel lucky.

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T

n

CIT Y INFORMER

c

Is Buying a Leasehold Property Worth It? by

a

d

Stacey McLachlan Byron Eggenschwiler

illustration by

It’s Friday night, so you know what that means: get that music blasting (cool jazz, because you can’t figure out how to get Alexa to play anything else for you), slip into your best Korean snail-mucus mask and open up an incognito tab for an indulgent night of browsing real estate you can’t afford.

But things soon get more heated than you bargained for: there’s a 10-bedroom mansion with an in-house bidet network listed for $400,000.

A quick series of calculations reveals you spent more on SoulCycle classes this month than you would have on monthly mortgage payments.

Have you beat the system?! You’re flush with excitement, or maybe that’s just an allergic reaction to the snail mask—but either way, this is a once-ina-lifetime opportunity.

But of course there’s a catch, like when someone gives you a smart-home device for free and then you discover it’s just a cool-jazz machine that also spies on you. This mansion is a leasehold property, so yes, the physical house will be all yours, but you’ll have to lease the land it’s on, typically from the city or a First Nation band and usually found in the West End, UBC’s Endowment Lands or False Creek.

Most of the time, leased land is rented out for 99-year loans, and often

o

If you’re getting that leasehold property fresh, yes, you’ll likely be with that home till death do you part. the leasing fee is baked right into the property cost, though sometimes you’ll pay a monthly fee. “Ninetynine years?!” you might say. “Our AI overlords, led by Alexa, will have turned humans into a nutritious paste by the time I get to that expiry date!” If you’re getting that leasehold property fresh, yes, you’ll likely be with that home till death do you part, but if a leasehold property has been bought and sold during the course of the original lease, you might find yourself with a place closer to its expiry date... and you don’t really want to be anywhere near it come renegotiation time. And it turns out land prices typically go up over the course of 99 years. Even a master negotiator like me, who can sometimes get Alexa to play HOT jazz if I threaten to put her in the microwave, would have trouble finding an edge with a landowner in this sort of situation. You want it, they’ve got it, and also inflation and land value has gone up approximately

d

4,000 percent over the course of a century. When the Musqueam Band raised payments for their west-side properties in the ’90s, the average monthly payment jumped from $400 to $2,000. So you’ll want to ditch it before that, but who wants a plot of land that’s about to become more expensive? There’s also a chance that your lease might not be renewed at all.

That’s why you’re going to find firesale pricing on leasehold properties about to enter renegotiation. Buying a leasehold property probably works out to be a better deal than paying rent in the long run, but these are not great investment properties (banks usually don’t finance leaseholds) unless you want to haul the house itself to somewhere you can own the land, like a series of kickboards you’ve lashed together into a floating mass in your mom’s pool, or Chilliwack.

G h i

T t

Got a question for City Informer? stacey.mclachlan@vanmag.com

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C OV E R STORY

WHAT NOW? the upsizer

the firsttime buyer the mid - career homeowner

THE VANCOUVER REAL ESTATE MARKET IS WOBBLING. SO WHAT DO WE DO? After a decade of near non-stop growth, the Vancouver real estate market is now less than stable, and everything—from new taxes to mortgage stress tests to international trade tariffs—is stoking the uncertainty.

Inventory is up, prices are coming down, and many homes are taking months to sell. So what should people do now? Should they buy, sell or hold on for dear life?

Pick up an investment property? Hold off on that downsize? We take five cases to the pros. by

Jennifer Van Evra | photography by Tanya Goehring

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REAL E S TAT E ISSUE

JUST HOW SCREWED ARE WE?

THE FIRST-TIME BUYER Leah Bjornson Content Manager, 25

THE STRATEGY: Buy a fixerupper and ride out the market THE THINKING: As the Vancouver market began to quiet, first-time buyer Leah Bjornson picked up a 600-square-foot condo near Clark and Broadway for under $400,000 and didn’t have to weather multiple offers. The place needed extensive renos, but Bjornson wasn’t daunted by the work or by the slowing market, which she intends to ride out. “I’m not really concerned. That might be naïveté because it’s my first purchase, but we weren’t looking for a quick turnover,” she says. “We were looking at how the market is going to develop over the next 10 years.”

Even though the condo market is weakening, adds Bjornson, she feels more secure than she did in the rental market. “I’ve heard so many horror stories of people being renovicted, or having to search for a place and suddenly they’re paying $1,000 more a month,” she says. “So for me, that was a really big motivator.”

THE EXPERT: Trying to time the market is tricky, says Thomas Davidoff, director at the Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate at UBC’s Sauder School of Business. So buying in a slowing market isn’t necessarily a bad idea—as long as you’re in for the long haul, as Bjornson described. The upside for first-time buyers is that they no longer have to push their way through packed open houses, put in no-subject offers or lose out on countless bidding wars; on the contrary, they can take their time, make lowball offers, and maybe land a good deal. The key is to find a place where they’re comfortable with the monthly payments and won’t have to sell for several years. That way, if prices dip further, they won’t lose out.

“There’s not a great deal of reason to think this is going to be a gangbusters year for price growth, so by being a tough negotiator or not compromising, you’re more likely to get some reaction from the seller,” says Davidoff. “And if you miss out on this place, there will be another one next week.”

PROJECTS TO WATCH SECOND + MAIN LOCATION: E 2nd Ave. and Main St. (duh) NUMBER OF UNITS: 233 STARTING FROM: $550,000 SPECIAL FEATURES: Rooftop gardens, shared outdoor kitchens, Kohler fixtures THE GIST: Covering a full city block, Second + Main is set to infuse the no man’s land between Chinatown, Olympic Village and Mount Pleasant with some life.

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BY THE NUMBERS DEC. 2018 VS. DEC. 2017*

On Vancouver’s west side, the benchmark price for detached homes was down

D11.8%

Meanwhile, townhomes dropped just

D0.5% Condos were down

D2.9% FOR WEST-SIDE DETACHED PROPERTIES BETWEEN $2 AND $3 MILLION, THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF DAYS ON THE MARKET WAS

54

FOR CONDOS BETWEEN $400K AND $900K, THE NUMBER OF DAYS WAS

48

*Data from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver

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REAL E S TAT E ISSUE

CONDOS WERE DOWN IN MOST WEST-SIDE AREAS BUT UP IN A FEW AREAS, INCLUDING: COAL HARBOUR

A 5.6%

UBC

A 3.8%

JUST HOW SCREWED ARE WE?

THE DOWNSIZER Louanne Aplas

SOUTH GRANVILLE

Semi-Retired Operating Room Nurse, 62

A 1.6%

THE STRATEGY: Sell and buy something smaller, but no rush

MOUNT PLEASANT

A 1.1%

THE THINKING: Thirty years ago, Louanne Aplas and her husband purchased their first home on Vancouver’s east side; as their family grew, they upsized to a Kerrisdale home on a double lot. “At the time, it seemed like a stretch. We put everything we had into it,” remembers Aplas.

Their kids now have places of their own, and the couple is ready to downsize into a half duplex or smaller house; with their home’s value down between an estimated $500,000 and $750,000 from the peak, however, they’re in no rush.

“We’ve been looking around, but now we’re thinking maybe we should just fix up a few things and stay put because nobody knows really what’s going on with the market,” says Aplas.

If they find a property they like, she adds, they may buy and rent it out, or rent out the house, until things settle.

“It’s a crapshoot,” she says. “The Vancouver real estate market always has been.”

SOUTH CAMBIE

A 7%

THE BIGGEST DIPS IN WESTSIDE CONDOS WERE IN: QUILCHENA

D 8.9%

POINT GREY

D 6.2%

KERRISDALE

D 5.3% DUNBAR

D 7.3%

KITSILANO

D 6.4%

Townhome sales were up in several neighbourhoods, including:

SOUTH GRANVILLE

THE EXPERT: Veteran realtor Rod MacKay has been navigating the ups and downs of the Vancouver market since the late 1970s. He says that in the current climate, downsizers are the hardest hit, because pricier detached-home values have dropped substantially while condo and townhouse prices have, for the most part, held firm.

“Often they want to put some money in the bank and help out their kids, but now their equity has gone from, say, $2.5 million to $1.2 million,” says MacKay. “So the spread has shrunk considerably.”

What’s more, while the quieter market means they’ll likely have an easier time buying a condo or smaller house, selling their larger home could be another matter, with some properties sitting on the market for half a year or more—unless they’re sold at a fire-sale price. As a result, MacKay suggests downsizers sell before they buy or, if they can sustain it financially, buy, then rent one of the properties until the home sells, as Aplas is thinking of doing.

“Then you can say, ‘We’ve got our place rented, and we’ll wait until next year and see what happens with the market,’” explains MacKay. “You end up owning two properties, but if you’re in a position to do that and it’s not going to hurt, I think that’s a pretty strong play.”

YALETOWN

MARPOLE

A 6.3% A 4.9% A 4.1%

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The Developer reserves the right to make changes, modifications or substitutes to the building design, specifications and floorplans should they be necessary. Renderings, views and layouts are for illustrative purposes only. Prices subject to change without notice. E.&O.E. Sales and Marketing by Intracorp Realty Ltd. Intracorp Belpark Limited Partnership.

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REAL E S TAT E ISSUE

JUST HOW SCREWED ARE WE?

THE UPSIZER Jason Levine

they don’t, they have even more riding on prices going down so they can get in,” he says. “So I think everybody watches it very carefully.”

Lawyer, 51

THE STRATEGY: Move into a larger home while prices are down THE THINKING: Jason Levine bought his first house off Commercial Drive in 2001 and later invested in several rental properties. Then, four years ago, he sold the rentals and moved into a detached house on a small lot in Mount Pleasant. But the need for more space for his growing family, along with dropping home prices, spurred him to buy a larger home on a full lot with a laneway house.

“Because of the drop in prices, the spread between my house, which is on a 25-foot lot, and one on a 33-foot lot went down from about $500,000 to about $200,000, so for me the dip has been good,” says Levine, on the phone a day before signing off on the new place. The Vancouver lawyer is hopeful that, barring some kind of economic catastrophe, house prices won’t fall drastically; still, he watches the market with a hint of trepidation.

“Everybody’s got so much riding on the market if they own property, and if

THE EXPERT: According to Tsur Somerville, senior fellow at the UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, upsizers are some of the biggest winners in the current real estate climate because pricier detached homes have fallen sharply in value while condos, townhomes and some houses have remained relatively steady. As a result the gap in prices has narrowed, in some areas quite drastically; still, that doesn’t mean it’s all smooth sailing.

“The problem for them is that in a down market you get very, very slow transactions, and they can easily end up in a situation where they’re squeezed between selling and buying,” says Somerville, referring to the fact that detached homes are often taking months to sell. “The ‘buy but then can’t sell’ tends to be the bigger issue, but the other way around, it’s, ‘Oh my god, where do I live?’” explains Somerville.

PROJECTS TO WATCH H E R I TA G E B Y F O R M W E R K S LOCATION: W 16th Ave. and Heather St. NUMBER OF UNITS: 36 STARTING FROM: $1,199,900 SPECIAL FEATURES: A restored heritage facade with stained glass windows THE GIST: A trio of heritage properties have been redeveloped into multi-family units, potentially creating a model for those with an eye on the underdeveloped Fairview ’hood.

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Downtown condos were up

A0.5% ACROSS THE EAST SIDE, DETACHED HOMES WERE DOWN AN AVERAGE OF

D7.2% WITH THE HARDEST-HIT AREAS BEING:

MAIN STREET

D 16.3% FRASER

D 12.6% KILLARNEY

D 8.6%

HASTINGS EAST

D 2.5%

ONLY GRANDVIEW SAW A SLIGHT INCREASE, JUST

A 0.1%

On the east side, the benchmark price for townhouses dropped 3.3%, and condos 1.4%.

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REAL E S TAT E ISSUE

JUST HOW SCREWED ARE WE?

Attached properties further afield fared better than those in many areas of Vancouver.

THE INVESTOR J. Phagura

Business Development Professional, 27

TOWNHOUSES WERE UP: EAST BURNABY

A 5.6%

SOUTH BURNABY

A 3.3%

PITT MEADOWS

A 8.2%

CONDOS WERE UP: LADNER

A 6.5%

TSAWWASSEN

A 7.4%

THE ONLY AREAS WHERE THE BENCHMARK PRICE FOR DETACHED HOMES INCREASED WERE: BOWEN ISLAND

A 5%

THE STRATEGY: Buy an older condo for investment THE THINKING: Business developer J. Phagura calls himself a stereotypical millennial: university educated, in a relationship, in demand professionally and living with his parents. But instead of looking for a place of his own, Phagura plans to buy a condo and rent it out so he can build equity and get ahead of the game.

“I’ve looked at everything from new buildings to full renovations to things that need to be gutted,” says Phagura, who has scoped out properties across Metro Vancouver.

The business school student has narrowed his sights on 20-to-30year-old condos in Burnaby or New West, where prices are more reasonable than in Vancouver but rents are high enough to cover costs. Now he’s just waiting for the market to dip a little deeper.

“Prices for apartments in those areas have dropped 10 or 20 thousand dollars, and if they drop a little bit further, I will be in a position to make a profit every month. It may only be $150 or $200, but as long as I’m not going negative I’m fine,” says Phagura, who is unfazed by the topsyturvy market. “It doesn’t scare me.

I’m actually hoping that there’s a dip with the older homes. That’s what I’m looking for. And then I want to buy.”

THE EXPERT: Somerville says the current market is potentially risky for investors for two reasons. The first is shifting policy at all levels of government, which creates uncertainty; second, much of the skyhigh demand for rentals over the last decade has come from millennials, many of whom are now starting families and moving into ownership.

“So you’re facing a riskier environment both in terms of policy and in terms of underlying demographics,” explains Somerville, “although things could still work out if millennials choose to rent for a more sustained period than people have historically.”

Davidoff has a different concern: many large new rental developments are about to hit the market, and that influx in a slowing real estate climate could put downward pressure on both real estate prices and rents. That would be ideal for first-time buyers and renters but not for new investors, who may not be able to recoup their costs again if they need to sell in a hurry.

“Your strategy might be, ‘I’ll rent it out, but if renting it out doesn’t work, I can always flip it and make some money that way,’” he says. “But you might end up doing the opposite.”

PITT MEADOWS

A 2%

SUNSHINE COAST

A 5.8%

40 VA N M A G . C O M M A R C H /A P R I L 2 0 1 9

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REAL E S TAT E ISSUE

JUST HOW SCREWED ARE WE?

THE MID-CAREER HOMEOWNER Haig Armen

Associate Professor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, 52 THE STRATEGY: Hunker down and enjoy the renovation THE THINKING: Among his friends, Haig Armen was the first to buy a condo in 1999, before the market really took off. By 2001 he had built enough equity to buy a 110-yearold house off Commercial Drive, where he’s now settled with his wife and two kids—and they’re not planning on going anywhere.

“We just renoed it to exactly the way we live,” says Armen, whose parents owned multiple rental properties in Ottawa as he was growing up, so he’s not easily spooked by the ebb and flow of the market.

Armen is banking on the house as part of his retirement, but unlike some homeowners whose nerves are kicking in, he’s relieved to see prices stabilize. “People say it’s money in your pocket, but it’s not really because if I were to sell, I would have to just buy another place for two million that’s not worth two million,” he says.

THE EXPERT: For many homeowners, big mortgages, high property taxes and soaring renovation costs have meant less money going into RRSPs and other retirement vehicles. Now with prices coming down, they’re seeing cracks in their nest eggs. But will those cracks widen even further?

Davidoff says there are so many unknowns—possible government interventions, trade wars—that it’s hard to predict what will happen and when. Still, he doesn’t think a crash is in the cards: “It’s hard to see how a stable, well governed place that’s mostly well positioned for global warming isn’t going to see continued demand growth.”

Some owners try to time the market, selling their homes with the intention of getting back in after prices have fallen—but that rarely works out, cautions Somerville. Instead, he believes that mid-career homeowners with real estate jitters should simply relax.

“Breathe,” he says. “Most of the time it comes down to: are you in a situation where you have to move? If not, don’t worry.”

PROJECTS TO WATCH COCO OAK RIDGE LOCATION: W. 41st Ave. and Alberta St. NUMBER OF UNITS: 57 STARTING FROM: $819,900 SPECIAL FEATURES: Gaggenau appliances, interiors

by Cristina Oberti, retractable glass balconies THE GIST: With Westbank’s mammoth Oakridge development slated for completion down the street in 2027, Coco will be well positioned to take advantage of the perks.

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East-side condos were up:

KILLARNEY

A 7.7%

FRASERVIEW

A 6.5%

CHAMPLAIN HEIGHTS

A 5.2%

HASTINGS

A 5.1%

But down in these ’hoods: MOUNT PLEASANT

D 6.5%

COLLINGWOOD

D 5.2%

RENFREW

D 5.1%

AVERAGE DAYS ON THE MARKET FOR AN EAST-SIDE DETACHED HOME RANGED FROM

45 to 53

FOR CONDOS IT RANGED FROM

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REAL E S TAT E ISSUE JUST HOW SCREWED ARE WE?

OVER IT

SINGLE AND LOOKING (FOR REAL ESTATE) by

Lucy Lau

illustration by

Suharu Ogawa

beth porter* rang in the new year on a high: excelling in her career with a busy social life and plans to launch a business in the coming months, the Vancouver-based freelance writer felt, in her words, “hopeful.” But only three days into 2019, she was hit with news from her landlord that, after six years, her one-bedroom Mount Pleasant rental was being put up for sale. As any Vancouverite who’s scrolled through the soul-sucking vortex of despair that is Craigslist’s housing listings will empathize with, it was a hard pill to swallow—one made even more difficult for Porter because she’s, well, single. “My building now, I mostly see couples,” the 37-year-old says, “because the rent prices aren’t as much to choke on when you have two incomes.”

Indeed, it’s no coincidence that the city with the country’s most expensive real-estate market is also notorious for having couples shack up within weeks of initiating a romantic relationship. Often, rent is just too damn high for one person to handle— the average rental price for a onebedroom apartment in Vancouver is $2,130, according to a report released

by PadMapper in January—especially for singletons who work in creative, non-profit and other middle-wage sectors, where they’re not necessarily struggling but not raking in six figures annually, either. “Most couples don’t seem to bat an eye at $2,000 and more [per month for rent],” notes Porter.

“But for me, that’s like, ‘What will I have left?’”

It’s a stress that weighs heavily on Vancouver’s mature single set, a demographic that’s typically well past (or just plain over) the roommate phase but also reluctant to give up the community they’ve established in the city by relocating to relatively more affordable ’burbs. “There are challenges to being a single person and moving to smaller markets in terms of quality of life, the interactions you get, the connections you make,” says Porter, who’s lived in Vancouver for more than 15 years. “You would think if you were doing well in your career and you were in your late 30s, finding a decent place to live for a reasonable price wouldn’t be such an issue.”

Purchasing property while flying solo, as one would suspect, isn’t much

easier. When Porter was informed that her rental condo was being listed, she toyed briefly with the idea of submitting an offer. But after doing the math on a potential down payment and mortgage, she realized that it “was not a wise decision,” not least because she wouldn’t be receiving any financial aid from family.

Arya Singh,* a 28-year-old communications coordinator, had her heart set on entering Vancouver’s realestate market, too. However, after months of house hunting, she eventually chose to settle in Delta, where, with a little help from her parents, she was able to afford a down payment on a new-build two-bedroom condo.

Singh, who works full-time on Vancouver’s west side, acknowledges

*Names have been changed for privacy.

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REAL E S TAT E ISSUE JUST HOW SCREWED ARE WE?

that she’s fortunate to have had the opportunity to become a homeowner.

But having to compromise on location and taking on a 90-minute daily commute—one way, without traffic—has affected her work-life balance immensely, she says. Given her income, renting in Vancouver isn’t ideal, either.

“Salaries are not that high here,” she laments. “And then, when you consider what it costs to buy a property, it’s kind of an unfair balance. If I didn’t have support from my parents, I wouldn’t have been able to do it at all. So it makes you feel like you have to depend on someone—you can’t be independent in this city. And it’s really unfair to other people, too, because not everyone has support like that.”

Both Porter and Singh admit that, on more than one occasion, they’ve thought about how much easier renting and owning property in Vancouver would be if they had a long-term partner. To have ambitious, fully capable individuals—many of whom are successful in their own right—feel like they need the assistance of a spouse or companion to get ahead in the city is concerning, especially during a time when self-sufficiency is so greatly valued. “Certainly, given the state of both the rental and homeownership markets in the city of Vancouver, it has made living single a lot harder,” observes Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University.

“Unless one has access to wealth, living alone is hard to do.”

Yan notes that there are singletons who are making it work in Vancouver, whether that be through increased job security or opting for more accessible living situations like rooming houses.

However, problems arise when folks who are at or reaching the peak of their careers are driven to relocate from the region due to unaffordability, resulting in what’s been called “brain drain” or a loss of educated and skilled labourers. “I think it carries friction into companies and institutions,” explains

Yan, who believes that housing prices have become “decoupled” from local incomes. “They can’t keep people just as they’re entering the apex of their working lives—and that ultimately has consequences for how businesses can or cannot grow in the city.”

For Porter, the effects go beyond the local economy: making space for singles—and, really, people of all

backgrounds, ages and relationship statuses—is key to the fabric of society. “For a city to be interesting and vibrant, you need different people,” she says. “And when those people aren’t here because they can’t find a place to live—when you don’t have that diversity of families, singles and different races and incomes—then I think your city becomes less vibrant.”

BUYING SOLO

In a city where housing prices consistently tower over the incomes of even two-person households, here’s how a few savvy singletons are getting a foot on the property ladder.

THE ONE WHO PARTNERED WITH HER SISTER—AND ZEROED IN ON FORECLOSURES “My sister and I decided to copurchase a property [in 2015] as an investment. This made it a lot easier to save up for a down payment, and, realistically, we knew that it was the only way we could afford to buy a place in Metro Vancouver. Our strategy was to look heavily into foreclosures and find one in a good area that we could renovate as needed.

We lived in our apartment for six months together and then I got a roommate, whom I lived with for three years. Now my sister and I are renting it out, which pays the mortgage with a bit of extra income for us. My goal is to eventually own a property in Vancouver, but the market is crazy right now! Hopefully, in a few years, things will change.”—Tanya, 25, owns a two-bedroom apartment in Burnaby

THE ONE WHO RECORDED EVERY CENT SPENT “I had the idea that I wanted to move out sometime after I finished university and got my first job [in 2014]. I just didn’t have a plan in mind. I was looking at how much I was making and thought, ‘I could save at least 30 percent per paycheque, and in a few years, maybe I could have enough for a down payment.’ And then I realized that when you live at home, saving 30 percent is actually pretty easy as long as you’re somewhat diligent.

That’s when I started tracking what I was spending my money on, and I made adjustments and those adjustments became habits. I also had to make some compromises: because I work in Vancouver, the idea was to move to Vancouver. But I soon realized I could probably only afford a down payment somewhere else.

I withdrew money from my RRSP, too, which wasn’t a gigantic portion but still helped.”

—Kevin, 28, owns a one-bedroom condo in New Westminster

THE ONE WHO RELIED ON GOOD OLDFASHIONED HARD WORK—AND A LITTLE HELP FROM STARBUCKS “For the majority of my early to mid-20s, I worked two or three jobs at a time, one of them as a barista at Starbucks.

Fortunately, as an employee you receive amazing benefits—one of them being access to restricted stock units—and, after working for the company for six years, I was able to use them to contribute to my down payment. That, combined with savings, investments, some assistance from my mom and my participation in the [now defunct] BC Home Partnership Program, aided in my ability to purchase a home.

I also bought at the right time [in 2016], before the market went up. If I had waited, I don’t know if I would’ve been able to purchase my current home.”—Alyx, 27, owns a onebedroom condo in Coquitlam

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HOT TAK E / LUCY LOVES / MODERN FAMILY / THE TICK E T / THE DISH / RE VIE WS

VA N M AG .C O M/S T Y L E

Culture ON THE RISE

COAT CHECK When Jessica Lee had trouble finding quality, stylish—and ethically produced— outerwear that wouldn’t cost her a few months’ rent, she did what any rational, go-getting fashion designer would do: she created her own. “It’s the clothing item I’m most obsessed with,” she says.

And so came Studio Lorem Ipsum, a line of locally designed, handmade-inSeoul and wear-absolutely-everywhere coats that are polished but practical, minimalist without being plain. You can feel the craftsmanship as soon as you stretch your arms into their cupro- or silk-lined sleeves—from the irresistibly soft cashmere-wool constructions to the subtle but striking details (high-contrast stitching, raw unfinished edges and sporadically placed plaid swaths) that make each one special. “They’re simple,” notes Lee, “but those things make Lorem Ipsum stand out from other brands and designs.” Expect the same attention to detail from the 31-year-old for spring, when she tries her hand at Vancouver-friendly (read: rain-proof) jackets and trenches.

by

Lucy Lau

photograph by

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Culture T H E H O T TA K E

AT LEISURE

Get moving with these fitness-facilitating picks that are as spiffy as they are practical. by Amanda Ross p When it comes to sneakers, the line between hypebeast and your grandpa is a thin one. Allbirds manages it well with its Potrero Pewter runner made from superfine New Zealand merino wool.

It’s water-resistant and temperature-regulating, too, with laces crafted from post-consumer recycled polyester. $135, allbirds.ca

j Skip disposable water bottles in favour of the Memobottle, a durable BPA-free and Cradle to Cradle–certified plastic option that slides easily into bags and back pockets.

Clear skin, clear conscience.

From $40, secretlocation.ca

j Whether you ID as a yogi or a yummy mummy, jet from studio or school in the voluminous wide-leg track pants by G. Sport, the luxury athletic line from Gwyneth Paltrow.

Made in Italy, the pants feature a drawstring elastic waistband to cinch high or low, so you can swap looks in a snap. $370, goop.com

n Don’t sweat the

small—or big—stuff with Cashmere Mist jasmineand-sandalwood-scented antiperspirant from Donna Karan (yes, that Donna Karan). This cult fave deodorant may have launched in 1992, but it’s still the number one best-selling luxury beauty product in the U.S. today. $34, thebay.com

l Active sitting sounds like an oxymoron, but with Technogym’s spinestabilizing wellness ball you can work or sit comfortably while still training your back and core muscles for better posture and strengthening.

The ball—made in Italy and equipped with an antibacterial zippered cover—is phthalate-free, latex-free and recyclable. $335, livingspace.com

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Culture L U C Y LOV E S i The addition of a single freshwater pearl on each Jane earring (from $220) by the Vancouver-based Roque offers a chic update to the oversized hoop embraced by the upper echelons of ’90s and early-aughts R&B. roque.shop

p Tackle double the

’00s—micro-purses and all-over logos— with the mini-Dior oblique saddle bag ($2,850), an iconic silhouette from the French fashion house that’s experienced a resurgence in recent years. dior.com

o Gentle Monster’s

experimental take on eyewear shines in the Poxi 02 sunglasses ($428), which boast the sort of candy-hued lenses sported by the likes of Brad Pitt and Eve during their peaks. rodengray.com

THOUSANDS THROWBACK

Early-2000s-era style is once again, as Paris Hilton would say, hot. And though I’m not saying we need to bring low-rise jeans back—those can stay forever buried next to popped collars, thank you very much— there are some millennial trends worth reigniting. by

Lucy Lau

j It ain’t Sean John—or velour—but the relaxed fit and bold jacquard print of Japanese streetwear label Needles’ track jacket ($455) and pant ($380) should prove a tad more fashionforward. shopneighbour.com

A V

n Trade in your matte lippie for a li’l high-sheen

gloss—a look made easy (and not at all sticky) by Fenty Beauty’s Gloss Bomb ($23): a product so flattering across skin tones, it could inspire its own Sisterhood series. sephora.com

52 VA N M A G . C O M M A R C H /A P R I L 2 0 1 9

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A NEW YORK ITALIAN STEAKHOUSE

IN THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER Vancouver’s newest dining experience reintroduces the city to Chef Bruce Woods. Chef Bruce puts a premium on locally sourced and curated ingredients. His homemade pastas and the finest cuts of beef, guarantee a truly memorable dining experience. Our award winning wine list and wine by the glass program is sure to contain a new gem for discovery.

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3 “The worst part about teaching is probably realizing that I’m basically just showing everyone how to take my job.

I’m constantly giving away secrets and ultimately ruining my future by encouraging a new generation to come and be better than me, and younger than me, and tighter and skinnier and fresher.”—Caitlin Howden, co-director of comedy school Blind Tiger and improviser with the Sunday Service

1

5 “We used to perform at a doughnut shop for our improv, and we decided that it was just more fun having it at a place where people knew there was supposed to be comedy there instead of walking in and being like, ‘Why is this happening?’

They didn’t hate it, but they’d go, ‘Uh, why?’”—Graeme Achurch, co-producer of sketch show Soda Fountain 3

1 “I just recently got nervous. I had some loved ones come see me perform, and I’m not from here originally so I was nervous, and it’s fun to feel nervous. It was exciting; the show went great. But there were stakes because it was like, ‘Oh, I’m only going to see these people once a year.’”

—Ross Dauk, host of stand-up comedy show Jokes Please!

2 4

2 “We did a show on my birthday called Blockbuster World, which was a whole high-concept narrative of us telling a story of what it would be like if our friend were the heiress to the Blockbuster empire: she created this virtual reality where people could go in and experience their favourite TV shows, movies and video games.”—Carla Mah, half of sketch duo Carmelahhh and member of Nasty Women Comedy

4 “The more I came here, I just wanted to be here more. And when I started doing stand-up, I would always want to do shows here. So when it came time for me to produce a show, this was the place it had to be.”—Matty Vu, stand-up and co-host of Bloodfeud: StandUp vs. Improv

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5

7 “I think Vancouver gets a bad rap for being a place where it’s hard to meet people. So it was nice knowing that I could come to a place that felt like a community. And that community has just grown larger and larger.”

—Christine Bortolin, member of Little Mountain Improv

9

7

9 “People definitely get used to playing with other people, just being with them for a long period of time, but the improv community is probably the most positive and open community I’ve ever been a part of. They will actively welcome newcomers; they’ll actively welcome anyone.”—Gary Lim, student at Blind Tiger Comedy

6

6 “You’re onstage

in the scene but you’re also thinking about what’s coming next, and if the scene has been going on for too long, and then if you’re doing a duo show here, you’re also running the whole venue.

So you’re hosting the night, you’re onstage the whole time, and then you’re printing off the liquor license and everything.”

—Allie Entwistle, half of comedy duo Brunch and member of Nasty Women Comedy

8 “It’s nice to be onstage and be able to play characters that may identify one way or another, and it’s nice to have freedom to do that.

Often when we’re with other groups, we just kind of get forced into hetero relationships, or if it’s a gay relationship, it’s kind of named that, and it’s different.

So it’s nice to do scenes where it’s not that.”—Jill Lockley, producer of Uncle Janes, an LGBTQ+ show

City M O D E R N FA M I LY

8

1 “I heard about this competition and immediately wanted to do it because I knew good things would come of it. I knew it would make me better.

So my husband and I taped my karaoke every night, and we would go home and analyze it and slowly make improvements.

YouThe probably glance twice thing thatwouldn’t karaoke does forwalked you is it teaches howhole in the if you by theyou little communicate with a crowd. wallto just off Main and 26th, but anyone It’s not something that you can who’s been inside Littlehave Mountain learn in a classroom—you to go remembers out there and dothe it. You Gallery experience. love a song to death and Thatcan certainly goes for the numerous do an amazing job with it. But if stand-ups, you’re notimprovisers connecting withand the students they’re just gonna whocrowd, ply their trade and ignore hone their on their phones and craftyou atand thisgooffbeat comedy venue. drink. So you have to figure out To them, (which consists of how to the reachspace them. This is a very supportive crowd, so it’s safe to a bar, two washrooms, a small stage take risks.” —Corinne Friesen, and58, room about 60 chairs) has yoga for blogger and math tutor

Big Laughs at Little Mountain

become something of a second home.

Go-to song: “The Sound of Silence,” Disturbed version

Nathan Caddell Adam Blasberg

as told to photo by

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Morgan Yamada and Arielle Rombough in Glory

Culture T H E T I C K E T

This month’s best bets. by

Alyssa Hirose

NONAME DATE March 12 VENUE Commodore Ballroom PRICE $59 commodoreballroom.com Since first appearing on Chance the Rapper’s Acid Rap album in 2013, American rapper and poet Noname has been slamming studios with her complex rhymes and nuanced stories. Unlike many millennial musicians, she’s deliberately absent from the public eye: she rarely does press interviews, she doesn’t shoot music videos and her Instagram feed might leave diehard ’grammers feeling hungry. So if you want to experience Room 25—her latest neo-soul album featuring heavy hits “Blaxploitation” and “Self”—there’s only one way to do it: get out of your sweatpants, run a comb through your hair and live it for real.

GLORY DATE April 4 to 13 VENUE Gateway Theatre, Richmond PRICE From $29 gatewaytheatre.com Watch swing-dancing skaters shred the stage in the true story of one of Canada’s first female ice hockey teams.

FISTFUL OF KICKS DATE March 10 and April 14 VENUE Havana Theatre PRICE $12 instanttheatre.com This epic animé-inspired show features both improvised and choreographed stage fighting and the most kick-ass AsianCanadian players on the block.

LENNON STELLA LOVE, ME TOUR DATE April 10 and 11 VENUE Vogue Theatre PRICE From $35 voguetheatre.com This 19-year-old Ontarian and former Nashville star takes the stage with bold, catchy pop tunes in her debut headline tour.

Fistful of Kicks

Marsupial, 2013.

Displacement by Mowry Baden

Lennon Stella

DISPLACEMENT

BY MOWRY BADEN DATE March 2 to June 9 VENUE Vancouver Art Gallery PRICE From $6.50 vanartgallery.bc.ca Forget “don’t touch the art”: this Victoria-based artist creates interactive and participatory sculptures out of everything from seat belts to Ping-Pong balls.

COQUITLAM CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL DATE March 9 VENUE Westwood Plateau Golf Club, Coquitlam PRICE From $55 coquitlambeerfestival.com Get your fill at this fest’s brand new “Quirky Brews Room,” featuring freaky favourites from Twa Dogs, Lighthouse Brewing and more.

RUGBY SEVENS DATE March 9 and 10 VENUE BC Place PRICE From $70 canadasevens.com With roughly half the players, a quarter of the playing time and SO MANY COSTUMES in the audience, this tournament is union rugby to the extreme.

Rugby Sevens

GROWING ROOM: A FEMINIST LITERARY FESTIVAL DATE March 8 to 17 VENUE Various locations PRICE Varies; many events by donation festival.roommagazine.com Room magazine’s third annual literary festival focuses on author care, ethics and safety, with panels, readings and other events featuring over 100 diverse authors from around the world.

TEEN ANGST NIGHT DATE March 22 VENUE Fox Cabaret PRICE From $10 foxcabaret.com Laugh your skinny jeans off during this comedic reading series, where adults share shameful diaries, songs and poetry they wrote as teens.

Sara Bynoe hosts Teen Angst Night

Marcello

GLORY: ERIN WALL ACE; SARA BYNOE/TEEN ANGST NIGHT: K ATHRYN MUSSALLEM

Teen Angst and Fisticuffs

W E

w

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Culture T H E D I S H

DRINK THIS

SOMETHING FISHY Tapas. Has there ever been another word that’s suffered as much indignity at the hands of North Americans? A small plate of Buffalo wings? Call ’em tapas, people will think they’re exotic. Nachos, mozzarella poppers, dry-roasted peanuts? Tapas, tapas, tapas. And don’t get us started on the mortal sin that is the word tapatizer. Luckily, salvation has arrived in the form of Como Taperia opened by industry vets Shaun Layton (L’Abattoir), Frankie Harrington (Meat and Bread) and chef Justin Witcher (Clayoquot Wilderness Resort), who are here to restore dignity to the Spanish art of small plates, one conserva at a time. by

Neal McLennan

1. In Spain, there’s a long tradition of canning pristine seafood and charging a premium for it.

2. Como employs a tapas jockey whose sole job is to crack tins for hungry customers.

photograph by

Marlon Soriano

6. The conservas aren’t cheap. Prices start at $16 and go way up. But they’re actually marked up less than almost anything else on the menu. They just cost a lot to bring in.

5. The classic presentation for sardines is with patate frito (potato chip) and a dash of hot sauce (the boys use Spanish staple Espinaler).

4. Como has six gin and tonics on the menu (a Spanish fave), but by far the most popular accompaniment has been the Tio Pepe Fino sherry on tap.

3. In addition to sardines, Como offers anchovies, razor clams, octopus, squid, tuna and scallops.

GLENMORANGIE A L LTA , $ 1 5 3 Can whisky have terroir?

In theory, yes, but in practice, grain is usually sourced from all over the place and commercial yeast is the norm—until now. Glenmorangie’s beloved Dr. Bill Lumsden has created Allta, using only the Cadboll barley that surrounds the distillery in Tain and employing a yeast synthesized from that very barley. The result is as close to a sense of place as you’ll find in a Scotch—at 51.2% alcohol, it’s rugged, has pronounced baked-bread notes courtesy of the local yeast and a warm, light vanilla finish.

—N.M.

K I WA M I P L U M SOUR, FUGGLES A N D WA R L O C K BREWING, $ 1 2 . 5 0 for a six-pack Nah, Kiwami isn’t a rare Japanese fruit. It’s a reference to a Sega video game—par for the course for the Richmond-based Fuggles, which prides itself on embedding “geek culture” into its brand. And that’s just fine, because the plum sour certainly doesn’t need much more flavour.

At a shocking 6.3% alcohol, it’s tart, fruity and exactly what you want on a crisp night. It’s no wonder it’s the brewery’s numberone seller.

—Nathan Caddell

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Paul Grunberg, Restaurateur Savio Volpe, Pepino’s Spaghetti House, Caffe La Tana

At WestCoastFood.ca we’re dishing the goods on the incredible local chefs and restaurateurs who are putting Metro Vancouver front and centre on the world’s culinary stage.

PAUL GRUNBERG TALKS FRESH PASTA, ATMOSPHERE, AND INGREDIENTS

From the moment you walk in, at a really great restaurant you should be whisked away on this adventure akin to a fairy tale.

Read the full article at westcoastfood.ca/paul @westcoastfood

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@WestCoastFoodca

@westcoastfoodca

2/21/19 11:50 AM

Culture R E V I E W S

STEAKING A CLAIM

THE DEETS

With Elisa, the Toptable group seeks to reinvent the classic steakhouse, but does “new” mean “improved”?

1109 Hamilton St. 604-362-5443 elisasteak.com

Neal McLennan

Jack Evrensel was one of the most highly regarded restaurateurs to ever hang a shingle (or in his case, many shingles) in this fair city, so when he sold his Toptable mini-empire (then consisting of CinCin, West, Araxi, Blue Water and Thierry) a few years back to the deep-pocketed Canucks-owning Aquilini clan, most wags predicted doom for the new owners. Running a restaurant has crushed many a seasoned industry veteran—how were these newbies going to handle Evrensel’s obsessive pride and joy?

Pretty darn well, it turns out.

Blue Water is as popular as it ever was, Thierry is as niche as it ever was, and while West has morphed from destination dining to a neighbourhood spot, that transformation had begun long before the sale. With CinCin, the Aquilinis revamped a tired bastion for tourists into one of the better Italian spots in town. And we haven’t even got to Whistler, where Araxi’s reign atop the village restaurants is challenged only by the newly revamped Il Caminetto—which they also own (having bought it last year from Umberto Menghi) at the high end and their more casual spot, Bar Oso, at the low.

But buying a known commodity and not screwing it up is one thing— successfully creating something from scratch is quite another. For well over a year before Elisa—that’s

Hours: Bar daily from 4:30 p.m.

Dinner daily from 5 p.m.

Onion rings

Executive chef Andrew Richardson

Double R Ranch porterhouse steak

the new spot—opened, there had been rumours of a full-court press of the entire Toptable team to get the “Steakhouse,” as it was known in the industry, perfect. Even the launch of the name last fall—it’s an ode to the Aquilini family matriarch—was filled with the sort of pomp and circumstance normally reserved for a state visit.

It all added up to the sort of hype that’s impossible to live up to, but on three visits in the last few months it appears that Elisa is up to the challenge. It doesn’t hurt that they’ve

assembled a sort of Toptable all-star team—chef Andrew Richardson, chef de cuisine Yvan Burkhalter and restaurant director Ricardo Ferreira all came over from CinCin, sous-chef Alex Hon from West, and, for good measure, they poached sommelier Franco Michienzi from Hawksworth and bar manager Katie Ingram from L’Abattoir. Wow—how does one pay for such talent? We’ll come back to that in a bit.

The hook for Elisa is that it’s a new kind of steakhouse, its feminine name a nod to this isn’t the usual bro-

LEIL A K WOK

by

Elisa

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In addition to steak, Elisa’s big on tartare.

Bison tartare

fest explosion of red leather, brown leather and lingering Cohiba smoke.

Walking into the classy, muted room doesn’t skew male or female as much as it screams money (designers the Rockwell Group were parachuted in from New York). As we sit down, it’s clear the menu designers didn’t get the feminine memo: the hulking black leather-clad tome is straight out of the 21 Club circa 1927. In addition to steak, Elisa’s big on tartare (which is sort of like expressing your musical diversity by saying you like country and western), which opens the menu with five variations. We started with the bison and, at the server’s urging, the tuna.

Good choices. The generous portion of lightly smoked bison rolls out atop some grilled red fife bread and dotted with pickled ramps. It’s just the right amount of richness, and, at $20, the portion size is easily enough for two—compare that with Bao Bei’s $18 version which is smaller in size and cheaper in cut, and the expense

of Elisa starts to seems relative. The tuna version ($19) is the perfect counterpoint—light, with a bed of perfectly ripe avocado providing some creamy lavishness held in check with soy and horseradish. So far, so great. (I went with the veal on another visit and its solid, if staid, take on vitello tonnato left it a distant bronze medallist.)

The salads don’t let the momentum slide, which, I suppose, is their role in a steakhouse. The Caesar uses gem leaves instead of romaine, which necessitates using a knife and fork (groan) but then compensates by not shying away from the anchovies (and when we tell the server we’re sharing it, comes out on two separate plates). The burrata ($19) is a glorious little slab of Puglian white gold (the portion neither chintzy nor generous), studded with wood-grilled veg and pickled red onion, is among the best in town.

But enough with the opening

acts—you can dazzle all you want with raw tuna, but even if you’re a new-style steakhouse, the steaks have to wow or you’ve failed.

The steaks wow.

I’m of the school of belief that the most important step in a great steak is sourcing great meat, and here Elisa has no parallel. There are 21 different cuts from nine different purveyors that run the geographical gamut from Wisconsin to P.E.I. to the Kagoshima prefecture in Japan.

It verges on too much, but I’m able to rule out the ones that will bankrupt me—the above-mentioned A5 Wagyu ($28 /oz) and the 50 oz tomahawk ($179)—and ultimately settle on three. First up is a Holstein dairy cow rib-eye ($58) that comes out much thinner than I expected but is a wallop of rich, creamy flavour.

I counter that with a lean (Alberta) Wagyu flatiron ($38) that is a marvel of consistency—none of the sinew that can creep into the cut, each bite firm but again a blast of rich beefy goodness. The third is the P.E.I. striploin ($49) and it’s only a slight letdown—the flavour is still there (the cows eat the island’s potatoes) but it’s a tiny bit on the firm side and salted just a hair aggressively.

It would likely be the best steak at almost any other spot in town, but in here it’s a step behind. All come with a carrot purée side and half a roasted potato, which while, not really enough to qualify as a full side, are at least a slight nod to the ridiculousness of the practice of charging someone $50+ for an entrée and then expecting them to pony up another $12 for a side— although I ponied up for the onion rings ($12), the roesti hash browns ($10) and the Brussels sprouts with parmesan ($10) and all were large portions, as they should be for that supplementary price. We ventured just once outside le boeuf—the land-and-sea portion of the menu is

ROOM: ALE X BARREDO; BISON TARTARE: LEIL A K WOK

Culture R E V I E W S

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wine, and the Aquilinis own blend from their Red Mountain vineyards in Washington is a perfect foil for steak, and at $80 priced at what’s probably just retail, given the value of that land and the price of neighbouring wineries. The corollary is that if you want to celebrate with a bottle of Krug, expect to pay a $444 markup on a bottle that retails for $286, which as a percentage isn’t egregious but seems ungenerous just the same.

So what of the cost of this voyage?

My tally for one tartare, two entrees, two sides, a dessert and four glasses of wine is $246, which with tip buzzes $300. There’s no getting around that that’s a flipping expensive dinner, but it’s concurrently a pretty solid

value. Black and Blue would be at least as pricey and is not even in the ballpark in terms of food, service or decor. The fact is, great steak is very expensive, but Elisa wins your heart with little gestures—you start with the not inexpensive beef carpaccio ($20) and it arrives with a very liberal sprinkle of Burgundian truffles. And the portions are huge.

Is it expensive? Yes. Is it also a good deal? Again, yes. And this sentiment seems to be shared by the restaurantgoing crowd—it’s been slammed since opening, with the big room packed almost every night. It’s all going so well that one wonders if soon the Aquilinis will be described as restaurateurs…who also own the Canucks.

ROOM: ALE X BARREDO; BISON TARTARE: LEIL A K WOK

literally hidden behind the overlay of the steaks—and it was for the rabbit ($39). We were told it was nonna’s recipe, and as insulting someone’s nonna is a universally bad idea, I’ll simply say we ate only a small portion of the bland, very dry dish.

At 46 pages, the wine list looks like it comes from a restaurant that’s been in business a decade.

The prices are generally high (the markups generally hover between 2.5 and 2.75 times retail) but that translates into relatively well priced for a steakhouse, where huge margins are the norm. And there are bargains if you look—a bottle of savoury, peppery syrah from the small Okanagan producer Maker’s Cut is only $58 for a $32 bottle of

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SPONSORED REPORT

“

Inside and Out

Samantha Legge’s new Evalina Beauty collection is all about enhancing what really makes women beautiful: self-acceptance.

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“I

’m wearing two different eyeliners and three kinds of lip gloss right now,” laughs Samantha Legge, digging through a canvas bag bursting with makeup samples in her chic white-on-white Vancouver office. It may sound extreme, but product-testing all in a day’s work for the Evalina Beauty president and founder—in between prototype meetings, boardroom conferences and approving packaging designs, she’s analyzing how eyeshadow is wearing through the day, sampling bronzer palettes and conferring about the new blush texture with the Evalina team.

It’s a big change of pace from her other role as a media industry executive, but for Legge, this new venture is the passion project she’s been searching for in her 25 years as a business woman. “I get now what every business leader talks about: it doesn’t feel like a job, I have a clear vision, and I can’t wait to get up every day and do this,” Legge says. That vision? “It’s all about encouraging women to be who they are, to live best self and be all they can be.”

Which is why she’s created a makeup line that enhances and doesn’t hide: no covering up freckles, no ads with unrealistic contouring. Each product is tirelessly tested and designed to let the wearer’s own unique features and colouring shine through.

The BB cream is super lightweight and flattering; the lip gloss is longlasting and not too sticky; a bronzer and highlighter kit help cheekbones pop. “What I wanted for Evalina was a line that enhances natural beauty, not something that transforms,” Legge explains. “No apologies, no alterations.”

This bold new beauty company grew out of a chance meeting with local makeup artist Ana Allen, who was at a crossroads in late 2018: having created her own cosmetics line and a decade of teaching a successful

series of makeup courses, she was looking for a new challenge, too.

She and Legge hit it off instantly, and within six weeks, Legge had founded Evalina Beauty and brought Allen on board as beauty director and key collaborator.

Evalina's Beauty Director Ana Allen

Together, they ensure everything that comes out of Evalina HQ is created with the “You are already beautiful” tagline in mind—a motto that Legge takes extremely seriously. “I want this brand to uplift and celebrate and support women for who we are, as we are.”

In an industry that’s so often focused on covering up or pressuring women to change or alter their appearance, Evalina’s perspective is refreshing.

“Women have altered themselves forever, whatever role we’re in,” says Legge. “I want to encourage women to be their true, authentic selves, and to not alter who they are because they’re

already amazing and have an intrinsic beauty.”

With that in mind, a percentage of all Evalina proceeds are donated to women and children’s charities.

“I want to walk that talk, not just with the product itself, but with a product that’s giving back to women who might need help to reach their potential,” Legge says.

Something else beautiful about the designed-in-Canada products: Everything is paraben-free and cruelty-free.

These qualities are a rarity among big brands, so for Evalina to make that commitment (without sacrificing the quality) is a huge statement. “You can feel good about buying it, but it’s still a sophisticated product,” says Legge.

“It’s paraben-free, yet performance has not been compromised at all.” She personally ensures that every single product is long-lasting, high-quality and, most importantly, something she would include in her own makeup bag.

“I want to love everything: that’s my benchmark,” says Legge.

Legge’s stamp of approval always comes from a personal perspective: “I just love beauty. It’s a value for me. So to be in an industry that’s aligned by something I care about so deeply is really wonderful.” It’s a topic that Legge could talk about all day, but there’s work to be done: brushes to test, eye shadow to approve. The Evalina founder zips up her sample bag. “This is my homework,” she says, flashing a smile. “I can’t believe this is my job.” evalinabeauty.com

Created by the Vancouver magazine advertising department in partnership with Evalina Beauty

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Culture S O M E T I M E I N VA N C O U V E R

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BLOEDEL CONSERVATORY

No matter how grey the skies, this lush respite guarantees a sunny, tropical afternoon. photograph by

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