The Georgia Straight Golden Plates

GOLDEN PLATES

The winners of our 26th Annual readers choice awards showcase the city’s vibrant food and drink culture

All the winners from our annual Readers’ Choice awards are here!

By

I’m a photographer and musician based out of Vancouver. In addition to working with a wide variety of clients, I’m a regular contributor to this here publication. I’m an avid fan of music, film, the outdoors, social justice, mental health support, and despite loving Radiohead, sunny dispositions. And yes, this bio is lifted from my Tinder profile.

Lawrence Restaurant lamb,

and braised lamb neck wrapped

Kristi Alexandra, William Johnson, Eva Rasciauskas, Brittany Tiplady, and Mike Usinger

Jonathan Contreras-Whitney and Shahni Arshad dining at Chambar. Photo by Jon Healy.

“No one had anywhere to go”: after The DTES Decampment

by V.S. Wells

As grey clouds blanketed the sky on April 5, city workers and police methodically swept down Hastings Street, confiscating tents, survival gear, and personal belongings.

The street sweeps, ostensibly prompted by a July 2022 statement from Vancouver fire Chief Karen Fry that encampments posed a fire risk, led to unhoused residents being evicted from their homes. At the time, Mayor Ken Sim told Global News, “We’re not trying to solve homelessness here… Every person that has asked for housing since we remove[d] the encampments has received it.”

But that is not true, according to sources who spoke to the Straight. Dozens of people were evicted with no shelter spaces, no temporary housing, and nowhere to go.

A day later, the rain began—triggering a weather warning from the City of Vancouver, and soaking Downtown Eastside residents and people who had come out to provide support or bear witness.

“No one had anywhere to go. Everyone I was talking to felt like they were going to die,” recalled Naneek Lerat, a Nehiyaw (Cree) activist from Cowessess First Nation.

Activists and organizers banded together to set up a warming tent in Oppenheimer Park.

“It started off with one little canopy, and it’s pouring rain in all directions. No table, just like a pile of tents,” Lerat continued. “And then, all of a sudden, so much com-

munity showed up, looking for a place to support [people].”

Kaylayla Raine, an artist and activist with English, Scottish and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) ancestry, added that a lot of the people involved in the warming centre had been providing “post-state-violence aftercare” during the decampments.

“The folks that were doing that, along with a whole bunch of new community members, all kind of formed into the warming centre, which was able to last 48 hours,” they said.

The warming centre was open around the clock and became more organized, distributing food and survival gear and providing a respite from the cold with a propane-operated heater. After around 24 hours, park rangers came and forced activists to stop the heating, citing fire risks. Lerat and Raine said they had fire marshal plans in place in case of an emergency, but complied with the order.

“It was multiple people just in the community, doing this community care and showing up,” Lerat added.

In the face of inadequate institutional services, mutual aid is increasingly filling the gaps to support people in need. The concept of mutual aid—people banding together to provide money, time, and resources to their fellow community members—rejects the idea that help should be locked behind barriers, waiting lists, sobriety, or expectations that don’t align with lived experience.

“There’s nothing I can offer the folks

on the block on my own, without being informed by them, that’s going to work,” Raine said.

Ken Simmons, another supporter involved in helping set up the warming centre, said that there were plenty of other people in Oppenheimer Park and around the neighbourhood doing their own organizing.

“There were lots of other folks that were independently taking distribution of food and supplies,” they said. “What we were able to create with this temporary space had a bit of a ripple effect where people were like, ‘Oh, we can do this.’ You don’t need the city or the powers that be, or a non-profit or a charity: we all have, autonomously, the capacity and the ability to do this work for people.”

The Oppenheimer warming centre was a physical embodiment of how community members came together to help res-

idents in the immediate aftermath of the decampment. But weeks later, the need for support hasn’t gone away.

“There’s a sense of morality built into charity, whereas mutual aid tries to eliminate and minimize that idea,” said Kiki Yamada, a volunteer with Distro Disco, a mutual aid organization focused on providing survival gear. Mutual aid “comes from the perspective that everybody needs to care for each other, because these systems, our city, our government, won’t.”

Yamada said that Distro Disco’s Instagram account got about 400 messages in the wake of the first street sweeps. “The response has been overwhelming,” she said. The organization’s financial transparency document shows 491 donations marked for emergency eviction support between April 5 and 22, raising over $36,000. Of those, 373 donations happened on April 5 and 6 alone.

Naneek Lerat (left) and Kaylayla Raine organized a warming centre immediately after the decampment. Photo by V.S. Wells.

“Whenever we organize these emergency responses, we see a huge outpouring of people,” Yamada said. “In the past couple of weeks, I think that what happens when the news coverage kind of dwindles, [so does] people’s investment. I don’t want to say that in a negative or accusatory way, it’s just like, when something’s not being shoved in your face all the time, it’s hard to pay attention to it.”

Meg Taylor, a social navigator at Kilala Lelum, told the Straight that she’s seen a number of decampments in the Downtown Eastside, and the ramifications last long after the sweeps are over.

That’s especially true of the current clearings, which she said have seen officials removing tents almost every day for three weeks. Taylor said one of her clients had all of their medication thrown away in the sweep, and many people have lost their homes, irreplaceable belongings, or sense of community.

“It’s just been a lot of ripple effects that branch out from it, that’s not just about that initial displacement. It’s about trying to replace those things,” she said. “We just witness [people] on this treadmill of trauma.”

Efforts to keep mutual aid and commu-

Everyone...felt

nity care going after the initial emergency subsides are increasingly being organized through social media. Distro Disco and Lerat, whose Instagram account is @okimawiskwew, are part of a network of organizers that have co-ordinated both immediate and ongoing responses to the decampments.

Lynn-Marie Angus, who runs Indigenous self-care business Sisters Sage, similarly uses her account to encourage her 35,000 followers to participate in mutual aid, by sharing how she distributes hot meals and survival gear.

“The point for me is I have such a huge following that, for me, sharing about it

is more of a catalyst and a kickstarter for other people to be like, ‘Oh, I can do that, too,’” said Angus, who has Nisga’a, Gitxaała, Cree, and Métis ancestry.

But mutual aid can only do so much to help, when the systemic issues causing poverty and homelessness remain.

High rents, soaring inflation, and a lack of affordable housing can force people onto the streets. Low income assistance rates, and a lack of safe, secure shelters and permanent affordable housing make it difficult for anyone who becomes homeless to find a permanent place to live. And the physical and mental trauma of homelessness, along with the disabilities that can come from never getting warm or dry, can feed into using unregulated toxic drugs to cope.

“That impacts so many things, when you don’t have safe housing, when you don’t have anywhere safe you can store your medication, when you don’t have anywhere reliable to just exist,” Taylor said.

According to the city’s own data, Indigenous people are disproportionately likely to be unhoused: in 2020, they represented about two per cent of residents, but 39 per cent of people experiencing homelessness. Lerat, who themself has experienced

homelessness, said that “the messaging that Vancouver sends out is that there’s support here,” which is at odds with the reality.

“It’s not just people from this territory, it’s people from all over Turtle Island,” Lerat said. “I have family members out here… People come out here, and they’re fucking left to rot.”

Activists agree that continuing to provide community care, even once emergencies are over, helps to tackle the ongoing systemic issues that cause acute homelessness in the first place. But it’s also crucial to lobby politicians to do better. The recent decampment seemed to break the city’s own promises: CBC News reported that Sim’s former chief of staff had promised they “would not be sending in the police to decamp Hastings.”

“We need to be putting pressure on governments, letting them know that what they’re doing is unjust, it’s inhumane, and we can give them ideas on how they can do better and support people experiencing poverty,” said Angus. “We don’t want people to be in tents either. We want people living in safe homes. But if all we can do in the meantime is provide a tent until it gets taken away again, that’s what we’re going to do.” GS

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like they were going to die.

– Naneek Lerat

Vancouver Pride Parade changes routes

By Phoebe Fuller

This year’s annual Pride parade and festival is moving to a new location to improve accessibility and increase capacity, according to the Vancouver Pride Society (VPS).

The new route will start at Davie and Denman Street, follow Beach Avenue to Pacific Street, and end at Concord Community Park near Science World for the festival.

“This new site … and the [improved]

accessibility are all in efforts to have community feel a sense of ownership over their Pride, a connection to their Pride and a place where they can bring their community and feel safe and included and invited,” Allison Dunne, VPS co-executive director, told the Straight in an interview.

After over 40 years in the West End, the Pride celebrations will culminate in a twoday long festival in False Creek on August 5 and 6. Previously, the parade route began on Robson Steet and the festival was hosted at Sunset Beach for one day only

According to a statement by VPS, the move was decided after community consultations explored how the event could enhance accessibility, increase capacity, and improve transportation options.

“By moving to Concord Community Park and expanding the festival to two days, we are creating a more inclusive and accessible event that will accommodate a larger number of attendees,” Madison Holding, VPS’s other co-executive director, said in a press release.

The move was also prompted by the VPS’s successful bid to host Canada Pride 2024, a national celebration that is expected to draw larger crowds.

After returning from a three-year pandemic-induced hiatus in 2022, parade organizers turned to the event with an increased focus on inclusion. Last season was the first time that Pride hired a dedicated accessibility co-ordinator.

Dunne said that a 2019 accessibility audit conducted by disability justice group Live Educate Transform Society was “the primary reason” for the move. “The recommendation was that we move out of Sunset Beach because of its inaccessibility,” she said.

The inclusive logic behind the new location reflects the VPS’s newfound focus on intersectionality and diversity. Since Dunne and Holding took leadership positions at the end of last year, the organization has dedicated itself to involving and connecting with members of the

LGBTQ2S+ community who have been historically excluded from Pride.

“VPS has struggled to maintain meaningful relationships with host nations, and programming often excluded marginalized groups, especially Black trans and queer folks. We have recognized these failures and have put more funds, people and resources into sustaining the existing talents and efforts of the community, and giving them autonomous involvement in the creation of Pride,” said Dunne in a statement announcing her appointment as co-executive director.

Last year’s Pride also had a historic first of giving full control of all onstage programming at the festival to QTBIPOC (queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, people of colour) producers. The takeover structure, which VPS said will continue this year, was implemented in an effort to diversify Pride’s programming and audiences.

While the parade will still start in its historic West End locale, it’s expanding for the first time since 1978 beyond the traditionally gay neighbourhood where the event first started.

“Everybody has it in their hearts and minds to include more people [in Pride] and this is a symbolic effort to prove that,” said Dunne. “We’re really not taking anything away from the West End or the Davie Street gays. We are just bringing more of what that part of the community has to offer and giving our communities an invitation to collaborate.” GS

The parade rolling through the West End. Photo courtesy of Vancouver Pride Society.

queering vancouver

Artists and activists are bridging the city’s long-standing LGBTQ2S+ divide

By Phoebe Fuller

It’s a regular Saturday night for Van Dang, Bella Sie, and Hostion Ho, the trio behind Ricecake, Vancouver’s LGBTQ2S+ Asian event collective, as they set up for another one of their parties. Soon, the eerily empty and bright room they stand in will be filled with colourful lights, dancing bodies, and pulsing music.

But something sets this party apart— it’s happening on Davie Street.

A queer party on Davie Street might not sound unusual, but Vancouver’s LGBTQ2S+ community has been culturally and geographically divided between the West End and East Side for decades. The spectrum of differences that ranges from class, gender, race, generation, and artistry have historically situated the West End as the space for white cisgender gays, with the East Side more open to women, trans, non-binary, and BIPOC members of the community.

“There’s definitely less people, other than the gay men in the West End,” Ho says. “At East Side parties you always see the queer spectrum.”

But thanks to groups like Ricecake, that spectrum is creeping back into Davie Village.

Sie offers it’s “kind of surreal” to be hosting a party in the historically gay neighbourhood.

“Especially in [Celebrities],” Dang says. The night’s event, a party celebrating the Hindu holiday Holi, is taking place in Village Studios. The venue is located in the basement of and operated by the same people as Celebrities Nightclub, a former pillar of gay nightlife that has since shifted to serving a broader (and straighter) clientele.

Dang started Ricecake in 2018 after noticing a lack of nightlife that served the

queer Asian community.

“I moved to Vancouver and I was like, ‘There are so many Asians here, where is the Asian night?’ ”

The group’s first party was at the nowclosed gay club XY on Davie, but Ricecake quickly found a home with Eastside Studios, mainly throwing parties in the recently closed Warehouse location for the five years it operated.

With a mission to create spaces for queer people who might not feel welcome at West End parties in mind, the Ricecake founders approached their reintroduction to Davie feeling hesitant but hopeful.

“To me, it kind of feels like wearing Crocs for the first time,” Sie says. “I was unsure at first because it’s unfamiliar, it’s something different. But like, you put it on, you walk through the venue, and it fits like a glove.”

THE HISTORIC ROOTS of Vancouver’s East/West split run deep and aren’t exclusive to queer spaces.

According to cabaret performer, producer, and educator Alexa Fraser, talks of a divide in Vancouver’s nightlife and entertainment date back to the 1950s. The nightlife in the West End had a reputation for “classier” entertainment frequented by richer, whiter patrons rather than the “raunchier” offerings in East Van. Fraser points out that these distinctions were largely socially constructed and rooted in cultural and economic differences.

For the LGBTQ2S+ crowd, the gentrification of the West End further fractured the community along gender and racial lines.

“You saw a lot of the gentrification from the city, but also from a lot of out-of-province or suburban queers coming in and moving into that neighborhood as well,” Fraser says.

With the rise of gay liberation in the ’70s, gay men moved into the West End in droves. At the time, the neighbourhood offered one-bedroom apartments that were affordable to men who had the economic freedom to live as their authentic selves. For the lesbians and trans folks facing intersectional marginalization for their gender and sexuality, not so much.

The emerging divide was exacerbated by a campaign in the ‘80s to oust the nearly 200 sex workers who worked pimp-free within a 25-block zone surrounding Davie Street, then known as the “prostitution capital of Canada.” The prevalence of sex

workers in the West End posed a risk to the gay community’s relatively newfound political respectability and the neighbourhood’s budding commercial rainbow aesthetic. West Enders, many of whom were gay men, successfully campaigned to displace sex workers, many of whom were women, transgender, and BIPOC, to the Downtown Eastside.

“We saw this massive shift of quote-unquote ‘cleaning up the city,’ which in turn, absolutely just displaced and vanished a ton of vulnerable people,” Fraser says.

While gay men had the resources to live and start businesses in the

Revellers from across the LGBTQ2S+ community come together for Pride events every summer. Photo by Ale Fragoso.

desirable real estate of the West End, queer women built a community in East Van. The Vancouver Lesbian Centre opened in 1985 on Commercial Drive, a street that continues to be a queer hub and host to the Vancouver Dyke March.

The Dyke March is a grassroots alternative to the corporate Pride parades, centring on queer women, trans, non-binary, and BIPOC folks who are often excluded from corporate Pride events. But changes to the upcoming 45th annual Vancouver Pride Parade call back to its roots in queer liberation and mirror the gradual bridging of the East/West divide led by LGBTQ2S+ organizers.

The parade’s usual route—running through the West End down Denman Street and onto Beach Avenue for the Sunset Beach Festival—will be moving east for 2023. The new route will start at Davie Street and Denman Street and follow Pacific Street towards Concord Community Park near Science World for the festival.

According to the Vancouver Pride Society, the change was prompted by the need for larger capacity and better accessibility in response to the growing popularity of Pride festivities, and in anticipation of Vancouver hosting Canada Pride 2024.

The Vancouver Pride Society has gone through a queer reckoning of its own, deliberately broadening its programming and leadership beyond the white gays on which Pride parades and festivals have generally centred. Relocating its most prominent and popular event to the East is

between the East Side and West End: “queer versus gay.”

Previously, one of the most visible differences between the two LGBTQ2S+ cultural hubs was the kind of drag you could find in each. Where the West End was dominated by more commercial drag

“I really don’t think there’s a divide. I think that’s a really archaic mindset,” she opines.

Xanax hosts and performs at events across the city—from Davie to Gastown to Kitsilano and beyond—and says she doesn’t feel limited by the lack of explicitly LGBTQ2S+ spaces. As mainstream interest in the art of drag has grown, more venues have become open to hosting performances.

“Just because there’s not dedicated queer spaces as much as there was before … we now have access to anything,” Xanax says. “Now, we can do drag anywhere, which means we can make money anywhere, which means we can bring diversity everywhere.”

Drag performers who host and cast events are a key force in diversifying the West End, something Xanax strives for at her own Davie Street drag show, XXX Friday at Numbers.

an extension of these efforts to bring Pride back to historically neglected communities.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY DRAG ARTIST

(and Straight contributor) Mx. Bukuru has three words to describe the difference

that favoured RuPaul-style queens and performances, the East Side was home to more DIY, experimental, and gender-diverse forms. But today, more and more performers thrive in both scenes—Mx. Bukuru included.

As a non-binary drag performer, they remember initially receiving a cool reception at Davie Street drag juggernaut the Junction. Today, Mx. Bukuru and the other five members of Enby 6, a non-binary drag group, hold the coveted Thursday night spot at Junction that was formerly owned by Canada’s Drag Race alumni Kendall Gender, Gia Metric, and Synthia Kiss.

“Being at the Junction and having that spot now and working with an audience who is so interested in what we as a group are doing … and getting to try stuff and knowing that we’re supported in the trying stuff, means a lot,” Mx. Bukuru says.

Along with platforming Enby 6, the Junction has also adjusted its programming to showcase more diverse drag with a rotating BIPOC host every Friday.

Despite their own role in reshaping the West End, Mx. Bukuru says there “absolutely is” still a divide rooted in the history of segregation and gentrification.

“It’s not wild to say that we still feel echoes of it today.”

To Xanax, a drag performer and promoter, the division has been eroded thanks to the work of her fellow drag performers.

“Without us [performers] pushing that [diversity] forward, I don’t think any of these spaces would have made those changes.”

It’s a stretch to say the West End has achieved queer utopia, but Xanax doesn’t want to dismiss the progress that’s been made.

“I’m not saying that white supremacy isn’t still running rampant. The patriarchy is still in control of a lot of things. Even my home bar is owned by a straight white man. So like, I get it, but I’m also playing that game that I’ve benefited from the fact that he’s allowing me to be in that space.”

WITH THE RECENT opening of queerand-trans-owned Eastside Studios’ new space, the Birdhouse in Mount Pleasant, Ricecake will be returning to East Van for its main party space. But it’s not shutting the door on Davie Street.

“The West End doesn’t necessarily feel like home. But who knows, maybe it’s time for us to reclaim some space here and make this venue queer again,” Sie says.

Queering a place involves what Sie calls “queer measures”—including diverse performers and staff, harm reduction procedures, and gender-neutral bathrooms. Thanks to community efforts, these queer measures are making their way west, while traditionally gay-dominated events like Pride evolve and find their way east, gradually blending Vancouver’s once-disparate LGBTQ2S+ scene. To many members of the community, this is a step in the right direction. GS

The west end doesn’t necessarily feel like home. But who knows, maybe it’s time for us to reclaim some space here and make this venue queer again.

– To Xanax

Breaking the rules to save the arts

David Duprey has bypassed, and ignored, city beaucracy to create space for artists, including Mount Pleasant’s “art motel”

By Eleanor Tremeer

David Duprey has a simple raison d’être: “If you follow the rules here you’re gonna fail, so don’t follow the rules.”

Owner of the Narrow Group, Duprey is the mastermind behind Main Street’s “art motel.” Bedecked with vibrant paintings from the Vancouver Mural Festival (VMF), the City Centre Motor Hotel is a bright gem among the offices and industrial buildings of Main Street, north of Broadway. Once vacant and awaiting demolition, the building has come to life under Duprey’s landlordship: artists occupy every room of the newly dubbed City Centre Artist Lodge, with a calendar of cultural events rendering this place a year-round community hub.

But if Duprey had played by the rules, none of this would have happened.

Like many older buildings in Vancouver, the City Centre Motor Hotel has been earmarked for development—and when Duprey heard about this, he immediately jumped on the phone to call Nicola Wealth Management, the new owners.

“I just cold-called them and asked if they were interested in leasing out the building,” says Duprey, “and they were super into it.” Having transformed other demolition-marked buildings into temporary art spaces, Duprey saw this as a fantastic opportunity, reaching out to VMF to wrap the 1950s motel in murals.

His plan seems relatively simple: get a lease, put in artists, and voila! Beautiful cultural hub. But here’s the rub: that’s not how you’re supposed to do these things at

all, as Duprey reveals.

“I leased the place out, filled it with artists and then I went and told the city about it. They freaked out!”

The issue, ultimately, is bureaucratic. According to Vancouver’s city ordinances, if a building is going to be used for anything other than its original purpose, that counts as development—specifically, a “change of use”—and as such, the landlord must obtain a development permit, even if no construction work is due to take place.

This can result in a lengthy and costly process in which representatives from the city assess the space, after which they may require upgrades to the building before the permit can be issued—upgrades for which the landlord must foot the bill. In the meantime, if it’s a temporary lease, the landlord is also paying rent for the empty building. And that isn’t exactly an appealing prospect to anyone who wants to create an artistic space.

Duprey sees this process as prohibitive to cultural development, because artistic endeavours just don’t generate the kind of revenue needed to cover change-of-use costs. “No-one’s gonna spend millions of

dollars on a space for artists, so they can get two dollars per square foot for rent,” he says. “It’s not a viable business model.”

Instead, buildings sit empty and unused while they await demolition. Unless someone like Duprey finds shortcuts by bending, or breaking, the rules.

In the case of the City Centre Artist Lodge, Duprey only involved the city after he had obtained the lease, commissioned the murals, and rented out the rooms as artist studios.

“When I told them, the city was like, ‘Oh my god, what did you do, that’s

crazy!’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I did it, and I’m gonna continue to operate as a motel.’ ”

This is how Duprey got around the change-of-use issue: for all intents and purposes, the motel is still a motel. “I sent them a business license that just had three lines. It said: ‘I’m opening a motel. It’s gonna do daily, weekly, and monthly rentals. I have a priority for LGBTQ people and POC.’ And they sent me a business permit.”

Duprey is a proponent of the ask-for-forgiveness-not-permission method, which he firmly believes

They freaked out!

– David Duprey

The reimagined City Centre Motor Hotel. Photo by Gabriel Martins.

is the only way to get things done in Vancouver, especially when it comes to the creative community. This is why he discusses his maverick business practices so openly.

“I want Vancouverites to take more risks and not wait for the city, because we’re gonna wait forever.”

And Duprey speaks from experience— he’s been fighting to foster an alternative artistic culture in Vancouver for almost 20 years.

Having spent 10 years in San Francisco, Duprey was disappointed when he returned to Vancouver in 2004. “It was ‘No Fun City’: there were no bars, the nightclubs all sucked, and the live music venues from when I was a kid had been crushed over time.”

Yet, Duprey sensed opportunity in Vancouver’s blank slate, inspired by the risk-taking creatives he had been surrounded with in California.

“Like in Golden Gate Park: people would set up a swing dance or a roller skating thing. When the city said, ‘Hey, you need a permit,’ they would just say, ‘What are you gonna do about it?’ They didn’t ask for permission, they just did it.”

Duprey’s brand of entrepreneurship has been wildly successful in Vancouver. He’s the landlord behind alt-culture institutions like the Rickshaw Theatre, the Fox Cabaret, and the dive-bar-esque Narrow Lounge. And the City Centre Artist Lodge isn’t Duprey’s first foray into the art scene: his portfolio boasts 12 artists’

studios with over 250 tenants.

Of course, breaking the rules isn’t an easy road. Not all of Duprey’s projects have come to pass, and he’s been caught out before. That was the case with the Rickshaw Theatre, which Duprey transformed into a live music venue in 2009. After the city refused his request for a liquor license, Duprey operated without one for three years. By the time he got found out, the Rickshaw was already popular, so Duprey’s second request for a license was granted right away.

“At that point, if they shut the Rickshaw down, it would have been ridiculous,” he says with a chuckle.

Even as Vancouver’s creative scene continues to grow, Duprey believes that the city’s rules and regulations are killing artistic endeavours in the cradle.

“I’ve seen so many people rent out a warehouse for music and art, but the city says, ‘Here’s what you have to do’ and it’ll be millions of dollars. So they give up their lease and lose all their money.”

The solution to bureaucratic roadblocks, Duprey insists, is to remove them entirely: “If you lift restrictions on the ability to create artistic spaces, arts and culture will flourish.” He decries the city’s approach, which is to “get involved with the minutia” in order to help artists. Duprey has a different tack: “I don’t believe I can help. How I help is giving people affordable spaces and allowing them to express themselves.”

The City Centre Artist Lodge is, so far, a testament to Duprey’s subversive approach. A year on, Duprey says that the old motel has become “a really supportive community,” as artists are free to host their own events, sell their wares, or just use their spaces to quietly create whatever they want. It may not last forever, but Duprey thinks the Lodge’s temporary nature is motivating.

“It knocks you out of complacency,” he suggests. “When you’ve got a deadline it makes you burn a little brighter.”

As for the rest of Vancouver, Duprey urges the next generation of creators and entrepreneurs to just do what they want, and deal with the bureaucracy later. “That’s how the arts scene is gonna survive. It’s not about going to the city and asking them to help us. It’s about us just going out there and doing it.” GS

Photo by Sabrina Miso Creative.

The City Centre Artist Lodge is located at 2111 Main St. The VMF is planning more events there for its summer programming.

History’s at stake in Big fight in little chinatown

by Chandler Walter

Karen Cho was in New York City for a conference to discuss what can be done about the gentrification, displacement, and erasure of Chinatowns across the continent. She was there to represent Montreal’s Chinese community, but also for a documentary she had in the works.

The date? March 2020.

“Three days after I got back from this gathering, they shut down New York for COVID,” Cho says in a phone interview with the Straight. She had already been doing research for what would eventually become Big Fight in Little Chinatown, but little did the director know at the time that the pandemic—and the violent uptick in anti-Asian hate that would be borne from it—would become such a prominent feature in the story she was about to tell.

“Thankfully, I had met all these Chinatown organizers and these different Chinatowns on the ground, in person,” she says. It’s those connections that launched the New York portion of the documentary, which explores the fight to preserve the history and culture of Chinatowns in New York, Montreal, and Vancouver.

Set to premiere at DOXA Documentary Film Festival on May 4, Big Fight in Little Chinatown marks the opening presentation of the festival, and prominently features Vancouver’s own Kam Wai Dim Sum and Hon Hsing Athletic Club.

“These kinds of legacy businesses are so key to both the history of the neighbourhood, but also as anchors for the future,” Cho notes. “And finding someone

like William [Liu], the second generation owner of Kam Wai Dim Sum, was really important to me, because he has a foot in the history; that business has been there for 40 years.”

Cho, who resides in Montreal, says that there was an urgency to the stories being told—especially one that hit close to home. The pandemic was closing down shops as filming commenced, resulting in a sense of desperation for those trying to stay afloat.

“Developers kind of descended onto the neighbourhood, and really took advantage of the vulnerabilities that were going on,” Cho says. “They almost bought out the most historic block of our whole Chinatown, including the Wings Noodles buildings. We were like one condo project away from losing our Chinatown altogether.”

While the three different Chinatowns featured in the documentary had their own unique battles to fight in preserving the history of—and ensuring a future for—their respective community spaces, Cho notes that there is an overarching constant at the foundation of Big Fight not just for these communities, but for marginalized areas in any city.

“When you talk to Chinatown after Chinatown,” she says, “you realize there is a pattern of displacement and expropriation that have gone on in these neighbourhoods—and not just Chinatown; all neighbourhoods of colour, all marginalized neighbourhoods, all low-income people have faced similar issues. So I hope that audiences will take away the

fact that the Chinatown story is the story of neighbourhoods in a city, and why it’s important to protect those vibrant neighbourhoods and affordable neighbourhoods, and to have walkable and sustainable neighbourhoods for the future of the city itself.”

After the DOXA premiere, the documentary will go on a coast-to-coast tour of Chinatowns throughout North America. Cho says that the community screenings will include traditional Chinese subtitles. She hopes that, by bringing Big Fight in Little Chinatown to the local level, the stories it showcases will resonate with and inspire those who may be struggling to hold onto their own cultural communities—and perhaps even inspire people to actively work towards future prosperity and growth.

“What frustrated me in the past is that, in the media coverage, [there] are all these news stories that are basically ringing the death bell for Chinatown; just writing it off as a neighbourhood where the erasure of the place is inevitable,” Cho says. “I knew this wasn’t the case. The idea that a community just sits there and watches

passively as their community is erased— this is not true, and it was never true. So I wanted to focus on the agency of the Chinatown communities and their efforts.

“I looked very hard for those pockets of resistance, pockets of resilience, and the stories of hope,” she continues. “Of people that are really stewarding the neighbourhood into the future as well. And where Chinatown isn’t just a thought of the past or a piece of nostalgia, but an active, living community today.”

That coast-to-coast tour will bring the documentary back to Vancouver’s own International Village for a community screening on June 3.

“It’s so amazing to be able to take this story that the community gave you, and give it back to the community,” Cho says. “To allow them to use the film as this kind of tool to advocate for the struggles in their Chinatowns.” GS

Big Fight in Little Chinatown will be shown at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival (May 4 to 12) on Thursday, May 4 at the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, and on Tuesday, May 9 at the VIFF Centre. Tickets are available at DOXA’s website.

Ken Li outside KK Discount in NYC’s Chinatown, Photo by Nathaniel Brown.

From satanic panic to true survivors

The year’s DOXA Documentary Film Festival inspires, intrigues, and amazes

look past them, you’ll find a gripping narrative grappling with real questions about power, control, and what counts as a threat to national security. -VW

May 5 | 7:45pm | VIFF Centre

BIG FIGHT IN LITTLE CHINATOWN

Showcasing the people, places, businesses, and history that make up the pillars of Chinatowns in Vancouver, Montreal, and New York, Big Fight in Little Chinatown focuses on the consistent effort required to preserve the essence of the storied communities.

While each city’s Chinatown is facing problems that appear different on the surface, the documentary makes it clear that those willing to put up the big fight are often facing a David vs. Goliath-type task, and are not willing to back down in the face of those odds. - CW

May 4 | 7pm | Djavad Mwafaghian Cinema

May 9 | 5:15pm | VIFF Centre

NOT QUITE THAT

Ali Grant’s meditation on breasts and butchness follows Sarah, a queer Jewish mother who discovers she’s at high risk for fatal breast or ovarian cancer. She opts for a preventative mastectomy, unsure how she feels about the decision.

The intimate scenes of Sarah’s friends and family, frankly discussing their relationships to their bodies, anchor a layered and ultimately heartwarming narrative.

“I either got to live and be like ‘here I am, it is what it is,’ or I gotta hide,” Sarah muses at one point. “I think I’m tired of [hiding].” Just as she explains that coming out brought her so much joy, her embrace of her post-surgery body also seems to set her free. -VW

May 5 | 5:45pm | VIFF Centre May 13 | 2pm | VIFF Centre

MANUFACTURING THE THREAT

A 2013 investigation into Omar (John) Nuttall and Ana (Amanda) Korody found the Surrey couple arrested on terrorism charges. They were freed in 2016, after an appeal found they had been entrapped—explicitly pushed into the plot to bomb BC’s Victoria Day celebrations by undercover officers. Director Amy Miller examines the shadowy world of police surveillance and infiltration, connecting the operation against Korody and Nuttall to wider monitoring of environmental, Indigenous and racial justice groups. Yes, the action movie-esque tropes that blanket the introduction are a bit cheesy. But, if you

MÁ SÀI GÒN (MOTHER SAIGON)

Stripping away the conventional trappings of a documentary—the talking heads, the chyrons, the narra-

tion—director Khoa Lê’s lyrical journey through what’s now known as Ho Chi Minh City paints a portrait of the myriad ways queer and trans love blooms.

A trans woman with flowers in her hair talks of her dawn dates with a new beau; a bickering lesbian couple call each other Mommy and Daddy; a surrogate mother to a house of queer and trans young adults chides her many garment-makers into opening savings accounts. The long conversations into inhabitants’ lives are interspersed with colourful poetry, melodies and music to create a rich, shimmering tapestry.

Through it all is the question of what family means to LGBTQ+ people in Saigon, be it their relationships to their parents, their chosen families, or to their own potential children. The city itself is a loving, lonely mother: here are her offspring, in all their raw reality. -VW

May 6 | 5:15pm | the Cinematheque

HELL AND HIGHWATER

BC has been no stranger to severe weather events over the past few years. Hell and Highwater begins by showing the devastating results of the Lytton fire, the investigation into what happened, and the people who are demanding justice and action in the aftermath.

But the documentary doesn’t stop there. Interspersed with news clips, interviews with those affected, and calls for climate action, Hell and Highwater also touches on the flood of 2021, and the perfect storm of factors (atmospheric rivers, record-breaking heat, and clear cut logging, to name just a few) that combined to cause death, destruction, and displacement for those in the area. -CW

May 6 | 12pm | VIFF Centre

May 9 | 3pm | Djavad Mwafaghian Cinema

LA SINGLA

Antonia Singla was once considered the best flamenco dancer in the world. Born deaf in the slums of Barcelona and unable to speak until she was a teenager, dance became the language through which she expressed herself. La Singla’s striking movements—and intense gaze—were seared with passion and revolutionized the art form.

Then, suddenly, at the height of her fame, she vanished without a trace. Fifty years later, a young woman begins to unravel the mystery of what happened to La Singla. Combining archival footage and photography with music and interviews, this beautiful portrait from director Paloma Zapata explores the heartbreak and rage behind La Singla’s performances, while celebrating her incomparable legacy. -YS

May 6 | 12:45pm | the Cinematheque

May 10 | 5pm | VIFF Centre

SATAN WANTS YOU

A deep dive into the origins of the Satanic Panic of the ’80s, Satan Wants You shines the spotlight on the bestselling book Michelle Remembers; the result of Michelle Smith and her therapist Lawrence Pazder “recovering” the former’s memories of alleged enslavement by a satanic cult in Victoria.

The documentary presents the snowball effect of misinformation being accepted as truth by a fearful society, the motives of those spreading conspiracies, and the life-changing consequences that result.

While it might be easy to look back now and laugh at the absurdity of baby-eating satanic cults, Satan Wants You offers the frustrating realization that we may not have collectively grown much (if at all) in information literacy in the 40 years since. -CW

May 6 | 7:30pm | VIFF Centre May 12 | the Cinematheque | 8:30pm

MUSIC FOR BLACK PIGEONS

Like jazz, Music for Black Pigeons doesn’t follow a linear narrative, but improvises to the rhythms of the lives of some of the genre’s most influential and prolific players, anchored by their collaborations with Danish composer Jakob Bro.

Shot across a span of 14 years, the film follows them as they buy soup and do morning lunges, answering existential questions about what music means to them in between sessions, recordings, performances, and all the other things that musicians go behind the scenes.

It honours some of the greats who are no longer with us, like drummer Paul Motian and saxophonist Lee Konitz—who, with his endearingly acerbic sense of humour, is truly the heart of the film. It’s a compelling window into what it means to live a life totally devoted to music. -YS

May 12 | 9:15pm | VIFF

May 13 | 2:45pm | the Cinematheque

KING COAL

Sharing a name with the Upton Sinclair novel about coal miners, King Coal looks at how Central Appalachia has been shaped by its relationship to the seams.

MADELEINE

A charming story of friendship between 107-year-old Madeleine and filmmaker Raquel, the short film combines the pair’s real-life conversation with a mixture of video recording as well as beautiful felt model animation. It’s the relationship that drives the heart of the film, with both speaking to one another with a sense of fond familiarity, though with nothing held back. Madeleine captures the curiosity, tenacity, and will still within the titular character as the two go on a road trip out to sea, offering words of wisdom, witty banter, and an incredible perspective on life. -CW

May 6 | 2:45pm | the Cinematheque

May 11 | 3pm | Djavad Mwafaghian Cinema

Director and coal-miner’s daughter Elaine McMillion Sheldon examines how the industry’s influence is king; and how, as coal’s importance diminishes, the king lives on as only a ghost. Sheldon’s lyrical narration explores past, present, and future, meandering through vignettes of a young girl learning what coal means to her community.

At one point, Sheldon notes this place doesn’t just extract coal; it also ships out people, and dreams. Some of the rougher realities of pollution or corporate resource extraction are elided. Viewers ponder, instead, the tensions between pride, loyalty, and reality—and what could happen when the ghost of resource extraction is put to rest. -VW

May 10 | 7pm | VIFF Centre May 11 | 10am | SFU Cinema

The visible spectrum is defined as “wavelengths of visible light.” It’s what five people who have been struck by lightning begin to describe in Le Spectre Visible , the 2022 short from Quebecois directors Sarah Seené and Maxime Corbeil-Perron, as they share stories about the lasting impression the phenomenon has made on their lives.

Shot on 16mm film against a haunting backdrop of black and white, staticky flashes of colourful light emulate the different experiences of the survivors as they share intimate reflections on life, death, and psychic connections to nature. It’s both frightening and beautiful—like lightning itself. -YS

May 12 | 6:15pm | The Cinematheque

LE SPECTRE VISIBLE (THE VISIBLE SPECTRUM)

30 FREE BANDS

July 20-23, 2023 | Fort Langley, BC

Immerse yourself in world-class jazz, art and music in a very special setting

Caity Gyorgy Quartet • Gabriel Palatchi Trio

Oliver Gannon & Bill Coon • Celeigh Cardinal

Jasmine Jazz • Apollo Suns• Raagaverse

Curtis Clear Sky & the Constellationz

Dal Richards Orchestra • Blues Hoodoo

Candus Churchill and the “Circle of Voices”

Feven Kidane • Susana Williams • Marois Vocal Project

Alvin Brendan Organ Trio • Doc Fingers

Colin Sankey Trio • Mark Crissinger • Hayley Wallis

Urban Bandscape • Wild River Singers • Jaya Bremer Quintet

RazzMaJazz Ensemble • Monty Biggins - the Little Bigs Band

The Perpetual Jazz Trio • Serengeti • Jake Kostuchuk Quartet

Omianan • Noxious Obs Society Band • The Carnival Band

WWW.FORT

make the democratic process possible.

We’re recruiting a returning officer for Vancouver Granville to help manage Canada’s federal elections. If you’re a people person with management experience and would like to get involved in your community while contributing to democracy, then we’re looking for you!

Apply now at elections.ca/jobs

MAY 2023

GREG PUCIATO May 6 Rickshaw Theatre.

Former frontman of Dillinger Escape Plan.

MANNEQUIN PUSSY May 7, Cobalt.

Philly punks in support of latest effort, Perfect.

M83 May 9, Commodore Ballroom.

French electronic group.

THE HEAVY May 9, Rickshaw Theatre.

Guitar rock and neo-soul from England.

WEDNESDAY May 9, Fox Cabaret.

Buzzy indie rockers from North Carolina in support of critically acclaimed album, Rat Saw God.

ELM TREE CIRCLE May 10, Cobalt.

German pop punk, with support from Vancouver’s Big City Germs.

AMANDA SUM May 11-14, The Cultch.

Performing New Age Attitudes: Live in Concert as part of Femme Festival.

ANTIBALAS May 11, Rickshaw Theatre. Brooklyn-based Afrobeat collective.

DEAN LEWIS May 11, Vogue Theatre. Australian singer-songwriter.

VERBODEN FESTIVAL May 12-14, Rickshaw Theatre.

6th annual dark music festival featuring over 40 artists.

HAYLEY KIYOKO May 13, Commodore Ballroom. Rising pop star known to fans as the “queen of lesbians.”

GARY NUMAN May 14, Commodore Ballroom.

English new wave musician best known for 1979’s The Pleasure Principle.

DREAMER ISIOMA May 16, Cobalt.

Chicago artist blending Afrobeats, R&B, and pop.

VIVEK SHRAYA May 17, Fox Cabaret.

Multidisciplinary artist on tour in support of new album, Baby You’re Projecting.

DEVOURS May 18, Biltmore Cabaret.

Homecoming Queen album release party.

MODIFIED GHOST FESTIVAL May 18-21, Rickshaw Theatre.

Metal, punk, hardcore, prog music festival.

TOW’RS May 18, Wise Hall.

Indie Americana from Arizona.

YVES TUMOR May 18, Vogue Theatre. Surreal and boundary-defying.

JOSEPH May 19, Commodore Ballroom. Portland folk band of sisters.

SAMPA THE GREAT May 19, Hollywood Theatre.

Zambian-born, Botswana-raised rapper and singer. SUPERSUCKERS May 19, Rickshaw Theatre.

Described as the “bastard sons of Foghat, AC/DC, and ZZ Top after being weaned on punk rock.”

HOT CHIP May 20, Vogue Theatre.

Widely acclaimed synthpop group from London. THE HALLUCI NATION X FUCKED UP May 20, Commodore Ballroom.

Here’s The Unity Tour, featuring a live wrestling show.

TIM HECKER May 20, Colbalt.

Prolific and celebrated ambient musician and producer from Vancouver.

THE SCHIZOPHONICS May 20, Biltmore Cabaret.

Cali garage rock, featuring support from local bands Bratboy and Stuttr.

YOB & ELDER May 21, Rickshaw Theatre. A night filled with sludge, doom, and heavy psych rock.

BEGONIA May 23, Fox Cabaret.

Solo project of Chic Gamine’s Alexa Dirks.

$NOT May 23, Commodore Ballroom. Florida-based rapper.

BABYGIRL May 25, Biltmore Cabaret.

Described as ““pop songs with sad guitars.”

FRUIT BATS May 27, Commodore Ballroom. Eric D. Johnson’s influential folk-rock band.

TOVE LO May 29, Commodore Ballroom. Rescheduled stop on the Dirt Femme Tour.

TAWAHUM May 30, Fox Cabaret.

Release show for debut album, Bottled Lightning, which protests the Trans Mountain Pipeline.

MICHAELA SLINGER May 31, Fox Cabaret.

Local indie pop singer-songwriter in support of new album, This Can’t Last Forever.

THE QUEERS & TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET May 31, Rickshaw Theatre. No frills punk rock.

JUNE 2023

WAVVES June 2, Rickshaw Theatre. San Diego surf rock.

DWAYNE GRETZKY June 2, Biltmore Cabaret. Fun nostalgic covers of Fleetwood Mac to Fatboy Slim.

LISTINGS ARE A PUBLIC SERVICE PROVIDED FREE OF CHARGE, BASED ON AVAILABLE SPACE AND EDITORIAL DISCRETION. SUBMIT EVENTS ONLINE USING THE EVENT-SUBMISSION FORM AT straight.com/AddEvent. Events that don’t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

Vivek Shraya. Photo by Vanessa Heins.

rookie of the year: Wildlight kitchen + bar

By William Johnson

It was supposed to be a slow Tuesday for the staff at West Point Grey’s newly-opened Wildlight Kitchen + Bar. But fans of Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi, who was performing at UBC’s Thunderbird Sports Centre on the evening of April 25, had other ideas. Large groups on their way to the gig were in the mood for a pre-show bite, and decided to check out the neighbourhood’s newest hub for premium casual eats. According to general manager Brenton Smith, patrons poured into Wildlight and gave its staff, operating on a skeleton crew, their biggest surprise rush yet.

“We forgot to look at the events calendar at what was going on at UBC,” admits Smith, in a conversation with the Straight. “That was a bit of an eye-opener. It turned into Chambar before a Canucks game.”

In retrospect, the blitz may have been practice for the surge in interest the three-month-old eatery can pretty much count on having now that it’s been recognized in six categories in the Straight’s 2023 Golden Plates Awards. The prize haul, which includes wins in the New Restaurant and Pacific Northwest categories, is unprecedented for the annual awards, now in their 26th edition.

Wildlight is the first restaurant venture for Pattison Food Group. It opened in early February under the culinary helm of Chef Warren Chow. A French-trained chef with a CV that includes Bauhaus, the Pear Tree, and Juniper, he’s fresh off a gold medal win with Community Catering Team Canada at the ExpoGast 2022 Culinary World Cup. And although he is quickly burnishing his reputation as an individual local culinary star, both he and Smith credit the restaurant’s early success to the organization’s entire team.

The awards are “a good testament to the talent that we brought aboard the team,” Smith explains. “From our bar manager [Aman Nijjar] to the executive chef and his sous chefs [Tim Hui and Jack Ma] and my AGM and sommelier [Mike Cooke]—I keep telling all of them they’re the talent. I’m just the agent. I think that when you bring a lot of people together that have that kind of experience and passion for the industry—and for what we do all together—we gel, and we’ve created this wonderful product.”

The product is an unapologetic celebration of British Columbia, from the Salt Spring Island mussels steamed in Sheringham’s Seaside gin to the pan-roasted Rossdown Farms chicken. And from the Two Rivers beef and Fraser Valley duck to the produce secured a stone’s throw away at the UBC Farm, Wildlight aims to champion everything BC has to offer.

“We want to embody the West Coast belief of using local regional ingredients because [they’re] so bountiful, and also pay a nod to our local and regional growers and distributors,” Smith shares.

Chow adds: “Whether it be from vegetables to seafood to gin to syrah to everything, it’s right in our backyard.”

In the planning process, Chow’s proposed dishes laid the foundation for a nearly 100 per cent local menu. When Smith joined the group, he accelerated the team’s move in that direction.

“I just saw how everyone was going with the food menu and with the cocktail menu and with the wine list, and I just said, ‘Hey, look, this is what we’re doing now: completely West Coast regional,’ ” Smith says.

Kudos for Wildlight extends beyond where it sources its provisions. The Golden Plates votes were also for how chef Chow and his sous chefs have transformed raw materials into a range of sophisticated, yet approachable dishes. Even common menu items that patrons can typically find in other eateries have been elevated by chef Chow, argues Smith.

“We’ll offer a burger or wings,” he says. “But he can’t help himself. It’s gonna be the best burger you’ve tried, or the best wings you’ve tried.”

The votes bear this truth out: the restaurant was runner-up in the Chicken Wings category, and secured bronze for its Burgers. In addition, Wildlight got the silver and

bronze nod for Continental and Seafood, respectively. Chow’s dedication to his craft is what piqued Smith’s interest in the restaurant project when they first met.

“We sat down and I immediately got a really good vibe,” Smith recalls. “I liked Warren’s food and his passion for food. I’d been looking for something to dig my teeth into for some time. But it had to be the right opportunity. I didn’t want to find something that I didn’t believe in, just for the sake of being back in management.”

When asked if accolades were a part of their collective goals, both insist their aim has simply been to make delicious food.

“I think for the both of us,” Chow states, “we’ve been in the industry for so long that anything less than striving for perfection is unacceptable. When we got together to lead this project, we just kind of put our best foot forward and, naturally, everything just fell into place.”

It’s clear that food comes first. Anything else is a bonus. “Awards weren’t even a topic of conversation,” Smith adds. “We just really appreciate dining out ourselves and love a good experience and love great food, and we just wanted to bring the best experience and food forward to our guests.” GS

Wildlight Kitchen + Bar is located at #107-5380 University Boulevard.

The Wildlight Kitchen + Bar specializes in dishes that are unapologetically British Columbian.

THANK YOU FOR 14 YEARS OF ABURI SALMON

OSHI LOVE.

@MIKURESTAURANT

READERS’ CHOICES FOOD

BEST OVERALL

1. BAAN LAO FINE THAI CUISINE 4100 Bayview St., Richmond

2. Published on Main 3593 Main St.

3. Lunch Lady 1046 Commercial Dr.

LEGENDARY VANCOUVER

RESTAURANT

1. JOE FORTES SEAFOOD & CHOP HOUSE 777 Thurlow St.

2. Phnom Penh Restaurant 244 E Georgia St.

3. Water St. Cafe (tie) 300 Water St.

3. Le Crocodile (tie) 909 Burrard St. #100

CHEF

1. CHEF NUTCHA Baan Lao

2. Gus Published on Main

3. Lyle Flamand Water St. Cafe

NEW RESTAURANT

1. WILDLIGHT KITCHEN & BAR 5380 University Blvd. #107

2. Published on Main 3593 Main St.

3. Gastronomy Gastown 62 E Cordova St.

BISTRO

1. ST. LAWRENCE RESTAURANT 269 Powell St.

2. Burgoo Various Locations

3. Au Comptoir 2278 W 4th Ave.

BREAKFAST

1. CAFE MEDINA 780 Richards St.

2. OEB Breakfast Co. Various Locations

3. Jam Cafe 556 Beatty St. & 2153 W 4th Ave.

BRUNCH

1. CAFE MEDINA

780 Richards St.

2. Jam Cafe 556 Beatty St. & 2153 W 4th Ave.

3. Chambar Restaurant 568 Beatty St.

CASINO RESTAURANT

1. HONEY SALT 39 Smithe St.

2. The Victor, 39 Smithe St.

3. D/6 Bar & Lounge 39 Smithe St.

COMFORT FOOD

1. BURGOO Various Locations

2. Water St. Cafe, 300 Water St.

3. Tap & Barrel (tie), Various Locations

3. Heritage Asian Eatery (tie) 1108 W Pender St.

DELI

1. LA GROTTA DEL FORMAGGIO 1791 Commercial Dr.

2. Bosa Foods Various Locations

3. Cioffi’s Meat Market & Deli 4156 Hastings St., Burnaby

FINE DINING RESTAURANT

1. BAAN LAO FINE THAI CUISINE 4100 Bayview St., Richmond

2. Published on Main 3593 Main St.

3. Chambar Restaurant 568 Beatty St.

FOOD TRUCK

1. TACOFINO Whenever

2. Japadog Wherever

3. Chickpea We’re meant to be together HIDDEN GEM

1. BAAN LAO

FINE THAI CUISINE 4100 Bayview St., Richmond

2. Salmon n’Bannock 1128 W Broadway #7

3. Water St. Cafe 300 Water St.

HOTEL LOUNGE

1. BOTANIST 1038 Canada Pl.

2. Lobby Lounge at Fairmont Pacific Rim 1038 Canada Pl.

3. Sylvia Hotel, Restaurant and Lounge 1154 Gilford St.

HOTEL RESTAURANT

1. BOTANIST 1038 Canada Pl.

2. Bacchus Restaurant & Lounge 845 Hornby St.

3. Honey Salt 39 Smithe St.

RESTAURANT GROUP

1. CACTUS CLUB Various Locations

2. Glowbal Group Various Locations

3. Top Table

Various Locations

RESTAURANT TO CURE A HANGOVER

1. RED WAGON 2128 E Hastings St.

2. Lucy’s Eastside Diner 2708 Main St.

3. OEB Breakfast Co.

Various Locations

VISIT GOLDEN PLATES ONLINE AT STRAIGHT.COM

via tevere is a classic for a reason golden plates

By Mike Usinger

Laughing while noting he’s not complaining, Dom Morra remembers the opening of Via Tevere in 2012 as an endlessly crazy blur

The goal was to make sure the fledgling restaurant was getting everything right in its mission to bring authentic Neapolitan-style pizza to Vancouver. Along with his brother and partner Frank, Morra ended up not only handling the business side of things at the Victoria Drive space, but also standing in front of Via Tevere’s hulking wood-fired dome oven, making sure everything was perfect, from the char on the crust to the sauce ratio on the margheritas and prosciutto e funghis.

“We never imagined in our wildest dreams that it would be that busy that early on—even to this day we’re amazed,” Morra says in an interview with Straight. “From our first week we were owner/operators and also pizza makers. Me and my brother Frank looked at each other and said, ‘What did we just get ourselves into?’ I remember dropping dough at four in the morning because we ran out the night before. It was like, ‘We should just get sleeping bags and hang out here.’ It was a whirlwind, but it was a good problem to have.”

Eleven years later, there’s still a nightly lineup at Via Tevere, which was voted Best Pizzeria in this year’s Golden Plates. As has been the case since week one, you either show up early (the restaurant doesn’t take reservations) or accept that, sometimes, you have to wait for something good.

The draw is Neapolitan pizza, famous for its blistered, chewy crust, simple toppings (crushed San Marzano tomatoes, fresh basil, and mozzarella), and a complete inability to support its own weight once cut into. Because its ingredients will slide off otherwise, you either fold it or use a knife and fork to eat it—something admittedly foreign to those who’ve grown up with Pizza Hut and Little Caesar’s on these shores.

Although it’s nothing less than an obsession in its birthplace of Naples, Neapolitan pizza was, for reasons that escape the Morras, a little late arriving to

the party in North America.

“We never really understood why it took so long for Neapolitan pizza to come to Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest, and really North America,” Morra continues. “It’s funny, one of the first customers we ever had—he was sitting at the pizza bar when me and Frank were still making pizzas—said to us ‘I don’t know what the heck this is, but it’s fricking delicious,’ which was hilarious. No one had heard of Neapolitan pizza. I have no idea why—maybe it was we’re just so ingrained with really cheesy, really heavy-topping pizzas that it wasn’t appealing to people until they actually got a taste of it.”

The Morra brothers learned to love authentic Neapolitan pizza during family trips to Italy.

“We were born and raised in East Van— we lived within 20 blocks of the Drive our entire upbringing—but my parents are from Naples,” he says. “We really took pride in our family heritage, our upbringing, and eating lots of awesome food in Naples when we’d go as a family as kids and teens. So opening a place like Via Tevere is something

that we always wanted to do.”

That meant following rules. To get the stamp of authenticity by Italy’s Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, Neapolitan pizza has to be hand-kneaded and made with superfine-00 flour, San Marzano tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella. Then comes a fire-blasting in a wood-burning oven for 90 seconds at 485 degrees Celsius. Forget small, medium, and XL—Neapolitan pizzas are 30cm across, 3mm thick, and should be fragrant, soft, and elastic.

Even with set-in-stone guidelines, there was a learning curve at Via Tevere.

“We knew the flavour profile and the texture that we were after because we’d eaten it so much, being in Naples so frequently,” Morra recalls. “But it was trial and error. There are four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast. But we had to get the recipe right, our proofing times, and how the pizza reacted to the high temperatures of the wood-fired oven. A lot of research went into tasting pizzas.”

The location of Via Tevere serves as a testimony to that research and getting things right. A decade ago, smart money

would have suggested ever-busy Commercial Drive as a prime spot for a pizza joint. The Morra brothers instead set their sights on a vacant storefront in a residential area on Victoria Drive.

“It was an opportunity and a perfect storm where we had decided we wanted to hang our hats in a restaurant in East Van where we all lived,” Morra says. “We were in search of a place, and then this space happened to be for sale. It was so unique that it made sense.”

Today, Via Tevere is known for its homey rustic wood tables, circa-1935 Shelly’s 4X Bakery Products mural on the south-facing outside wall, and tank-size blue-tiled pizza oven, imported from Naples from a family that’s made them for decades.

When the Morra brothers first looked at the space it was being used to store plumbing supplies. Over the years, 1190 Victoria Drive has reportedly housed everything from a dry-goods grocer to the oddball decor-store Doctor Vigari.

“It seems like every year there’s a different little anecdote added to the history of the building,” Morra shares. “We kind of joke in-house that we should create a blog where we can add the bits and pieces of stories we get from customers. The Doctor Vigari story is that the guys of Doug and the Slugs used to hang out there. They messed around with some letters to create ‘Doctor Vigari’ and put it up on the signage out front. That’s where that came from—it’s ‘Victoria Dry Goods’ all gibbled up. I still have the extra letters somewhere in storage. When we renovated, we kept the Doctor Vigari letters and put them on some old boards that had to be removed, and it’s now sitting in the restaurant.”

The obvious question, given that Via Tevere is now a Vancouver institution, is why stop at one location?

That might make things crazy for a while, but the Morra brothers have been there before and survived—to the point where they, presumably, never did have to use their sleeping bags. So, in the works?

“Maybe,” Morra says with a laugh. “Is that letting the cat out of the bag?” GS

Via Tevere is located at 1190 Victoria Drive.

Via Tevere’s Dom and Frank Morra.

READERS’ CHOICES FOOD

RESTAURANT

St.

3. Oca Pastifico 1260 Commercial Dr.

PIZZERIA

1. VIA TEVERE PIZZERIA 1190 Victoria Dr.

2. AJ’s Brooklyn Pizza Joint 325 E Broadway

3. Virtuous Pie 583 Main St.

TAKE-OUT PIZZA

1. VIRTUOUS PIE 583 Main St.

2. AJ’s Brooklyn Pizza Joint 325 E Broadway

3. Via Tevere Pizzeria 1190 Victoria Dr.

SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

1. BLUE WATER CAFE 1095 Hamilton St.

2. Joe Fortes Seafood & Chop House 777 Thurlow St.

3. Wildlight Kitchen + Bar 5380 University Blvd. #107

TACOS

1. TACOFINO Various Locations

2. La Taqueria Various Locations

3. Sal y Limon Various Locations

SUSHU

1. MIKU 200 Granville St. #70

2. Minami 1118 Mainland St.

3. Toshi Sushi 181 E 16th Ave.

THAI

1. BAAN LAO FINE THAI CUISINE 4100 Bayview St., Richmond

2. Maenam 1938 W 4th Ave.

3. Fat Mao Noodles 217 E Georgia St.

VIETNAMESE

1. ANH AND CHI 3388 Main St.

2. Lunch Lady 1046 Commercial Dr.

3. Ong Ba Vietnamese Eatery 976 Denman St.

VISIT GOLDEN PLATES ONLINE AT STRAIGHT.COM

golden plates red Wagon elevates classic greasy spoon

By Brittany Tiplady

There’s a reason why the Red Wagon has been an East Vancouver brunch staple for nearly 13 years.

“Classics remain classics,” says general manager Hugh Mongey.

Until recently, the Red Wagon lived on

the corner of Hastings and Garden Street in a ’50s-era-decorated diner complete with checkered floors and red tabletops.

In 2020, owner and chef Brad Miller moved the restaurant a whole block west, to Hastings and Lakewood.

Mongey adds, “What Brad started there

was incredible and to be part of that was amazing, and this is still that. And that’s been a lovely challenge—to help bring things forward where I can, but also hold onto that established neighbourhood joint that Brad created.”

The Red Wagon is cherished for its homestyle, French-inspired diner cooking that has even Guy Fieri coming back for more. Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives first visited the spot in 2012 and returned in 2016, bringing international recognition to Miller and his team. And it’s snagged the top spot in this year ’s Golden Plates Awards for Best Restaurant to Cure a Hangover.

“We try to do everything from scratch that we can,” Miller says. “I think you’re getting your bang for your buck. I think we’re doing substantial plates for decent prices. It’s warm. It’s welcoming, it’s comfort food. I’m not trying to scare anybody off and we’re not trying to cheat.”

Whether you’re seeking out some epic hangover grub or dropping in for a more civilized occasion, there’s a lot to love on the Red Wagon brunch menu. Specials rotate daily, but the revered fluffy,

golden, succulent pulled pork pancakes with a side of Jack Daniel’s maple syrup are among the dishes that have put Red Wagon on the must-visit map. As for other hangover breakfast all-stars, Miller and Mongey recommend the ambitious Super Trucker Breakfast plate and the BBQ brisket

Pair those options with a caesar, mimosa, or a quaffable Red Wagon “breakfast beer” lager by Powell Street Brewery, and you’re golden.

To close out our interview, I had

The Red Wagon is loved for its homestyle cooking. Photo by Petra Richli.

I think you’re getting your bang for your buck.

– Brad Miller

to ask: given the precarious nature of the food industry, especially in an impossibly expensive city like Vancouver, how has Red Wagon not only endured, but achieved beloved icon status?

“Well,” Miller says with a laugh, “we continue to have the same integrity that we always have. We’re still doing food the same way, I do not cut corners. Obviously, things get tweaked, but we’ve tried to do the same thing that we’ve been doing for all these years. And that keeps people coming back.”

Mongey adds, “It’s our customers that got us through the dark days of the last couple years. It’s largely due to them that the lights are still on and we’re still pumping out pancakes.” GS

READERS’ CHOICES FOOD

1.

2.

Various Locations

3. BETA5 Chocolates 409 Industrial Ave.

DOUGHNUT

1. LEE’S DONUTS 1689 Johnston St.

2. Cartems Donuts 2190 Main St. & 534 W Pender St.

3. Lucky’s Doughnuts Various Locations

GELATO

1. DOLCE AMORE 1588 Commercial Dr.

2. La Casa Gelato 1033 Venables St.

3. Mario’s Gelati 88 E 1st Ave.

PATISSERIE

1. PUREBREAD Various Locations

2. Thomas Haas 2539 W Broadway

3. Thierry, Various Locations

BREAD BAKERY

1. LIVIA, 1399 Commercial Dr.

2. Small Victory, Various Locations

3. Terra Breads, Various Locations

POKE

1. STEVE’S POKE BAR Various Locations

2. Pokeritto (tie) Various Locations

2. The Poke Guy (tie) 420 Richards St.

3. Poke Bar, 1072 Davie St.

RAMEN

1. JINYA 541 Robson St.

2. Ramen Danbo, Various Locations

3. Maruhachi Ramen (formerly Marutama) Various Locations

VISIT GOLDEN PLATES ONLINE AT STRAIGHT.COM

The Red Wagon is located at 2128 East Hastings Street.

The Red Wagon’s unbeatable pancakes.

READERS’ CHOICES INTERNATIONAL

CARIBBEAN

1. CALABASH BISTRO 428 Carrall St.

2. The Patty Shop 4019 Macdonald St.

3. Baby Dhal Roti Shop 2707 Commercial Dr.

CHINESE

1. BAO BEI 163 Keefer St.

2. Neptune Seafood Restaurant 470 SW Marine Dr.

3. ChongQing 2808 Commercial Dr. & 1260 Robson St.

CONTINENTAL

1. ST. LAWRENCE 269 Powell St.

2. Wildlight Kitchen + Bar 5380 University Blvd. #107

3. Chambar 568 Beatty St.

FILIPINO

1. POTLUCK HAWKER EATERY 3424 Cambie St.

2. Kulinarya Filipino Eatery 1134 Commercial Dr.

3. Pin Pin 6113 Fraser St.

FRENCH

1. ST. LAWRENCE 269 Powell St.

2. Le Crocodile 909 Burrard St. #100

3. Chambar 568 Beatty St.

GREEK

1. NAMMOS ESTIATORIO 3980 Fraser St.

2. Stepho’s Souvlaki Greek Taverna 1124 Davie St.

3. Minerva’s Restaurant 2411 W 41st Ave.

INDIAN

1. VIJ’S 3106 Cambie St.

2. Sula Indian Restaurant 4172 Main St. & 1128 Commercial Dr.

3. Bombay Kitchen + Bar 1018 Commercial Dr.

INDIGENOUS

1. SALMON N BANNOCK 1128 W Broadway #7

ITALIAN

1. SAVIO VOLPE 615 Kingsway

2. Oca Pastificio (tie) 1260 Commercial Dr.

2. Ask For Luigi (tie) 305 Alexander St.

4. Cioppinos Mediterranean Grill 1133 Hamilton St.

JAPANESE

1. MIKU 200 Granville St. #70

2. MInami 1118 Mainland St.

3. Toshi Sushi 181 E 16th Ave.

KOREAN

1. KOOK KOREAN BBQ 2800 E 1st Ave. #211A

2. Shilla Korean Restaurant 1031 Kingsway

3. Mapo Pancake House 1130 Mainland St.

LATIN AMERICAN

1. CUCHILLO 261 Powell St.

2. El Camino’s 3250 Main St.

3. Chancho Tortilleria 2096 Commercial Dr.

LEBANESE

1. NUBA Various locations

2. Aleph Eatery (tie) 1889 Powell St.

2. Jamjar Canteen (tie) 2290 Commercial Dr. & 6035 University Blvd.

4. Superbaba 2419 Main St.

MALAYSIAN/INDONESIAN

1. BANANA LEAF Various Locations

2. John 3-16 Malaysian Delights Potluck 1063 W Broadway

3. Potluck Hawker Eatery 3424 Cambie St.

MEDITERRANEAN

1. NAMMOS ESTIATORIO 3980 Fraser St.

2. Chambar 568 Beatty St.

3. Hydra Estiatorio 475 Howe St.

MEXICAN

1. SAL Y LIMON Various Locations

2. La Taqueria Various Locations

3. Las Margaritas 1999 W 4th Ave.

MIDDLE EASTERN

1. EAST IS EAST 4433 Main St. & 3035 W Broadway

2. Zarak by Afghan Kitchen 2102 Main St.

3. Afghan Horseman Restaurant 1833 Anderson St. #202

PACIFIC NORTHWEST

1.WILDLIGHT KITCHEN + BAR 5380 University Blvd. #107

2. Published on Main 3593 Main St.

3. AnnaLena 1809 W 1st Ave.

PERSIAN

1. CAZBA RESTAURANT 1103 Davie St.

2. Celeshmet Restaurant 6956 Victoria Dr.

3. Sahel Persian Restaurant 3207 W Broadway

golden plates

Baan lao bridges two wonderfully different worlds

By Mike Usinger

As journeys go, it’s been a fascinating one, with Nutcha Phanthoupheng’s childhood spent exploring the rice fields of rural Thailand, her time these days guiding one of Vancouver’s most celebrated upscale restaurants, Baan Lao Fine Thai Cuisine.

The constant has, as one might expect, been food, starting with the bonds that are forged in the kitchen when one generation passes their knowledge onto the next. If you’re lucky, you have memories of baking cookies with your grandmother, or flipping burgers at the barbecue with your dad.

Phanthoupheng’s fondest recollections growing up start with being at her mother’s side, playing relentlessly curious, pint-sized sous chef during the preparation of family meals. In the middle of last decade, after relocating to the West Coast with her young family to continue an education in health care, those formative memories would change the course of her life.

“When I was in high school I wanted to be a nurse,” Phanthoupheng tells the Straight. “But I also loved to cook with my mom in our house. I didn’t have that chance to cook with her anymore when I was studying nursing. When I moved to Vancouver, I had the chance to cook again with my family—with my kids. So I felt like ‘Do I want to be a nurse? Or do I want to do cooking, which I really love?’ Being a nurse I didn’t have time for my family. So I decided to be a chef.”

That led her back to Thailand, where she would study with mentors including a Thai Iron Chef heading up a two-star Michelin restaurant, and former chef for Thailand’s Royal Family. That was rounded out by top honours in food carving.

There are, of course, chefs, and then there are the chefs—both internationally and locally—who’ve become

the culinary equivalent of rock stars. Although Baan Lao only opened in 2020, Phanthoupheng is arriving at the point where she’s sitting at the same table as West Coast giants like Vikram Vij, David Hawksworth, and Hidekazu Tojo.

That’s reflected in her being voted Best Chef in this year’s Golden Plates. Baan Lao, meanwhile, took home top honours in multiple categories, including Best Fine Dining and Best Overall Restaurant. As for how she got there, Phanthoupheng has built a reputation as a talent who balances relentlessly imaginative innovation with high artistry and showmanship.

To score one of the 20 seats at the intimate Baan Lao is to enter a world where servers wear white gloves, and theatrical dishes feature everything from swirling dry ice for the grilled organic beef tenderloin with thai chilli (marinated beef tenderloin and hand-crushed toasted rice with wild anchovy sauce, lime, and palm sugar) to details like intricately carved, edible pineapple spoons.

Liquor nerds know pandan leaves as a secret weapon to break out when a cocktail needs an exotically grassy kick; here, they are combined with lemongrass and butterfly peas for the between-courses palate-cleansing drink Nam Ta Khrai Bai Toei Un Chan Ma Nao. Everything, from the lobster phat thai to deep fried papaya salad with roasted organic cashews to the roselle sorbet sorbets, is made fresh daily by Phanthoupheng.

For a good indicator of the experience at Baan Loa, consider this description for the dessert known as Chef Nutcha’s Childhood Memories: “Chef Nutcha spent

months developing this exquisite dessert that evokes a visible representation of the landscape from her rural upbringing: Coconut sesame mousse represents the stones she overturned to forage for insects, while the charcoal rice cake mimics the rock formations of her homeland. Each ‘rock’ is stuffed with hand-roasted, fresh coconut. Chocolate-covered ants add to the bucolic vignette, with the earth element created from almond and charcoal coconut ash. The delicate branches of a chocolate tree support the clouds of cotton candy.”

Part of the goal at Baan Lao, Phanthoupheng says, is to honour her roots (ingredients, including rice grown on her family’s farm back home) are flown in from Thailand to make the experience as real as possible.

“For example, holy basil from Thailand is really hard to find here,” she notes. “You need it to be authentic, but most places will substitute other kinds of basil. And it can be hard to find real Thai galangal. We don’t go through a middleman, we work with an importer to bring in our fresh herbs after we’ve gone to the farms ourselves to source our ingredients. For the rice, my grandfather bought his own rice farm, which he gave to my parents. We grew the rice for ourselves

Nutcha Phanthoupheng combines artisty and innovation at Baan Lao Fine Thai Cuisine.

Nutcha Phanthoupheng: “We live here, we go for walks here, and we raise our family here.”

for a long time. We still plow the fields with water buffalo.”

Making use of BC ingredients—from Fraser River salmon to local vegetables is also of high importance at Baan Lao. “We live here, we go for walks here, and we raise our children here,” Phan-

We still plow the fields with water buffalo.

– Nutcha Phanthoupheng

thoupheng says. “So of course we want to support local businesses.”

Consider that an expert bridging not only past and present, but also of two worlds, as part of an ongoing journey that’s far from over. GS

Baan Lao is located at 4100 Bayview Street in Richmond.

READERS’ CHOICES FOR HOME

GROCERY STORE

1. WHOLE FOODS MARKET Various Locations

2. Bosa Foods 1465 Kootenay St. & 562 Victoria Dr.

3. Choices Markets Various Locations

PRODUCE STORE

1. GRANVILLE ISLAND PUBLIC MARKET 1689 Johnston St.

2. Sunrise Market 300 Powell St.

3. Donald’s Market 2342 E Hastings St.

SPECIALTY FOOD STORE

1. BOSA FOODS 1465 Kootenay St. & 562 Victoria Dr.

2. Gourmet Warehouse 1340 E Hastings St.

3. Fujiya 912 Clark Dr.

MEAL-KIT DELIVERY SERVICE

1. FRESH PREP freshprep.ca

2. Hello Fresh hellofresh.ca

3. Chef’s Plate chefsplate.com

BEER STORE

1. LEGACY 1633 Manitoba St.

2. Brewery Creek 3045 Main St.

3. High Point 2769 E Hastings St.

LIQUOR STORE

1. LEGACY LIQUOR 1633 Manitoba St.

2. Marquis, 1034 Davie St.

3. Brewery Creek Cold Beer & Wine 3045 Main St.

WINE STORE

1. LIBERTY WINES Various Locations

2. Legacy Liquor 1633 Manitoba St.

3. Marquis 1034 Davie St.

COOKING

1. GOURMET WAREHOUSE 1340 E Hastings St.

2. Ming Wo Cookware 2170 W 4th Ave. & 2707 Granville St.

3. Dirty Apron 540 Beatty St.

CATERING COMPANY

1. SHEILA’S CATERING CO. 2201 148 St., Surrey

2. Dirty Apron 540 Beatty St.

3. Lazy Gourmet 1545 W 3rd Ave.

PROFESSIONAL CULINARY SCHOOL

1. CULINARY ARTS SCHOOL @ VANCOUVER COMMUNITY COLLEGE 250 W Pender St.

2. Dirty Apron 540 Beatty St.

3. Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts 1505 W 2nd Ave. #101

bar susu’s a natural fit for mount Pleasant

By Kristi Alexandra

Located on Main and 6th, Bar Susu is the sister spot to the newly-minted Michelin star restaurant Published on Main. Occupying what was known for years as The Whip, a place for elevated pub fare like smash burgers and craft beer, Bar Susu revives the historic Mount Pleasant space as an evening-only haunt.

“It’s a bit difficult to find late night spots that are offering cuisine and beverages that you want to stand by philosophically,” says wine director Brittany Hoorne, who hails from Dachi. “After the clock strikes a certain hour, there’s not a ton of options available. I think as industry people, we all want to get off work and drink something nice and eat something good.”

Joined by chef de cuisine Marc Marayag, Hoorne is out to facilitate a cozy space where post-dinner-rush diners, drinkers, and fellow industry folks can kick up their feet, get comfortable, and try something new. They’ve been rewarded for their efforts by winning the Golden Plate for Best Wine Bar.

“Marc is introducing people to things they might have not tried before,” Hoorne says of the well-travelled chef. “And I’m also doing the same things on the wine side as well… I feel like people kind of come in with a fairly open mind and are almost more excited to try things that they’ve not seen before that they might be a little bit unsure about, which is just super fulfilling at the end of the day.”

Marayag brings his Euro-Japanese influence to Bar Susu, having honed his skills in Paris and at London’s two-Michelin-star Japanese restaurant, Umu. It’s Vancouver, however, where he’s getting his current inspiration.

“We have a bounty of seafood here,” he says. “I’m trying to find more unknown or less utilized fish and seafood. Let’s say something like arctic char or sturgeon—things like that, whenever I have them available. I’m trying to find efficient local fishermen to work with. I

found a few [recently], and I’m pretty excited to get more things that aren’t just spot prawns and salmon.”

And complementing Marayag’s locally-sourced but Japanese-inspired menu are Hoorne’s favourite BC wines (and a certain Senkin Nature Organic Kimoto sake).

“I think that we forget how lucky we are to be so near exciting wine regions,” Hoorne says. “You can drive a few hours in one direction and find a whole other world. It’s very special for us in BC. I think it’s easy to be romanced by wine and essentially transported all over the world, but it’s nice at the end of the day to kind of realize, hey, we are one of those places.”

Depending on your desires, Bar Susu offers three types of service: à la carte, chef’s choice, or the eightcourse tasting menu, which includes a selection of starting snacks and larger plates, and finishes off with an innovative dessert such as the coconut rice pudding—made up of mango sorbet, Marcona almonds, yuzu meringue, and tonka.

Menu favourites include the chicken liver rosettes or the hot smoked trout, complete with goma-ae, dashi butter sauce, and herbs.

“But we usually change the garnish,” Marayag adds.

“Right now we have swiss chard and spinach because it’s in-season, and a few months ago we were having kale.”

Hoorne is quick to come in with its perfect pairing.

“I have some sneaky bottles,” she says, noting that her wine program includes very small batches of some of her favourite wines. Hoorne’s rotating wines-by-theglass can be found listed on Bar Susu’s chalkboards.

“The chicken liver rosettes [pair] with this really fun, ancestral method pinot noir. So like a sparkling rose— it’s fresh, a little bit sweet. If you’re sitting down and you don’t want to think and you just want to get started and you’re happy with something bubbly in your glass, I’d say rosettes and some sparkling pinot noir is great.”

Whether determined to imbibe in the 2.5 hour tasting menu at the top of the evening, or stopping in for the late night snacks (available from 10pm to close), there’s a perfect little bite and a wine pairing waiting for you at Bar Susu. GS

Bar Susu’s wine director Brittany Hoorne with a bottle of Mother Rock ‘Brutal!’ Cinsault.

Photo by Sarah Annand.

Bar Susu is located at 209 East 6th Avenue.

GOLDEN PLATES

A breakout year for Water St. Cafe’s Amelie Jeong

By Brittany Tiplady

Picture this: it’s a bluebird spring day in Vancouver—a glorious reprieve from months of rain. You ditch the raincoat and Blundstones for something a little lighter, and take a stroll down the heritage cobblestone streets of Gastown. On the corner of Cambie and Water Street, the Water St. Cafe looks as inviting as ever.

You glance at your watch and would you look at that! It’s happy hour, and Amelie Jeong is working the bar at the perennial Gastown favourite. Lucky you, considering she was voted Best Bartender in this year’s Golden Plates Awards.

Jeong sat down with the Straight to talk mixology in an ever-coveted corner table at the downtown eatery. The street-level restaurant is a beloved spot for everything from casual happy hours to milestone celebrations.

Jeong’s philosophy is that serving a good drink is all about personalization.

“I always want to see a cocktail or a drink that’s not a basic, for-everyone

kind of drink,” she says. “You’ve got to make sure that the drink is for that person. You’re interested in their taste buds kind of thing. Everyone has different taste buds, everyone has different preferences.”

If you ask Jeong what her favourite cocktail on the menu is, she’ll single out the Smoked Old Fashioned (a mix of Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark bourbons, orange, and cherry in a maple smoked glass).

“Even though it’s a pretty simple classic cocktail, the process of smoking the cedar chips and the glass—I just love it and it makes my bar smell beautiful,” she says. “It’s a nice comforting classic cocktail and I really enjoy that. I’m also a big sour cocktail drinker myself. It’s an art—being able to have the freedom to decorate and enhance each drink myself.”

Asked if she has any advice on what makes a beautiful cocktail, Jeong main-

tains that it’s all about balance.

“Keeping it simple, for sure, but not but keeping it simple,” she opines. “And not overdoing mixing a bunch of different things and making the ingredient list so long. Choosing what goes well with each other. Don’t be scared to mix and match. Try new things.”

Water St. Cafe also boasts a generous and BC-forward spirit, beer, and wine list (distilleries such as Odd Society, The Woods, and Sons of Vancouver are heavily represented) which pairs wonderfully with its Italian West Coast cuisine.

“I always recommend local beers, local wines, local spirits,” Jeong says. “It’s a story, it’s Vancouver, and you can get other drinks anywhere else but when I serve someone from out of town I always try to [encourage] our local options.” GS

Water St. Cafe located at 300 Water Street.

Amelie Jeong was voted Golden Plates’ Best Bartender. Photo by Jon Healy.

Anh and chi embraces its culinary roots

By Kristi Alexandra

Sitting in a sun-drenched booth at Anh and Chi, restaurateur Vincent Nguyen reflects on what brought him to Mount Pleasant restaurant.

“My parents, like many other refugees in the country, started working odd-end jobs, gathering enough money to open up a little mom-and-pop shop on Main,” he tells the Straight

Originally, the Nguyen family ran Pho Hoang in the same spot on Main and 18th Street. But in 2015, the family decided to update its humble image into something more contemporary—and Anh and Chi was born.

The restaurant buzzes with energy. All the tables are filled with patrons—couples, small families with children, girlfriends out to lunch. A queue of would-be diners is forming outside the door. Servers run back and forth carrying bamboo-bottomed platters of aromatic sizzling meats

atop vermicelli noodles. The dish, topped by fresh herbs, is known as the Streetside Platter, a bestseller at Anh and Chi.

The restaurant has earned multiple accolades, including being designated as a bib gourmand from Michelin. And, after winning the Golden Plates Award for Best Vietnamese in 2017, 2021, and 2022, Anh and Chi has claimed that title again this year, as well as the award for Best Main Street haunt.

But all the accolades in the world won’t make the Nguyen siblings forget their roots.

Over Anh and Chi’s chả giò (crispy spring rolls), bánh khot, (crispy turmeric cakes filled with prawns, coconut milk, green onions), and gỏi bắp chuối cua lột (soft shell crab salad made with fresh banana blossoms and Vietnamese mint), Nguyen reveals his trajectory from medical school dropout in Australia to renowned Vancouver restaurateur.

After the passing of their father, Nguyen and his sister, Amélie, decided to revive their family’s restaurateur legacy—

with none other than their mom, Ly (who has since retired) as its chef.

“I love people,” he says. “I love food. And what better place to do it than the exact location that my parents have built a community and a following for the last 25 years?”

Nguyen credits his sister for sharing the story and culture behind Vietnamese cuisine and their family recipes.

“Some people see Vietnamese cuisine as kind of like cheap fast food—go get your soup or rice at night and leave,” he reflects. “You want to emphasize that, well, there’s more to it. We’re living in a family of chefs. With my mom, we get to eat amazing food everyday. Many other people, they don’t get to experience that. So we wanted to create a space that’s welcoming, with great decor, great service, great food. And all under one roof.”

One of the most ordered dishes remains the beef noodle soup—a dish you can find at any Vietnamese restaurant, but done exceptionally well here.

“The beef noodle soup is named Pho Hoang, paying homage to my dad and my mom’s restaurant back in the day, so that’s our classic dish,” Nguyen shares. “And then there’s our lemongrass chicken on rice. We named it Number 37 because it was our number-one seller at the old restaurant. We always pay a little homage to our history.”

That’s not the only place where the Nguyens honour their mother’s recipes at Anh and Chi. Remember the banana blossoms on the gỏi bắp chuối cua lột? Those are plucked straight from the heart of Vietnamese banana tree, and flown in two-to-three times per week.

“Mom was in the kitchen every other day, maybe, in the first year,” Nguyen says. “As any parent would. It’s her food that’s going out there, [so she trained] not only myself but my chefs, too. Mom’s like, ‘Well, these are our authentic dishes.’ That baton has been passed… You’ve got to know your roots, where you come from.” GS

Anh and Chi is located at 3388 Main Street.

Anh and Chi exective chef Ly Thi Nguyen (left) shaped the success of Anh and Chi with family recipes.

Photo by Angel Lynne.

READERS’ CHOICES DRINKS

BC WINE / WINERY (WHITE)

1. QUAIL’S GATE 303 Boucherie Rd., Kelowna

2. Joie 2825 Naramata Rd., Naramata

3. Blue Mountain 2385 Allendale Rd., Okanagan Falls

LOCAL BREWERY

1. PARALLEL 49 BREWING CO. 1950 Triumph St.

2. 33 Acres Brewing Co. 15 W 8th Ave.

3. Strange Fellows Brewing 1345 Clark Dr.

LOCAL DISTILLERY

1. ODD SOCIETY SPIRITS 1725 Powell St.

2. Sons of Vancouver Distillery 1431 Crown St.

3. The Liberty Distillery 1494 Old Bridge St.

BREWPUB RESTAURANT

1. PARALLEL 49 1950 Triumph St.

2. Steamworks Brewpub 375 Water St.

3. BREWHALL 97 E 2nd Ave.

BC CIDERY

1. SEA CIDER 2487 Mt St Michael Rd., Saanichton

2. Sunday Cider 1632 Sunshine Coast Hwy., Gibsons

3. Windfall Cider & Co. 250 Esplanade E #101, North Vancouver

JUICE BAR

1. CHAMBAR RESTAURANT 568 Beatty St.

2.

3.

1.

1. THE JUICE TRUCK Various Locations

2. Glory Juice Various Locations

3. Heirloom Juice Bar Permanently Closed as of March 23

TEAHOUSE

1. ADONIA TEA HOUSE 2057 W 41st Ave.

2. Secret Garden Teahouse 2138 W 40th Ave.

3. Granville Island Tea Company Ltd. 1689 Johnston St. #117

COFFEE CHAIN

BC WINE / WINERY (RED)

1. BLASTED CHURCH 378 Parsons Rd., Okanagan Falls

2. Joie 2825 Naramata Rd., Naramata

3. Blue Mountain (tie) 2385 Allendale Rd., Okanagan Falls

3.Painted Rock (tie) 400 Smythe Dr., Penticton

1. JJ BEAN Various Locations

2. Nemesis Coffee Various Locations

3. 49th Parallel Various Locations

INDEPENDENT COFFEE SHOP

1. SMALL VICTORY Various Locations

2. Revolver 325 Cambie St.

3. Novella Coffee Bar 2650 Main St.

A decade in, Small Victory is going strong

By Eva Rasciauskas

Walking into your local cafe can be like walking into a second home. When everything is done right, the place has everything you need—freshly baked loaves of bread, a beautiful assortment of pastries and, of course, an espresso bar that makes your

coffee just the way you like it.

And that’s what you get when you walk into Small Victory Bakery, winner of the Golden Plate Awards’ Best Independent Coffee Shop in Vancouver for 2023.

“It makes me smile immensely,” Afshan Nathoo, CEO and co-founder of Small Victory Bakery, tells the Straight in an interview.

The South Granville coffee shop, which is celebrating its 10th birthday this year,

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has expanded over the years to add stores in Yaletown and Burnaby, bringing its impossibly buttery croissants to neighbourhoods across the metro.

“I have a big team behind me so I feel extremely grateful that the team has taken us this far,” Nathoo says.

Small Victory also placed second among the city’s Best Bread Bakeries and second again for South Granville’s top businesses, cementing its status as the perfect neighbourhood coffee shop that carries everything you need to start your day.

“It’s the morning ritual that’s so important to us,” Nathoo says. “We want to be a part of people’s lives and daily routines. Our intent from the beginning was to make an impact at the community level.”

The cafe has a bright and spacious atmosphere with a modern, industrial design. Large groups dining in for breakfast are coupled with individuals sitting at the coffee bar working away on their laptops. The service is quick and efficient, allowing you to quickly grab and go, or stay as long as you please (though tables are to an

hour during busy periods).

What you may notice first is a striking line up of pastries and baked goods.

Items range from a classic pain au chocolat to croissant donuts stuffed with pistachio cream, cakes, tarts, and hearty breads like seeded whole-wheat and crusty baguettes.

Craving something a little more substantial? Small Victory has that too. Doubling as a takeout counter and dine-in cafe, it also serves brunch staples like

We have a real passion for technique.

– Afshan Nathoo

Small Victory Cafe loves being part of Vancouver’s morning ritual.

avocado toast, or waffles with mascarpone cream and fresh strawberries.

“We have a real passion for technique, process and ingredients, and we’ve tried to maintain that over the years,” Nathoo enthuses. “It’s really important to us how things are made— we don’t use stabilizers or fillers, everything is quite clean and natural.”

Good ingredients are a must, as well as good techniques to ensure the cafe’s baked goods are up to standard. Early childhood memories of rolling croissants and scooping muffins in her parent’s bakery have made Nathoo keenly aware of the importance of the process.

“We put a lot of time and energy into our breads,” she says. “We mill our own flour and have them go through long fermentation periods.”

Laughing, Nathoo adds: “Bread that stays on the counter for more than seven days is simply not bread.”

She reveals that the company is set to open a brand new flour milling facility in the Lower Mainland soon, allowing people to see where its ingredients come from.

“We’re looking to find ways to better communicate what our products are really made of and what goes into them,” says Nathoo. “I think that’s an area of growth.”

For now though, she couldn’t be more proud of her team, and is looking to improve in the future, including offering more seasonality in their menu items.

It’s more than just a small victory. GS

READERS’ CHOICES NEIGHBOURHOOD

FAIRVIEW

1. BEAUCOUP BAKERY 2150 Fir St.

2. Salmon n’ Bannock 1128 W Broadway #7

3. A Taste of Vietnam 1016 W Broadway

SOUTH GRANVILLE

1. GRAPES AND SODA 1541 W 6th Ave.

2. Small Victory 3070 Granville St.

3. Heirloom Vegetarian Restaurant 1509 W 12th Ave.

CHINATOWN/STRATHCONA

1. CHAMBAR RESTAURANT 568 Beatty St.

2. Bao Bei 163 Keefer St.

3. Juke Fried Chicken 182 Keefer St.

FRASERHOOD

1. OSTERIO SAVIO VOLPE 615 Kingsway

2. Sal Y Limon 701 Kingsway #5

3. Les faux bourgeois 663 E 15th Ave.

YALETOWN

1. HOMER ST. CAFE AND BAR 898 Homer St.

2. Minami 1118 Mainland St.

3. Elisa 1109 Hamilton St.

WEST END

1. ÔNGBA VIETNAMESE EATERY 976 Denman St.

2. Espana Restaurant 1118 Denman St.

3. Kingyo 871 Denman St.

GASTOWN

1. ASK FOR LUIGI RESTAURANT 305 Alexander St.

2. L’Abattoir 217 Carrall St.

3. Water St. Cafe 300 Water St.

COMMERCIAL DRIVE

1. LUNCH LADY 1046 Commercial Dr.

2. Havana Vancouver 1212 Commercial Dr.

3. Downlow Chicken Shack 905 Commercial Dr.

KITSILANO

1. ANNALENA 1809 W 1st Ave.

2. Maenam 1938 W 4th Ave.

3. The Naam 2724 W 4th Ave.

MAIN STREET

1. ANH AND CHI 3388 Main St.

2. Published on Main 3593 Main St.

3. Zarak by Afghan Kitchen 2102 Main St.

Small Victory Bakery is located at 3070 Granville Street.

Small Victory Cafe mills its own bread flour.

> ARTS TIME OUT

MAY 2023

OUR TRUE NATURE May 4 to 25, White Rock Gallery. White Rock Gallery Artists, Allan Hancock, Janice Robertson, Laura Harris, and Nikol Haskova, each convey their interpretation of our intrinsic human connection with nature through the medium of paint.

LITERASIAN 2023 May 4 to 27, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen

Classical Chinese Garden. LiterASIAN returns with established and emerging literary voices coming together for a month of commemoration, celebration, and conversation showcasing the resilience and growth of Asian Canadian voices in CanLit.

SONGS FOR NOBODIES May 4 to 20, Deep Cove Shaw Theatre. This one-woman powerhouse performance, starring Sheila Sharma and a live band, weaves the music of legendary divas Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf, and Maria Callas.

UNTITLED PETER TRIPP PROJECT May 4 to 6, TBA.

A physical and poetic interpretation of Peter Tripp’s dilemma, this work highlights the natural interdisciplinarity of performance by composing an atmosphere that activates space, breath, gesture, voice, light, and sound with equal importance.

SHALEM’S FAIR May 4 to 20, Jericho Arts Centre.

As a “touching comedy” that offers pause for thought about death, dementia, and our true heroes of yesteryear, Shalem’s Fair is a real place, especially in the minds of those who believe in the miraculous.

ABOVE, FROM BELOW May 5 to 14, Paneficio Gallery + Studios. Ilena creates vessels using locally hand foraged clay and found objects, alongside archival information, maps, and photos of historic brickworks to spin a tale of how this city was built and those who built it.

HILMA To May 11, Vancity Theatre. Hilma af Klint was an abstract artist before there was abstract art… not that she would describe her paintings that way: the C19th Swede believed her brush was directed by the spirits; she was mapping an invisible terrain. A feminist, a lesbian, and a spiritualist, she was decades ahead of her time.

CRAZY FOR YOU To May 14, Massey Theatre. A classic romantic comedy about a boy, a girl, and a theatre in need of salvation, it is full of humour, larger-than-life characters and some of the greatest show tunes of all time.

MARGARET ATWOOD IN CONVERSATION WITH

IAN WILLIAMS May 7, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. The legendary Margaret Atwood joins author Ian Williams to discuss Old Babes in the Wood, her extraordinary new collection of short fiction.

SPEAKEASY STAND-UP COMEDY May 10, Addah Dusty Searcy is headlining.

CALL ME CC May 12, Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret.

CALL ME CC is your chance to meet Climate Change itself, live and in person in a form that we can relate to, CC is equal parts charming and disgusting, graceful and garish, irresistibly fun, and coldly egotistical.

LAUGHTER LAB: A NIGHT OF IMPROVISED THEATRE May 12, Conscious Lab. Introducing Laughter Lab—a monthly variety show that brings together the best improvisors in town to unite the local community for a night of comic relief and good fun.

ANDREA TUCKER ALL IN MY HEAD

May 13 to June 3 Elissa Cristall Gallery. Highly-detailed, portrait-style oil paintings draw from Andrea Tucker’s interest in tattoo imagery, tarot cards, and spiritual and mythological symbolism.

KAREN’S DINER ON TOUR: VANCOUVER

May 13 to 21, Zawa Restaurant. It’s an absurd, unique environment full of laughs, banter, and top-notch American diner-style grub! We pride ourselves on our terrible service, rated 1* by Karen herself.

THE RIO THEATRE BURLESQUE & VARIETY SHOW

May 13, Rio Theatre. A copious cavalcade of top

notch talent and captivating cabaret awaits at The Rio Theatre Burlesque and Variety Show on Saturday, May 13.

AERIOSA May 18, Scotiabank Dance Centre.

The Dance Centre’s Discover Dance! series features aerial dance company Aeriosa. New Artists and Approaches in Vertical Dance will share theatre-based works by company members, Deaf Theatre Artist Landon Krentz, and Butterflies In Spirit.

THE CANADIAN PREMIERE OF INTO THE LITTLE

HILL May 19 to 20, Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre. Astrolabe Musik Theatre, in partnership with SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs, presents the Canadian premiere of Into the Little Hill.

MAY - JUNE 2023

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

May 23, June 9, Vancouver Playhouse Coastal City Ballet, established in 2011, closes its 2022-2023 season with the famous fairy tale “The Sleeping Beauty,” May 23 at The Vancouver Playhouse and June 9 at Surrey Arts Centre.

CATFISH (AN ASL/ENGLISH PLAY)

May 24 to June 1, Vancity Culture Lab. Deaf without her hearing aids, Michelle is catapulted into a wave of lies as she misrepresents herself online and uses her hearing friend’s voice to entice the new guy at high school. Join her in this vibrant and delightfully earnest exploration of identity and self-love.

HAPPY VALLEY

May 25 to June 4, Firehall Arts Centre. Through text, song, multimedia and music, Happy Valley is a new performance piece that dissects the historic, political, and cultural context surrounding Hong Kong’s current democratic struggles.

SPRING AWAKENING

May 25 to June 10, The Shop Theatre. Spring Awakening is a Tony Award-winning musical that tells the story of young adults in Germany in 1891 as they navigate their way through adolescence and discover their sexuality.

MATRIARCHS SEEN AND UNSEEN

To June 25, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art. Featuring over 20 striking portrait photographs of matriarchs of the Northwest Coast, the exhibition celebrates and honours the work of aunties, mothers, and grandmothers in Indigenous communities, showcasing their strength, wisdom, and deep connections.

LISTINGS ARE A PUBLIC SERVICE PROVIDED FREE OF CHARGE, BASED ON AVAILABLE SPACE AND EDITORIAL DISCRETION. SUBMIT EVENTS ONLINE USING THE EVENT-SUBMISSION FORM AT straight.com/AddEvent Events that don’t make it into the paper due to space constraints will appear on the website.

Aeriosa photo by Chris Randle

Know your local sandwich artist

> THE TERM “SANDWICH ARTIST” HAS BEEN DESTROYED BY SUBWAY, BUT YOU LITERALLY ARE ONE. DOES THE TERM MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU? DO YOU SEE FOOD AS AN ART?

Oh yeah, for sure. I went to school for fashion design before I was a cook, and was a designer [for] lululemon. So I think about what a sandwich looks like—because we eat with our eyes, that’s very true—every time we’re making a sandwich, it’s not just like what it tastes like, but it’s also what it looks like. How we layer it. How it’s gonna come out in a way that maybe it wouldn’t have if I didn’t have that design background. Cooking is artistry even as much as it is a trade. Even if you compare us to the majority of other hoagie-style sandwich restaurants, a lot of them serve them fully wrapped up and cut in half in that kind of cross-section look that’s really popular on Instagram. When you get a sandwich here, and you’re eating it here, we’re definitely trying to layer and overload the sandwich in a way that doesn’t tuck and hide and push all the ingredients into the bun. Some people are a little intimidated because they’re like, Oh my, how do I eat this? You know, because it’s all sort of pouring out the top.

> WHAT’S THE THINKING OR PHILOSOPHY BEHIND THAT?

My whole philosophy around food is generosity in quantity and in flavour, really. It’s about just being generous with what we produce and what we provide.

We’re just trying to make better food— make something taste more delicious.

> AND THAT FEELS GOOD.

Yeah. I want people to leave here thinking, that was really good, and thinking about it and wanting more. We definitely aren’t afraid to put fresh things on the sandwich, you know? How many times do you get a meatball sandwich and it’s just meatballs and sauce and cheese and bread? And that can be great, but what if you have it with salad on it, like arugula or whatever. I really believe in the power of vegetables—like, they are not only delicious, but they’re really fun to work with.

We also make a lot of our meats and things like that in-house. We make our own roast beef. We do our own roast turkey. We have a pork loin that we do. That in itself is like another way to sort of make something obviously a lot different than something that’s laden with preservatives.

> HOW’S IT BEEN GOING SINCE YOU TOOK SAY HEY CAFÉ OVER?

I like to think I’ve brought my own vision or my own sort of approach to the style of sandwiches that the café had been doing before. I thought it was so sad that it had closed, because sandwiches are like the food of the people. There’s such a delicious thing that we all can kind of relate to a sandwich, and it felt like there was definitely a bit of a hole [in Vancouver] that didn’t really exist when it was originally open.

I think the concept is also really fun and

I think I’ve been able to infuse even more playfulness into it, with the food but also what the space looks like, by bringing in a little bit more of that deli energy to it.

> HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT EXPANSION AT ALL?

It’s hard to say. I lived and worked for eight years in Paris and then around France, so my cooking ambitions are certainly well beyond what we’re doing here. I think this is a really wonderful outlet for flavour and obviously for using all the techniques and things that I have, but I definitely have passions that extend further beyond the little humble sandwich shop that we have. So I’m not entirely cer-

tain if we want to maybe do [a] different concept within this space at night, or if we want to focus on expanding this business to other locations.

It hasn’t really been the most important thing right now, either. It’s just been really making sure that what we’re doing works and makes us what we need in order to really, really get by—because as you know, things have gotten expensive with ingredients and stuff like that. It’s a shock for everyone in this industry. So before really leaning into changing or doing too much else, we’re just going to really lean into what we’re building here. GS

Say Hey Café & Deli is located at 156 East Pender.

Lina Caschetto’s Say Hey Café & Deli is all about house-made meats and portions for those with large appetites. Photo by Jon Healy.

Lina Caschetto, chef and owner of Say Hey Café & Deli, took over the popular Chinatown hoagie shop in 2022 and made it on her own

Dusty Flowerpot demolishes the fourth wall

By Chandler Walter

The line between audience and stage has never been so malleable.

That was my thinking when I was sitting—and dancing, and drinking, and Hustle-ing—at the Russian Hall this past April while experiencing (because merely “watching” is definitely not the right word) Kat Single-Dain’s Disco Inferno

For those who didn’t happen to catch one of the performances last month, Disco Inferno is a musical production depicting the rivalry between a groovy discotheque and its neighbouring sports bar, with a property line dispute setting the scene for a dance-off/sports-off to decide the rightful owner of… four inches of property.

But what’s most special about the show—and for a show with a sentient robot, a light-up dance floor, and some seriously catchy tunes courtesy of Shirley Gnome, that’s saying something—is how it incorporates the audience into the disco-infused world of the 1970s.

“In a selfish way, I just want to produce stuff so that I can have a really good, weird time,” Single-Dain says. We’re chatting on the stage of the Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret, the non-profit society that Single-Dain is the artistic executive director of. Disco Inferno’s extended series of shows has just wrapped.

“I like weird, really expressive dancing. And I find it’s hard to do that in the typical clubs. You know, it’s more of just average, normal dancing. So you have to kind of create a theatrical vibe for people to feel welcome.”

Disco Inferno’s audience was not only encouraged to learn the Hustle in the lead up to the show’s opening number, but VIP seats were dance-floor-side two-tops, the disco’s bar was serving to audience and cast members alike, and the entire play culminated in a dodgeball game that saw some serious audience participation.

But the immersive experience wasn’t a one-off in Single-Dain’s book. It all started back when she decided to turn a feature film she’d written, Hard Times Hit Parade, into a theatrical production.

“I thought to myself, ‘What makes it different when it’s theatre?’ ” she says. “And what makes it different is immersion—that the people who are coming are not watching a screen, they’re entering into a room, they’re smelling smells, they’re interacting with other people, they’re wearing different clothes.”

As the artistic executive director of the Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret Society, Single-Dain seemingly has no limit when it comes to creating fun experiences, and she’s got the perfect setting for it. But walking into the space is anything but ordinary.

The Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret features a stage with an assortment of instruments, a tiered dance floor, a bar, and a seating area. Various doodads and knick-knacks occupy the walls and shadowed corners, from giant papier-mâché heads to a speed dating spin wheel to the robot that was rolling around during Disco Inferno.

The space also plays host to weekly swing dance nights (and a series of dance classes offered by none other than Single-Dain herself), clown workout classes, and the occasional private function.

And sometimes the experience is too big to be held within four walls—as is the case with the annual Parade of Lost Souls, another project from Single-Dain that has been bringing revelers out to Vancouver’s streets on the Saturday closest to Halloween for a decade now.

For a city that is infamous for its apparent lack of fun, Single-Dain is something of bastion against that long-held stereotype.

“I see that there’s lots of people in Vancouver that are game for having fun, they want to have fun,” she says. “And I also see the other side of it, which is that some of the bylaws of the city do make it hard for productions to happen. It’s more challenging, I think, here than in Berlin, say, or Montreal, to just make something fun happen… The people in Vancouver also are varied. So you get people who don’t want any noise in their neighborhood.

Single-Dain continues with, “I think that the more fun events that happen in Vancouver, the more will happen. It’s a chain reaction. And the more people experience something that they actually see the

value of, the more they’ll be willing to hear sounds and not complain about noise.”

So what’s upcoming for Single-Dain and the Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret? She isn’t taking much time to bask in the afterglow of Disco Inferno’s success; the artist’s next production, a comedy starring climate change titled Call Me CC, premieres on May 12.

“It’s a musical comedy about climate change, where you get to meet climate change himself,” Single-Dain says, noting that both Call Me CC and Disco Inferno

were written as a result of her needing a creative outlet during the pandemic.

“I think that it being a comedy reminds us of why we would want to save ourselves, or save humanity. Right? Because you’re enjoying yourself. You already have the reasons for why you might want to take action. But it’s definitely a comedy.” GS

the Little Hill

Astrolabe Musik Theatre, in Partnership with SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs, presents

TICKETS General: $35 | Students & Seniors $25 plus service charges LittleHill.eventbrite.ca astrolabemusiktheatre.com

A contemporary, multi-disciplinary staging seamlessly fusing George Benjamin’s chamber opera with Idan Cohen’s direction and choreography

Tickets to Call Me CC, Gloria’s Happy Hour, and whatever else the Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret might dream up in the future, can be found at dustyflowerpotcabaret.com.

into the Little hill recasts a familiar tale

By John Lucas

Ask any half-dozen random strangers to relate the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and you will likely get six variations on the same basic story.

They’ll tell you that when the German town of Hamelin was overrun by vermin, a rat-catcher was hired to get rid of the rodents. He did this by means of a magical pipe or flute, playing a tune so hypnotic that the rats were compelled to follow him as he led them away from Hamelin, never to be seen again.

Upon his return, however, the piper found that the payment he was promised for his services was not forthcoming. So, he pulled out his pipe, began playing, and strolled out of town—this time with all the children of Hamelin following in his footsteps.

The Pied Piper legend dates back to the Middle Ages, and it simply refuses to die, inspiring artists from the Brothers Grimm and Robert Browning to Walt Disney and Atom Egoyan. In the current century, it has been the basis of no fewer than three operas.

On May 19 and 20, Vancouver’s Astrolabe Musik Theatre will stage the Canadian premiere of one of them, Into the Little Hill. Astrolabe’s founding artistic director and general manager, renowned soprano Heather Pawsey, tells the Straight that the British opera, composed by George Benjamin with words by Martin Crimp, has been on her to-do list for nearly a decade.

“When I first heard this opera almost 10 years ago, the music immediately grabbed me,” Pawsey says during a three-way call that also includes music director Leslie Dala. “I sing a lot of contemporary music and George Benjamin’s sound world was just something I had never encountered. I

was so compelled by it. But when I ordered the score and I read Martin Crimp’s libretto, the thing that leapt out at me—and one of the reasons I thought ‘I have to produce and sing this opera’—is because this story is sadly so relevant.”

The Pied Piper narrative clearly still resonates with contemporary audiences, and Crimp’s spare but affecting lyrics leave ample room for postmodern interpretation. Indeed, critics have read Into the Little Hill in a number of ways—as a commentary on immigration policies, for example, or as a meditation on the Holocaust.

Closer to home, the theme of sweeping away elements that society deems undesirable or unacceptable might seem all too familiar to anyone who has had their eye on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in recent months.

“Everyone labels somebody as a rat,” Pawsey says. “It happens all the time. It’s happening right now. What are the power dynamics involved? Who makes these labelling choices? Who has the power to decide who are the rats? And what are we— as individuals, as collectives of individuals, as society—willing to do to get rid of ‘rats’? And sadly, we’ve seen the answers to that through the centuries, and still today.

“And then,” she continues, “what happens when we refuse to pay the piper, when we don’t take responsibility for our actions? Everything about that just spoke so powerfully to me in this intensely beautiful, very crystallized form of this 35-minute opera. And I just knew it had to be done.”

For the Canadian premiere, Pawsey will be joined by mezzo-soprano Emma Parkinson, and between the two of them they will sing all six characters: the Crowd, the Stranger, the Narrator, the Minister, the Minister’s Wife, and the Minister’s Child. Pawsey admits that this is no easy task.

“George Benjamin makes some extreme demands on both the singers,” she says. “We’re at the extreme edges of our ranges; way up at the top or way down at the bottom. Rhythmically, it’s very complex and very precise. Dynamically, what he wants is, again, extreme: as soft as humanly possible and then as loud as humanly possible. Everything is very large.”

Pawsey is quick to note, however, that when she says “extreme demands,” she doesn’t mean anything that could potentially damage the vocal cords; this is contemporary opera, after all, not a screamo concert.

“As someone who does sing a lot of contemporary music, I’m so grateful for that,” the soprano says. “It’s also one of the things that attracted me to the piece, because I love a challenge, but I love it when the challenges are intentional and with an understanding of how my instrument, the voice, works. And this has that in spades.”

Dala is an equally big fan of Benjamin’s work, praising him as “an innovative and novel voice.”

“I had the chance to see him conduct his opera Written on Skin in concert performance in Toronto a number of years ago when he was a featured guest composer with the Toronto Symphony,” Dala says. “It was really astonishing, and I was told by some of my friends and colleagues in the orchestra that they refer to him as ‘bionic

ears’. He’s one of these people who has the minutiae of the detail in his writing and these complex harmonic things.”

Astrolabe’s staging of Into the Little Hill will feature a 15-member ensemble playing an idiosyncratic assortment of instruments, including a bass flute and a Persian santur. It will also include choreography by Israeli artist Idan Cohen, founder of the Vancouver-based Ne. Sans Opera and Dance company.

“The movement will act like a counterpoint, sometimes telling the story, sometimes doing something completely different,” Dala notes. “I’m super excited to be in the rehearsal room with Idan as this gets put together, because I always feel like my eyes are opened by the revelations that he brings to a piece.”

Pawsey adds, “Dancers are capable of saying with their bodies what singers aren’t. They’re capable of saying sometimes what the text isn’t saying. It just adds another whole element, and with someone like Idan, who has classical music training as well as dance training, he was the person I was waiting for.” GS

Astrolabe Musik Theatre presents the Canadian premiere of Into the Little Hill at the Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre in the SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts on May 19 and 20 at 7:30pm.

Into the Little Hill makes extreme demands on its performers. Photo by Flick Harrison.

The Halluci Nation and Fucked UP team up for Here’s The Unity tour

By Yasmine Shemesh

Damian Abraham was wearing a silver jacket. It’s the first thing the Halluci Nation’s Ehren “Bear Witness” Thomas remembers about meeting the Fucked Up frontman, around a decade ago, at Diplo’s Mad Decent Block Party. Abraham had been there to interview Thomas’ group, then known as A Tribe Called Red. Soon after, discovering they shared interests and passions and a way of looking at the world, Thomas and Abraham became friends.

“When I think about our friendship, it’s one of the most naturally growing friendships I’ve had in my adult life,” Thomas tells the Straight, speaking over Zoom from his home in Ottawa. “I don’t think we really set out or pushed to be close, it just happened. We couldn’t avoid it.”

“I think making friends as an adult is hard,” Abraham adds, on the call from Toronto. “So, making close friends like this—I feel very lucky that I got to meet these guys.”

This month, the Halluci Nation and Fucked Up will hit the road together on their Here’s The Unity Tour. There’s also new music, but more on that in a minute. Abraham describes the whole thing as the most organic collaboration there could ever be—and it’s one rooted in a beautiful connection that feels almost fated. As Thomas explains it, the show will be arranged as a spectacle, moving between the Halluci Nation’s fusion of electronic and First Nations dance music and Fucked Up’s hardcore genre-bend, with a live wrestling show as a centrepiece. Wrestling adds another layer of sig-

nificance to the tour, given the weight it holds to Thomas and Abraham, as well as the other half of the Halluci Nation, Tim “2oolman” Hill. Abraham hosted The Wrestlers, a documentary that explores wrestling subcultures around the world, while the Halluci Nation released a wrestling-themed EP, 2015’s Suplex. But it goes beyond the fandom.

For Thomas, there’s a deep cultural parallel. “There’ve been a lot of Native wrestlers, from the early days of wrestling,” he says. “So, it being a place where you could see representation—not always positive or real representation, but to see large Indigenous men on television was not something that you saw every day. And I think there was an automatic connection that way.”

While Thomas’ relationship to wrestling was nurtured since childhood—his uncle would take him to see matches at Madison Square Garden—Abraham didn’t really have the sport as a presence growing up, because his parents somewhat looked down on it. Still, he was drawn to it—particularly the transparency around deception.

“In a way, it’s kind of the most honest sport,” Abraham says, adding that he was likewise captivated by how it cuts across cultural lines and adapts to local culture. “It’s also, weirdly, a universal language, like jazz music … And that’s something, to me, that keeps me fascinated: how it exists as this art form … Because this is the opera of the people.”

Thomas and Abraham went back and forth trying to figure out who would make a good opening act for Here’s The Unity, someone that wouldn’t throw off the musical balance too far. They had also been spitballing

other creative ideas to pursue together, including new ways to present wrestling.

“This was a dream that we’ve been building on for a while,” Thomas says. “And one of the things that came out of those conversations was the idea of, you know, can we bring wrestlers to a live show? How can we start weaving the stories that we tell as musicians and performers with the stories that wrestlers tell? And when we were looking to find the perfect opener for these two very different acts that we’re part of, it was just kind of like, well, maybe this is the chance.”

The underscoring of connection brings to mind “Remember 01,” the opening track to the Halluci Nation’s latest album, One More Saturday Night. It features a recording that Thomas took of late Indigenous poet and activist John Trudell who, introducing the duo before a show, speaks about how “everyone’s bringing their energy here in a way that’s really about celebrating and being good.” Trudell, and his message,

is central to the Halluci Nation—the group changed its name due to its work with Trudell, who Thomas describes as a “massive influence,” not only politically, but also in the way he presented himself as a human being.

“Every time that we met with him, it was just a massive download of information. He sat us down and wanted to tell us everything that he could that could help us become more than we were. And to look back now and realize a pathway forward— that he had given us a roadmap—it was one of those life-shaking moments… It’s amazing to still feel his presence and his influence through what we’re doing today.”

The group’s work is now accompanied by another level of responsibility and service, Thomas adds. He recalls one show in particular, in Portland when the city was rocked by protests, where the energy in the room was intense.

“People had come there with their fears, with their frustrations, with

The Halluci Nation has realized a long-time dream by making wrestling part of the Here’s The Unity Tour. Photo by Remi Theriault.

their anger, and they were able to dance it out and scream and cry. There was a moment I looked out and there was a person praying and there was a person laughing and there was a person crying, all in the same moment … We’ve always said, ‘We’ve created a safe space for Indigenous people to come, and everybody showed up because we had created that space.’ But the meaning of that has never become more apparent than in recent years when people are really coming with all of those energies and being able to let them out in a space where that’s what’s being allowed.”

Fucked Up also uses music as a tool to express and educate. On the band’s latest album, One Day, they talk about colonialism and corruption alongside celebrations of life and love. The dichotomy is a foundation of Fucked Up’s DNA.

“There’s not a lot of pretense to what we’re doing,” Abraham says. “And we talk about things that we think about in our songs. These are things that we actually are concerned about, especially now raising children. How do you try and end cycles? And how do you educate your children about colonialism and about the real history of not just Canada, but global history?”

He adds: “At the same time, talking about being a dad and being insecure every second of my life about, ‘Am I continuing trauma to my children that I suffered through my parents’ hands or that they suffered through their grandparents’ hands?’ As much as we kind of hid behind characters on different records and behind these concept walls, I think that’s always been the thing. It’s just this quest for understanding who we are and our

MAY 25 - JUNE 4, 2023

A journey back to the Hong Kong in our memories

place in this world and how to leave it a little bit better.”

“That’s wild,” Thomas chimes in, with a grin. “I just realized that you have One Day and we have One More Saturday Night.”

“I know!” Abraham exclaims. “I was thinking about that too!”

The Halluci Nation and Fucked Up have been recording songs together. The first, “Electroshock,” is a cover of a track from Mexican punk band Dangerous Rhythm, and is expected to be released before the tour begins. “I haven’t been this excited for a Fucked Up record, like, ever,” Abraham enthuses. “It’s something so different sounding from anything we’ve ever done on every level that, yeah, I’m stoked for this thing.”

Thomas agrees. Having a full collaboration with a band has not only been exciting, it’s allowed him and Hill to explore different avenues of creativity. “I can’t stop listening to the song,” Thomas says. “It’s really rare that I do that with our own music. Usually, we end the session and I don’t listen to the music until the next session.”

“It is two musical directions meeting up with each other,” Abraham continues. “And neither one of us had really worked in each other’s genre in any sort of way before.”

It circles back to the nature of the relationship between Thomas and Abraham—one forged by values that align them as human beings, as friends, and, by extension, as artists.

“Watching the way that Damian treats the world is an inspiration to me,” Thomas says. “That’s why he’s one of my favourite people. Because I just look at the way that he operates—the way that he treats everything around him is so in line with the way that I feel about the world.”

Abraham is visibly humbled. “I wish we weren’t on video so you wouldn’t see me blush now,” he says, with a laugh. “I feel very inspired every time I sit down and hang out with Tim and Bear … And I think both groups are very open about who the groups are and what the groups are about … I do feel like both share a larger mission statement in what we want to do, and what we hope we can accomplish and bring to people: the idea of making honest music and expressing yourself honestly and being lucky enough to be there for people when they need it. And getting to provide that for people is an incredible gift.”

Thomas nods. “I think openness was the perfect word to put on it,” he says. “’Cause that’s what I’ve always felt [with] Fucked Up, as a band: you feel that openness, you feel that open heart whenever you listen to their music. And I think we operate from that same place.” GS

Photo of Derek Chan by Kim Ho

The Halluci Nation and Fucked Up perform at the Commodore Ballroom on May 20.

Fucked Up is touring in support of its new album, One Day. Photo by Jeaninne Kaufer.

Ricky Diamonds is bloated and beautiful

By Matt Coté

Whatever happened to the crooner? Why is Michael Bublé the sole heir to Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Paul Anka? He’s not: there’s also Ricky Diamonds, an oversexed former Las Vegas icon currently marooned in the tiny backwater of Golden, BC.

Or so the story goes. Diamonds is the comedic alter ego of roots musician Eric Larocque, formerly half of the folk duo Broken Down Suitcase, later called Broken Brothers.

Larocque first conceived the character while struggling to establish himself as a solo act in Vancouver. Sick of inattentive audiences, he showed up to a gig at his workplace, the Shameful Tiki Room, wearing a bedazzled blazer and ascot, and appropriated the flamboyant persona of a bloated, washed-up lounge singer. He tore into exaggerated karaoke renditions of Neil Diamond and Roy Orbison songs while accosting patrons with grotesque body dancing. He wandered up to tables to steal creamers while indulging in off-colour banter drawn from the ’50s.

“I literally just wanted to be an asshole, and I wanted to sing in front of people,” Larocque admits to the Straight. “I wanted to make fun of the audience… to have people go, ‘What the fuck is happening?’”

Eight years later, that kamikaze mission has grown into a stunningly well-produced EP called In the Rough, and a short film titled Ricky in the Rough that hopefully will be a springboard to an ongoing musical comedy series. What’s more, Ricky Diamonds has built a cult following in the unlikely borderlands of BC and Alberta, filling bars, emceeing festivals and playing corporate gigs for companies as big as Bombardier. And his new, original music is so vexingly excellent, it calls into question whether any of it is even a joke anymore.

Shortly after creating Diamonds, Larocque moved back to Golden, where he’d met his then-wife while ski bumming in his early 20s. Though he gave up on music at that point, he kept playing Ricky Diamonds as a comedy act at all his old venues.

“It was out of this insecurity from not being

original,” Larocque says. “I was just a solo guitar guy, and, you know, there’s an awful lot of them. It was hard in Vancouver. It’s competitive, and I’m not a competitive person.”

Ricky Diamonds flipped that script, folding irony in on itself to re-appropriate it from the cool kids. The point was not that Diamonds didn’t care what anyone thought, but that he actually reveled in his audience’s contempt. He accosted them with gratuitous legato, cringey jokes, belches in the middle of songs, and a superiority complex—frequently demanding that patrons “shut the fuck up.”

Audiences picked up on the gag and loved it. When Larocque played Interior BC and Alberta, instead of pissing people off, he’d get rebooked the same night. But no one was having more fun than the entertainer. Since then, the line between Diamonds and Larocque has blurred, and he’s come to truly love the musical genres he luxuriates in.

“There are a million people spoofing lounge singing,” Larocque notes. “Like the Bill Murray or Andy Kauffman thing. But why can’t it be both, why can’t it be funny and good music?”

With the release of In the Rough—co-written by Tyler Allen of Calgary’s Red Hot Hayseeds—he posits that it can. And in the short film, now available on his website, Diamonds’ backstory is fleshed out.

Produced, directed and co-written by Elora Braden, and clocking in at 28 minutes, Ricky in the Rough tells the story of a man who once owned Vegas, but whose lady, Trixie Diamonds, cast him out. So Diamonds hits the road, choosing Golden because it sounds fancy, but is distraught to learn it’s a blue-collar “shit hole.”

Over time, he nonetheless wins over the rough little town to become its most beloved entertainer (mostly at birthdays and staff parties). While the film, which Braden conceived as a pilot, is aptly rough around the edges, the comedy is hard to compare. It’s reminiscent of Schitt’s Creek and Letterkenny, but has an auditory edge on both of these.

The production quality is wholly amplified by the music, which stands on its own as overwhelmingly listenable. If you play In the Rough on Spotify and let the algorithm take over, it follows up with Nathaniel Rateliff,

St. Paul & the Broken Bones, and Paul Pena. The score is infused with elements of slow jazz (“Your Way”), Motown (“Walking On A Star”), and even western swing (“My Path is Clear”). The songs are earworms that borrow so satisfyingly from past traditions you can almost guess the next lyric.

Produced by Vancouver’s JP Maurice, Diamonds’ studio band hails from the city and includes Bend Sinister drummer Nick Petrowich. But his nine-piece live band, the Rhinestones, is made mostly of the Red Hot

Hayseeds (plus a freelance horn section).

Since moving back to Golden, Larocque has suffered both a divorce and a pandemic that killed live music for a time. But his own life, like most of ours, has bounced back, and the tale of Ricky Diamonds is a version of his real story. He still feels somewhat exiled from Vancouver, but has since found comfort in an obscure little town he’s begrudgingly come to love—all because it can laugh at itself. GS

In the Rough is available now.

finding beauty in awkwardness

Amanda Sum asks questions there aren’t always answers to on New Age Attitudes

By Yasmine Shemesh

Amanda Sum had been contemplating the ways in which she exists in the world. What does it mean to be a woman? To be young? To be a person of colour? And how do all those things feed into her day-to-day life? Her thoughts materialized onto “New Age Attitudes,” the title track of her 2022 debut album. It was the first song she wrote for it. Softly, Sum sings: “Who’s it gonna be?/ Who you gonna choose?/One to let you win/One to make you lose everything that ever meant anything to you.”

“I think I write with a lot of questions and I don’t have a lot of answers,” the Vancouver-based artist laughs, speaking to the Straight over Zoom.

Sum’s reflections are likewise cast across the rest of the record as she explores things like belonging, uncertainty, and awkwardness in ways that are both achingly relatable and deeply moving. On “Undecided Mind,” Sum considers herself in the greater context of her generation. “Sorry” is about getting into a car accident and apologizing for something she didn’t do. And then there’s “Different From Before”—a twinkling crown jewel, which is accompanied by a poignant music video starring legendary Chinese actor Tzi Ma as a father who confronts a group of racists at the restaurant where his family is dining.

To achieve her vision for the record, Sum worked with an all-female production and engineering team, and an all-Asian female band. The decision was non-negotiable. It stemmed from creating her first-ever single, 2020’s “Groupthink,” which, thematically, tackled society’s expectations of her as a young Asian woman—and it was important to work with people who closely

understood her experience.

“I can’t be talking about fighting those things if I’m hiring people who don’t look like me or who don’t share that experience,” Sum says. “So, that was the priority from the get go. I thought it’d be really cool and really badass to have that—but it actually is really important to have that.”

New Age Attitudes, with its lo-fi soundscape of jazz and pop, was recorded to tape, live off the floor, to accentuate the warmth and intimacy of the confessional lyrics. Sum wanted to evoke the feeling of telling a secret, something the listener could feel like it’s just for them to hear.

“I think there’s something kind of theatrical to it, as well,” she notes. “We mic-ed different parts of the piano so that, if there is a time where you hear my foot on the pedal, it feels real. Yeah, I really love that.”

As a multidisciplinary artist also wellknown for her work in theatre (her performances in East Van Panto and Chicken Girl have received raves), Sum’s ambidextrous creativity inevitably bleeds together—even if, until now, she’s been making performance art and music somewhat separately. The combination of the two intentionally manifests in New Age Attitudes: Live in Concert, which utilizes a handmade book—that audience members get to keep—as a guide through what is described as “neither a musical nor a straight concert.”

Sum hadn’t considered a theatrical companion to New Age Attitudes when she was initially writing the songs. It came later, when she was commissioned to create a piece for 2021’s PushOFF (Theatre Replacement’s annual platform for developing local artistic projects).

“The prompt for that was, ‘If you could make any work right now, what would it

be?’” Sum explains. “And to me, at that time, I wanted to make this album—but I was really struggling with what digital-ness meant and the access part of it and if that killed the artistry of it. I thought it would be great if I could make this somewhat commercialized version of the album—which is the digital thing that is out and you can stream it wherever you want—and also have this version of it, which you can read.”

Sum was also intrigued by the idea of performance. She wondered: if she’s at home playing the piano, does that mean she’s performing—even when she’s alone? Or, does it only become performance once there’s a public aspect to it?

“And so, with this book thing, that became really interesting to me,” Sum says, “because if I’m reading at home, I’m just reading my book. But the minute I take it out to a park, or if I’m reading at the library, it becomes me doing the act of reading— but, also, I’m kind of performing it, too.”

For PushOFF, Sum mailed and hand-delivered the book to audience members, with instructions to open it precisely

at 8pm on the day her show was programmed. Everyone would be participating, moving, together. With specific cues for when to flip the page, the book reimagined the songs, as Sum describes, to guide the audience through a new way of listening and receiving.

Now, a couple years later, Sum will present a revised version of the piece at the Cultch. In a quiet sense, she notes, it feels like a solo show for everyone—something that, even when Sum is performing, it doesn’t always feel like she is. Being able to share that with the audience is really special.

“I think it’s very personal,” Sum says. “You will get to know me, but I’ll also get to know you. And I hope each person feels like they’re seen by me, individually—and that it’s awkward, because it is.” She grins. “I think that’s where a lot of my making sits in: this gentle awkwardness that feels a bit clanky, but it’s not bad.” GS

New Age Attitudes: Live in Concert runs from May 11-14 at the Historic Theatre at the Cultch as part of Femme Festival.

Amanda Sum. Photo by Reagan Jade.

Booze can be a scarily powerful drug

By Chris Walter

Inever thought of myself as an alcoholic, even when my addiction to street drugs began to rage out of control. I was no hopeless wino pissing himself under a bridge in the wrong part of town, and so what if the cooking wine and the mouthwash wasn’t safe when I ran out of whisky? I often dragged myself to work with a blinding hangover and did it again the next night, except when I phoned in sick.

I almost never started fights and only vomited on rare occasions, so how could I be a drunk? Sure, I had a little problem with anything I could suck into a syringe, but alcohol was different. After all, booze was the elixir of life and I’d probably still be a virgin if it weren’t for beer.

With a drink in hand I found myself intelligent and witty, irresistible to women and well-regarded by my peers. Without alcohol, I was awkward and shy, not at all the sort of scallywag who entertained guests by dangling empty cases of beer from the Prince Albert piercing on his dick. Booze was no crutch, but instead a tool to open doors and put the right words in my mouth. I made that silver-haired gent in the Dos Equis commercials look like a bum.

Although booze didn’t lead me directly to my doom, the drugs finally caught up to me in January of 2001. I had a newborn son I was supposed to be watching, but one day I thought it would be okay to shoot a little cocaine while he napped. He started crying when he woke up, and I was too paranoid to let a friend into the apartment to feed him.

After a very unpleasant week in detox, I checked into an East Vancouver recovery house. Narcotics Anonymous meetings were mandatory, and I was less than receptive to the notion that some “higher power” could save me from myself. Would I ever be ready for “God to remove all those defects of character”? Hell, I was nothing but a collection of defects, and without them I would be nothing.

I also resented having to share a house with a bunch of other drug addicts, even though I’d been doing that for decades. It was less fun without the liquor and drugs. We didn’t even have a stereo.

I went to meetings and watched fellow addicts relapse and die but managed to stay clean and sober. I didn’t crave booze the way I longed for drugs, and had only quit drinking because they frowned on that in the recovery house.

books went by and I eventually began to make a little money. Not real money, mind you, but enough to trick myself into thinking that writing was something I could do. Fifteen years passed and our son grew up without watching me hoist empty beer cases with my dick. The urge to do drugs slowly disappeared and I knew it was okay to drink again.

My return to booze took place at a dive bar on Hastings where I was launching my 2016 book, Liquor & Whores This was no slip or relapse but a calculated decision to drink again. This time I would take it easy and not do drugs. What could go wrong?

I began by drinking very moderately, sipping bourbon but rarely to excess. The years went by with no trouble but a warning sign appeared when I was too hungover to go for my morning run one Saturday. Deep in my mind I knew I wasn’t like everyone else, but I adjusted my drinking and kept going.

– Chris Walter

Sure, a few beers made phoning my drug dealer seem like a good idea, but that was hardly alcohol’s fault. I simply needed to put drugs in the rearview mirror and then it would be safe to drink again. I was happy enough to leave the recovery house and move back in with my girlfriend and our son after five long months. Most of my roommates had already relapsed, so I’d defied the odds.

Money was tight but slowly a new normal emerged, one without booze and drugs. I realized how close I’d come to losing my family and that made it easier to walk the line. Having penned several shitty novels before the train went off the tracks, I devoted myself to writing. The

It wasn’t until we moved from East Van to New West in 2017 that I began having a cocktail every day at 5pm. It seemed so civilized until I realized I was drinking every day, especially on weekends. I quit the daily cocktails but found myself making up for them on weekends.

I knew I was in trouble when I started waking up at 3 or 4am on Saturday mornings to drink 100-proof vodka from the bottle hidden in my desk. I was sliding downhill and couldn’t stop.

One Friday night I started drinking and kept going all week, finishing my collection of high-end bourbon and everything else within reach. I was a total mess by the next Friday, but the worst thing about it was the knowledge that I’d completely lost control. It hadn’t been my intention to drink all week and I couldn’t understand how that had happened.

Chris Walter at home, accepting that some people can drink and some can’t.

It seemed so civilized until I realized I was drinking every day, especially on weekends.

With blinding clarity I saw that booze was no different from other drugs and I had no choice but to quit for good. In a way it was almost a relief. I’d known in my heart that I was on the wrong path and was almost happy that shit had gone sideways. I’d cleaned up before and could do it again.

I spent a night in the hospital this past February with a hangover bordering on delirium tremens but a few of their pills saved me from the worst of it. My partner picked me up from the hospital and I could see the hope in her eyes when I got into the car. It hadn’t been easy for her and my son to see me drink like that. I was never abusive but they knew I was speeding down the road to oblivion and, along with everyone else, they were worried. I had to make things right.

I was in for a bit of a surprise when I got home. I’d posted a drunken and desperate plea for help before I’d left, and Facebook responded by banning me for a week. Although I didn’t like it when other people aired their drama online, I knew I wouldn’t be able to back out if I told everyone what was going on. Sitting there, I was amazed to see hundreds of private messages from friends sent offering support, but I was banned from Messenger and couldn’t reply.

I was truly humbled and genuinely

surprised that anyone gave a fuck. Bif Naked even sent me a comfort parcel with a touching card. There was no turning back.

I’ve been sober for more than 60 days at the time of this writing and life is good again. Although the peer support I received at NA was helpful, I’m not doing meetings this time because my family and friends around the world are here for me.

Sunday breakfast with the family is my favourite part of the week, and my new book Homeless in the City will be out in late June. I’m still amazed shit went sideways the way it did but I accept that reality.

Who knew the smug bastards at NA were right about booze being a drug like all the rest?

Damn their hides. GS

Christ Walter is the Vancouver-based author of more than 30 books. He can count to 10 backwards and knows where the bodies are buried.

(IDEAS is for writers and other creatives to explore ideas in essay form that exist outside the news cycle. It can be anything— microcosmic, intergalactic, funny, esoteric, whatever. As long it has heart, has something to say, and is you being you.)

AT MEC PARKADE

JAYBIRD EARLY

MORNING

OLIVE-SKINNED YOGA GUY

You had on a pair of immaculately tasteful blue lululemon shorts. You have deep brown eyes that could melt an ice cream sandwich and are always clearing your throat in class, but I find it very attractive. You usually come to class with a stunning blonde who has a rocking body. I’ve heard rumors that you two have a “flexible” relationship. The blonde says you guys don’t drink, but I am happy to serve tea for both of you.

From: F to M

When: Monday, April 24

Where: Jaybird Yoga Studio—Yaletown

I held the door for you to the parkade as I was looking for the inline skate store, and we had a brief encounter walking downstairs and I asked if P1 was your level. I felt that you wanted to continue chatting, but I bustled off to P2. Would you like to reconnect? I was wearing a black Arcteryx jacket, sand-coloured Khul pants, greyish hair, and glasses.

From: M to F

When: Wednesday, April 19

Where: Mountain Equipment Co-op parkade

CUTE WOMAN DANCING

I saw you dancing at ScotiaBank Park Royal around 3:30pm. You have dark hair, glasses, wearing a summer outfit. I thought you were cute. I’d like to meet for coffee and get to know you.

From: M to F

When: Friday, April 14

Where: ScotiaBank Park Royal

CUTE BLONDE BABE ON COMMERCIAL AND 3RD LOCKING UP YOUR BIKE

We locked eyes at Commercial and 3rd. I was wearing red lipstick and a long burgundy velvet coat, brown wavy hair, just coming from a photoshoot. You are a blonde-haired cutie with your friend, locking up your bike at Commercial and 3rd. We locked eyes and you called after me as I walked that you “liked my…?”

But you were tongue-tied, and I was with my photographer friend so I didn’t stop to chat! You are cute though! Call me if you see this.

From: F to M

When: Wednesday, April 12

Where: Commercial and 3rd

HEY, NEW BRUNSWICK!!

You had silver on your fingers, fingers on your hands, hands in the air like you—almost—didn’t care. But you did care. You were upset at the docile and still Vancouver crowd. (It’s not

always like that.) Your indignation was charming because I was in agreement. Your hair is blonde and straight, your dress was black and gracefully arched. Me; short hair, kinda clean shaven, sneezed into my coat and you blessed me. Welcome to the left coast. I would be delighted to have you join me and a rotating roster of friends for live music, dancing, and other cultural shenanigans. I think you’d have fun.

From: M to F

When: Saturday, April 8

Where: The Pink Mountaintops at The Cobalt

I THINK YOU HEARD ME SAY…

At the new supermarket in Richmond. You were working in the aisle. I was wearing a mask, and I thought I said to myself that, “I want to lick you.” You looked up as if you heard me and smiled.

From: M to F

When: Thursday, April 6

Where: The new supermarket in Richmond

Lesbianism is not a severance package

by Dan Savage

> I’VE BEGUN TO THINK I AM A LESBIAN. I’m 29 years old, and I’ve only been with men up to now. The first guy I was with was sexually abusive and convinced me that sexually servicing a man regardless of how I felt was the norm. I carried this into my next decade-long, mostly long-distance relationship with a man, another relationship that involved a general disregard for sexual boundaries. (At one point when I refused PIV to prevent pregnancy, he joked about pinning me down and “just sticking it in.”) I didn’t realize that being happy in a long-term sexual relationship was even possible. The thing is, while remembering most of the sexual things I’ve done disgusts me, and while I find myself uninterested in the male form, I did enjoy making out with someone and being held. But while I am now repulsed by the thought of being with a man, I have no experience with women at this late age and having actively sought out relationships with men makes me think I can’t be gay. Why would I have sought out sex acts which now disgust me? Why did I pursue men

if that wasn’t what I wanted?

Done With Men

Lesbianism is not a consolation prize; lesbianism is not a severance package a woman is handed on her way out of a shitty straight relationship. Lesbianism is a romantic and sexual orientation. It’s a positive force—it’s about what (and who) a woman is drawn to, not what (and who) a woman is repulsed by. I mean, think about it… if having shitty relationships with men turned women into lesbians, DWM, there wouldn’t be any straight women left. Hell, if having shitty relationships with men turned people off men generally, DWM, there wouldn’t be any gay men left either. Straight guys with shitty ex-girlfriends would go gay, lesbians with shitty ex-wives would go straight, and bisexuals wouldn’t know what (or who) to do.

So, after reading your letter, DWM, I have a few questions for you: Are you attracted to women? When you think about making out with someone and being held, do you see yourself with a woman? Does the thought of having sex with a woman turn you on?

Do you get aroused when you think about going down on a woman, being gone down on by a woman, and doing all the other sexy sex things women do with women? If the answer to each of these questions is “yes,” DWM, then you might be a lesbian.

Many women realize they’re lesbians later in life, DWM, so your experience— years in unsatisfying straight relationships before coming out—wouldn’t be an uncommon one; you wouldn’t be the first lesbian who struggled to dig her authentic homosexuality out from under compulsory heterosexuality. Lots of women go through the motions with men—putting up with their smelly bodies and their vaguely threatening “jokes” about sexual violence—before coming to the realization it wasn’t men they wanted at all, or not men they wanted exclusively.

> I’M A 47-YEAR-OLD CIS WOMAN. I’m sexually active and don’t want to be on hormonal birth control anymore. How risky is this plan? 1. Go off BC. 2. When my period is late, take a pregnancy test. 3. If positive, do a medication abortion. 4. If negative, test again in two weeks. I would get the M&Ms (mifepristone and misoprostol) to have on hand. From what I have read, most pregnancies at my age are due to fertility treatments. The chance of becoming pregnant without treatment isn’t zero, but it’s very close to zero. I know that a major factor with most birth control is human error. I’m very careful and I know I will stick to the plan. I already track my cy-

cle and take my birth control on schedule. Pregnancy Risks

Ease Getting Older

Your odds of getting pregnant at your age are extremely low, PREGO, but 100% of people whose parachutes fail to open go splat. So, while it’s unlikely to happen to you—while you’re highly unlikely to get pregnant at your age without the help of a fertility specialist—it could happen to you. Until the overturning of Roe v. Wade last summer, I would’ve slapped a “low-probability, low-consequence event” label on the worst-case scenarios here, PREGO, as you could easily keep M&Ms in stock. But with right-wing judges trying to ban M&Ms and radical Republicans criminalizing abortion care in state after state, a possible pregnancy—however unlikely—could quickly become a “low-probability, high-consequence” event for any woman. If you were to run out of M&Ms, would you be able to get more? If you were to experience complications, which are very rare but do happen, would you be able to seek follow-up care where you live without risking prosecution? I’m not suggesting you should stay on birth control at your age, PREGO, I’m just urging you to have a backup plan—at least one—in case your initial backup plan fails.

Send questions to questions@savagelove.net. Listen to Dan on the Savage Lovecast. Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage.

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