Western Living, April 2018 by NextHome

WESTERN LIVING // APRIL 2018

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Renovate This Spring!

A Mid-Century Post-and-Beam Made Modern Converting a Whistler Cabin into a Family Home

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Photo: Michel Gibert, image for advertising purposes only. Special thanks: Stone Sculpture museum of the Fondation Kubach-Wilmsen.

Kenzo Takada dresses the Mah Jong

Free spirited and audacious designer Kenzo Takada, known as "the most Parisian of Japanese fashion designers", has designed an exceptional collection of fabrics and ceramics for RocheÂ Bobois. To dress the Mah Jong sofa, he drew inspiration from traditional kimonos of the NĂ´ theater. He reinterpreted the motifs and colors, creating delicate and sophisticated harmonies that symbolize the three times of the day: Asa (morning), Hiru (noon), and Yoru (evening).

Mah Jong. Modular sofa system, design Hans Hopfer. Upholstered in NĂ´ Gaku fabrics, Hiru version, designed by Kenzo Takada for Roche Bobois. Manufactured in Europe.

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See these client stories and more on our website.

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Hello 2018,

YOU’RE LOOKING QUITE LAVISH! The trend toward maximalism is resplendent with luscious lavender, gorgeous geometrics, big, beautiful florals, and color-crazy kitchens.

• Botanicals are breaking big, covering walls, furniture, and more.

Maximalism: more is more! Make way for the luxury and elegance of violets and lavenders — Pantone named “Ultra Violet” as the color of the year. Try it in a single chair — or paint the town.

• Geometrics are both retro and reinvigorating, with circles coming on especially strong.

Do-it-for-me! Why do it yourself when having the experts do it for you has become so affordable? Some projects are great fun to DIY, but when it comes to precise measurements and installation, put a pro on the job. What a relief.

Stay flexible • Go for broke with color, collections, layers of window coverings, texture, embellishment, comfort and wildly eclectic style. A staunch minimalist? Try just one wall, fill it from floor to ceiling with art and objects. • New kitchens move from white-on-white to color, with blue and green cabinetry taking center stage.

One big trend is perfectly practical: overall interior flexibility. Stretch the space you have with furniture or design elements that serve two purposes, like a coffee table that pops up into a dining table, or a murphy bed that turns an office into a guest room.

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Above It All The wood-lined ceiling of this BattersbyHowatdesigned house adds warmth to the modern design. See more of this stunning Vancouver reno on page 38.

A P R I L 2 018

Cover and this page: Ema Peter.

B .C . & A L B E R TA // V O LU M E 4 7 // N U M B E R 3

FR ESH PERSPECTIVE 38 // Daydream Believers

The architects at BattersbyHowat bring the notion of quiet respite and reflection— though with an airy open-concept floor plan—to a family home in Vancouver.

48 // Pitch-Perfect

In the renovation of a 1973 ski cabin in Whistler, angles and idiosyncrasies are reimagined by Stark Architecture into an unexpected hybrid of old and new.

58 // Calm Beside the Storm

Designer Negar Ghorashi saves a mid-century post-and-beam home in West Vancouver from the bulldozer—and brings it beautifully into the present. westernliving.ca / a p r i l

2 0 1 8 1 7

WL // contents

design 27 // One to Watch

Former BMX champ Jay Miron turns his attentions to furniture design.

28 // Shopping

Glam rock-inspired tiles, the new Le Creuset collection and more product picks we love.

31 // Openings

Calgary’s latest workshop-showroom and more hot new stores opening now.

32 // Flooring We Love

Statement-making rugs and tiles that prove bold is beautiful (even underfoot).

34 // Great Spaces

Vancouver jewellery designer Melanie Auld gives her studio a beachy-cool makeover.

food 74 // Bites

Restaurant openings, must-read cookbooks, chef-approved gadgets and more from the foodie front lines.

77 // Root to Stem

Six great new recipes for maximizing the whole veg—skins, stems, offcuts and all.

Phoenix’s resurgent downtown core is rife with urban-cool experiences.

90 // Sea Change

Our first-ever cruise package explores options far beyond your cookie-cutter Carnival experiences—from the Rhine to New Zealand.

plus 98 // Trade Secrets

An elegant home workspace from designer Alanna Dunn makes room for two. 1 8 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

Carrots: Gabriel Cabrera; Viking Cruise: White Rain

travel 88 // The Check-In

WESTERN LIVING GENERAL MANAGER | PUBLISHER Dee Dhaliwal EDITORIAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Anicka Quin EXECUTIVE EDITOR Stacey McLachlan TRAVEL EDITOR Neal McLennan ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Jenny Reed ASSOCIATE EDITOR Julia Dilworth ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Natalie Gagnon ONLINE EDITOR Kaitlyn Funk CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Amanda Ross, Nicole Sjöstedt, Barb Sligl, Jim Sutherland, Julie Van Rosendaal CITY EDITORS Karen Ashbee (Calgary), Jyllian Park (Edmonton), Rosemary Poole (Victoria) EDITORIAL INTERNS Alyssa Hirose, Jessica Palacio, Allie Turner ART INTERN Amanda Siegmann EMAIL mail@westernliving.ca

WESTERNLIVING.CA ONLINE COORDINATOR Theresa Tran PRODUCTION MANAGER Lee Tidsbury DESIGNER Swin Nung Chai SENIOR MARKETING STRATEGIST Kaitlyn Lush TEL 604-877-7732 CUSTOMER SERVICE WEB westernliving.ca TEL 604-877-7732

VANCOUVER & VICTORIA OFFICE

ACCOUNT MANAGERS Trish Almeida, Jeff Leyland, Gabriella Sepúlveda Knuth, Julia Yudova SALES COORDINATOR Karina Platon 3rd Floor, 2025 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby, B.C. V5C 0J3 TEL 604-877-4843

U.S. SALES REPRESENTATION, MEDIA-CORPS TEL 1-866-744-9890 EMAIL info@media-corps.com

CALGARY & EDMONTON OFFICE

ACCOUNT MANAGERS Anita van Breevoort (on leave), Jeff Leyland 2891 Sunridge Way NE, Calgary, Alta. T1Y 7K7

CALGARY/EDMONTON TEL 604-877-4815 EMAIL jeff.leyland@westernliving.ca

NATIONAL MEDIA SALES REPRESENTATION, MEDIATIVE SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER, NATIONAL SALES Ian Lederer TEL 416-626-4258 EMAIL ian.lederer@mediative.com

WESTERN MEDIA GROUP 3rd Floor, 2025 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby, B.C. V5C 0J3 TEL 604-877-7732

YELLOW PAGES DIGITAL & MEDIA SOLUTIONS LTD. VICE-PRESIDENT & CHIEF PUBLISHING OFFICER Caroline Andrews

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2018-03-02 10:03 AM

PRIVACY POLICY On occasion, we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened organizations whose product or service might interest you. If you prefer that we not share your name and address (postal and/or email), you can easily remove your name from our mailing lists by reaching us at any of the listed contact points. You can review our complete Privacy Policy at westernliving.ca. WESTERN LIVING MAGAZINE is published 10 times a year by Western Media Group, a division of Yellow Pages Ltd. Copyright 2018. Printed in Canada by TC • Transcontinental, LGM-Coronet, 737 Moray St., Winnipeg, Man. R3J 3S9. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to Circulation Dept., 3rd Floor, 2025 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby, B.C., V5C 0J3. Distributed free in areas of Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited. All reproduction requests must be made to COPIBEC (paper reproductions), 800-717-2022, or CEDROM-SNi (electronic reproductions), 800-563-5665. The publisher cannot be responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. This publication is indexed in the Canadian Magazine Index and the Canadian Periodical Index, and is available online in the Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database. ISSN 1920-0668 (British Columbia edition), ISSN 1920-065X (Alberta). Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement #40068973.

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WL // EDITOR’S NOTE

SPRING IT FORWARD

Q& A This month we asked our contributors, What’s your best travel hack?

Ema Peter, “Calm Beside the Storm”, page 58 I travel quite extensively, and to get the best seats I am online 10 minutes before the 24-hour check-in. Most airlines will allow you to check in at that point and get the best seat possible. In most cases, there is never anyone next to me —and I’m up at the front.

Tim Johnson, “All the Small Things”, page 90 I’m a light sleeper, and you never know what’s going to be outside your hotel room window—whether a busy street or, in one case, for me, a bunch of very noisy elephants at a Botswanan watering hole. Having a good set of wax earplugs, and a white noise iPhone app, can help even things out.

Behind the Scenes Midway through our food shoot this issue (“Root to Stem,” page 77), photographer Gabriel Cabrera had to stop shooting to capture the blizzard outside his studio window—a Vancouver rarity that deserved an Instagram post or three.

VISIT

ANICK A QUIN, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR ANICK A.QUIN@WESTERNLIVING.CA 2 2 A P R I L 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

Anicka Quin portrait: Evaan Kheraj; styling by Luisa Rino, makeup by Melanie Neufeld; outfit courtesy Holt Renfrew, holtrenfrew.com

Follow Anicka on Instagram @ANIQUA

We time our renovations issue for April every year, because they don’t call it spring cleaning for nothing, right? It’s around this time of year that I start getting the itch to switch things up in my own place, and not just because the stronger sunlight is shining a spotlight on all the places I’ve neglected to dust these last few months. I recently read an article somewhere that said people often neglect the design of their bedrooms because they’re rarely going to host a dinner party in it—and up until this spring, I was certainly a prime example of that theory. I’ve lived at my current address for almost five years, yet my bedroom could have easily doubled for a twentysomething’s eclectic and haphazard dorm room. (And I am not a twentysomething. Sadly.) But said article got me in motion, and I put a little love into my bedroom this spring: replaced the dresser, hung some new art, switched out the frames on a mismatched group of photos, brought in some new bedding and added a standing mirror. And voilà—I feel like a new person. (Future parties will remain in the living room—or, who am I kidding, the kitchen.) Of course, the renovations you’ll see in this issue went quite a bit further to make a space party- (and family-) ready. Architects David Battersby and Heather Howat turned a family home into two empty nesters’ stunning new pad. A Whistler ski bum’s cabin was renovated into a bright, modern and oh-so-angular yearround home by architect David Arnott. And designer Negar Ghorashi rescued a ’50s-era post-and-beam and converted it into a gorgeous retreat for herself and her husband. While I didn’t go so far in my spring overhaul as the designers in this issue took their spaces, the updates I did make have given my bedroom an entirely new feeling—both refreshing and relaxing at the same time. Let me know if these pages inspire you to make your own updates—whether you go for a modest bedroom flip or a massive whole-home reno, may it all put a little spring in your step and bring an extra party or two to your future.

1706 WEST 1ST AVE ARMOURY DISTRICT VANCOUVER 604 683 1116 LIVINGSPACE.COM

WL // @WesternLiving

LETTERS, ETC.

Tweet, message, ’gram or email (mail@westernliving.ca)— we love to hear from our readers!

SHOPPING April Showers Bring May Flowers

Spring has sprung! We scoured the West to find nine vases—from earthy terracotta vessels to shining iridescent bottles —that will hold a bundle of fresh blooms.

westernliving.ca/shopping

BOOKWOrM FOOD Where Chefs Eat

Chefs are at the top of the food chain when it comes to being expert eaters, so we asked a selection of Vancouver’s culinary artists to tell us about their most memorable meals.

WL around town

We shared our fave home libraries from the WL archives and readers couldn’t get enough of this sleek and sophisticated design by the team at BattersbyHowat. Love this! @emmajeandesigns

Definitely one of our favourite bookcases we’ve ever built for an amazing project! @lauten_woodworking

@hemsanosh

DESIGN Humble Abode

Designer Angela Robinson has spent the last eight years collecting beloved pieces to transform her 750-square-foot condo into a home that’s full of beauty and character.

Editorial Director Anicka Quin (second from left) hung out in the Trail Appliances showroom with designers Toby Barratt, Kate Duncan and Brent Comber before they shared all their industry secrets at our latest #WLDesignTalks event: True Confessions of a Furniture Maker.

westernliving.ca/ condos

2 4 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

@WESTERN_LIVING

WESTERNLIVING

@WESTERNLIVING

WESTERNLIVINGCA

Vases: West Elm; BattersbyHowat room: Ema Peter; food: Luis Valdizon; Angela Robinson room: Janis Nicolay

westernliving.ca/restaurants

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DESIGN

S H O P P I N G // T R E N D S // P E O P L E // S PA C E S // O P E N I N G S // I N T E L

ONE TO WATCH

Second Act Jay miron, Furniture designer, Vancouver

Kyoko Fierro

Jay Miron, six-time freestyle BMX World Champion, is integrating five multicoloured wood species into his intricate Kern table—a slight change of pace for someone who was the first in the world to perform a double backflip on his bike. But this career switch from athlete to artist might not be so crazy. “They both take an incredibly high level of attention to master, plus patience and a passion to succeed,” Miron explains. He retired from BMX in 2010 after multiple concussions and broken bones, and turned his attention to a dormant passion. “My heart was always in woodworking,” Miron says. He studied with master craftsman Robert Van Norman and learned to build pieces like craftspeople did 100 years ago. Now he works in an east-side studio kitted out with vintage woodworking machines he found online. They’ve all been refurbished by Miron, giving them a new lease on life ... much like his own. —Laura Goldstein

Old School The former BMX pro uses classic woodworking techniques for pieces like the checkerboard Patricia table.

westernliving.ca / A P R I L

2018 27

WLDESIGN // SHOPPING

Ripple Effect

Taking inspiration from the Bauhaus movement, Ferm Living’s Bau Garden series of planters and watering cans ($162 to $265) are made from finely corrugated galvanized steel and come in three muted colours. vanspecial .com; kitinteriorobjects.com

Anicka’s Pick Fleur Collection

from Le Creuset, from $300, lecreuset.ca Flowers on everything for spring! At least that’s my motto. And thanks to Le Creuset for joining in with its latest Fleur collection. Embossed with raised flowers against a textured matte cotton finish, each cast iron piece takes oven-to-tableware to pretty new heights—just in time to host a stylish Mother’s Day brunch.

For more of Anicka’s picks, visit westernliving.ca

Earth Tones

Walker Zanger’s new Stardust tile collection (from top: Eclipse, Apollo and Ziggy; $64 to $265 per square foot) takes its design cues from ’70s glam rock, hand-thrown pottery and the highly textured lava stone from which it is made. worldmosaictile.com; empirekitchenandbath.com

NOTEWORTHY New in stores across the West.

Made in the Suede

Hand-made in Barcelona, Ölend’s Holden backpack ($155) is an ideal companion for spring sojourns. modernsupplyco.ca

Take a Seat

With its solid-ash construction and inset hexagonal seat cushion, Yabu Pushelberg’s Oiseau dining chair ($1,750) has an appealing Scandinavia-meets-Canada aesthetic. Available in dark moss, stone and flax finishes. avenue-road.com

2 8 A P R I L 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

Modern Classic

Reissued by Normann Copenhagen, Herbert Krenchel’s coated-steel Krenit bowls ($21 to $178) are brilliantly coloured examples of mid-century Danish design. chester-fields.com; guildhallhome.com

…your home – inspired by you – designed by maison…

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WLDESIGN // SHOPPING

Out of Sight

The concealed storage compartments in Article’s new Oscuro writing desk ($749) fold open like a jewel box, keeping paperwork in its rightful place. article.com

Spring Greening

String Theory

Hagi ware cachepots ($30 to $50) are hand-made using a centuries-old technique that produces an organic, perfectly imperfect wabi-sabi result. fullhousemodern.com

A pleasing jumble of porcelain, blown glass and coated metal, Foscarini’s new Filo table lamp ($707) is an eye poke to cord-management obsessives. grshop.com; lightform.ca

Fresh Greens

From Ligne Roset’s new spring collection, the Paipaï sofa (pricing on request) by LucidiPevere references the folded paper form of its namesake fan. Available as a loveseat, footstool and three-seat settee. livingspace.com; lebellearti.com; dwellmodern.ca

WIN this

Patio Umbrella! CONTEST

You’ll have it made in the shade with this nine-foot collar tilt Sunbrella-fabric umbrella (a $548 value!) from Vancouver’s Ginger Jar Furniture. Enter to win at: westernliving.ca/contests

3 0 A P R I L 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

T O N Y- N O M I N AT E D B R O A D WAY M U S I C A L

OPENINGS Hot new rooms we love.

calgary Mercedes and Singh Design and fabrication power couple Karen Matharu and Sumer Singh (the latter a previous WL Designers of the Year One to Watch) have opened up a workshop-showroom combo specializing in metal, wood and concrete. From contemporary lighting fixtures to custom one-off tables, you pick your material and this duo will take your piece from conceptualization to presentation, all in the same 2,000-square-foot space. 612A 36 Ave. NE, mercedesandsingh.com —Allie Turner VancouVer Leisure Center Imagine shopping a designer apocalypse bunker filled with luxe apparel, books, music, furniture and cosmetics. The aptly named 22,000-square-foot multipurpose store even houses a tonic bar by Alchemist’s Kitchen. Clothing brands range from Vetements to couture houses like Andrew GN—all of which stand stark against reflective metal walls in octagonal negative-space rooms. 950 Homer St., leisure-center.com —A.T.

The

Secret Garden Book and Lyrics by Marsha Norman Music by Lucy Simon Based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett Directed by Stafford Arima Set and Costume Design Cory Sincennes Lighting Design Bonnie Beecher Sound Design Joshua Reid

April 17 to May 19 “A world where beauty and love blossom”            PHOTO BY DAVID COOPER

Bring the whole family for as little as $35 a ticket!* #tcSecretGarden theatrecalgary.com 403-294-7447 *Limited quantity. Call for details.

Leisure Center: Stewart Zong

TheatreCalgaryAPR18HD_gvs.indd 1

VIcTorIa West Coast Refill Tucked away in Dragon Alley (Victoria really loves its alleyways), this recently opened shop proves less is more, stocking a lean but well-considered inventory of skin-care, bath, and home-cleaning products available for bulk purchase, by weight or by refill—all aimed at reducing consumer packaging and waste. Also on offer: reusable goods like simple clear- and amber-glass bottles (perfect for decanting) and Vancouver Island-made products like Abeego’s beeswax food wraps and Enviro Glass straws, which are made of hardy commercialgrade glass and available with lids that can fit any Mason jar. 10-532½ Fisgard St., westcoastrefill.com —Rosemary Poole.

Arts Commons Max Bell Theatre

2018-03-06 11:56 AM

The Western Living e-newsletter brings you inspired home and entertaining ideas three times a week, including: • Exclusive home tours • Design advice from the pros • Wine picks • Fabulous events • Must-try dishes from our Recipe Finder PLUS entertaining tips, fantastic contests, getaway guides, cooking tips, and everything else you need to know to live life well in the West.

WLDESIGN // FLOORING WE LOVE

BY BARB SLIGL

OBJET D’A RT

Modern Love

This hand-knotted 100 percent silk rug ($7,500) is like a piece of abstract art in a contemporary gallery—the only thing missing is the frame. pacificruggallery.com

Things get creative underfoot with bold patterns, singular shapes, solid sweeps and swaths of colour that make a canvas-like statement on the floor. Painterly Palette

A vibrant mix of greens and blues, the Da Vinci rug ($600) could almost be the brush strokes and dabs of a Renaissance master. inspirationfurniture.ca

Bird’s Eye

Make like a sky-high bird and float on the tufted topographical landscape of Robin by Ligne Roset ($2,059). It’s a flight of floor fancy. livingspace.com

Paleo Design

Heart Attack

Corazón means “heart” in Spanish, making this Dellarobbia rug ($3,832) a funky, pop-art version of Latin heat—and a love letter to the floor. gingerjarfurniture.com

Dino from BoConcept ($1,039) is a subtly organic yet boldly free-form rug that feels like both prehistoric artifact and avant-garde discovery at the same time. boconcept.com

DESIGNER’S PICK

Andrea McLean

Marble Works

Like the coveted marble once used by Michelangelo, Calacatta Borgo slabs by Antolini ($29 per square foot) have a certain posh polish, but this bold-veined pattern is actually printed on low-maintenance porcelain. aeonstonetile.com

3 2 A P R I L 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

“Brick is such a natural and warm material. It has an inherent texture that feels authentic underfoot. And the way it’s laid can provide additional interest, like in a herringbone pattern. The brick style can be rustic, contrasted with a minimal interior/ exterior, or it can be level and uniform with subtle movement, like the flooring in Philip Johnson’s Glass House in Connecticut.” ANDREA McLEAN, ANDREAMcLEAN.CA

Glass House: Michael Biondo

BRICK BEAUTY

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WLDESIGN // great spaces

CROWN JEWEL

A jewellery designer’s studio is crafted to provide plenty of inspiration in and of itself. When jewellery designer Melanie Auld first took over her 900-square-foot splitlevel office space in Vancouver’s South Granville neighbourhood, it was dark, dingy and depressing—not in line with her company’s sophisticated, feminine brand. So the natural solution was to wipe the slate clean…or, at least, clean-ish. “I tend to like an open, blank white space because I feel like it gives me room to be creative,” says Auld. “But I don’t like a boring blank white space.” Known for her delicate and minimalist gem-centric pieces, Auld kept the reno as simple as her jewellery designs while pulling in different textures, greenery and soft pastels to elevate the office where she runs the majority of her wholesale and Canadian operations. One prime example: the whitewashed cedar wall in the entryway, which satisfies Auld’s need for a calm, minimal colour palette but also subtly references the tile kitchenette backsplash with its herringbone pattern. As a designer, Auld naturally has an eye for style, so putting together the interior design of the space was very much instinctive for her. “I like to bring in things that are telling and mean something,” says Auld. “The brand is very influenced by travel. So all of our wall art and everything like that has a very vacation vibe”—right down to the “wish you were here” neon sign by Endeavour Neon and the beaded turquoise lamps that have us dreaming of white sand beaches. Desert-cool cacti appear

MORE INSPIRING SPACES Find more great rooms to inspire at westernliving.ca 3 4 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

My Reflection

Whitewashed wooden beads wrap the Tess mirror ($595) hanging in the front hall. thecrossdesign.com

Gallery Glam

A mixture of beachy prints and paintings lines the wall. Twin lamps from HomeSense add a hit of colour to the space.

Simple white cabinets from Ikea are elevated with rose-gold Ramsey drawer pulls ($58 each). rejuvenation.com

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in both the artwork and in real life next to a pair of rattan chairs. An abstract-print wallpaper from Eskayel is the first thing clients see when they enter the studio, but stay long enough and subtler details will start to reveal themselves, like the seven-foot-long porcelain mala bead necklace made by Jolinda Linden mounted on the entryway wall. Fans of Auld’s might recognize the evil eye from the gallery wall as a recurring theme in her jewellery; the same can be said for the rose-gold detailing on the kitchenette cabinetry. Not everything is deliberately coordinated, but the common factor these elements share is that they strike a chord with Auld. “If the pieces that you chose are really true to you and who you are, then I feel like they end up pulling everything together because it makes sense to you,” she explains. “I think lots of people aren’t confident in liking what they like and going for it . . . but I’m fine with it.” —Allie Turner

WesternLiving.ca Daily stories that connect you to the best of Western Canadian designs. Fresh, local topics that keep you in the know. Plus the Western Living Recipe Finder, with hundreds of our best recipes that you’ve come to expect from Western Canada’s lifestyle source—as gorgeous on your phone as it is on desktop. But that’s just the beginning. See more at WesternLiving.ca. The West lives here. Daily.

Photo credit Ema Peter Photography/Mason Bowenshire Landscaping

Darling Details

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HOMES I N T E R I O R S // A R C H I T E C T U R E // D E S I G N // L I V I N G

Changing Perspective

Ema Peter

Before an extensive renovation of this west-side Vancouver home, the dining roomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s view looked out over the (now removed) family pool, 90 degrees from where it looks now. But by opening up a wall and turning the look inward to a newly devised internal courtyard, architects David Battersby and Heather Howat have created an indoor-outdoor entertaining area that extends the party to well past dinner time. For more on this home and other gorgeous renovations, turn the page.

westernliving.ca / A P R I L

2018 37

WL HOMES // vancouver

DAYDREAM BattersbyHowat brings the notion of quiet respite and reflection to a family home in Vancouver.

BELIEVERS by Michael harris // photographs by eMa peter

Future Planning Most of this Vancouver home is on one level, a layout that allows its owners to live here well into retirementâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; save for the screened staircase behind the elm and stone kitchen, which leads to a home office.

WL HOMES // vancouver

Before

he house looks diminutive from the street. A series of concrete pavers marks a subdued approach, and a wizened red pine presides over the entrance. A clean front door of stained cedar offers no clues about what lies beyond. But then the door opens—pivots, rather, for it works without hinges—and one’s gaze shoots 100 feet through the home to the rear windows and the garden out back. One. Hundred. Feet. That kind of depth would be impossible with a new build. If architects David Battersby and Heather Howat had been building this house from scratch, they would have been forced by Vancouver bylaws to content themselves with something 40 percent shallower. Luckily, this

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Clear Connection The former ceiling (inset) was haphazardly studded with nails. The new one of sandblasted hemlock creates a beautiful backbone to the length of the home (above). From street level, the home is quiet and unassuming (below).

Dining Drama The dining room, which looks out on the courtyard now, features a custom light from Vancouver’s Propellor Design. It was precisely stained to match the furniture beneath—a Boiacca table by Kristalia and a set of Hiroshima chairs by Maruni.

westernliving.ca / a p r i l

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WL HOMES // vancouver

Open House The internal courtyard, surrounded by the home on three sides, can be merged with the living room in summer months. The master bedroom (below) can also enjoy warm breezes thanks to a retracting glass wall.

house was built in the 1980s, when more generous footprints were possible. The owners—one French, one Canadian—asked Battersby and Howat to renovate their home in 2014, after their children left for university. Maintaining that depth—and the expansive single-level living it allows—meant their family’s home could become a place the couple might easily enjoy well into their retirement. Two years later, the depth has been saved, but almost everything else had to go. “It was all about removing, reorganizing and making it sophisticated,” says Battersby. An old splintery wood ceiling, for example, once ran from the entrance down the length of the house, studded haphazardly with nails. BattersbyHowat reimagined that feature as a pathway of clean western hemlock, masterfully fitted into the ceiling by builders Natural Balance and lightly sandblasted to create a softer effect. “Each board was minutely shaved down,” Battersby says with a smile, “so that the lights could be installed at exactly the right spots.” The result is a beautiful backbone for the entire space. Branching off on the right are the living and dining 4 2 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

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rooms; on the left are the kitchen and family space. It’s hard to know where to settle at first, because each room drifts subtly into the next. The plan is not unsystematically open, but blind corners and quiet differentiations keep the eye forever animated. Then again, a show-stopping chandelier in the dining room might arrest the eye after all. “We looked at a lot of lights,” laughs Howat. The light that made the cut is a custom collaboration between BattersbyHowat and local studio Propellor Design. Dozens of oak pieces are suspended in a kind of matchstick cloud, with interior LEDs 4 4 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

emphasizing the wood’s natural warmth. As though that weren’t enticing enough, the chandelier’s stain was matched to the wooden furniture beneath—a Boiacca table by Kristalia and a set of elegant Hiroshima chairs by Maruni. Originally, this dining space looked out onto a nearby golf course (though a swimming pool blocked the view). BattersbyHowat realigned the room, blocking off the old windows and building a new wall of sliding glass doors that focus attention inward—to a central courtyard—instead. “A more intimate experience for dining,” explains Howat.

Serenity Now The turquoise backpainted glass backsplash adds a hint of colour to a cool and neutral master bathroom. The Coco free-standing tub from Blu Bathworks is positioned for the bather to take in the garden.

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Before

Of course, the courtyard is a new element, too. A 378-square-foot swimming area has been replaced by porcelain pavers and a rustic garden of grasses and mature trees. The courtyard is walled by the house on three sides—but all those walls are made of glass and can slide away. Cross-breezes and dappled sunlight are inevitable. Even the shadier east side of the house makes the best of things with two aquarium-style Japanese gardens built into nooks and framed by windows like works of art. The kitchen—clean elm millwork and hushed stone counters—includes a staircase, screened by ribbons of 4 6 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

white oak. These lead to the only second-storey space— a lighthouse of an office for him. She has her own office around the corner from the family room. The offices provide solitude when research beckons (they are both scientists), but the real experience this house invites is flow—between rooms at first, and then out into the garden and back again. It’s 3,600 square feet of pale woods, white walls, and porcelain floors that are the colour of a full moon. Behind the quiet facade, a hidden paradise for barefoot padding, reading and well-earned bouts of daydreaming.

A Separate Peace The site of the former pool is now beautifully landscaped with porcelain pavers and a rustic garden of grasses and mature trees.

S e e S o u r c e S at w e S t e r n l i v i n g .c a

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PITCH PERFECT The right angle makes all the difference in this revamp of a Whistler cabin..

by barb sligl // photographs by krista jahnke 4 8 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

Family Retreat The homeowners of this Whistler cabin live here full-time, not just in ski season. “This had to work for them yearround,” says architect David Arnott. “That’s why it has so many different levels, rooms, pockets, places where they can hang out.”

WL HOMES // WHISTLER

he shortest distance between two points may be a straight line, but the far more interesting path comes with a slant. It’s certainly evident in the renovation of a 1973 ski cabin in Whistler, its angles and idiosyncrasies retained and reimagined into an unexpected hybrid of old and new by Stark Architecture. It’s also become an unofficial dictum of the firm: “We need to do more projects with fewer straight walls,” says architect and founder David Arnott. On his first visit to the site, in a hilly neighbourhood northwest of Whistler Village, Arnott knew that, despite being “a rundown, nasty cabin,” he wanted to work with it. “We’re not total hippies, but it breaks our heart to see that whole thing just get chucked in the landfill,” he says. He also saw that the property had ample room for an extension that could take advantage of the east/west views (in this ski town, it’s all about the peaks of Whistler, Blackcomb, Wedge, Black Tusk), and an interplay began between that funky cabin and a new modern structure perpendicular to it. The new homeowners, full-time Whistler residents Michelle and Mark Forster (known as Mitch and Foz), also knew a straightforward renovation wasn’t going to work for them. The temptation was to tear down and start fresh, but Arnott’s rather out-of-the-box approach gelled with the couple. They share similarly far-flung backgrounds— Arnott came to Vancouver from Scotland by way of Sweden, while Mitch, an Aussie, and Foz, a Brit, met and fell in love in Whistler before moving to Australia and then back here permanently. When

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Before

Mountain Modern The rundown ski cabin (left) was the jumping-off point for the angular design that architect David Arnott came up with (above and below). “All that space needed was a slightly sloped blank wall, and suddenly it’s ‘wow,’” he says.

WL HOMES // WHISTLER

Striking Contrast The black-and-white palette carries through both inside and outside the home. For the window frames, Arnott kept them black outside to match the cladding but white inside so they’d disappear, rather than overpower.

they fi rst met, Foz gave Arnott a stack of skater and surfer magazines. They hit it off. The trio began a collaboration—reno and construction project— that resulted in a break-the-mould four-bedroom house (3,800 square feet, including rental suite). The couple’s number-one must-have was an expansive entertaining area with central kitchen, because “everyone always ends up in the kitchen, regardless of how big the rest of your house is,” says Mitch. This became the core of the addition—a long and open floor plan that flows into a dining room at one end and sunken lounge at the other. Punctuating this stretched-out great room are dramatic black-steel beams. Structural in a space that’s otherwise devoid of interior walls, they also break up the all-white airiness and frame the views on either end. And they have an environmental function. By moving the beams to the inside of the building envelope, fast-conducting steel is isolated from exterior temperatures and becomes more energy-efficient. The beams also make a connection to the original cabin’s exposed timber, now painted black to match the steel. Dating from an era in 5 2 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

WL HOMES // WHISTLER

“You can really feel yourself go from new to old,” says architect David Arnott, “yet it doesn’t seem like an old building you’re going into. It seems like it’s a funky piece of art.”

Industrial Chic The homeowners added a faux-brick wall, gluing each brick, then grouting and painting them white (left and below, right, where homeowner Mitch Forster sits). The skateboards are designed by Evan Hecox; the artwork by Mark Tronics was purchased in Australia nearly 20 years ago. The wood platter on the kitchen counter was milled from a tree on the lot (right).

which old-growth wood was common in construction, it was another reason to salvage the cabin, along with the sloping, not-quite-A-frame shape that everyone except for Arnott was initially inclined to flatten out. Its slant was even highlighted with cladding—standing-seam metal in jet black, inside and out. “When people come in, they immediately touch it,” says Arnott. “They wouldn’t touch it outside, but inside they ask, ‘Is that real? Is that metal?’” All this adds to the industrial look that Mitch and Foz wanted. Black pops, like bold Flos lighting and an Eames lounge chair, are set against stark white throughout, including a whitewashed brick wall that the couple installed themselves, brick by brick. The whole vibe is of a converted warehouse loft—ideal for the couple’s art collection (a new piece added every wedding anniversary). “The space is a great canvas to display our artwork,” says Mitch, who’s shifting into an interior design career as a result of this project. “The first thing to happen when we moved in was to hang the artwork,” she says. “We knew exactly where every piece would go,” like Bearbrick by New York artist Kaws, which has pride of place in the 5 4 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

living room, reinvented.

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WL HOMES // TITLE

Gallery Going “The punched-metal stairs look amazing in the evening with the light coming through from below,” says Mitch. “The bridge links the old to the new on the second floor.”

front entryway and stairwell. “It sits on a block of wood that was milled from one of the large trees we took down to build,” says Mitch— another mash-up of past and present. (Other blocks from that felled tree display more art.) “As we progressed, it was easy to see how we could tie in the old with the new,” says Mitch, whether that meant painting old wood the same black as new steel beams or embracing those offbeat sloped walls. Another palpable link is, quite literally, the bridge on the second floor. “You can really feel yourself go from new to old,” says Arnott, “yet it doesn’t seem like an old building you’re going into. It seems like it’s a funky piece of art.” And it’s not the straight-and-easy route. Arnott refers to a chef adage about it being easy to create something out of great ingredients; the challenge is in doing the same with not-so-great elements. Here, in this architectural framework, wonky walls and old-schoolcabin clichés are reassembled and transformed into something that’s pitch-perfect.

5 6 A P R I L 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

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WL HOMES // west vancouver

CALM BESIDE THE STORM

Natural Heritage When designer Negar Ghorashi renovated this 1959 Lewis post-and-beam home, she was careful to respect both the heritage of the architecture and the landscape itself: she kept as many of the trees and as much of the natural rocky landscape as possible.

Designer Negar Ghorashi saves a mid-century post-and-beam home from the bulldozerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and brings it beautifully into the present. by AnickA Quin // photographs by emA peter

WL HOMES // west vancouver

hen designer Negar Ghorashi spotted this 1959 Lewis post-and-beam in the Whytecliff neighbourhood of West Vancouver, it had been in a relatively untouched state for more than 40 years. But something about its location charmed her, the way it was perched up over the water in the woods yet still a part of a small community. “We were looking for the sense of calm that comes from being so close to nature,” says Ghorashi, who moved to Vancouver from Iran in 2001. “And that sense of neighbourhood that was hard to find in other parts of West Vancouver. When we came to see this house, people were out walking their dogs, and those dogs come strolling in now if we’re home and the door is open.” And despite the chaos on the surrounding property—she and her husband had to haul out 15 trucks’ worth of garbage and dead trees from the yard once they got to work renovating—she spotted the potential. “We could see the feel we wanted to get,” she explains, “although the home didn’t have much to offer—except for that post-and-beam ceiling. My main concern was to keep the ceiling and work around 6 0 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

Before

Historic Reference When Ghorashi purchased the home it was viewed as a teardown, and much of the lot was overgrown (before picture, opposite bottom). Inside, the home features levels that follow the lotâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s natural topography, as seen here. westernliving.ca / a p r i l 2 0 1 8 â&#x20AC;&#x201A;6 1

WL HOMES // west vancouver

Warm Wood Over the past 50 years, many of the structural beams had been covered with drywall or damaged by water stains, and Ghorashi uncovered, cleaned and stained them to showcase the beams. The result is seen here in the kitchen (left, where Ghorashi is perched on a cabinet) and living room (below, left). The piano room was once a bedroom (below, right).

it.” She was also committed to preserving the exterior look of the home and ensuring that it was in keeping with the neighbourhood; to wit, the addition she built to increase the square footage was kept small, and it was designed to not disturb any neighbouring views. That extension allowed her some elbow room to create a master bedroom with a view and to rearrange some of the existing floor plan. Upstairs, of the three original bedrooms, Ghorashi kept one as a guest suite and converted one into a piano room and another into an open dining room, removing the walls so it overlooks the kitchen and living room on one side and out to the view beyond on the other. On the lower level, the new addition houses her office and a garage, while the former garage is now a cozy movie room. 6 2 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

And though the space’s design is modern, she kept the palette warm. “I wanted it to have the feel of nature to balance all the grey days here,” explains Ghorashi, whose design firm, Dancing Particles, gets its name from a Rumi poem. To start, the white-painted ceiling was sanded back to its original cedar and given a whitewash to enhance its natural grain. Acacia flooring was selected for its wild movement and the wave-like pattern of its grain. She opened up the back exterior wall and replaced it with floorto-ceiling glazing—30 feet of it across the wall that faces the ocean. Everything in the renovation is about preserving the view on that main floor, from the low-slung Rolf Benz sectional in the living room to the raised bar made of glass attached to the kitchen island—itself a

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WL HOMES // west vancouver

Play Time Two guest bathrooms received a playful tile treatment, with one featuring the news from one day around the world (above, left) and another with graffiticovered tiles (right). The floor lamp in the bedroom is meant to reflect the tree canopy visible from the windows (above, right).

6 4 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

rippling granite reminiscent of ocean waves. And when the functional parts of the room couldn’t be transparent—dark wood cabinetry, for example—she designed them to be engaging and sculptural, the darker wood of an overhead band of cabinetry seeming to disappear into a contrasting white lacquered wall of storage; the glossy finish on the cabinets serves to reflect the ocean vistas back to the viewer. It’s in the smaller guest bathrooms where Ghorashi appears to have had the most fun. Attached to the movie room, a powder room features large-format tiles patterned with different news pages from a single day around the world, as well as a counter made from a single piece of wood. (The wood was selected from a pile of cut trees from the home of her general contractor, Ron Watton—who then cut the counter himself.) The ensuite attached to her lower-level office is tiled in graffiti art featuring the work of Banksy, with metallic-like flooring—a little urban element in an otherwise organic space. The master bedroom is laid out as the most reserved, private space in the home—quietly designed with just a lounger, a bed, a fireplace and a flower-like reading light that delicately balances over the bed. The room itself is perched slightly higher than the rest of the home and is glass-walled on two sides. From the vantage point of her bed—positioned toward the view, of course—she and her husband can track the sunrise and all kinds of weather patterns over Howe Sound. “It’s the best place for West Coast storm watching,” says Ghorashi. “When it’s rainy and stormy, the whole room gets into the spirit—it’s just like a treehouse.” A perfect spot to take in the beauty of where architecture meets nature, and neighbourhood meets home. S e e S o u r c e S at w e S t e r n l i v i n g .c a

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To celebrate 39 years of business, Ginger Jar Furniture is giving away one contemporary 9’ octagonal infinite tilt sun umbrella. Ginger Jar Furniture founders Clarinda Kung and Peter Tai have always listened to their clients. That’s how Ginger Jar, which started as a modest grocery store in 1979, transformed into Vancouver’s premier destination for fine contemporary indoor and outdoor home furnishings. Despite becoming an influential name in their own right, listening continues to be part of the familyrun business’ practice. Above and beyond carrying furnishing collections from European and American brands, including Western Canada’s exclusive Rolf

Benz Gallery, Ginger Jar Furniture remains widely sought after for their high-quality custom design work. Their on-staff designers have been commissioned to assist with coordinating furniture and lighting, rugs and artwork, or any other accessories to clients’ existing décor. Ginger Jar takes pride in helping create something singular for their clients. Listening of course, remains key. Just in time for spring and summer, Ginger Jar is giving one lucky homeowner a chance to outfit their garden or patio with a contemporary 9’ octagonal infinite tilt sun umbrella. Enter to win at westernliving.ca/contests.

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California Closets transforms an unused second bedroom into a client’s dream dressing room

hat better thing to do with an unused second bedroom than transform it into a fashion-display space? When a wife’s desire for a dressing room won out over her husband’s to renovate their two-bedroom suite, Melanie Baudot, Design Consultant for California Closets, created a dream dressing room for her client. The project featured two of Baudot’s favourite challenges: spatial constraints in need of creative solutions and a sceptical spouse. “Structural issues prevented us from tearing down the existing closet,” Baudot explains, “so our very best Installation Technicians built in and around the existing frame, making it disappear.” “The client wanted her designer-shoe-and-clothing collection to play the starring role,” says Baudot, “Her wardrobe had to shine, and the space couldn’t detract from it. Her top request was a shoe wall.” Baudot added a rich variety of neutral texture that would highlight the client’s colourful clothes and accessories: Italian textured finish throughout, modern lightgrey high-gloss drawers and doors, light-grey Italian linen on the island’s sides and back, luxurious textured veneer on the island’s front topped off with a beautiful framed glass top to display her treasured jewellery and accessories. Created by the Western Living advertising department in partnership with California Closets

Although the space benefits from natural light, Baudot added built-in lighting to keep it bright all day (and rainy-winter) long. Puck lights provide ambient light and brighten the front of the closet, while strip lighting illuminates hanging clothes, making it easy for Baudot’s client to quickly find what she needs. The client’s extensive fashion collection—including her shoes—is strikingly showcased in her new dressing room, and she loves it. “My closet is my happy place,” she says, “It’s a magical place that holds the things I’ve collected. We all need a safe place—a space of our own. I found mine. And it’s perfect.” Happily, her supportive and understanding husband is equally thrilled with the outcome, and now he’s got more space in the master-bedroom closet. Win-win. Melanie Baudot

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A detailed pre-construction design process is the foundation upon which any great renovation is built. This means in-depth and transparent discussions with Bahnuk to ensure that you are fully informed on every decision you make. With the thoughtful guidance of the Bahnuk team, you will feel confident in moving forward with construction. Planning a kitchen renovation? Expect questions like, “Who’s the cook? Do you like having others in the kitchen when you are cooking?” In this way, you will receive a kitchen fully customized to your needs, down to the smallest details. It is Bahnuk Construction’s responsibility to harmonize your wants, needs, and expectations with the available budget. Whether it’s the perfectly veined marble countertop of your dreams or a unique layout for new cabinets, Bahnuk Construction will listen to every one of your

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design expectations and provide genuine feedback throughout its highly transparent renovation process. Going above and beyond exceptional renovations, Bahnuk Construction offers their clients a profound level of commitment, trust, and respect. Complete peace of mind – that’s what you’ll have when working with Bahnuk’s detailed and disciplined approach. The chance of surprises during construction are minimized, while your needs and expectations are perfectly met.

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When in Venice

Skye McAlpine

On one page, A Table in Venice by Skye McAlpine, takes us to the Jewish quarter for spicy meatballs on warm polenta. On another, we’re shown saucy tomato and mozzarella puff pastry pizzettes, which are a “beyond delicious” after-hours snack served up at Venetian bars. Keep flipping, and we’re settling into a lunch spread crowned with this zucchini, bacon and pecorino tart, inspired by a dish at one of the author’s favourite family-kitchen trattorias (see page 74 for the recipe). Gorgeous photographs abound—and each recipe is like spending an afternoon with McAlpine, your trusted guide, who’s eager to share her slice of everyday Venice. As if we needed convincing.

La Dolce Vita Skye McAlpine first started chronicling recipes from her life spent growing up in Venice on her blog, From My Dining Table. Find this recipe for her Venetian zucchini tart on the next page.

westernliving.ca / A P R I L

2018 73

WLFOOD // BITES RECIPE

SHOP O P EN I N G

Zucchini, Bacon and Pecorino Tart Puff pastry, fresh zucchini and salty pancetta is a combination that is almost impossible to resist. I sometimes add a few saffron-hued zucchini flowers on top, mostly because I think they look beautiful, though they are by no means essential. —Skye McAlpine

1 package (395 g) prepared puff pastry, thawed if frozen 4 medium or 3 large zucchini 1 tbsp olive oil A generous pinch of salt ½ cup cubed pancetta 3 large eggs ¾ cup whipping cream ⅔ cup grated pecorino cheese 5 to 6 zucchini (squash) flowers (optional)

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What we’re eating and drinking

Who Chef and author Karen McAthy (one of our 2017 WL Foodies of the Year) Why we’re excited Vancouver’s plant-based cheese guru opens her first bricks-and-mortar shop to house her full range of cultured vegan eats, including cheese, yogurt and sour cream. blueheroncheese.com

1. Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Grease a 9-inch tart pan

2. Roll out the puff pastry into a large circle and drape

it over the tart pan. Press the pastry into the nooks and crannies, then roll a rolling pin over the top to cut away the excess pastry. Cover the pastry with a sheet of parchment paper and fill it with baking beans or weights. Set the pan in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, until dry to the touch. Remove from the oven, discard the parchment paper and baking beans, and bake for 3 to 5 minutes more to crisp up the base.

3. Meanwhile, roughly slice the zucchini into rounds

1 inch thick. Drizzle the olive oil into a large saucepan, set on medium heat, and add the zucchini and salt. Cook, stirring, until the zucchini begin to colour very lightly, 3 to 5 minutes. Toss in the pancetta and cook, stirring, until the pancetta is crisp, 3 to 5 minutes more.

4. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and cream with a fork, then whisk in the cheese. Season with a little salt. Allow the pancetta and zucchini mixture to cool a little (so that it doesn’t cook the eggs), then add it to the eggs and cheese, and toss well. 5. Pour the filling into the prepared pastry shell. If

using, open the zucchini flowers very gently and pull out and discard the stamens. Then arrange the flowers on the top of the pie, gently pressing them into the filling. Bake the pie for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden on top. It’s delicious eaten warm from the oven or at room temperature. Serves 6.

EXCERPTED FROM A TABLE IN VENICE: RECIPES FROM MY HOME BY SKYE McALPINE. COPYRIGHT © 2018 SKYE McALPINE. PUBLISHED BY APPETITE BY RANDOM HOUSE®, A DIVISION OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE CANADA LIMITED. REPRODUCED BY ARRANGEMENT WITH THE PUBLISHER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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O K A N AG A N W I N E S C H O O L L E S S O N # 12:

Is there any difference between syrah and shiraz? No. And yes. At the most basic level, they’re simply interchangeable names for the dark-skinned grape that’s the seventh-most planted variety worldwide. But on a higher plane, it’s like saying men named Chris and men named Topher have the same name—technically, they’re both Christophers, but in reality, you can probably tell the Topher at 20 paces. Syrah is the benchmark here, having been grown with great success in France’s Rhône region for nearly two millennia. Its hallmarks are a high acidity and notes of black pepper, violet and blackberries. Shiraz, on the other hand, is the name the grape took in Australia, and while the DNA is the same, in the hands of the Aussies it grew to be much riper, and the resulting wines—which took the world by storm starting in the 1980s— were higher in alcohol, very ripe and very jammy. In B.C., syrah has won the battle of the names, with shiraz showing up only as mostly low-end wine with a few decent exceptions, like the Black Sage Shiraz, which, while ripe, has some semblance of balance. Syrah, on the other hand, is quickly making a play to become our signature red—with examples from Black Hills, Laughing Stock and Stag’s Hollow showing all the finesse of France—spicy and elegant, dark yet nuanced—at about onethird the price.

Neal McLennan's Wine Pick

Coquille Seafood platter: Ediblicious Photography

with a little butter or oil, then dust it with flour until well coated.

E V EN T S

GADGET

BC DISTILLED

What’s on your chef wish list for the kitchen?

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BC Distilled is back for a fifth year of high spirits! This tasting festival features 40-plus local distilleries, including new additions like After Dark Distillery, Resurrection Spirits and Tumbleweed. Don’t miss the Canadian Artisan Spirit of the Year, a local take on the Nordic aperitif akvavit from Sheringham Distillery. bcdistilled.ca

H OT R E A D

“A big chamber vacuum sealer to keep the products fresh during storage.” –CORPORATE CHEF KAZUYA MATSUOKA, ABURI RESTAURANTS CANADA

HOT FOR FOOD Toronto food vlogger and YouTube big deal Lauren Toyota channels her hilarious and non-judgy vegan culinary trials into her first book, Hot for Food: Vegan Comfort Classics. Waffle-topped cottage pie slathered in gravy, her claimto-fame buffalo cauliflower sandwich and raspberry funfetti “Pop-Tarts” are just a few of the can’t-believe-it’s-vegan dishes we’re excited to try. $30

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R E S TAU R A N T O P EN I N G S

EAT ALBERTA 2018

COQUILLE FINE SEAFOOD

EDMONTON APRIL 29

181 CARRALL ST., VANCOUVER

Who Chefs/co-owners Lee Cooper and Jack Chen team up with Nin Rai (all three of L’Abattoir) Why we’re excited Expect to see this premier crew modernize the fish-house genre—plus, the annexed Gastown space (formerly part of Secret Location) is a stunner, with shell-inspired tiles, sumptuous velvets and a muted under-the-sea palette. coquillefineseafood.com

This year’s Eat Alberta embraces sustainability under the theme “More with Less.” After listening to keynote speakers, attendees can hit up tastings or attend sessions on anything from knife skills to vegan cooking demonstrations. Feeling adventurous? Check out butcherbaker Elyse Chatterton’s presentation on using offal (animal entrails!) in your kitchen. eatalberta.ca

Eat Alberta: Jens Gerbitz

ELWOOD AND THE RABBIT Chef Kitty Poon helps conference attendees make classic ChineseCanadian foods during her kitchen session at Eat Alberta.

24 4 ST. NE, CALGARY

Who Chef Dilan Draper (formerly of modern French resto Avec Bistro) Why we’re excited Whitehall restaurant is being rebranded as a casual comfort food spot with a from-scratch kitchen, right down to the pickles and ketchup. (And it’s in the same 108-year-old heritage-brick location.) elwoodandtherabbit.com

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ROOT to STEM When Chef Fergus Henderson wrote The Whole Beast back in 2004, noseto-tail eating—everything from snout to trotters—became a sensation. And yet still, most of us are unceremoniously discarding some of the best bits of our veggies. Enter: root-to-stem dining and six great new recipes for maximizing the whole veg. recipes by JULIE VAN ROSENDAAL // photographs by GABRIEL CABRERA

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WLFOOD // ROOT TO STEM

Roasted Carrots with Tahini Sauce Most any vegetable benefits from some time in a hot oven, and when it comes to carrots there’s no need for any prep beyond washing and trimming their greens. Tossed in a little oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper (or any number of herbs and spices), whole carrots turn tender and golden in about 20 minutes.

Roasted Carrots 1 bunch medium carrots, preferably with their stems Canola or olive oil, for cooking 2 tsp chili powder ½ tsp cumin Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Tahini Sauce

Carrot Top Pesto The leafy part of carrot tops makes a tasty pesto—include or compost the thicker, tougher stems, or toss them into a sealable bag in the freezer to make stock. ¼ cup cashews, pine nuts or walnuts 1 garlic clove, peeled 1 cup carrot greens, loosely packed ⅓ cup fresh basil leaves (optional) ¼ to ½ cup grated parmesan Juice of half a lemon ¼ cup olive oil, plus extra if needed Salt, to taste In the bowl of a food processor, pulse nuts and garlic until coarsely ground. Add carrot greens, basil, parmesan and lemon juice and pulse, scraping down sides of bowl, until well blended. With the motor running, pour oil in through the feed tube until mixture is fairly smooth and pesto is the texture you like, scraping down sides of bowl and adding a pinch of salt if needed. Makes about ¾ cup.

3 to 4 tbsp tahini Juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tbsp) 2 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp plain yogurt or water 1 to 2 garlic cloves, crushed Salt and pepper Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley and/or toasted walnuts, for garnish (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 425˚F. Trim greens

off carrots, leaving about half an inch of the stems on top (for aesthetic reasons, really). Place carrots on a baking sheet, drizzle with oil and roll around with your hands to coat. Sprinkle with chili powder (you can eyeball this—no need to measure), cumin, salt and pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes or until carrots are tender and turning golden.

2. To make the tahini sauce, stir

together tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, yogurt, garlic, salt and pepper, or blend everything in a blender, adding a little extra water if the mixture seems too thick. (The sauce can be made up to three days ahead and stored in the fridge.) Serve drizzled over roasted carrots, topped with some chopped parsley and/or walnuts. Serves 2 to 4.

westernliving.ca / a p r i l

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WLFOOD // root to stem

Parmesan Potato Churros Light, savoury potato and cheese churros make a tasty appetizer or snack. If you want to fancy them up, add a ramekin of homemade ketchup (a great use for wrinkly tomatoes) or carrot top pesto for dipping. If you don’t have a piping bag with a star tip, use a heavy-duty Ziploc bag and snip half an inch off one corner. The smooth dough can be extruded in any shape or length—snip off half-inch pieces for tiny one-bite puffs. 2 large russet potatoes (about 1 lb), peeled and cut into pieces ½ cup milk or water ¼ cup butter, cut into pieces ½ cup all-purpose flour 3 large eggs ⅓ cup grated parmesan cheese ¼ tsp salt Canola or peanut oil, for frying

1. In a medium saucepan, cover potatoes with water and bring to a simmer; cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and put potatoes through a potato ricer (this will get rid of all lumps and make them perfectly smooth), or mash well with a potato masher. 2. Put milk or water and butter into a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat. Once butter has melted, stir in flour and keep stirring until dough pulls away from the sides of the pot and collects itself into a smooth mass. 3. Transfer to a mixing bowl, let cool slightly, and beat in eggs one at a time using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer or a spatula. Add potatoes, parmesan and salt after the last egg has been added. The dough should be thick and soft. Spoon into a piping bag with a large star tip.

4. In a heavy pot or Dutch oven, heat about an inch of oil over medium-high heat. It should be hot enough that a scrap of bread or bit of batter will sizzle—if you have a thermometer, it should read 325˚F to 350˚F. Squeeze batter into the hot oil, using scissors to snip off about 3-inch lengths. Cook, turning as necessary, until they turn golden. Transfer with tongs or a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate to cool. If you like, sprinkle with extra salt while they’re still warm. Makes about 36 churros.

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Potato Skin, Cheddar and Corn Chowder Don’t toss the potato peels—they have tons of vitamins and fibre and make a wonderful chowder-like soup. If you like, chop and cook a few pieces of bacon or a sausage, squeezed out of its casing, along with the onion, celery and carrot as you begin. Canola or olive oil, for cooking 2 tbsp butter 1 medium onion, chopped 1 celery stalk, diced 1 carrot, diced 2 garlic cloves, crushed 2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried 1 to 2 cups potato peels ½ cup fresh or frozen corn kernels 3 to 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock ½ cup whipping cream (optional) ½ to 1 cup grated aged white cheddar Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste Chopped parsley, for garnish (optional)

1. Set a medium pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add a drizzle of oil along with butter and sauté onion, celery and carrot for 4 to 5 minutes, until soft. Add garlic and thyme leaves (discard the stems) and cook for another minute.

2. Add potato peels, corn and stock and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and cook for 20 minutes or until potato skins are soft. Remove from heat and stir in cream and cheese. Use a handheld immersion blender to partially purée the soup, thickening it while leaving some texture. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve scattered with parsley, if you like. Serves 4.

WLFOOD // ROOT TO STEM

Chocolate Beet Cake with Cream Cheese D rizzle Grated beets behave much like carrots or zucchini in cakes, adding moisture and mild, earthy flavour. They do well with chocolate, which helps mask their colour. (Unfortunately, this won’t turn out looking like a red velvet cake, as the beets darken as they bake.)

Chocolate Beet Cake 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup sugar ¾ cup cocoa 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda ¼ tsp salt 1 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt, thinned with milk ½ cup canola or other vegetable oil ½ cup packed brown sugar 3 large eggs 2 tsp vanilla 1 medium-large beet, peeled and coarsely grated

Cream Cheese Drizzle 4 oz cream cheese (half a 250-g package) 1 cup icing sugar 1 to 2 tbsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. In a large bowl, stir together flour,

sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, oil, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to dry, along with grated beets, and stir just until combined.

2. Pour batter into a well-greased Bundt pan and bake for about 1 hour or until the top is cracked and springy to the touch. Let sit for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

3. To make the cream cheese drizzle, beat cream cheese until smooth, then beat in icing sugar and milk, adding a little extra milk or sugar as needed to achieve a pourable consistency. Drizzle over the cooled cake. Serves 16. 8 2 A P R I L 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

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2018-03-07 1:48 PM

The West Lives Here (and Tweets, Instagrams, Facebooks, Pins, Wins) Daily stories that connect you to the best of Western Canadian designs. Fresh, local topics that keep you in the know. Plus the Western Living Recipe Finder, with hundreds of our best recipes that you’ve come to expect from Western Canada’s lifestyle source—as gorgeous on your phone as it is on desktop. But that’s just the beginning. See more at WesternLiving.ca. The West lives here. Daily.

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WLFOOD // ROOT TO STEM

THE VEGGIE RESCUE GUIDE

Produce going south? Here’s how to salvage it and keep it from the compost pile. Not-Using-It-Today Produce

If you’re not ready to cook, toss everything— from whole tomatoes to greens—right into the freezer to add directly to soups, stews or chili another day. Just stick them in a plastic bag or container—no prep necessary.

Wilting Greens

Wilting chard, kale and, often, lettuce can be revived by trimming the stems and placing the bundle upright in a sturdy glass of water, like a bouquet, to bring it back to life.

Leaves and Stems

Don’t toss celery leaves and cilantro stems— they have as much or more flavour as the rest of the plant.

Stalks

Broccoli (and cauliflower) stalks are perfectly edible—peel the broccoli stalks and you’ll find a sweet, crunchy pale-green interior.

Leftover Herbs

Wrap fresh herbs in a damp paper towel and store in a plastic bag in the fridge. If you still don’t go through them all, lay sprigs of fresh thyme, rosemary and other woody herbs on a parchment-lined baking sheet and place in the oven on its lowest setting for 2 to 3 hours or until completely dry. Rub the leaves off the stems and pour (use the parchment like a cone) into jars or Ziploc bags to store.

Potato Peels

Roast or fry russet potato peels in about half an inch of oil until golden and crisp; transfer to paper towels and sprinkle with salt. They’re better than any bagged chip.

Scraps

Beet-Green Chips Kale isn’t the only sturdy leafy veggie able to transform into crisp chips—beet greens can also handle the heat. Wash and dry the leaves (stems can be chopped and sautéed into soups and stews), and tear into large pieces. Spread out on a parchment-lined baking sheet, drizzle with oil and toss with your fingers to coat. Sprinkle with salt and bake at 350˚F for 12 to 15 minutes or until crisp.

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Keep a heavy-duty Ziploc bag in your freezer for scraps you can’t use—onion skins, carrot tops, celery ends and parsley stems can be frozen together and added to a chicken carcass to make stock. Or, when you accumulate enough, cover them with water and simmer on their own, then strain to make vegetable stock.

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TRAVEL

T H E W E S T // W O R L D W I D E // W E E K E N D G E T AWA Y S // N E I G H B O U R H O O D S // R O A D T R I P S

Float Your Boat

Anchors Aweigh River cruising is the fastest-growing segment of the cruising world, and this quiet moment on the Rhine River shows why.

M. Wollsdorf/Moving Pictures

In many travellers’ minds, cruising is a binary option: you’re either a cruiser or you’re not. But of late, those firmly in the terra firma group are being lured to the call of the cabin with an ever-changing view. We’re not talking 5,000-passenger behemoths taking the well-trod (and well-loved) route to Alaska, but smaller, more bespoke experiences. Like seeing New Zealand from a radically different perspective or chugging along the Rhine with a tiny group of fellow adventurers. Let’s call it cruising to your own flow. The stories for our first-ever cruise package start on page 90.

westernliving.ca / A P R I L

2018 87

WLTRAVEL // the check-in

The Check-in

IN THE VALLEY OF THE SUN

IN THE ACTION

The 104-suite Found:Re Hotel is at the nexus of downtown, convenient to the 1 Phoenix Art Museum and the indigenously focused 2 Heard Museum—plus a ton of other galleries. In fact, it’s a gallery itself—its lobby walls sprout a swift rotation of local contemporary art, and the rooms are a model of ergonomic, repurposed chic. The hotel’s Match lounge offers solid drinks and small plates; it’s where you’ll spot techy business youngsters in Lulus and floral tattoos (they’re in for happy-hour hookups before heading out to Roosevelt Street’s Restaurant Row—a.k.a. RoRo) and adorable art tourists in cashmere and pearls. foundrehotels.com; phxart.com; heard.org

Phoenix Art Museum: Airi Katsuta; Phoenix: Nick Cote/Visit Phoenix

“Sorry Scottsdale. Love, Phoenix.” A T-shirt on a glacier-blonde millennial in Phoenix’s resurgent downtown core speaks to the savvy travellers who have also taken note, with many now splitting their time between a decidedly urban-cool experience downtown—rife with new hotels, restaurants, bars and art galleries—and the chaise longues and golf courses of glossy Scottsdale.

b y j a m i e m aw

2 watering holes + quality foodstuffs

Mrs. White’s: Caroline H; tacos: Chanelle Sinclair; festival: Andrew Jorgensen

Legendary (and asthmatic) pizza guru Chris Bianco suffered a career-shifting case of “baker’s lung” a couple of years ago and turned over his pie ovens to capable sous. Next door, on Camelback Road, the James Beard award winner built a whitewashed gem called Tratto. The simple, to-the-point menu describes Bianco’s Italian obsession, and the plates show a very deft hand— the short rib cavatelli and the roast chicken stand out, but the ragù is the reason you’re here. trattophx.com On a desolate stretch of downtown’s eastern reach, 3 Mrs. White’s Golden Rule Cafe serves inexpensive soul food: oxtail, red beans and rice, peach cobbler and the showstopper: made-toorder fried chicken. facebook.com /mrswhites.goldenrulecafe Are there a thousand taco options in the valley? Close, but one that’s worth the Uber is 4 Tacos Chiwas. Guilt-inducingly cheap (two of you will be challenged to spend more than $20, with beers) and deeply, sloppily satisfying. Order the frijoles charros (bean soup—$2.50!) and the tacos tripas (tripe) and lengua (beef tongue). The al pastor version resonates, too. tacoschiwas.com Claudio Urciuoli’s tiny lunchtime-only Pa’La restaurant’s centrepiece is the wood-fired grill, where beautiful chunks of fish rest briefly. The halibut ceviche and albacore salad are clever ripostes to the heat. palakitchen.com

5 eventing Phoenix counts all the major league sports teams. And sure, the MLB Cactus League Spring Training has its fans, as do the 5 Phoenix Open golf tourney and the Barrett-Jackson car auction. But the best event might be its newest: 6 the Lost Lake Festival. Featuring a farrago of leading and emerging acts—from folk to hip hop to rock—the stages are set on the rolling lawns of Steele Indian School Park. The food stands are carefully chosen, the drinks are icy cold—and it’s more relaxed and less crowded than Coachella. westernliving.ca / a p r i l

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WLTRAVEL // sea change

SEA CHANGE The days of Gopher and Captain Stubing stopping in Ensenada are long gone. These days, embarking on a cruise means getting access to the undiscovered with a great view to boot. In our First Annual Cruise Package, we seek out the small and unique options for floating your holiday away. From a trip down the historic Rhine River to a killer approach to New Zealand’s Milford Sound to a cruise that goes...everywhere—we’ve got you covered.

SYDNEY Tasman Sea AUCKLAND Melbourne

Tauranga Queen Charlotte Sound

Phillip Island

Picton

Bass Strait Milford Sound

Fiordland National Park

Kaikoura Akaroa

Port Chalmers

Oban

ALL THE SMALL THINGS

Wellington

Solo Approach New Zealand’s Milford Sound is a sight to behold when approached from the water.

Photomorphic Pte. Ltd.

A small boat, following the stunning Kiwi Coast, is a recipe for true luxury. A wispy white cloud cloaks the mountains guarding the mouth of Milford Sound— and that seems just about right. Standing at the stern of the Seabourn Encore with Tua Pittman, we look out over the chop on the Tasman Sea, Pittman pointing to peaks and points of interest lining the lush green almost mystical South Island shore. “For us, Milford Sound is a sacred place, where the Maori came to gather the green stone. Whenever we come here, we pay homage to the spirits,” says Pittman, the ship’s culturalist and traditional navigator. As we steam slowly closer to the opening of the Sound, girded by the world’s tallest sea cliffs, we’re greeted with an unexpected welcoming party—a pod of about 100 playful dolphins, emerging from the blue-grey waters to skim and leap and gleefully ride the waves rolling off the back of the ship. Those lucky enough to be out on the decks cluster quickly at the railings, happily snapping photos; moments later, the playful creatures start to fall away and, as the Encore makes the big turn, we say farewell to these little friends, even as we prepare to greet the spirits. I’m sailing down the coast of New Zealand—known to the Maori people as Aotearoa, or the Land of the Long White

Cloud. It’s a voyage of discovery, both cultural and natural, as we trace a course along the country’s eastern shores. Leaving from Auckland, we call at all three of New Zealand’s inhabited islands—the North, South and Stewart. Pittman notes that coming in from the water provides a unique vantage point. Because the Encore is smaller than most cruise ships (the vessel carries just 600 guests and has a remarkably shallow draft, needing as little as a half metre of clearance below the bottom), it’s able to navigate into small bays and coves necessarily bypassed by bigger vessels. And approaching these islands from the sea—the tropical North, temperate South and tiny Stewart—we’re following in the wake of the land’s first residents, the Maori, who came here in wooden canoes, navigating by the stars, and later European explorers like Abel Tasman and James Cook. At Tauranga, our first port of call out of Auckland, I emerge early in the morning onto the deck to watch our approach, passing the verdant flanks of Mount Maunganui and smelling that distinctly tropical mix of salt and earth as we roll toward the jetty. This is a resort city that swells in size during the summer, and my day tour quickly skirts the westernliving.ca / a p r i l

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WLTRAVEL // sea change

The Cordis Hotel in Auckland.

Shore Leave If the isolated beauty of the Milford Sound becomes too much, you have stops at Wellington’s fantastically quaint harbour to give you a dose of civilization.

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cabana in The Retreat, a sort of holy of holies on the luxury front—a private, even more luxurious oasis with premium liquors and otherwise unavailable dishes offered for an extra fee. Later, I complete the indulgence at the Grill by Thomas Keller, a classic American steakhouse conceived of by the founder of Napa’s famous French Laundry, downing lobster thermidor and big rib-eyes and plenty of New Zealand cabernet. But I also make time for a bit of education along the way, taking in lectures by Pittman and other members of the Expeditions team, which includes naturalists, a geologist and an ornithologist, among others, there to help interpret the world through which we cruise. Making our way down the east coast, we stop almost daily, in the nation’s capital of Wellington, as well as small villages like Picton, and Oban, on Stewart Island. At Akaroa, near Christchurch, I have a true Kiwi experience. Part of a shore excursion, our group of 30 or so rolls out on a motor coach, out over the crater rim of an extinct volcano, proceeding through vivid green valleys, mist and cloud shrouding farms and dairies and cheese factories, the entire panorama looking like a scene from Lord of the Rings. Returning to shore, we’ll soon again be at sea. A few days later, I’m finally in Milford Sound. A glass of bubbly in hand, I stand on the top deck, the sea cliffs climbing away on both sides, the silver ribbon of Stirling Falls tumbling down nearby. As Tua Pittman told me, the spirits are all around, here, beyond the mist and below the long white cloud.—Tim Johnson

when you go Air New Zealand flies daily, non-stop flights from Vancouver to Auckland. Its Business Premier cabin features lie-flat beds that convert into a leather armchair, and the Premium Economy cabin has larger seats and a special menu— and both have the funniest inflight safety videos in the sky. airnewzealand.com In Auckland, the Cordis Hotel features a rooftop pool, a fullservice spa and newly renovated rooms within walking distance of downtown (and a short drive to the cruise port). cordishotels.com /en/auckland Sailing 16 nights from Auckland to Sydney, the Seabourn Encore calls at ports on the North, South and Stewart Islands before crossing the Tasman Sea to Australia. The ship features all-suite accommodations, award-winning cuisine and an open bar throughout. seabourn.com

Wellington Harbour and Oriental Bay: Philip Armitage

22 kilometres of beaches—sand crowded with surfers and sunbathers and beach volleyball players—as we make our way toward Rotorua. Arriving at Te Puia, one of the country’s best-known tourist attractions, a place where culture meets nature, our small group of day trippers is greeted by Maori warriors at Te Puia’s meeting house who sing songs and demonstrate traditional fighting techniques. Then we wander down into the Whakarewarewa Valley, marvelling at its geothermal wonders, liquid hot magma simmering near the surface of the earth. As we walk past bubbling mud pools, our patience at the Pohutu is rewarded when the geyser erupts, frothy water shooting as far as 30 metres in the air, blowing a fine mist over all of us snapping photos. Back on board, evenings pass happily, surrounded by the rather indulgent luxury of the Encore. It’s the newest ship in Seabourn’s fleet; even the regular staterooms (known as “veranda suites”) feature 300 square feet of space, enough room for a separate sitting area, a walk-in closet, and a deep soaker tub in the bathroom, plus plenty of room on the balcony to relax and drink some good Kiwi chardonnay. I find myself opting instead to wander down to the fifth deck to sip gin and tonics in one of the two hot tubs there, watching the blue ocean roll away off the back. One day I decide to go all out, proceeding on my own personal “tub crawl”— sampling all six of the hot tubs on board. During a day at sea, I take it up a notch, wandering out of my stateroom in my robe and going up to the 12th deck to guzzle a few Grey Goose martinis in a

Custom Lakefront Homes & World Class Amenities Retire to beautiful Osoyoos Lake. Over 200 homes sold! The word is out that The Cottages on Osoyoos Lake is the best new home community in the Okanagan Valley. The Cottages includes a community centre with a gym, two pools and hot tubs as well as our private sandy beach and boat slips, there’s something for everyone. With over 200 homes sold, the remaining opportunities won’t last long.

With eight different home plans to choose from ranging is size from our modest 1,300 sf meadow homes to the exclusive 3,000 sf Meritage plan, we have the perfect home for you. Don’t like what you see? That’s OK, all our plans are customizable to suite your needs. Please contact our sales team at 1.855.742.5555 or visit our website for a full tour.

Visit our Display Homes » 2450 Radio Tower Road, Oliver, BC See website for open hours.

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WLTRAVEL // sea change

Barge Right In A Viking cruise ship nestles in nice and close to the Cologne Cathedral on the Rhine River, underscoring the access the smaller river boats can get.

CHANNEL SURFING

A multi-generational amble down the Rhine River pays dividends for a pair of cruising newbies. We chat late into the night from perpendicular single beds, jostle for bathroom time in the morning and confess our hopes and dreams for the future—it all sounds like the hallmarks of a classic 1980s John Hughes movie. Except in lieu of Molly Ringwald, I’m giggling with my 72-year-old father from a ship’s stateroom, and those hopes and dreams take shape at the bottom of a whisky glass each night at the bar. But the bartender knows our name here because we’re all part of the same cast. And our cinematic setting takes place onboard a riverboat while we cruise down Germany’s Rhine River. Ours has the makings of a different kind of classic. River cruising isn’t the first activity that springs to mind when conceiving of the perfect father-daughter trip. My dad, Bill, is an ultra-fit 72-year-old who prefers open spaces and long hikes. I prefer stores that open early and don’t have long lines. And we both value a spontaneity that seems counterintuitive to being stuck on a 443-foot boat. In my mind, cruising was the purview of the sedentary white knee-high-sock set who long for the comfort and impossible-to-place smells of tour buses. But in the past few years, river cruising— the more intimate, erudite cousin of the ocean-going behemoths—has exploded in popularity. Its appeal 9 4 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

is tempting—a new port every day, but not having to be one of 5,000-strong disembarking—so we booked passage on Viking Cruises (the world’s largest river cruiser) to amble down the Rhine. We’ll hit the Black Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and visit some breweries in Cologne and, after each adventure, retreat to the comfort of the ship’s bar to decompress against the backdrop of unlimited cocktails. With Teutonic efficiency, our bags are loaded on the Viking Hlin in our compact 205-square-foot Veranda Stateroom—replete with balcony, two twin beds and heated bathroom floors—which will serve as ground zero for the next week. Before we decamp from the Upper Rhine in Basel, Switzerland, it seems fitting to celebrate with Champagne, so we head to the bar for a kir royale while Angela (pronounced with a Merkel-esque hard g), our resident bartender, suggests Bill switch out his Cardhu order for a more bespoke Balvenie. Drinks in hand on the rooftop deck, we contemplate our impending journey as the anchor is pulled. This wending, navigable waterway’s value as a trade route is clearly evident by all the castles, cathedrals and fortifications dotting its 1,230-kilometre stretch. We’ll take it in bite-size chunks, starting with some Black Forest cake. Literally.

For the cruise hounds out there who wish their last vacation at sea never had to end, there’s good news: The World awaits. The ostentatiously named private residential luxury ship sails around the globe year-round, fuelling its exclusive group of passengers with five-star meals and Antarctic expeditions, an experience that’s more Relais and Châteaux than Carnival Cruise. Residents of the 165 living units spend an average of three to four months aboard annually as the elegantly appointed ship hops from port to port, docking up to five days at a time to allow for freewheeling exploration or guided expeditions. On board, however, the World’s luxe amenities include a 7,000-square-foot spa, six restaurants, the “Call a Chef” private dining service, a pool bar, a theatre, a cigar lounge, a fullsized tennis court, a golf simulator and a retractable marina for water sports—when life on the waves is so fine, who would ever want to disembark? Residences range from $2 million to $15 million dollars to buy. aboardtheworld.com

Cologne Cathedral: White Rain; The World cruise ship: Murray Foubister

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Small Spaces, Big Style WL Condo spotlights Vancouverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most stylish small-scale spaces, from luxury penthouses in Coal Harbour to restored vintage townhouses in Mount Pleasant, and everywhere in between. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll also find hot furniture trends, space-saving tricks, designer advice and insider neighbourhood guides in every issue, helping readers make the most of city life.

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WLTRAVEL // sea change

9 6 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

trip), but herein lies the joy of river cruising—it brings you to these hidden gems and, unlike the big ships, they’re not forever changed by the arrival of a scant few curious souls. In stopovers in larger cities like Cologne, then Strasbourg, then Heidelberg, our impact as cruisers feels non-existent, and while ordinarily just a day would be too brief for exploration, we find that when exploring on our own—something many river cruisers do—we’re able to make quick work of the charmingly crooked alleys and idyllic street cafés and discover the vibe of these historic towns, even if it means we don’t knock off every cathedral. And anything we miss, we hear about that night over local wine when we dine on board with our fellow passengers. And before you know it, Germany falls way to France, then France to Holland, and a welcome pattern develops before we finish in Amsterdam. In a lot of ways, river cruisers define themselves by what they’re not—namely, ocean cruisers—but by trip’s end, even our now tight-knit group of eight friends on board have developed a relaxed affection for each other. And for the most part, we’ve come from different backgrounds: a jock, a geek, a princess…oh wait, that was The Breakfast Club. —Amanda Ross

Up Close and Personal A Viking boat idles below Katz Castle in Germany (above, left) before disembarking passengers to stroll the village of Colmar, France (above, right).

ship shape

While Viking Cruises has four ocean-going cruise ships, it’s in the river cruise market that it sets the industry standard, with more than 60 vessels in its fleet. The Rhine is a classic option, as is the Danube, but travellers can go as far afield as Russia, Vietnam or Egypt on the small boats. vikingcruises.com

Rhine: Alastair Miller; Colmar buildings: Anouk Stricher/Getty Images

As it turns out, the traditional way to make German Black Forest cake is to go easy on the cherries, heavy on the cream. And there are other lessons learned along the way: we’re in the Brothers Grimm heartland here. Shrouded in mist, all these towering conifers that block out the light served as inspiration for the duo’s iconic fairy tales. Little wonder Hansel and Gretel couldn’t find their way back home. The next day, we find our own way in the medieval village of Colmar, with its “Little Venice” quarter, attendant gondolas and 13th century Gothic churches. The city overflows with perfect little Alsatian homes and a colourful mix of French and German Renaissance architecture. We’re happy to be free from the rest of the other 190 passengers, so we make a break for the 9th-century cobblestone streets to an out-ofthe-way café perched on the water, and for a moment we sit and watch the river go by. Chasing our idyllic midday Gewürztraminer with a stop at the Musée d’Unterlinden, we note its previous iterations as a 13th-century convent and, in 1906, a public bath-house (the Germans’ love of nudity never disappoints) and take a moment to marvel the day. Neither of us has heard much of Colmar before this trip (by which I mean neither of us had heard the name Colmar before this

Photo credit: Candane Construction Services Ltd. with Sensitive Design Inc.

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A desk built for two optimizes the functionality of a home office. 9 8 a p r i l 2 0 1 8 / westernliving.ca

d e s i g n e d B y Alanna Dunn, Reena Sotropa In House Design Group, Calgary

Instead of installing two desks in this Calgary home office, designer Alanna Dunn created one custom, built-in work surface that could accommodate a seat on either side. It extends elegantly from a wall of custom shelving, where a carefully curated selection of personal treasures shines: gold accents add glamour and a blue upholstered message board brings in a hit of colour, while luxe fabric on the twin chairs keeps this office feeling like a beautiful balance of work and play. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Alicia Neptune

Phil Crozier

WL // trade secrets

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