7 minute read
Squamish craft beverage guide
THIRSTY? Well Squamish is the place to be if you want fine-crafted beverages. We have compiled a list of some of our local best.
HOWE SOUND BREWING
The original Squamish craft brewer, Howe Sound opened in 1996. Since then they’ve racked up multiple awards and created some excellent brews. Regular and seasonal microbrews are available on tap at the downtown restaurant, with an extensive menu to accompany.
A-FRAME BREWING
A-Frame Brewery is all about craft beer, and regular taps are named after local lakes. The woodsy-themed interior of their bar in the Squamish Business Park is surprisingly kid-friendly during the day and hosts trivia and game night events during the week.
BACKCOUNTRY BREWING
Backcountry Brewing pairs award-winning beer (including visiting taps from around BC) with delicious pizza and snacks. Often buzzing with activity, the cozy cabin-themed interior of the restaurant is the perfect place to meet friends for a pint and a thincrust pizza.
CLIFFSIDE CIDER
Tucked inside a cheery building with a bright red exterior, Cliffside is another brand new cidery — this time located in the heart of downtown. The owners have some creative ideas in the works here, including both dry and sweet ciders and seasonal variations based on BC fruits. The outside bar has a lovely view of the Stawamus Chief.
COUNTERPART COFFEE
A small-batch roastery located in the Squamish business park, Counterpart are passionate about good coffee and sharing the info behind the beans. Available blends are often rotating and seasonal.
FROSTBITES SYRUP
Find something special from Frostbites’ collection of smallbatch fruit and herbal cordials, syrups and tonics. They make excellent additions to cocktails, soda water, smoothies or desserts. Go basic with sour cherry or lime, or a little more adventurous with pineapple habanero or hibiscus lemon. Find them online at www. frostbitesfun.com.
GALILEO COFFEE
Enjoy one of the best views of Howe Sound with a coffee from Galileo Coffee Company, and pick up some house-roasted beans to go. Visit the roastery-cafe in Britannia Beach and don’t be shy to ask for a closer look at the coffee-making process.
GILLESPIE’S FINE SPIRITS
Gillespie’s is Squamish’s only distillery, and you can sample their fine products first-hand in the Speakeasy Lounge, featuring craft cocktails like the Tamarind Martini (featuring their Gastown
Shine) or Lady Grey Sour (with earl grey-infused gin). Pick up liquor and cocktail-enhancers to take home.
MOUNTAIN SQUEEZE JUICE TRUCK
Cold-pressed juice, vegan smoothies, and healthy fare brought to you by a colourful mobile truck. Mountain Squeeze packs a lot of fruits and veggies into each bottle – with favours focused around kale, pineapple, mint, yam, beets, and melon.
NORTHYARDS CIDER CO.
While craft brewing had a head start, Squamish cider is a new and exciting development. Northyards, near Home Depot on Queens Way, features both dry and sweeter varieties, as well as unique cider-based cocktails like the “Paradise Valley” with cedar-infused gin, lemon, and grapefruit. Pair drinks with tasteful nibbles like a cheese plate or dip trio.
Local organic kombucha — if you haven’t tried this trending beverage, this is the place to! The fermented tea is fizzy, generally not too sweet and a very refreshing non-alcoholic alternative to beer or cider. Spark is on tap at different locations around Squamish (Nesters Market, The Green Moustache, Euphoria Natural Health). There are some very creative and delicious flavours in the lineup: mojito, blackberry, ginger, raspberry, blue spirulina and more.
SQUAMISH WATER KEFIR CO.
Another fermented beverage growing in popularity, water kefir is a not-too-sweet thirst quencher – it’s also dairy-free, gluten-free and caffeine-free. What it does have is plenty of probiotics. Flavours available include hibiscus, lemon ginger, blood orange and a seasonal mint. Look for bottles around Squamish, including health food stores. •
Alyss a Wilson
Real Estate Sales Professional 604.815.9351
www.alyssawilson.biz
opposite page (left): The crew at Gillespie’s Fine Spirits.
opposite page (right): Brewing at Backcountry Brewing.
above: The team at Howe Sound Brewing.
Photos: David Buzzard
The fi rst locally born UNIQUE CRAFT CIDERY
in Squamish, BC.
We produce handcrafted small batch dry cider blends and fl avours.
Located ‘On The Edge’ of town, Cliffside is a hidden oasis, along the side of the building 37760 2nd Ave.
Available for private events Monday to Thursday.
Business Nation: The Squamish Nation operates a broad range of commercial ventures in the Sea to Sky Corridor
By PAT JOHNSON
THE Squamish Nation operates a range of businesses that support a constellation of programs and services for its members. But Tom Butler, business revenue and services department head for the band, says they are now partnering with other groups to bring the skills needed to expand and diversify the economy.
“The problem is we don’t have the capacity we need to grow, in terms of training and development,” says Butler. “You just don’t open a business if you don’t know how to run it. So we’re aligning ourselves with other business partners, joint venture partnerships, that can provide us with that skillset.… Once we have that skillset, then we can start moving into those fields.”
The Squamish Nation already operates a wide array of ventures, including two marinas. The Mosquito Creek Marina, near Lonsdale Quay in central North Vancouver, has about 600 moorage slips and 40 dry-storage slips, while the Lynnwood Marina, under the Second
Narrows Bridge, has 216 moorage slips and 30 for dry storage.
The Nation owns a gas bar and retail operation in the Squamish Valley and operates another, which it does not own, in North Vancouver; a forestry operation in the Squamish Valley; and, in partnership with the Musqueam Nation, Tsleil Wau-Tuth Nation and other partners, is involved with a number of large real estate developments in Vancouver, West Vancouver and the Squamish Valley.
In addition, the Squamish Nation manages properties on its reserves and is the property taxing authority on most of its 24 reserves, which span the region from Vancouver to Whistler, as well as on the Sunshine Coast.
The Mosquito Creek Marina is one of the band’s oldest ventures and an example of how a business has grown sustainably. The band obtained the marina when the federal government opted to stop operating it.
“It was a small little disposition and then what happened is, we grew it,” Butler says. “Started with probably 80 boats, now we are at probably 600.” In addition to expanding moorage, the band also expanded into dock-building and floating home construction.
That’s the sort of expansion Butler and other Squamish
Nations leaders would like to see happen in other areas of their business operations.
Just what those expansions would look like are not yet firm.
“We’ve got so many opportunities,” he says. “Are we in real estate development? Are we going to grow business? There are so many things you can do. What are we doing?”
Many decisions remain.
“We are at an incubator stage of the joint venture partnerships,” says Butler. “We’ve got four partnerships — limited joint venture partnerships — but we’ve got a number in line so that we can grow whatever it is we need to grow. If we’re going to do real estate, what are they going to need.? You have to have programs that provide for that so that people can get jobs.”
Determining the direction of economic growth includes identifying the external partners who are able to bring the knowledge and experience to help band members gain the skills to operate new enterprises on their own. In finding the right partners, the same economic barriers that affect everyone in the region are impacting the Squamish Nation’s plans.
opposite page: Squamish Nation council swearing in ceremony at Totem Hall in April 2018.
above: Cheekeye Fan lands.
“We’re finding it challenging to fill the human resources requirements because we live in a costly place,” Butler says. Many skilled tradespeople or others who would be necessary to advance the band’s expertise in various areas have left the region for more affordable communities.
Amid the growth and change, one thing remains consistent. Revenue generated from Squamish Nation-owned businesses is reinvested to support the programs and services delivered to band members.
“We run over 200 programs,” Butler says, including education, social services, land and resource management, public works, recreation and more. Expanded economic activity will fund programs like these and provide the Squamish Nation with additional sustainable income for the future. •
