A table set for over a hundred, a snow-capped mountain in the background, and the bounty of a valley farm served up by one of the best restaurants in the province — that was our Araxi Longtable experience at North Arm Farm in Pemberton a few summers ago. This year, Whistler-based Araxi Restaurant and Executive Chef James Walt will be bringing that incredible outdoor dining experience to two new locations for the Araxi Longtable Series.
Photo credit: John Bollwitt for Miss604
Each longtable event has space for 300 people and will feature local ingredients served up into a four-course menu thanks to Chef Walt and his team. Each event will have a cocktail reception at 3:00pm followed by dinner which will be paired with BC wines.
Date: Saturday, July 27, 2013
Location: Prospect Point in Stanley Park, Vancouver
Details: Wines by Mission Hill and spirits by Pemberton Distillery
Date: Saturday, August 3, 2013
Location: Lost Lake, Whistler
Details: Wines by Quails’ Gate and spirits by Pemberton Distillery
Date: Saturday, August 17, 2013
Location: North Arm Farm, Pemberton
Details: Wines by Le Vieux Pin and LaStella, spirits by Pemberton Distillery
Photo credit: John Bollwitt for Miss604
Tickets are currently available for $175 (per person, per event, includes wine, four-course menu, tax, gratuity). Call Neil Henderson, Restaurant Director, at (604) 932-4540 or email longtable[at]araxi.com to order. A percentage of sales from the Araxi Longtable Series will go to The Chef’s Table Society of BC, supporting regional chefs, producers and the local food industry.
The Rio Theatre is hosting its first wine and film night featuring the Canadian Premiere of Jason Wise’s highly-anticipated SOMM, a documentary the “massively intimidating” Master Sommelier Exam.
SOMM takes the viewer on a humorous, emotional and illuminating look into a mysterious world – the Court of Master Sommeliers and the massively intimidating Master Sommelier Exam. The Court of Master Sommeliers is one of the world’s most prestigious, secretive, and exclusive organizations. Since its inception almost 40 years ago, less than 200 candidates have reached the exalted Master level. The exam covers literally every nuance of the world of wine, spirits and cigars.
Where: Rio Theatre (1660 East Broadway at Commercial)
When: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 from 7:00pm
Tickets: Available online in advance ($25) and at the door ($30) for the VIP wine tasting and the film screening. Tickets for the screening only are available in advance online ($12) or at the door ($15).
Following the screening, we will be joined by SOMM‘s director Jason Wise for a movie Q&A via Skype, a lively and entertaining discussion with an expert wine panel featuring Westender Vancouver’s resident City Cellar wine columnist Kurtis Kolt, Advanced Sommelier candidate Robert Stelmachuk and Shane Taylor, Assistant Wine Director at Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar. Thanks to Rich Massey Wines for sponsoring this event and providing a selection of BC wines.
Learn more about the film: Official Website, IMDB, Apple Trailer, Facebook, Twitter. Miss604.com is a media sponsor of this event at the Rio Theatre.
The next Vancouver Aquarium “After Hours” adults-only event will take place Thursday, June 6, 2013 giving grown-ups the opportunity to explore galleries and exhibits without having kids in tow.
Jelly Invasion features over 15 species of jellyfishes hailing from various parts of the globe. These beautiful marine animals are more complex than you might think. Through our new exhibits and interactive displays, visitors can learn how jellyfish hunt, eat, protect themselves and reproduce without having hearts, brains, bones and eyes.
In addition to new exhibits, animals and interactive displays, the June After Hours event will feature Jelly Factor, a fun game show style interpretive program that will allow you to put your jelly knowledge to the test, and a Jelly Deli where the truly adventurous may even get the chance to snack on some jelly delicacies.
Get your hands wet in the Wet Lab, immerse yourself in a 4-D experience: BBC Earth’s The Great Salmon Run, and test your knowledge with Jelly Factor, a game show style interpretive program that puts your jelly knowledge to the test. There will also be a Jelly Deli, where the adventurous may get the chance to snack on jelly delicacies, and other food, beer, and wine* will be available for purchase throughout the evening.
After Hours takes place from 6:00pm to 10:00pm on Thursday, June 6th and from 7:30pm to 8:30pm you can enjoy a presentation of Culturing Jellies, a biologist’s perspective, which provides visitors with a deeper look inside the world of jellies. A full schedule of activities for the night is posted online.
Tickets are only available in advance, not at the door, and they’re selling quickly for $18 (members) and $25 (non-member). This is a 19+ event and photo ID is required for entry.
If you would like to see what After Hours is all about, and have a grown-up night out in a fascinating and unique location, I have two ticket to give away thanks to the Vancouver Aquarium. Here’s how you can enter to win:
- Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
- Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 10:00am on Sunday, June 2, 2013. *Alcohol available only with the purchase of food. Must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsible and plan a safe trip home. Follow the Vancouver Aquarium on Facebook and Twitter for more information.
Update The winner is Aaron!
Mumford & Sons — one of the biggest bands in the world today — drew a sold-out crowd of 25,000 to Holland Park in Surrey last night. This stop in Live Nation’s Concerts in the Park series hosted food trucks, beer gardens, and thousands of dancing and singing fans. In fact the band said that it was the largest headlining gig they have ever played.
Concert-goers starting pouring in when the gates opened at 5:00pm and the area filled up quickly for Mystery Jets followed by Michael Kiwanuka. Several people tried to bring in blankets but they were all confiscated at the door as sitting down in such a crowd could have been hazardous (and very soggy in some places). Some still found a spot to squat over to the sides of the stage where kettle corn and poutine fulfilled the appetites of those who skipped dinner.
By the time Winston Marshall, Marcus Mumford, Ted Dwane and Ben Lovet of Mumford & Sons hit the stage the park was packed and you could barely see the grass below your feet. Fans were up on their feet, dancing arm-to-arm with friends while singing along at the top of their lungs especially with hits like I Will Wait and Little Lion Man early in the set.
The British group played their hearts out, as you would expect if you’ve seen any of their concert footage before, for close to two hours and gave the crowd warm fuzzy feelings by complimenting our gorgeous city and the good time they have had here. A full moon hung in the sky above by the time the encore was complete and every artist from the night returned to the stage.
By the end of the show it was hard to tell who had bigger smiles, the stomping and clapping fans who were completely elated by the show they had just witnessed or the bandmates on stage. Mumford & Sons are now heading down to the Sasquatch Festival in Washington State then onto Portland, a couple of stops in California, Texas, Louisiana, and Colorado before returning to the UK.
Upcoming Live Nation Concerts in the Park include The Sheepdogs at Malkin Bowl on August 30th followed by Tegan and Sara with Fun. at Ambleside in West Vancouver on August 31st.
There will soon a be new sculpture in Stanley Park as the Park Board has accepted a statue donated by the Portuguese Joe Memorial Society. The piece, featuring pioneer Joe Silvey (“Portuguese Joe”), will celebrate the ancestral connection of Coast Salish and Portuguese communities in Vancouver.
From the proposal to the Vancouver Park Board:
“The proposed artwork will be a 14-foot bronze sculpture with life-sized representations of Portuguese Joe Silvey and his Coast Salish wives, Khaltinaht and Kwatleematt. The artist, Luke Marston is a recognized Coast Salish artist and the great, great grandson of Silvey and Kwatleematt. The site was chosen as it is the historic location of Portuguese Joe and Khaltinaht’s home.”
Joe was born in Pico, Azores in 1828 and likely arrived in Vancouver between 1858 and 1860 with four or five other Portuguese men in search of gold. The men came down to the Fraser River from the Cariboo on their way to Victoria and were greeted — on the shores of what would be South Vancouver today — by Grand Chief Kiapilano (Joe’s future “grandfather in-law”) and the Musqueam people.
Soon after Joe married Khaltinaht, Kiapilano’s granddaughter. Many years later, Joe described his first wife as a, “pretty girl with dark eyes, and hair down to her middle; large deep, soft eyes.” After honeymooning in Point Roberts, where Joe may have previously lived, he built a house at Coal Harbour near Brockton Point in Stanley Park.1
The artist who created the sculpture, Luke Marston, told the Vancouver Sun: “It is such a great story. When the first settlers came here it was a negative thing (for the First Nations people) but not with him. He married the chief’s granddaughter (Chief Kiapilano) and was accepted by the people.”
Joe and Khaltinaht’s first daughter, Elizabeth, was born between 1864 and 1867 at their home in Stanley Park, around the area of where the 9 O’Clock Gun sits today. Elizabeth became the first child born of European parentage in Vancouver. In 1867, Joe became the first Portuguese person in Canada to receive British Citizenship.
It takes a lot of gumption to open a saloon in Gassy Jack’s town, but Joe did it in 1870. He purchased Lot No. 7 in the Granville Townsite and operated the “Hole in the Wall” near Gassy Jack’s “Globe Saloon”.
1880 – Gastown. Photo credit: Joseph Davis. Archives Item# Dist P11.1.
Disaster struck Joe’s family soon after their second child was born in 1871. His wife Khaltinaht caught a cold in her back and died. She was buried with her people at Musqueam. Devastated, Joe sold his Saloon to some hand loggers and retreated to his home in Stanley Park. He fished in a sloop he had built in Stanley Park, the “Morning Star,” the first European built boat in Vancouver.2
While out fishing in Howe Sound, it’s believe that’s where Joe met his second wife, Kwaham Kwatleematt, a Sechelt woman known as Lucy. She and Joe had ten children before he passed away in 1902.
Today, there are over 500 descendants of Joe Silvey in BC who are very proud of their Portuguese and Aboriginal ancestry. In fact artist Luke Marston is Joe’s great-great grandson. His sculpture is set to be unveiled at the end of September this year.
Update 2015
From the Vancouver Sun: Vancouver Sun Article : “After five years of planning and work, a sculpture by Coast Salish artist Ts’uts’umutl Luke Marston will finally be unveiled Saturday at 2 p.m. in Stanley Park.
The 4.2-metre-high bronze, titled Shore to Shore, is a tribute to Marston’s great, great grandfather, Joe Silvey, and his indigenous wives: Khaltinaht and Kwatleematt. Silvey, known as Portuguese Joe, was one of the first Portuguese immigrants to B.C.
Built at a cost of about $700,000, Shore to Shore was a project that involved the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh First Nations, the Portuguese-Canadian community in B.C., as well as the governments of Portugal, the Azores, Vancouver and Canada.
The sculpture is located in what was once the traditional village of Xwayxway, where Silvey lived with Khaltinaht. This area is now called Brockton Point.”
1, 2 Portuguese Pioneers of BC.
