The official Vancouver 125 anniversary year campaign kicked off last week and everyone from the Parks Board to Vancouver Archives is participating or organizing celebratory campaigns of their own. This includes CBC Vancouver who has launched an iPhone application called “Vancouver 125” featuring archived video footage (synced with Google Map locations) of significant, televised moments in our city’s history.
“This free mobile app allows you to experience Vancouver’s history through the CBC Archives. From Vancouver’s first major protests and riots, to royal visits, to Olympic celebrations. The videos stretch back to Vancouver’s incorporation 125 years ago, and take you to the present day. Use the Map to show where the events took place, and explore your history.”
It would be great if the information they provided on the site that promotes the app would also be included in the application (things like podcast audio and images). Also, there are only a handful of listings but since this is version 1.0, I hope they will continue expand the listings throughout the year. Since I’m a sucker for the Miracle Mile footage I’m pretty pleased with it so far, I just hope they add a few more gems.
You can check it our for yourself by downloading the CBC Vancouver 125 for free from the app store.
Yesterday I came across a post on The Buzzer Blog (via Vancouver is Awesome) that featured photos of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s ride on the SkyTrain during Expo 86. It was December 11th, 1985 that SkyTrain took its first run through the tunnels at Waterfront Station and throughout 2011, Translink will be celebrating SkyTrain’s 25th anniversary.
At the time, service only ran from Waterfront Station to New Westminster station. Two years later, construction began on the SkyBridge, Columbia Station, and Scott Road Station in Surrey. My family would cross over the Pattullo from Surrey to New Westminster every week and we would look out the window to check in on the bridge’s progress each time we passed. It would then be seven more years until the SkyTrain line expanded further into Surrey, with Gateway, Surrey Central, and the King George terminus station opening up in 1994.
In 2009, it was fun to be on the maiden voyage of the new class of Sea Bus as well as on a preview trip of the Canada Line. Looking at proposed expansions and light rail options for Metro Vancouver in the foreseeable future, it will be interesting to see how the transit landscape changes in yet another 25 years.
It was great to once again experience another side of Granville Island (outside of the market and theatres). I didn’t get to try my hand at making a glass flower but I’ll be back soon to give it a whirl. The rest of my photos can be found on Flickr.
This morning it was announced that the Rosewood Hotel Georgia will officially open its doors on Saturday May 7th 2011, exactly 84 years to the day that the hotel first opened its doors in 1927. While it has been under construction and major renovations for the last few years, it was still an icon during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics with its larger-than-life 15-storey Canadian flag wrap.
1930 – Hotel Georgia. Photographer: Leonard Frank. Vancouver Archives Item #Hot P2
Over the last century the Hotel Georgia hosted everything from Board of Trade meetings to guest like Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and the Rolling Stones. However it was not only accommodation for dignitaries and Hollywood’s glitz and glamour crowd; the pub was also a favourite hangout for UBC students who even protested its closing in 1962.
The new Rosewood Hotel Georgia will feature close to 10,000 square feet of deluxe banquet and meeting facilities, the Rosewood Spa, a fitness centre, and a 54’ indoor salt water lap pool. There will be 155 rooms and two Penthouse Suites, the Lord Stanley Suite and the signature Rosewood Suite, both featuring a private rooftop terrace complete with city skyline views, outdoor hot tub and fireplace.
Hotel Georgia writing room VPL Accession #: 26310
Chef David Hawksworth will also open the 2,800 square foot ‘Hawksworth’ Restaurant including a seated bar and lounge area and a first floor private dining room, overlooking the Art Gallery.
With TripAdvisor recently announcing the “Top 10 Luxury Hotels in Canada” and 8 of them being in BC, it sounds like the Rosewood Hotel Georgia is poised to fit right back into the legacy of luxury accommodation that it created in Vancouver.
For more history, check out The Hotel Georgia: A Vancouver Tradition by Sean Rossiter that was published in 1998.
My weekly history series has been rebranded for “Vancouver 125” with a focus on specific dates, landmarks, and events throughout Vancouver’s history. This series is dedicated to the tremendous life and work of Chuck Davis.
Tales of the Cocktail has been bringing mixologists, spirit enthusiasts, professionals and suppliers together for the last eight years with their festival in New Orleans. For the first time ever, the festival is going on tour and they have made Vancouver their very first destination — with plans to make the Vancouver edition an annual event.
“This is a Vancouver-based event because we’ve done some great things that have been noticed,” said Jay Jones, Consulting and Founding member of the Canadian Professional Bartenders Association (and new Lead Bartender at Market by Jean-George at the Shangri-La). Jones has been in the industry for 15 years and he told me that this event will showcase the work of our local cocktail community and bring some much-deserved international recognition which can benefit the city as a whole.
Jay Jones
The micro-festival in Vancouver will reflect the same high-standards of the New Orleans event, but highlight the Pacific Northwest, and more so Canada’s position on the world cocktail stage.
“It can help drive tourism and people will soon visit the city for its cocktail culture,” added Jones. “We’re known for our hospitality, natural beauty, restaurants, chefs, wine, and environment, and now you can add ‘great cocktails’ to form a complete package.”
Bringing the event here was the first step, the next was filling up the festival’s schedule with seminars and events that would showcase Canada’s spirit culture from coast to coast.
Seminars recently announced on the schedule include: Famous New Orleans Cocktails, For the Love of Gin: How the Historic Spirit is Making a ComebackThe Birth, Death and Rebirth of Canadian Whisky, The History and Importance of Ice in Cocktails, The Science of Cocktails: New Techniques Behind the Bar, and Who’s Your Daddy? A Mai Tai Paternity Test.
Special events include a tribute to the Caesar (“Canada’s Cocktail”), and a BC bar crawl. “A big part of the event is bringing the global community to Vancouver and getting them into our bars,” added Jones who praised the creative and innovative bartenders in our local establishments.
Tales of the Cocktail Vancouver will kick off with a welcome reception at the Vancouver Aquarium, a place Jones says is very fitting. “It will showcase our sea life, tourism, and some of the most beautiful things in our part of the world.” The theme of the event is “Gibson’s Finest Canadian Whisky presents “True North” and cocktails will be inspired by various regions of Canada. Attendees will also be able to taste Vancouver’s new signature cocktail — the Dalhousie by Jonathan Smolensky of George in Yaletown — that was determined in a competition earlier this month.
Recipe for the Dalhousie
Start by taking 6-8 Canada plums, which have been dehydrated in coarse sugar, and steep them in Gibson’s 18yr Canadian whisky for 4-5 days. Then use these ingredients:
60 ml (2 oz.) Canada plum infused 18yr Gibson’s
15 ml (1/2 oz.) Domaine de Canton liqueur
10 ml (1/3 oz.) Zwack Unicum
1-2 dashes of high quality rendition of Boker’s bitters
Lemon peel
1. Chill a coupe glass and a mixing/Boston glass.
2. In a mixing glass, add the Canada plum infused 18yr Gibson’s, the Domaine de Canton, the Zwack Unicum, and Boker’s bitters. Stir until heavy and properly diluted.
3. Remove the pith of the lemon peel and rub the peel on the inside edge of the coupe glass, then toss the peel.
4. Double strain all mixed ingredients into the coupe glass and garnish with a small Canada plum fan.
The entire 3-day festival will wrap up with a Mardi Gras style closing reception and the finale, “Good Bye Vancouver, Hello New Orleans” Cochon de Lait. Tales of the Cocktail Vancouver runs March 13th until the 15th and tickets are now on sale.
The festival will return home to New Orleans July 20th – 24th, 2011 with its spirited schedule of seminars, dinners, competitions, parties and special events. Follow @TOTC on Twitter for festival updates.
