This Saturday Feb 1st, the last event of the 2014 Dine Out Vancouver Festival brought out a big crowd of participants to Granville Island.
Palate Promenades – Granville Island Discoveries, presented by Vancouver Foodster and Granville Island, was indeed a day of discovery. Granville Island is one of Vancouver’s most popular destinations for food, entertainment and arts, this event shone a spotlight on the many one-of-a-kind food and drink destinations. A very large crowd lined up early at Granville Island Hotel to register and get tasting the island.
Billy (@billyforce) & I were early and got on our way around Granville Island and discovered a number of spots that we’d never tried before.
The first stop was also in Granville Island Hotel, Dockside Lounge, where Chef Richard served up Dockside’s Legendary Chili Squid which was paired with Dockside Brewery’s Marina Light Lager, a nice clean compliment to the spicy bites.
Next up was a visit to Granville Island Brewery, one of the Islands best known destinations and original tenants. Self proclaimed beer-geek Tom, gave us a behind the scenes tour of the well-known microbrewery. From the grain and hops to the bottling line and every step in-between we learned the ins and outs of the process of creating its famous beers.
After, we were treated to a trio of tasting samples of;
Island Lager – their stable staple, Robson Street Hefeweizen – a Bavarian beer with a hint of banana, and their two week old Auld Skool Scottish Ale – a dark, coffee-like newcomer to their lineup. To eat, was a new addition to the brewery’s menu – a very nicely-done, Pulled Pork Poutine.
The world famous Granville Island Public Market was the next location for a number of our Palate pleasers.
Inside the market we found;
Oyama Sausage for a taste of Terrine de Campagne (a more rustic pate-type terrine), Saucisson (a French, dry-cured sausage) and Cornichon.
Jackson’s Poultry served up their spicy Buffalo Chicken Wings and house-made Turkey Finochio Sausage (turkey meat with fennel).
Chocolatas offered a pack of three of their delectable handmade chocolates; Lavender, Salted Caramel and Chocolatas Dark Ganache.
Formerly within the Market but now in an expanded location just across the street, filled with scent of fresh baking, A Bread Affair is a carb lovers paradise. Serving up some of their fresh bread topped with their Pistachio and Chive spread and Roasted Pecan and Cranberry dip, along with a rich and gooey Chocolate Cookie to go.
Also across from the Market is Liberty Wine Merchant, where we had a taste of Naramata based, Nichol Vineyards’ 9 Mile White and Syrah, just a couple of wines from their vast selection in store.
Then it was down the street to Liberty Distillery, who were serving tastings of their Truth Vodka and Railspur No 1 White Whiskey. They also gave 10 minute tours of the distillery, abbreviated from their normal 30 minute tours available to the public.
Down Railspur Alley we found Artisan Sake Maker who offered their Granville Island OSAKE – Junmai Nama-zake – an unpasteurized and unfiltered sake. Served alongside was their R-ice Cream – their in-house made ice cream made with SakeKasu (fermented rice mash from the Sake process) and a Nuka Cookie (made with rice-bran)
Next door was the last stop of the afternoon, Agro Cafe, well known for their coffee, I didn’t know they had an extensive food menu as well. In addition to a handcrafted hot beverage we were choose their Bacon Mornay Mac & Cheese and Pesto Pasta Salad from the selections on offer. Both were perfectly cooked pasta nicely coated with the accompanying sauce (the Classic Shepard’s Pie looked good too).
While Dine Out Vancouver Festival may have ended if this sounded like an event that you’d like to take part in, Vancouver Foodster offers similar events throughout the year.