Four quick food and drink notes for the fourth month of the year. Enjoy the sun. And get working on that 4/20 Pringles suit, which, if you think about it, could be the greatest thing since Lady Gaga commissioned a dress made entirely of meat. 

Meet Vancouver Urban Collective

The Settlement Building in East Van gets a new name this week, as the team that’s brought us Belgard Kitchen and Vancouver Urban Winery has rebranded it as Vancouver Urban Collective. Under the umbrellas of the operation will be Van Urban Cider, Van Urban Beer Co. (which you previously knew as Settlement Brewing, and Postmark before that), as well as the winery, and Belgard kitchen.

In announcing the re-branding, Vancouver Urban brand director Ksenia Dempster said, “This amalgamation will allow us to better tell our unique story – it’s so special to have a restaurant, brewery, urban winery, and cidery all under one roof, especially in the heart of a city.” As in the past, Vancouver Urban will continue to contract out space to those making beer, wine, cider, and other beverages in Vancouver. Those who’ve used the facility in the past include Windfall Cider, Kits Beach Beer, and Shaketown Brewing.

Juke jonesing for 4/20

It’s the one day where Downtown Vancouver is the last place you want to be wandering around with a suit made of Salt & Vinegar Pringles and and shoes fashioned out Brooklyn Biltong artisinal beef jerky. Unless, that is, you’ve always wondered what Tom Savini felt like six seconds after being shot in George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. As sure as the forecast is for heavy cloud cover this 4/20, the city’s Skip the Dishes drivers will be working overtime.

Juke Chicken in Chinatown will be doing its part to help with the celebrations by offering four Jr. Juke sandwiches for $20. Get it? Four for 20, to celebrate 4/20. Not only that, Juke has also teamed up with Pure Sun Farms for a give-away that means a stash kit comes with every order. Want more—and who doesn’t a half hour after the first wave has mercifully crested? Follow Juke on Instagram and be eligible to win a $300 prize package from Pure Sun Farms, with the winner announced on 4/20, presumably at 4:20.

Full-service falernum

As Tiki-cocktail secret weapons go, it’s one that’s as essential as it can be hard to source: falernum. Making it yourself isn’t impossible, but, as your third-favourite Liquor Nerd can attest, it requires making a bit of mess, that having everything to do with zesting nine limes, tracking down fresh cloves, toasting the almonds, julienning the ginger, adding the rum, and watching while everything turn into something Regan might have spewed up in The Exorcist. And that’s only step one.

A fun fact is that in more civilized countries—ie. sun-soaked, beach-blissed Barbados—you can buy alcoholic falernum in the local grocery store. Good luck finding it in B.C.—until now. As part of its traditional April Fool’s release, North Vancouver’s ever-inventive Sons of Vancouver has teamed up with the Shameful Tiki to produce a 25 percent ABV falernum. Available in 375 ml bottles for $25, the boutique Tiki liqueur starts with clove and cinnamon, house-made ginger distillate, lime oil, and bitter almond, and gets a kick on the back end with demerara sugar.

Dreaming of executing that perfect Jet Pilot, Three Dots & A Dash, or Corn ’n’ Oil at home? Sons of Vancouver has you covered. Or, you know, you can break out the cheesecloth and get straining that mess of mush sitting in the mason jar on top of the fridge.

BC Distilled is officially back

The BC Distilled festival is set to make a full-fledged return to pre-pandemic business at the Croatian Culture Centre on May 13. Expect over 40 distilleries—including Shelter Point, Liberty, Copperpenny, Stillhead, Odd Society, Wayword, and Madlab—offering up a couple-hundred spirits in two rooms. Billed as the “largest spirits festival in BC or Canada which focuses exclusively on local, artisan distilleries”, the festival was cancelled, or scaled back, the past few years due to COVID-19.

“British Columbia continues to lead the country in producing quality, innovative spirits – many of them produced by the 40 distilleries attending the festival,” BC Distilled founder and organizer Alex Hamer said in announcing the fest. “One upside of the slow return is that over a quarter of these spirits will be new to the show. For spirit lovers, this is going to be a great year to revisit the best of this industry and to find new favourites.”

In the week prior to the festival BC Distilled will also spotlighted special tastings featuring new and limited releases, as well as sold-out products such as Sons of Vancouver’s Palm Trees and a Tropical Breeze, which was just named Canadian Whisky of the Year at the Canadian Whisky Awards. Advance tickets for BC Distilled are $79.66, with, as in the past, partial proceeds (including that from a silent auction and 50/50 draw) going to the Pacific Assistance Dogs Society (PADS). See in the line for (hopefully) Shelter Point Distillery’s Single Malt Whisky, Elder Brothers Farms’ Elderflower Liqueur, Heritage Acres’ Lonely Prospector Vodka, Indigenous Spirits’ Single Barrel—The First, One Foot Crow’s Gunpowder Gin, and, well, you get the idea.