Victoria
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Sun Apr 05

We got up early on a cold, grey Sunday morning, showered, packed the last of our suitcases, and headed to the airport. We were off to our first real vacation(ish) of the year.

A smooth drive to Pearson and a speedy breakfast at Fionn MacCool’s later, we walked straight onto our flight to Victoria, BC. The genesis of this was a work trip, but we decided to build a longer trip around it, hence we flew a couple days before my colleagues. We were excited: neither of us had ever been to Victoria.

The flight was easy (love those Porter jets), and we had a spectacular view of the Rockies as we flew over, as well as the ocean and Vancouver island as we descended into the Victoria airport. A cab took us downtown and dropped us at our first hotel: the Victoria Regent. The suite was dated, but very spacious, and had a balcony with a great view of the harbour and the provincial parliament buildings. It would do for a couple of days, surely.

I needed coffee, and badly, so we went to find some. It was beautiful and sunny outside, so much so that when we arrived at our first choice for a coffee shop (Hey Happy) the line outside in the sun gave us pause. Instead, we walked one street over to Habit, fought our way through a crowd of German(?) students, and sipped cortados.

We walked around downtown for a bit, and along the waterfront, before heading to an early dinner at Wind Cries Mary. We had the chef’s tasting menu:

• cocktails: Body Of Work for me, Spice Of Life for Lindsay
• endive, apple, walnut, goat cheese salad
  • Vancouver island sparkling
• king salmon, romesco, potatoes, fennel, sprouts
  • Vancouver island rose
• duck breast, barley, green bean, beet
  • Franconia
• peanut butter pie
  • cherry wine

On the way we picked up a couple bottles of wine, a few cans of beer, and a bottle of Gueuze Tilquin Quetsche (maybe my favourite beer of all time) at Vintage Spirits. As it turns out, we bought too much — we’d have little opportunity to drink it, and either dumped some of it down various sinks or left them in hotel fridges. Anyway, we didn’t know that yet, so we blissfully drank that gueuze on the balcony and admired the lights of Victoria’s inner harbour, happy to be back on an ocean.

Mon Apr 06

We had a bit of a lie-in as we adjusted to the time change, but eventually got ourselves out to a big breakfast at The Ruby on Johnson. Lindsay had the sausage Bennie; I had fried chicken & waffles. We were loading up assuming we’d miss lunch, you see. We walked back to the room and got ready for the day’s activity: whale watching!

We’d booked with an outfit called Prince of Whales (get it?) to go look for killer whales. We did a 3-hour tour on a big boat (it was too cold for a zodiac) and ended up seeing a pod of three killer whales: two females and a male. We observed them from a distance before they surfaced right next to us, and then they were gone, chasing some other food. It’s always incredible to see them, and to spend time on the ocean.

After a rough & cold ride back, we realized that, in spite of our huge breakfast, we were too hungry to wait all the way until dinner. We popped into Finn’s, right next to our hotel, expecting a mediocre tourist trap. There were some rocky service issues to start, but the food (prawn tacos, smoke steelhead rillettes, fish & chips, beers) ended up being really good.

Back at the hotel, we showered off the salt water, changed, and eventually went out to what we expected to be the fanciest dinner of our visit to Victoria: Marilena. We were not expecting the vibe we got as soon as we walked in — huge space, with a mix of power dinners, retirees, and whole families with kids climbing on banquettes — but once we settled in to our table, we started to get it. Our server (and our somm) were extremely nice and guided us through the evening. Here’s what we ate:

• oysters on the half shell
  • glasses of Bauchet ‘Signature Cuvée’ 1er Cru NV Champagne
• Masunosuke: ora king salmon sashimi
• Tsunami: lightly torched hamachi, jalapeño, ginger, citrus ponzu
• milk buns
• grilled octopus w/ n’duja sofrito, braised gigante beans 
  • bottle of CheckMate, ‘Little Pawn’, 2022, Okanagan Valley
• Wagyu: A5 Hida, Gifu Prefecture 8oz
• grilled broccolini w/ red wine vinegar, garlic
• roasted wild mushrooms w/ garlic confit
  • glass of Tempranillo, Olivier Rivière, ‘Las Viñas de Eusebio’, 2020, Rioja
  • glass of Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon, Orofino, ‘Red Bridge’, 2022, Similkameen Valley
• ice cream & sorbet: burnt orange, yuzu, passionfruit-pineapple
  • Ratafia, Domaine Henri Giraud, Champagne Solera (1990-2019)

All of it was absolutely delicious, but the Wagyu was the best I’ve ever had in my life. Also, the somm had a bit of fun with us, doing a blind tasting of three reds. It was a smart upsell maneuver too: I picked the Rioja, which was a Coravin selection and 4x the cost of Lindsay’s Orofino.

Weirdly, the very-late-lunch probably moderated our appetites somewhat for this meal, which was lucky, since it was the much more expensive venue. Worth it, though.

Tue Apr 07

It was moving day, so after I ran to Saint Cecilia for coffee we checked out, left our bags, and went for lunch a few blocks away at Maiiz, a Mexican place in the heart of Chinatown. We had duck tacos and chilaquiles and churros, and had to dodge a tortilla production line to get to the bathroom. Good stuff. After that, it was on to the next hotel.

My work function that week was at the Fairmont Empress, and we checked in for a few nights. There was a mix-up with our room, so we ended up with two double beds. Because the room was small and we were traveling with two huge suitcases, one bed was dedicated to luggage, and we did our best to cram into the other bed. Bit of an adjustment when you’re used to a King. Anyway. I was shortly off to a work dinner, which was also at Wind Cries Mary, where we’d eaten two nights before. Bad planning on my part, obviously.

Wed Apr 08

I walked to get a coffee at Discovery, then jumped into a full day of meetings, with a side trip to The Buchart Gardens.

Lindsay found herself various spots around the city in which to eat and grade papers. When my meetings ended my colleagues and I went to The Bard & Banker for dinner, then Lindsay and I met up after at Humboldt Bar. We ate a bit more food, and drank cocktails:

• Food
  • Ricotta gnocchi, braised lamb ragout, parmesan crumb, gremolata
  • Charred broccoli w/ Romesco, pine nut Parmesan crumb, grilled lemon
  • Rosemary Parmesan hand-cut frites w/ nduja aioli
• Cocktails
  • Life in The Woods: wheated bourbon, candy cap mushroom, tart maple water, wild blossom honey, cypress, grand fir
  • Poison Dart: Nicaraguan white rum, sotol, passion fruit, aji amarillo, lime, orange, pineapple, Orinoco bitters
  • Lost Luggage: Rangpur & Oaken gins, manzanilla sherry, preserved lime, hinoki, eucalyptus
  • Theory of Colours: Summer Garden gin, rhubarb, riesling, jasmine

Thu Apr 09

Another day of meetings, this time including a sped run to Routine Coffee. After work I didn’t join everyone for dinner at 10 Acres Commons (except for a quick drop-in to say hi) because Lindsay and I had our own dinner reso.

Dinner was at a place called Unicorn Sparkles. It was in an unmarked door in a courtyard. We didn’t know we were in the right place until we saw a neon unicorn on the back wall. It was dimly lit and there were four tables. This wasn’t a fancily-designed restaurant; this was a storage place a few guys decided to turn into a restaurant. So we sat down and asked for the “Today’s best things” menu. And then they absolutely pummeled us with food.

• Cheese and salumi balls
• Sprouting broccoli + anchovy butter
• Duck carbonara pasta
• Dungeness crab stuffed pasta
• Gnocchi, buffalo mozzarella, artichoke, tomatoes
• Liverwurst agnolotti
• Cheeseburger raviolo
• Coconut cream pie
  • We got the drink pairings. I couldn’t possibly remember them all. There were two wines from Malivoire. A sherry. A Hidden Chapel cab/merlot. But yeah, it was a mish-mash.

It’s hard to overstate how much food this was. On the fourth course when they brought out Dungeness crab pasta we thought, “Oh wow, what a cheeky way to end the meal!” And then they brought out three more pasta courses. It was all delicious and the music was good and the staff were all like sweet and awkward and it just felt so communal and chill, but my god our stomachs hurt. We could barely walk home. I was still full the next morning.

Fri Apr 10

Moving day once again. We got room service and then checked out of the Empress, leaving our bags behind while we went in search of lunch. We ended up around the corner at the Courtney Room, where we successfully killed a couple of hours.

• Cocktails
  • Seabird: wayward char #3 gin, aperol, oat, citrus
  • Pineapple Express: mezcal, mia amata, citrus, pineapple, anise
• Food
  • milk buns w/ cultured butter, sea salt
  • carrot & miso soup w/ fried leeks, creme fraiche
  • beet salad w/ ricotta, elderflower vinaigrette, buckwheat
• Wine
  • Lightning Rock 2022 Brut Nature, Elysia Vineyard, Okanangan (Lindsay)
  • Neighbourly 2024 Pinot Gris, Saanich Peninsula, Vancouver Island (Me)
  • Tantalus 2023 Chardonnay, Okanagan (Me)

We mentioned to our server that we were headed to wine country that afternoon. He gave us some winery recommendations, some of which we knew, but one of which we didn’t: Liquidity. We filed that away for later. And that Tantalus glass ended up prophetic too.

With that, we walked back to the Empress, collected our bags, got in a cab, and headed to the airport. Time was tight — we arrived at 3:09 for a 4:00 flight, and if it wasn’t for our Nexus cards skipping us past most of the security line, we wouldn’t have made it. Once again, we walked right onto our flight, and headed east.

Next up: the Okanagan Valley.