Vagrant's Vancouver

This post has been in the making for over 3 years and I need to just get it out now instead of waiting for it to be perfect and complete. Some quick housekeeping:

• This list reflects my priorities, which is why it's mostly food
• Please look at a map; I include places around the Greater Vancouver Area, not just the city of Vancouver
• Some places on my list might have closed since the last time I visited (which for many places was pre-pandemic)
• Most places have vegetarian options and are accessible by transit, but I haven't consistently provided accessibility information, dietary restrictions, price points, etc.
• Whether you are reading this as a resident of or a visitor to the city, it is worth remembering that you are probabilistically very likely to be a visitor to the unceded (i.e., never given) land rightfully belonging to the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.^[1]

Index

Food

Comfort Western food

Many of these are chains - some Canada-wide, some BC-specific and others just in Vancouver. Other restaurants are standalone. "Comfort Western food" is my catch-all term for what restaurants call comfort food or Pacific Northwest cuisine, or if they just have a menu with burgers and salads and pastas.

• Burgoo: My favourite comfort food place. I usually get the after school special (a soup and a sandwich - I get a grilled cheese and tomato soup) or the ratatouille. Great cocktails too.
• Burdock & Co: Expensive and really fancy. Apparently they got a Michelin star in 2022!
• The Naam: Eclectic vegetarian restaurant.
• Tap & Barrel: Great selection of local beers on tap.
• White Spot: Another chain with burgers and milkshakes that are truly amazing.
• MeeT: Vegan and vegetarian, great cocktails.
• The Hub: Good bar food and drink selection. I had the beer Dark Matter for the first time here (it's a great beer - in the same space as porters, stouts and dark ales, but different).
• Water St. Cafe: Slightly fancier than most other restaurants in this category (wine glasses are part of the table setting here).
• Raglan's: Generous portions.
• El Furniture Warehouse: Back in the day, all food used to be 5.95 (and they'd get you with the cocktails, appetizers, etc.) but I don't know if that's still true. Back then it was also called The Famous Warehouse.
• The Old Spaghetti Factory: Family-friendly chain (i.e., take your small kids here).
• Milestones: It's a chain and it's not that special but it's an option if you want predictability.
• Cactus Club: Another not special chain that's an option if you want predictability.

Brunch

• Jam Cafe: Yummy and extremely popular all day brunch place. Try their bacon caesar.
• Catch 122: Try the huevos rancheros.
• Zarak: They have a Caesar flight! This is not a drill!
• Rosemary Rocksalt

Cafes and bubble tea

Pretty much all of these are local businesses.

• Gallagher's Coffee Bar & Café: My absolute favourite café in the GVA. Great coffee, indoor and outdoor seating with a view of Newport Village with all its local stores and neighbourhood dogs, free wifi, yummy breakfast options.
• Renaissance Coffee: Excellent coffee (dare I say better than everything else on this list), located at SFU. Get the 2 samosas and chana masala combo and look out for Mr. Parhar, the friendly owner.
• Chatime: Reliably excellent bubble tea chain. My standard drink is a large milk tea with 0% sugar, 50% ice and brown sugar pearls.
• Prime's Thai Tea: They have a signature coconut milk and mango drink with coconut jelly that is out of this world.
• CoCo Tea: Get the Bubble Gaga just because of the name. It's very summery, with passionfruit, coconut jelly and pearls.
• Shiny Tea: Get the strawberry macchiato which has fresh strawberries, milk tea and cheese cream (trust me, it's delicious).
• Andrew's on 8th: North Vancouver café with great sandwiches, outdoor seating and mini-golf.
• Great Dane Coffee: UBC café with good coffee. Try their grilled cheese. If you're lucky you'll see the owner's great dane!
• Juillet Cafe: Cute Burnaby café that won't kick you out if you're there to study or work. They have wifi and a lot of outlets.
• Cafe La Forêt: Gorgeous café with a warehouse aesthetic and good pastries.
• Fratelli Bakery: Delicious cakes and other baked goods.
• The Valley Bakery
• JJ Bean Coffee: Chain with lots of locations and reliably good coffee.
• Caffe Artigiano
• Off The Tracks Bistro: Good breakfast option on Granville Island (but you're spoiled for choice there).
• Delany's Coffee: Good West Vancouver coffee chain.
• 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters: This chain's doughnuts are really good but their coffee isn't.
• Chez Christophe
• Punk Rock Pastries

Sushi

I won't make restaurant-specific food recommendations in this section because I'm (mostly) vegetarian and therefore not a sushi connoisseur at all. At Japanese places I tend to go for yam tempura, udon and rolls with sweet potato, yam, avocado, mango or tempura inside. These restaurants are ranked in increasing order of fanciness.

• Togo Sushi: Least pretentious - food court sushi.
• Hong Sushi: As their website says, they "primarily cater to customers on-the-go."
• Sushi Bella: Unpretentious sit-down place.
• Osaka Sushi: Unpretentious sit-down place.
• Sushi Giwa: Mid-level sit-down place I've had many lovely dinners at. I love their yakiudon.
• Sushi California: Mid-level to nice sit-down place.
• Minami: Fancy and expensive sushi.
• Hapa Izakaya

Italian

Vancouver is great for Italian food because of the significant Italian Canadian population on The Drive (Commercial Drive) and in Burnaby Heights. There's no gelato in this section - head to desserts for that.

• Cotto Enoteca: Order their tiramisu!
• Frankie's Italian Kitchen & Bar: Co-located with Frankie's Jazz Club. With or without the live jazz, you're getting great Italian food from here.
• Anton's Pasta Bar: A classic date location especially for students because of the ridiculously cheap prices given the enormous quantities (like 4-5 meals for me). There are long lines outside basically every evening.
• Sopra Sotto: All the (wood-fired) pizza here is to die for.
• Rosa's Cucina Italiana: Call or go early because this Port Moody spot is extremely popular.
• Pizzeria Spacca Napoli: The pizza here is also to die for. I also loved their eggplant parmigiana.
• Piva: My favourite Italian restaurant in BC! Have their eggplant sandwich for brunch or their gnocchi for lunch/dinner. They make a killer smoked old-fashioned, if you drink.

Middle eastern

I use this category to combine cuisines where the dishes that I would eat are very similar; basically, every restaurant in this list has hummus and falafel. I indicate how each restaurant describes itself if that information is available.

• Jamjar Canteen: Lebanese. Order the makali (deep-fried cauliflower tossed in sweet-sour pomegranate molasses), it is heavenly.
• Nuba: Lebanese. I recommend getting one of the sharing options, e.g., Le Feast or Le Grand Feast. They're large and allow you to sample the best of Nuba's stuff.
• Anatolia's Gate: Turkish. There is a testimonial on their website that says if the person were on death row this is what they'd want for their last meal. Order the lavash (very big bread) and hummus.
• Tamam: Palestinian. Family-run. Exquisite food.
• Golden Pita Restaurant: Lebanese. Get a pita wrap.
• Babylon café: Middle Eastern. Whatever you eat, get their tea with it (cardamom Alwazah tea)
• Chickpea: Middle Eastern. Regardless of whether you go to the food truck or the restaurant, you have to get sabich (fried eggplant) and their hummus (which is what they focused on when they first opened).
• Superbaba: Lebanese.
• Suren: Iranian/Persian.

Mexican

• Original's Mexicano: The avocado tostaditas are fantastic (they're generous with the avocado) as is basically everything else in this place. I recommend the Bloody Aztec to drink.
• The Burrow: Previously known as Bandidas Taqueria, this is a Mexican-inspired vegetarian and vegan place. I generally get the Leona Gayle burrito (chipotle tofu, beans, etc.), baked (read: extra cheese), and a jalapeno margarita.
• La Casita: You honestly can't go wrong with anything you order here - I tend to go for the quesadillas and a margarita.
• Cinco de Mayo: Generous burritos in North Vancouver.
• Chipotle Mexican Grill: This is a chain but it's no Taco Bell. Try the sofritas (spiced crumbled tofu) and make sure to get guacamole.
• El Santo: A marriage of Mexican cuisine and BC ingredients. This is a loud restaurant and often has live music.
• Tacofino: As the name suggests, their tacos are great (and innovative). Each of their locations has a distinct but hipster vibe.
• La Taqueria Pinche Taco Shop: They specialize in traditional street taco recipes and have multiple locations now.
• Las Margaritas: Lovely atmosphere both indoors and outdoors. Get a margarita!
• Guadalupe Taqueria: Located on SFU's Burnaby campus, this place had the best tortillas I've ever had. I used to get the Tree Hugger burrito.

Indian

• Tasty Indian Bistro: I've long maintained that this place's name doesn't match its vibe, which is actually quite fancy. In my opinion they have the best Indian food in the GVA. Because I am a paneer fiend, my favourite dishes here are the shahi paneer and the vegetable biryani. The mango lassi is also great.
• Agra Tandoori: This place also has great Indian food (I recommend the paneer pakoras) and its Burnaby location meant that it was easier for me to get takeout or delivery from here since Tasty was too far away.
• Chettinad Dosa Palace: Hole-in-the-wall joint to get your dosa fix. They also have other kinds of Indian food including chaat.

Desserts

• Nuvola Gelato: I lived near this family-run gelato place for 3 years and got into the habit of waving at the guy through the glass every time I walked by. Their offerings are seasonal but try to get the mango sorbet (vegan) and the dark chocolate sea salt flavours if you can. Also their tiramisu is heavenly.
• Nero Waffles: Delectable, instagrammable waffles that are loaded with stuff. There are savoury and sweet options and my personal favourite was the tiramisu waffle with its espresso mascarpone cream.
• Glenburn Soda Fountain: They specialize in classic sundaes and have a classic soda fountain atmosphere. I got really into their milkshakes.
• La Casa Gelato: Classic Vancouver location whose USP is the variety of icecreams they stock - over 200 flavours at a time, including unusual ones like durian, balsamic vinegar, and so on. Trying flavours is encouraged.
• Rain or Shine: They're all about natural, local and seasonal ingredients. Their salted caramel icecream is really good (even for a caramel-disliker like me).
• Earnest Ice Cream: They're also all about natural, local, seasonal ingredients, and they're a particularly good option for vegans.
• Rocky Point Ice Cream
• Cartems Donuterie: I'm not a big donut person but I've heard great things about the smoked maple walnut and the earl grey donuts.
• Snowy Village: Go to this Korean dessert café for bingsoo and taiyaki.
• I.ce Queen: Go here for rolled icecream - half the fun is in watching it be prepared.
• Cheesecake Etc.: Only open at night for cheesecakes and live jazz.
• Dairy Queen: Getting a DQ Blizzard is a very classic thing to do. After the DQ person makes it they'll typically flip it upside down to show you how cold it is before handing it to you right-side-up. My favourite kind is probably chocolate chip cookie dough.

Ramen

• JINYA Ramen Bar
• Ramen DANBO

Hot Pot

• Boiling Point: Taiwanese hot pot - my favourite!
• Happy Lamb Hot Pot: Previously Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot.

Chinese

• Dinesty Dumpling House: They are famous for their xiao long bao, i.e., their steamed pork soup dumplings. If you're a vegetarian, there is stuff for you to eat here but this unfortunately does not include vegetarian soup dumplings.
• Lao Cai: Food from the Chinese province of Xi'an. Get the hand-ripped spicy oil noodles, dumplings and the crispy lotus root salad.
• New Town Bakery

Fast food

I've left American fast food chains off this list and limited it to Canadian chains.

• Freshii: I often get the Buddha bowl with tofu at the airport.
• Fresh Slice: It's pizza! Get what you like.
• Uncle Fatih's: They make pizza, but all their pizzas are sprinkled with sesame seeds!
• Smoke's Poutinerie: If it's your first time, get the traditional (or veggie traditional) poutine before you experiment with their more fun variations on poutine.
• A&W: If you like root beer (nonalcoholic beverage that tastes kind of like toothpaste) that's a classic thing to get at A&W. Get sweet potato fries and chipotle mayo with your burger - they're yummy.

Other

All the singletons are stuck here rather than having their own section.

• Chau Veggie Express: Vegan Vietnamese place with great noodle bowls and rice bowls - I recommend the Rickety Rickshaw Bowl.
• Brokenrice: Vietnamese.
• Chillipepper House: If you're not familiar with Indian Chinese food, go here. I'm a vegetable manchurian ball fan, personally.
• Steve's Poké Bar: Authentic Hawaiian poké! I cannot recommend anything specific since you build your own bowl but I will recommend that you are generous with the sauces.
• 4 Stones Vegetarian: Get as much of these dishes as you can reasonably fit in your tummy: gyoza, the kong pao bean curd rolls, the noodles with sesame sauce, and the Taiwanese deep fried tofu.
• Fassil: At this Ethiopian place, everything you order will come with injera, a fermented and soft flatbread. Pick one of the combos so you can try various dishes along with your injera.
• Peaked Pies: Australian savoury and sweet pies - has been vetted by a bona fide Australian.
• Banana Leaf: Malaysian.
• Chad Thai: Thai.
• BookKyung Ban Jeoun: Korean.

Books

Most of these places do used and new books and also have good sell-for-store-credit policies. You can place orders for almost anything you want by walking in, phoning or emailing if something isn't available online. Also many of these places have cute non-book merch. Support local bookstores!

• Iron Dog Books: My favourite Vancouver bookstore. Indigenous-owned, independent, previously itinerant (they were just a book truck before they opened a brick-and-mortar store). Hilary will, um, read you like a book and give you fantastic recommendations. I like their hand-picked selection of everything but especially queer / sci-fi / fantasy / Indigenous writing. Also go here if you like YA.
• Companion Books: I've had good conversations about birds here. Sci-fi / history are big in this store, and paperback bestsellers if that's your thing. They also do "rare and antiquarian" books but this has never been relevant to me.
• MacLeod's: This second-hand and rare bookstore looks like it's out of a book - their collection of books isn't just displayed in bookshelves but in several feet high piles on the floor and on tables, with very narrow paths for customers to walk through. There are so many books crammed into this space that MacLeod's has literally clashed with the fire department for a decade over their fire safety.
• Pulpfiction Books: Wide selection of used and new books, especially sci-fi and fantasy. They will order books for you at very discounted rates so order your books from here.
• White Dwarf: This store specializes in fantasy and sci-fi, and back in the day they had a Basset hound who would hang out in the store.
• Massy Books: Also Indigenous-owned and has a great selection of various genres. They also host lots of great events, especially with local artists and authors.
• Paper Hound: Small, eclectic bookstore with a poem dispenser and funky shelf names including my personal favourite: Rat as hero.
• Little Sister's: This is a bookstore that's very important in Vancouver's queer history. It offered a safe haven for queer people to go in the 80s when homophobia was more mainstream and overt. Over the decades, they've survived multiple incidents of homophobes throwing literal firebombs into the store, a battle with Canadian customs over discriminatory seizures, a 10-year-long trial about this where they sued the Government of Canada (and won), and the deaths of the original founders - Jim Deva and Bruce Smyth. Located in the extremely gay neighbourhood of Davie Village, they stock lots of queer books and other queer stuff (pride merch, clothing, sex toys, condoms and dental dams, etc.)
• People's Co-op Bookstore: A volunteer-run member-owned leftist bookstore with a wide selection of genres and a poetry reading group.

Alcohol

This list includes breweries and bars along with beer recommendations with the warning that my taste in beer skews hoppy and dark (IPAs, porters, stouts). My favourite liquor store gets an honourable mention at the end.

• Steamworks: A local (Gastown) brewery with the prettiest cans and bottles. Try the flagship hazy IPA for hoppy goodness.
• Yellow Dog: All their beers have dog-related names - my favourite is their Play Dead IPA. They have a huge closed off patio in Port Moody where you can drink in the sun! People used to even bring their dogs but this is no longer allowed because of "local health regulations."
• Parkside: Another great Port Moody brewery. I recommend the Dreamboat hazy IPA.
• Twin Sails: This is the Port Moody brewery to go to if you enjoy a good stout (though they have other stuff as well). They brew new beers regularly but I distinctly remember having good milk stouts, coffee stouts and oatmeal stouts from Twin Sails.
• Granville Island Brewing: The Island Lager is a classic and fits Granville Island's vibe really well.
• Main St. Brewing: Good locally-brewed beer outside of Port Moody! Their rotation is always changing so I can't recommend anything specific here.
• Alibi Room: The perfect place to go if you want to sample various different local beers; they update their list regularly so there will be new (but still local) craft beer every time you visit.
• Good Co. Bars: Previously known as the Colony Bar, I've spent many lovely nights at their location on Main St. Get their beer-battered fries (now "lemon pepper fries" on the menu).
• Per Se Social Corner: A pricey place with gorgeous cocktails. I recommend their Grounds for Divorce, a variation on a gin fizz. This was also the place where I was first introduced to dried citrus.
• Angry Otter Liquor: This liquor store is a hidden gem with knowledgeable staff and an enormous variety of beer, wine and spirits. Their North Burnaby location fuelled many months of cocktail experiments and I recommend Ungava gin for Canadian (but not local) gin. If you're a beer person and you think you'd enjoy something between a porter, a stout and a brown ale, look for my favourite beer - Hoyne Brewing's Dark Matter.

Museums

• Science World: A science museum housed in one of the most recognizable buildings of the Vancouver skyline - a geodesic dome. Great for kids and nerdy adults.
• Museum of Anthropology: This museum on UBC campus has a lot of artifacts from First Nations peoples and cultures of the Pacific Northwest, including totem poles outdoors and a few famous Bill Reid sculptures. They also have plenty of stuff from other parts of the world but learning about First Nations cultures and histories is a more Vancouver-specific thing to do here on a visit.
• Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology: A small museum at SFU that's affiliated with the university's archaeology department. Their collection focuses on First Nations in British Columbia.
• Vancouver Aquarium:
• Howard Trottier Observatory: Starry Nights with shared binoculars and telescopes from the community and of course, the observatory.
• H. R. MacMillan Space Centre: The real fancy space centre.
• Canadian Museum of Flight
• Burnaby Village Museum
• Vancouver Art Gallery
• Steveston Tram: restored tram from the early 20th century.
• Britannia Shipyards National Historic Site: collections of buildings turned into a museum about the oldest BC shipyard community.
• Beaty Biodiversity Museum
• Chinese Canadian Museum

Outdoors

This section covers parks with good scenery and hikes, beaches, birding, and some notable sport-adjacent activities that are fun to do in Vancouver. As Vancouver is in the Pacific Northwest, most beaches are rocky beaches unless otherwise specified. This means it can hurt a lot to walk barefoot, so take sandals.

• Lighthouse Park: Tied for my favourite hike, or a close tie with Buntzen lake.
• Belcarra Regional Park: Many nice trails including an easy 4 kilometre loop around Sasamat lake and the longer Jug Island Beach hike. White Pine Beach is sandy, but the rest of Belcarra's beaches are rocky.
• Burnaby Lake Regional Park: The park where I've spent the most time. Very easy trails but it can also get busy. Lots of cheap thrills in terms of birding, including a vagrant mandarin duck!
• Buntzen Lake: The trail around the lake is tied for my favourite hike. This is relatively flat compared to other Vancouver hikes, but still extremely hilly for someone from a flat place. It still takes the average person (and me) about 3 hours. The Diez Vistas trail is harder and longer and while some of the 10 vistas are fantastic, others are a bit disappointing.
• Quarry Rock: A not very pretty hike in Deep Cove (North Vancouver), until you get right to the top where the views are incredible. Until then you're going basically straight uphill though.
• Stanley Park: A Vancouver classic. You can walk the seawall or rent bikes.
• Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area: Lots of great trails including the Velodrome trail and the Pandora trail. The park in particular is very popular at sunset and has a number of carved wooden poles by Japanese aboriginal people.
• Rocky Point Park: The shoreline trail is beautiful and goes through some great marshy areas and forested bits and has really photogenic boardwalks.
• Burns Bog
• Queen Elizabeth Park
• VanDusen Botanical Garden and Bloedel Conservatory
• Deer Lake Park
• Vanier Park
• Cates Park
• Capilano Suspension Bridge Park: Unlike most other parks, this one has an entrance fee, and the highlight is of course the suspension bridge.
• Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden: A very peaceful place with traditional tea experiences you can pay for.
• Other birding-focused locations: ƛ̓éxətəm Regional Park (pronounced tla-hut-um; previously Colony Farm), Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Deboville Slough, Maplewood Flats Conservation Area, Minnekhada Regional Park
• Beaches: There are many to choose from. Jericho Beach is my favourite sandy beach. English Bay, Spanish Banks and Sunset Beach are other options that are also relatively sandy. Rocky beaches include Ambleside Beach and beaches in Belcarra.
• Kayaking: You can rent kayaks in Deer Lake, Jericho Beach, Main St (near Science World), Deep Cove, Port Moody, and Cates Park. This is in order from (what I think is) easiest to hardest for first-timers.
• Water biking: Imagine a bicycle on pontoons that you ride on the water - that's a water bike. It's ridiculous but also really fun to do with friends in good weather because you can have conversations while water biking.
• Lights to the Lodge: Snowshoeing in the evening with LED lights on Cypress mountain.

Events, venues, festivals

Look here if you're into music, film, theatre, etc.

• Vancouver International Film Festival: The festival happens at venues all around town. They screen films at the VIFF Centre year-round as well.
• Vancouver International Jazz Festival: Performances at venues around town, some ticketed, some free, some on outdoor stages. They also have year-round events.
• Bard on the Beach: Shakespeare festival where plays are put on in large tents set up in Vanier Park. It's not just traditional performances, e.g., a spin on Coriolanus where they made the character a woman and used it to explore themes of gender and violence. Pro-tip: if you aren't familiar with the play, read the synopsis of the original before you go. Pro-tip 2: go to the pre-show talks regardless of your familiarity with the original Shakespeare because the talks focus on the production you're about to watch.
• Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival: Festival where cafés, bakeries, chocolatiers, etc., all come up with signature hot chocolates and you can go around town sampling them!
• Vancouver Mural Festival: New murals are commissioned every year in different neighbourhoods of Vancouver and you can use their online maps to plot a path and go look at murals.
• Queers and Beers: When I used to go it was a small meetup that would take over most of a bar. I think they've grown bigger since!
• Vancouver Queer Film Festival: Queer film and filmmakers at venues all around town for a month! They also have year-round events.
• Vancouver Pride: Year-round events but of course it reaches fever pitch during Pride (July/August in Vancouver). Pro-tip: look out for the Unicorn Ball in the spring (my favourite Vancouver event) and the Dyke March, not just the parade.
• Biltmore Cabaret: Music venue.
• Fox Cabaret: Music and event venue.
• The Cobalt: Music venue.
• Rio Theatre: My favourite indie movie theatre.
• The Cinametheque: My second favourite indie movie theatre.
• Frankie's Jazz Club: Jazz and blues venue.
• Vancouver Mural Festival: Happens every year and you can go around watching murals being created during the festival or just do a mural crawl using the map at other times of the year.
• Imperial: Theatre, music and event venue that has hosted Vancouver Pride Society's Unicorn Ball in the past, one of my favourite events.
• Nerd Nite: Drink and learn! Nerdy talks for a general public, one of my favourite things to attend, especially when people I knew were presenting.
• Food Truck Festival: Food trucks galore! Look out for the grilled cheese food truck, that's my favourite.
• Vancouver Symphony Orchestra: They do plenty of classical music, of course, but the Movie Nights with the VSO series is my favourite. You get to watch a film with the VSO playing the orchestra live. It's the most incredible experience and I cannot recommend it enough.
• Playland: Amusement park right in the middle of the city with Canad's oldest rollercoaster, a wooden rollercoaster.
• Twilight Drive-In: A drive-in movie theatre - Vancouver's only one! It's a bit far out but it's such a fun and canonically North American (in my mind) experience.

Getting around

• Public transit: Skytrain (light rail), buses, and the seabus, which you should definitely ride between Waterfront and North Vancouver if you're into transit. Public transit is a great way to get around if you can. You can use a credit card to tap on at Skytrain and seabus stations and on buses, or get a Compass Card at a Skytrain or seabus station (not on buses).
• Driving: I recommend using a car share company for short trips, e.g., Modo for round trips or Evo for one-way trips. Both options tend to be cheaper than longer-term car rental companies like Hertz.
• Ferries: False Creek Ferries has trips within Vancouver, along False Creek. BC Ferries handles trips between Metro Vancouver and places that are further out, e.g., islands, central BC, northern BC, etc.
• Air: Apart from Vancouver International Airport, you can also do a heli-tour with SKY helicopters or a seaplane trip with Harbour Air, which is a delightful experience.
• Taxis: I recommend using good old taxi services like Yellow Cab or Bonny's Taxi.

Donations and volunteering

If you want to make material donations or donate your money, time or skills, this is the section for you. My recommendations are places I've donated to before, and I chose them because most of them work to address current social, financial and structural inequalities that stem from historical oppression. They do this through a combination of direct aid, free or discounted access to services like medical or legal aid, food or shelter, etc. The two notable exceptions to this on my list are Canada Learning Code (where I previously volunteered to teach kids how to code; these were mostly affluent kids, often with one or two parents in tech already), and Value Village (which is just a secondhand store and one that is very important for people who are not well-off).

A note on the Downtown Eastside: This is the area of Vancouver around the intersection of Hastings St and Main St. It is known for high rates of homelessness, drug use, mental health issues, crime, etc., a lot of which are consequences of austerity-based policies introduced in the Harper era that led to many people being deprived of social support they needed. Withdrawing these support mechanisms disproportionately affected certain demographics of people who are already at risk due to intergenerational trauma (from colonization, family history, etc.), which is why the area has, for example, a high proportion of homeless Indigenous people. The Downtown Eastside is thus a focus area for many of the organizations on this list which work to try and fill gaps in social support. They treat Downtown Eastsiders like human beings, which many tourists and even local residents fail to do. Please treat your fellow humans with respect and if you are willing and able, donate to these organizations generously.

• Downtown Eastside Womens Centre: The DEWC accepts donations (I've mostly donated clothing before) and they also take volunteers. They provide a space for women in the Downtown Eastside to hang out and get health checkups and food and such.
• Atira: Atira runs the DEWC and various other projects to help women who have experienced or are experiencing abuse, homelessness, poverty, etc. Although I find their wording on this a bit clunky they are trans-inclusive in their definition of women.
• PHS Community Services Society: I read Gabor Maté's book about addiction which highlights many stories of people dealing with addiction in the Downtown Eastside, the "worst" of whom (i.e., those who are rejected by all other community programs) are still taken in here and provided with shelter, food, therapy and such. This organization provides a model for what addiction care should look like, unlike the war on drugs policies of various Vancouver mayors in recent history. They're doing essential work and deserve all the financial support you can give them.
• Indian Residential School Survivors Society
• Quest
• Vancouver Overdose Prevention Society: Addicts don't deserve to die. I love an addict. Please donate mnoney and/or supplies to the OPS so they can continue to save lives in the Canada's overdose crisis.
• Qmunity: This organization builds queer community in Vancouver by running youth groups, providing consultation and financial help with accessing services like gender-affirming procedures (name changes, etc.) as well. They're worth donating to and also checking out if you're a queer person (especially a queer youth) looking for community.
• Rainbow Refugee: This organization helps queer refugees seek asylum in and/or immigrate to Canada, leaving behind countries where they are persecuted for being queer. They were the beneficiary of Perform for Pride 2017, where I was co-emcee.
• Value Village: If you want to buy anything secondhand, this is a great bet that isn't the Salvation Army. They also accept most items as donations, from clothing and furniture to kitchen stuff. Look at their website for details.
• Canada Learning Code: I volunteered here for a few years teaching kids to code. There are lower- and higher-commitment volunteer options; I opted for the former, i.e., to be a mentor (walking around and helping individual kids with problems) rather than a session leader (crafting a 3-hour program for a session to teach kids how to build something in code). Chances are higher than average that you code if you know me, so this is a place to consider volunteering, and you don't have to work with kids - there are also sessions to teach adults how to code, in various languages and with various goals.

Shopping

For food and neat things.

• Lonsdale Quay Market
• Vancouver Farmers Markets
• Granville Island Public Market

Miscellaneous

• Granville Island: Great for a day trip involving food, a public market, art and other events, shopping, etc.
• Steveston: Steveston is a fishing village that is featured often in film and TV. There are several good museums and it's a nice place to walk by the Fraser river.
• FlyOver Canada: Some might say this is a bit overpriced but I think it's really fun. You "fly" over Canada in something like a 4D movie.
• Big Bro's Barbershop: Trans hair place!
• B-Bombshell Salon: Geeky hair place!
• Adrenaline Studios: Tattoos and piercings and such.
• Womyns Wares: Sex toys, etc.

Further out

These are nearby cities that are good for a day trip or longer.

• Whistler (Mogul's Coffee House, La Cantina, Cow's Ice Cream)
• Victoria (Victoria Bug Zoo, Hoyne Brewing Company, Miniature World)
• Seattle (Zeitgeist Cafe, Left Bank Books)

Now closed

RIP some of my favourite places that are now closed.

• The District
• The Wallflower
• Table153
• Soirette
• Charlie's Mexican Restaurant and Catering
• Oysi Oysi
• Zeta Cafe
• PopBar
• Godiva Chocolatier
• Thai Café
• Yaletown Distillery
• Browns Books
• Albion Books
• Cafe Deux Soleils
• Ingrid's Village Cafe
• Hakkaku Ramen

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