Vancouver 2016 Day 8: Sushi and Whisky

10/21/2016
Vancouver 2016 Day 8: Sushi and Whisky

Michal is here! She arrived last night late and now it was fun to explore the city together for the last few days of my trip before heading back to SF. First up was something on the way into work in the morning -- Liege waffles with Milk Chocolate LAVENDER sauce and Passion Fruit sauce!! MAN!!!! So, so good. This was at a place called Medina Cafe and the lines are usually insanely long, so we got there early and it was awesome.

A couple fun shots of the office:

The sign at the restrooms :)

After work Michal and I headed to the John Fluevog shop right beside the office and it was a super epic store as Fluevog is from Vancouver. They usually have either shoes that are too plain for me (but my buddy Matt loves those more understated ones) or shoes that are INSANE and super crazy and mirrorball-textured and so on. It's hard to find something that's not on one of those extremes... but at this shop they had some really awesome ones in this awesome blue colour. Super classy but still kinda cray. So that was perfect. I tried them on and the hilarious salesperson made fun of me for having white athletic socks ("Do people still wear those?!") hahahaha. Michal told him not to worry and that she wouldn't let me out of the house if I tried to wear those instead of proper socks with my new Fluevog shoes -- to which he said, "Thank goodness for you!" hahahaha. That was hilarious and awesome, and I love these crazy fancy shoes.

Next up was dinner back near the hotel at the sister restaurant of Miku (the place I went earlier in the trip), a great spot in Yaletown called Minami. They had the same legendary Salmon "aburi" flamethrowered sushi and it was so delicious we ordered a second round of the same one for "dessert".

Also, THIS:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had an awesome dinner and it was a great time.

After dinner my epic wife was totally on board for yet-another Whisky thing for me to go visit. A friend at work had noticed my "Malt Whiskey" shirt and realized my level of Whisky obsession, and suggested another place that I hadn't heard of called Fets Whisky Kitchen. It was INSANE. I was blown away by the selection.

Here's my Facebook comment from the evening, haha.

Oh mercy me, may have just found a crazier selection than even the Multnomah Whisky Library.... this was NUTS. They had Glenmorangie "Artisan Cask" -- a super early version that eventually turned into the first yearly release ("Astar")!!! And it was $20?!?!!!!! Also tried the Ardbeg Galileo, which included some whisky that had been aged IN SPACE 🚀 (on a literal spaceship). And tried to get the Bruichladdich 21 (for $20?!!!) but sold out, got some crazy Bruichladdich Margeaux cask instead, super interesting and amazingly unusual. The range of Bruichladdich here was cray.

This truly was an amazing selection. Comparing this place to the Shebeen Whisky House earlier in the week and the Multnomah Whisky Library in Portland, I actually think this place was the MOST impressive. I would come back here multiple times in the future. It ROCKED.

The selection was VAST. They had an overwhelming list of whiskies from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society -- a separate and HUGE book just for those specific bottles. Very overwhelming selection, indeed! It was super, super, suppper awesome. I decided their regular bottles were already amazing and had some great options, so I went for those over the even crazier and more complicated Whisky Society tastings. Gotta save something for another visit. :)

As I mentioned above, the selection was VAST and I had a lot of trouble deciding what to try. The first and most obvious choice as the Glenmorangie "Artisan Cask", an early series of Glenmorangie that led to "Astar", the first of the new yearly releases that eventually landed with Ealanta -- World Whisky of the Year a few years ago and my all-time-favourite-ever Whisky. So incredible. The pricing here was surprisingly low, and with the strong US-to-Canadian-Dollar exchange rate at the moment, this was an incredible deal.

I spent a whole bunch of time perusing the menu. :)

This is so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Was very sweet and very reminiscent of the classic Glenmorangie taste.

Random pickled vegetables!

Next up on my tasting list was Ardbeg Galileo, which was literally AGED IN SPACE. They send up a sample of it into space (!) to see how space would affect the aging process. Hilarious and insane.

The server told me that the owner had a close relationship with Bruichladdich -- I could tell, given the insane amount of Bruichladdich on the list. I tried to get one of the well-priced older ones (eg. 20 yr for $20?!) but they were sold out. I ended up getting the Chateau Margaux Cask 16 year, which was super unusual and awesome as Bruichladdich does -- always experimenting with crazy combinations.

This was INSANE. They were selling the old-bottling of Glenmorangie Madiera Cask for only $25 CAD/$20 USD. That is crazy as Multnomah Whisky Library had this one for about $80 USD. A great deal... but so good, that sadly it was sold out.

So, YEAH. A GREAT Friday night -- some awesome food, great times, fun photos of my new niece, epic wife, epic Whisky.