Lisa and I begin planning our New Years Eve Dinner Party (6th annual!) during one of our summer road trips. We were considering a Da Vinci Code theme, but then stumbled across the book Booze and Vinyl while relaxing at Long Table Distillery after biking the seawall, and decided we had to do a Rock n’ Roll theme, featuring a 7-course dinner with wine and music pairings. With this theme, we were free to create dishes from a variety of cuisines. We have learned over the years to prepare as much as we possibly can in advance of the party. As always, we asked guests (13 this year, including ourselves) to help out with the ingredient and wine costs, so we can buy premium ingredients and choose great wines to make this party a memorable end to the decade.
Cocktails
We had 4 welcome cocktails to choose from this year: Cold Gin Time Again (top right, links in the post go to the song on YouTube) essentially a perfect Martini (gin, and equal parts dry and sweet vermouth), Live! At Budokan (top left, with gin, sake, dry vermouth, yuzu juice and star anise simple syrup), Whiskey Rock a’ Roller (bottom left, bacon washed Jack Daniels, sweet vermouth, Rockstar Energy Drink, ghost pepper infused vodka (Made by Malcolm from peppers our hockey buddy grew…just a few drops!), Moondog Bitters, and candied bacon), and an alcohol-free option, Like a Virgin (bottom right, Seedlip Spice 94, Fever Tree Tonic, Cardamom Bitters).
Once cocktails were served, there was time for a cheers and a quick group photo
Then, like the rock stars we were (for the evening anyway), it was time to pop the champagne, and get this party started!
Amuse
Song pairings: Purple Rain, Cherry Cherry
The first course was a delectable toasted brioche slider hot out of the oven, spread with homemade cherry jam and topped with a slice of duck foie gras. We served real french champagne, but with a twist, using Spirdust coloring to change the color and make the champagne sparkle and swirl. If you squint real hard the final color was sort of purple, but more like a blue-green (possibly due to the effervescence of the champagne). You have to stir in the powder to make it swirl, which is not the ideal thing to do with champagne.
This year we blocked off the entrances to the dining room so there would be a big reveal of all the lights and the setup. Lisa caught Malcolm trying to peek… I thought she was yelling at the cat at first. It was, um… quite authentic.
Appetizer
Song pairings: Crabbuckit, Silver
So, finally we were ready for the big reveal – the room was lit up, a slideshow of iconic rock n’ roll photos on the big screen, the curtains were pulled back and we led guests into our living/dining rooms which had been transformed into a concert set. The panna cotta and wine pairing was already on the table as guests found their seats, and it was fun to watch their heads swivel all around the room. This year, we were both by far more excited about decorating the room for this party than any Christmas decorations.
The King crab was divine, and a wow ingredient we had talked about including for years. Lisa’s arm is shown below for scale in comparison to the king crab legs. Each claw was the size of her hand. We were off to a very smooth start, and the party was underway. Generous lumps of butter sauteed crab was perched atop each panna cotta.
The panna cotta was garnished with lemon dill sour cream, fresh dill sprig, and a striking red coral tuile, of which the ingredients could not be simpler (flour, water, coloring) and the timing could not be trickier to get right (there is a very fine line between wet lump of dough, beautiful tuile, and burnt crisp). The wine pairing was a perennial favorite of ours, Silver, the unoaked Chardonnay from the Wagner family of wines. We have served its barrel fermented Chardonnay cousin, Mer de Soleil Reserve at a couple of our previous new year’s eve dinners, where it has been a notable favorite.
Salad
Song pairings: Octopus’ Garden, More Than Words Can Say
The prettiest dish of the night was up next. Featuring baby octopus, red lettuce, black kale, easter egg radishes sliced wafer thin on a mandolin, purple potatoes, diced red pepper, enoki mushrooms, basil chiffonade and edible flowers, with a lemon-garlic vinaigrette, this was truly a stunner. The wine pairing for this course was Black Hills Estate Alias aromatic white blend of 7 white varietals (Chasselas, Riesling, Muscat, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Schonburger).
Pasta
Song pairings: Little Green Bag, Drops of Jupiter
The next dish was the first one Dean thought of for the Rock n’ Roll dinner, inspired by our Groupon pasta-making course we took this summer (and the opening title sequence of Reservoir Dogs), these little green bags were our homemade pesto pasta, filled with pear and ricotta cheese, accompanied by strips of aged Serrano ham, fresh fig, and sage from our garden in a brown butter sauce, accompanied by a parmesan bread stick. For this course’s wine pairing, we served a Pfaff Cuvée Jupiter Riesling.
Meatloaf
Song pairings: Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad, I Was Made for Lovin’ You
When planning the menu, we were originally going to have six courses. But one day in early December, Lisa was describing the concept for our New Year’s Eve dinner to her colleague Autumn, who promptly quipped, well, I hope you’re not serving meatloaf! The rest, as they say is history, since at that point, we had to. But we elevated the humble meatloaf, to a dish worthy of this dinner, using ground elk, granny smith apples and pistachios, and serving it plated with piped duchess potatoes and port-reconstituted morels. In the photo, the plates look full size, but they were actually small appy sized plates, each measuring abut 4×6″, so each slice of loaf was about 2″ square. The Dynasty Red Blend from the Hatch winery in West Kelowna (51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Malbec, 14% Syrah and 14% Syrah) was a perfect pairing, and a crowd favorite. Bread (in the shape of guitars) was also served with this course, along with whipped vanilla- lavender-sea salt butter.
While Lisa and I were occupied grilling and prepping the main course, it was time for guests to play our game. We sent out surveys in advance, with 10 questions for our guests about their experiences with Rock music and concerts, with questions like “what was the first rock song or album you ever owned?”, “If you were a rock star, what would your stage name be?” or “What are 1-2 words that describes a rock concert experience you had that you don’t share with everyone?” The best part were the stories guests got to tell about their Rock music and concert experiences.
Main Course
Song pairings: My Sweet Lord, Mellow Yellow, Black Dog
For our main course, Lisa chose a real crowd-pleaser, Vij’s lamb popsicles, in saffron cream sauce, Moroccan blend of basmati and wild rice, with apricots, golden raisins, slivered almonds, a small salad of tomato and cucumber, and a poppadom. Our friend Malcolm was very pleased that we did not cut the cap of fat off the bones, as this is his favorite part. This course was paired with the ultimate Rock n’ Roll wine, the 2016 Black Dog. You can only buy this wine if you are wine club members at Township 7 Winery (a Naramata winery that also has a tasting room in Langley), and handily, Lisa and I are members. They only produce a total of 90 magnums (1.5L) of this wine per year. As members, we are allowed to buy only one magnum per year, and we did so to share with our guests. Black Dog is a Merlot dominant Bordeaux-style blend that also has Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet
Franc, Syrah and a splash of Malbec and Petit Verdot. We put it out to decant when we started prepping the lamb course. Baby Groot supervised the whole operation for proper quality control.We must have been having fun, because it was pretty close to midnight when the lamb was served, so there was a brief pause for Happy New Year cheers and kisses, at midnight.
Dessert
Song pairings: Another Brick in the Wall part 2, Brain Damage, Piano Man
Perhaps inspired by the upcoming Vancouver Opera production of Another Brick in the Wall, and this London Restaurant offering a Pink Floyd High Tea, we created our Pink Floyd Dessert, featuring homemade marshmallow wall, homemade (pink) raspberry ice cream, warm toffee pudding (not shown in the photo… it goes in the empty space on the plate. Maybe someone didn’t eat their meat?) and topped with a Coffee Crunch Mayan pyramid chocolate hand-painted with the Dark Side of the Moon spectrum. Instead of a dessert wine (virtually impossible to find with a Rock n’ Roll tie-in… I looked) we chose another sparkling wine, Piano by Stoneboat from Oliver, made from old vines Pinot Blanc.
After dessert, the party showed no signs of stopping with some more game questions, and it was rumored that Whiskey (Laphroaig Cairdeas Triple Wood Cask Strength) and Bourbon (Knob Creek Single Barrel Cask Strength and Michter’s Sour Mash) may possibly have been opened for sampling. We think this dinner party was a fitting extravaganza to end the decade. The last guests left around 2:30 am, and we stumbled up to bed after a brief clean (so… many… glasses…). Emma and Shawn stayed over and Emma kindly washed ALL of glassware when she couldn’t sleep and was awake at 6 am – THANK YOU EMMA!!
Rock on!
Dean & Lisa
December 31, 2019
You may have walked by this “accountant’s office” next to the 
red to be the craftiest of the cocktails on their list. It was served with a giant log of raw cinnamon and a dried apricot garnish, with the orange bitters dropped and dragged on top of the pillowy foam from the egg white. The sweetness of the apricot preserve was nicely balanced with the acidity of the lemon. The menu also featured other throwback cocktails like a Paralyzer, a Grasshopper, Tequila Sunrise, Rob Roy, and a Bloody Mary. The snacks menu was not extensive but definitely stuck 
with the 70’s theme… I can’t remember the last time I had Cheeze Whiz, but it must have been over 30 years ago. But, in the spirit of the 70’s, we ordered the celery sticks with Cheeze Whiz, raisins and red pepper. There were other snacks, but if we have learned one thing during the course of our crawls, it is this: don’t overdo it at the first stop.
We love 
stumble into the Narrow Lounge by accident. Even if you poke your head into the entrance by the otherwise unsigned, speakeasy style red light just off Main Street, you are met with a graffiti covered hallway that looks like it leads to some electrical room. or crypt. But, once inside, we found a dark, raucous bar in full swing early on a Saturday night. Maybe this owes to their 7 day a week later than usual happy hour, that runs from 5-7 pm daily. This lounge is, well, narrow, with a long bar running most of the length of the room, with small 2-4 person tables against the far wall, separated by a small aisle.
The cocktail selection had an ample number of options but did not appear overly craft-y, so we kind of went old school, with a properly made Long Island Iced Tea (vodka, gin, tequila, aged rum, triple sec, lemon juice and cola) and a Lemongrass Margarita (lemongrass-infused tequila, cointreau, lime juice, simple syrup, egg whites, salt rim). They were well made, though Lisa (who has a near-bionic sense of smell) had trouble finding the lemongrass aroma and flavours in her drink.
Narrow lounge offers some small plates, flatbreads and a variety of tacos, but we chose the BBQ pulled pork macaroni and cheese. It arrived from some hidden kitchen around the corner and upstairs, and was served piping hot and bubbling, in a cast iron dish, smothered in cheese, and made for some very tasty comfort food.
just a few blocks west of Main Street, right downtown in Gastown. Guilt & Co. is located around the side and downstairs from Local Gastown, with its large street facing patio. Things get going a bit later in the evening at Guilt with live music starting at 10 pm, and be sure to bring your ID… they almost didn’t let Lisa in because she didn’t have hers.
Our first course was a classic ‘name’ dish from 
This was an ambitious dessert with four separate aspects to making this deconstructed S’More. The recipe was developed by pastry chef Lisa Bonjour from MK Kitchen in Chicago, and is so named for a line from the 1993 movie 
We have had guest crawlers once before, when Lisa’s daughter joined up for our 
We ordered beer flights (4 of their 5 beers on tap) – Ron and Angie shared and Dean got his own. Between us, we tasted their Adrift Hop Blonde Ale, Sirens Chai Saison (Angie’s favorite), Wave Crusader XPA (somethin
g between a British ale and American IPA), Riptide Rye IPA, and the Ashore Rye Porter (Ron, Lisa and Dean’s favorite). Not overly strong, Brittania’s brews range from 4.7% to 6% ABV. Lisa chose a deceptively simple, but interesting and tasty cocktail of freshly juiced Okanagan green apples, Jameson’s Irish Whiskey, topped with freshly grated cinnamon.
lers we have found you have to rein them in a bit at the first restaurant; the temptation is to order enough for a full meal like you would at a single venue, but you need to remind them there are still 2 other places to go!
Next came a pair of crab cakes (bottom), which were good, not great (of course, Dean’s benchmark for a great crab cake comes from 
We knew we could not pass up the home made brioche stuffed with mushroom duxelles (finely chopped mushrooms, herbs, onions or shallots, cream and a dash of sherry) and smoked ham; we ordered a tray of 8 (not 26, as owner Pat
rick helpfully suggested). These were super light, warm, fluffy, smooth and very french in style, and Lisa’s favorite dish of the evening.
If you want to see a patio that comes alive on a sunny spring or summer evening, look no further than the Blue Canoe. Winner of the 2015 Georgia Straight Golden Plates 
If you are having lobster anyways, it just makes sense to make lobster bisque. While quite rich, if you don’t serve too great a quantity, it makes for a nice middle course as a transition to the main(s). It is also very comforting on a cold evening, and it had started to snow just before our guests arrived. Lisa is a master at making soup stock, whether after a Thanksgiving Turkey dinner or from shellfish. We cooked the lobster on Friday, shortly after bringing them home. (A notable favorite saying at our house is: you can’t just let them die, you have to kill them!) Then, the shells and bodies could be used to create the stock, and we reserved some lobster meat from the knuckles to go in the center of the bowl (the bowls we used are a little too deep, so you can’t see the meat in the photo, but it’s there). This course was paired with the lovely 
by the time happy hour rolled around. The bar area had that craft-y look with a massive stack of limes and lemons for garnishes and very trendy lighting with antique bulbs hung at different heights throughout the restaurant. We do like to sit at the bar to watch the bartender’s technique, and chat with them – we learn something every time we do. Dean chose the Earl Grey Old Fashioned (Buffalo Trace bourbon, Angostura bitters, Earl Grey infused syrup). The Earl grey was quite subtle – would have liked it a bit more noticeable in the flavour. Lisa was somewhat hesitant, but eventually chose The Good Neighbour (Flor de Caña 7 year aged rum, Cinnamon Syrup, Lime, Grapefruit, Old Fashioned bitters). The cinnamon was well balanced (and not like a mouthful of cinnamon hearts as was initially feared). Their Happy Hour food list offers 5 menu items for $5. We ordered some popcorn, which was freshly popped in a giant pot (as I mentioned we arrived right on the stroke of 3 pm) and tossed with rendered duck fat and seasoned with rosemary and sea salt.
cocktails are craft though the food menu is perhaps a bit more straightforward than some places we have visited. Lisa spotted a sparkling wine from her new favourite winery in West Kelowna called the 
ave their sparkling 
ongside the Okanagan Grand Hotel. The newcomer on the scene is BNA (so named, since the building originally housed tobacco drying operations of the British North American Tobacco Company). BNA brews their own beer on site (mostly pale ales and IPAs) and serves flights and sleeves and growler fills are available right next door to the restaurant. Its a cool space inside with lots of exposed beams, huge chandeliers and TVs everywhere which was convenient as Canada was playing the Czech Republic on opening night of the World Cup of Hockey when we visited. There is also a separate upstairs room that would make for a great space for private parties. Dean stuck with a cocktail, ordering The Butcher (bacon and BNA beer Old Fashioned with smoked maple ice) while Lisa ordered a beer flight (their Pale Ale, IPA and her favourite the Blood Sugar Hops Magik ISA (stands for India Session Ale – hops forward, and usually below 5% ABV).
cident. We sat at the bar, and chatted with our bartender/server. Though Waterfront Wines was doing it long before the farm-to-table trend really caught on, it makes total sense to source ingredients from local farms in such an agriculturally rich region as the Okanagan valley.
ec City, Montreal, Sonoma) and sidelined by surgeries. Not that we haven’t been out to restaurants of course which would have been a true hardship, but we weren’t in position to do a crawl format for a while. So, we thought the best way to get back to it would be to start with a second craft beer crawl (we did call 
re 7 “Old World Inspired” offerings available on tap. We shared a “Box of Strange” which had four 4 ounce samplers of our choice for $8+tax. Lisa is not a fan of unfiltered wheat beers, or strongly fruit flavored beers, so the Wit and the Saison were out. Deloris the Tart is a sour (good name, but have tried them before and we just don’t like sours) so our choice was easily made (from left: the Cyclhops Azacca IPA, the Guardian White IPA, the Talisman Pale Ale and the Jaune Fizze Lager). We seemed to remember there 
were darker stout like beers on offer previously here, but all four of these were fairly light in colour. Despite the name, the Cyclhops was somewhat surprisingly less hoppy than the White IPA. We both agreed the White IPA was our favourite of the bunch, with a nice citrus/floral finish. We felt the Talisman was a very typical Pale Ale: good, but not a standout, while the Lager was crisp and above average. In fact, we often will favor other more interesting beers over lagers in some samplers, so it was kind of rare for us to even order a lager. There were our favorite East Side Pretzels and other snacks available as well, and they offer a monthly changing charcuterie board (See their 
e of the day’s crawl and felt more like a pub, and a place you would be tempted to stick around and have a pint or two. Main Street Brewing Company had the most robust food selection of the 3 breweries visited and a couple of televisions above the bar were showing the Whitecaps game. Guests have a little more space to move around in and its a bright welcoming venue. Each of their brews has great
It was a harder decision to pick 4 tasters here, but we ultimately settled on (left to right): The Streets, Naked Fox IPA, Belgian Bonsai and the Westminster Brown Ale. The Streets is a collaboration with Powell Street Brewery, and a light Scottish Golden lager. At 4% it was light and inoffensive, but nothing remarkable. The Naked Fox IPA was a classic IPA that balanced the hoppy bitterness with subtle sweetness. The Belgian Bonsai is a Sorachi Ace hopped Belgian IPA, at 6.5% and 70 IBU (
oon Baby is the product of a collaboration with Delta’s Four Winds Brewing and is a tribal saison, with rice and subtle toasted coconut. This was Lisa’s second choice favorite, and this should be seen as a big win, since Lisa is quite averse to overt non-beer flavors in her beer. The Fu Manchu Saison featured Sorachi Ace hops (just like the Belgian Bonsai we had at Main Street), which probably explains why Dean pegged this one as his second favorite – this only clicked when we were writing up this blog post! The Uncomfortable Silence, was a bit uncomfortable to taste – this collaboration with Dageraad Brewery is an ale with Brettanomyces yeast and a sour cherry finish… a little too sour for our liking. However, the darkest brew of the day, the gorgeous dark Inertia Imperial Stout clocking in at a whopping 8% ABV was everything you would want in an Imperial Stout, and both Dean and Lisa’s favorite at Brassneck. The Bras
sneck tasting room has some interesting artwork, including the wooden dog sculpture atop the entryway. It was a busy day, so it was crowded and loud and didn’t make us want to hang around any longer than needed to finish our sampler. Brassneck has the right vibe, the widest and most interesting beer selection, and a packed tasting room. They appear to be doing very well. We really want to love Brassneck, but for some reason it just isn’t our favorite spot (or favorite beer). Overall, Main Street Brewing Company was our favorite beer and favorite venue of this crawl. There are still so many more breweries to check out, so check back for future beer crawls.
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