SCENE | Mitch and Murray and Kelli Ogmundson Do No 'Harm'

"Must be all the scissoring!"

Photo credit | Shimon Karmel

Fairview Slopes—Starring the appealing former Animal Control actress Kelli Ogmundson, Mitch and Murray Productions stages the North American premiere of British playwright Phoebe Eclair-Powell's gripping but deeply unsettling one-woman play. Harm is a powerful solo performance that requires the proper stamina and emotional range to truly express our toxic culture of digital discomfort and warped social realities through a single person's experiences.

FEAST | Global Flavours x Bar Asra x South Granville

"We want to celebrate the connection between cultures, ingredients, and people."

Tokyo Silk (sake, Calpico, pomegranate, and vodka) + Nigata Paper Plane (bourbon, spritz, grappa, and lemon)

South Granville—(May 9, 2025) Bar Asra, the brand new cocktail bar and restaurant, comes from seasoned Sirka chefs Kanwardeep Ahluwalia and Baldeep Singh (also co-owners) and occupies the original hundred-year-old location of the legendary Vij's and later its sister restaurant Rangoli.

SCENE | A Historic Royal Visit – Arts Club Cares for 'Casey and Diana'

"This is like the homosexual version of the Make-A-Wish Foundation!"

Casey House / October 25, 1991

South Granville—Arts Club Theatre Company stages North Vancouver playwright Nick Green's acclaimed, fictionized AIDS crisis dramedy, Casey and Diana, inspired by the late Princess Diana's historic 1991 Toronto visit to Casey House, Canada's first freestanding hospice caring for people (primarily gay men at the time) dying from the HIV/AIDS virus. A real tearjerker of a stage play that premiered at the 2023 Stratford Festival, it's a powerful tale that lives up to the actual impact the event had, destigmatizing the epidemic and humanizing those afflicted.

WEEKENDER | Patti Harrison Live x Just For Laughs x Vogue Theatre

"You better start agreeing with me right now!"

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson

Granville—(February 17, 2024) On Saturday night, I spent over an hour witnessing Ohio-born actress/comedian Patti Harrison perform her truly bizarre but side-splitting My Huge Tits Huge Because They Are Infected Not Fake! show—previously seen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and New York Comedy Festival—alongside hundreds of other fans seated inside the Vogue Theatre as part of the annual ten-day-long eighth annual Just for Laughs Vancouver live comedy festival.

SCENE | Speaking 'Child-ish' – Adults Talking Like Kids x Pacific Theatre

"Playgrounds would be made entirely of mushrooms!"

Photo credit | Chelsey Stuyt

South Granville—Celebrated Australian-born and raised (now Toronto and Los Angeles-based) queer/trans playwright Sunny Drake undertook his ambitious Child-ish project to painstakingly document the real-life thoughts and feelings of forty-one different Toronto area children (ages 5 to 12). First adapted into a fun four-episode web series, it's now been translated into a feel-good live theatrical meta-adaptation of his findings into a thoroughly amusing stage play presented by Pacific Theatre in its world premiere, starring grown-ups as composite characters drawn from his exhaustive pool of interviewed kids and very much made for adult audiences.

GRUB | Fast Food Italian Style x Monzo Burger x Opening x Granville

Granville—(September 7, 2023) Kitchen Table Restaurants opened its hotly anticipated retro burger joint (their twelfth restaurant) called Monzo Burger (a spin on the word "Manzo"—Italian for "beef") located on the ground floor of the Vancouver House building to much local fanfare by giving away free cheeseburgers to its first thousand customers.

GRUB | Cheeseburger and Milkshake x Burger Crush x Downtown

Financial District—Victoria's popular throwback to the fast-casual style burger and shake joint, Burger Crush, just opened its second (forty-seat) location in the old Johnny Rockets space, only a stone's throw away from the infamous Granville strip.

FEAST | New in Town x Street Auntie Apertivo House x Granville

"Fusion is confusion."

Granville—(November 26, 2020) The brand new, casually-named fifteen-seat restaurant Street Auntie Apertivo House, a mouthful to say, just opened in the so-named downtown Entertainment District. Its minimalist fusion-style tapas concept is focused on serving more or less authentic contemporary Chinese street food dishes with its own little culinary refinements.

FEAST | New in Town x Cold Tea Restaurant x Granville

wok beef (beef tenderloin tips with pineapple, bell peppers, onion, and cilantro)

Granville—(July 7, 2020) Downtown Vancouver's newest pan-Asian eatery, Cold Tea Restaurant—named after the secret post-last call tradition of covertly serving beer in a teapot (aka "cold tea") and not to be confused with the similarly named Toronto bar—takes over the storied, old Tsui Hang Village location right in the heart of the titular Entertainment District.

SOUND | Best Coast x 'Always Tomorrow' x Venue Nightclub

Granville—(March 3, 2020) California indie rock duo Best Coast, made of up of the unlikely but endearing pairing of members Bethany Costenino and Bobb Bruno, came back to town after a five-year headling absence—Costenino noted on stage they'd returned to Vancouver in between to open for both The Pixies and The Go-Go's—to play Venue Nightclub touring in support of their brand new fourth album (and first in five years), the dreamy and self-referential Always Tomorrow.

KAFFE | Coffee Break x Small Victory Bakery x South Granville

South Granville—Fresh bread and coffee purveyor Small Victory Bakery's very bright and shiny second location in its ritzy neighbourhood is a spacious cavern of stylish baked goods.

SOUND | Young Galaxy x 'Down Time' x Venue Nightclub

Granville—(April 4, 2018) Montreal electro pop outfit Young Galaxy performed live at Venue Nightclub to kick off their North American tour in support of their newly released sixth studio album—and first fully independent release—Down Time.

SOUND | Death From Above x 'Outrage! Is Now' x Commodore

Granville—(November 22, 2017) Hot off their third studio album, Outrage! Is Now, the newly renamed Toronto noise rock duo Death From Above—now sans "1979"—kicked off the Canadian leg of their North American tour at the Commodore Ballroom, coming home after travelling through the States.

FEAST | The Rise Eatery x Opening x South Granville

The Routine ramen poutine (with fries, cheese curds, miso gravy, Kewpie mayo, and furikake)

Fairview Slopes—(July 4, 2017) The Rise Eatery is South Granville's newest, globally influenced restaurant, with culinary influences from Argentina to Korea and Germany. The modern sixty-seat bistro opened recently, focusing on elevated dining and sharing plates (think Torafuku meets Heritage Asian Eatery).

SOUND | Japandroids x Commodore Ballroom x Granville

Granville—(March 20, 2017) Monday night at the Commodore Ballroom was the hometown closer for the Japandroids rock duo's last show on the North American leg of their world tour supporting the release of their acclaimed third album, Near to the Wild Heart of Life.

SOUND | Flight of the Conchords x Orpheum Theatre

Granville—(June 23, 2016) New Zealand folk rock comedy duo, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, Flight of the Conchords hit the Orpheum Theatre for their only Canadian date on the Flight of the Conchords Sing Flight of the Conchords North American tour.

IMBIBE | Science of Cocktails Preview x Granville Room

Granville—(January 13, 2016) Science and cocktails? That's the idea behind next month's charitable gala and night out in support of Science World and their Class Field Trip Program. The appropriately named Science of Cocktails event is all about discovering "molecular mixology" for adults on a night anchored by twenty-five different (open bar) beverage stations with hors d'oeuvres from Railtown Catering. (Fairmont Pacific Rim head bartender Grant Sceney, above.)

Concert: Death From Above 1979 x Vogue Theatre

Death From Above 1979 (first show) live in concert at the Vogue Theatre on Granville Street on January 21, 2015.



What a show. A positive "Trainwreck", if you will. Toronto dancer punk rockers, Death From Above 1979 (duo Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F. Keeler), sweated out an intense, vibrant, and very, very loud set to a raucous, all-ages crowd of adoring fans at the Vogue. It was raw, visceral, and bordering on euphoric from the front row. My ears and head-shaking neck still ache (a good ache, mind you) from the rhythmic satisfaction of their pulsating sounds well into the night.

Cachè Couture Atelier x Soirée x Fashion Show

Cachè Couture Atelier soirée and fashion show on Granville Street on April 30, 2014. As seen in Vancouver Is Awesome.



CountDown Events (organizers of the annual Crème de la Crème wedding showcase) showed off Cachè, Vancouver's new luxe atelier boutique. The design space encourages you to create and design your personal couture piece alongside its shop full of curated designer bridal selections. The open, unique boutique was flowing with stylish decor and inspired pieces.

From the Weekend: In Da Club x Let It Snow x Cabana Lounge

Entice Events' Let It Snow holiday club night at Cabana Lounge nightclub on Granville Street on December 14, 2013.



Dashing through the club. Yes, I went to a nightclub, on a Saturday, on Granville Street. There's only one plausible reason for this, to support a blood relative (my cousin Angelica, above). I was the night's photographer. Proceeds went to support of BC Children's Hospital Foundation.