Brewery & The Beast returns to Vancouver for 10th year of fire-kissed culinary arts
The fest is focused on ethically sourced, flame-cooked food and features live music
Dante’s Inferno, Scott Redekop, Yellow Door Bistro. Photo via Brewery & The Beast
BREWERY & THE BEAST is back for its 10th year in Vancouver. The summertime outdoor event serves up ethically and responsibly sourced proteins alongside craft beverages and live music by local artists. Tickets are now on sale for the perennially sold-out fest that takes place the afternoon of July 9 at Concord Pacific Place.
There’s more to the event than food to get fired up about, such as B.C.- and Alberta-raised pork, beef, bison, wild boar, elk, venison, goat, lamb, rabbit, duck, chicken, and salmon (plus freshly sucked oysters) prepared via traditional and innovative techniques by some of Vancouver’s leading restaurants. It’s about building community while showcasing ethical, sustainable, and natural farming practices—and the people behind them.
“There’s a lot of really great growers and producers here, and we’re taking the best ingredients, with protein being the focus, and saying ‘There’s a story behind this meat,’” says Scott Gurney, director of 17 Black Events, which produces the fest. “We know where it was grown, we know who grew it, and we know what it ate, and there’s transparency behind where it comes from. So we’re taking a less commodity-based approach and working more toward a supplier-specific approach so that people can actually know where their food is coming from.
“For those who really care where the food comes from, this is a great event,” he says. “For those who maybe don’t know at all where the food comes from, it’s even better because at the Beast you can see, touch, hear, taste, and smell. There’s face-to-face interaction. As a community, we’re supporting more ranchers and growers. The pandemic was a great example of how smaller farms and producers kept our food system stocked. We want to show that off, with great food and great restaurants.”
Some of the farms, ranches, growers, and suppliers featured for 2023 are Two Rivers Meats, 63 Acres Premium Beef, Rossdown Farms & Natural Food, Yarrow Meadow, 7 Seas, and Fanny Bay Oysters. Information about all of the suppliers is on the Beast’s website.
Maple-cured wild B.C. salmon, Scott Jaeger. Photo via Brewery & The Beast
Restaurants taking part this year include Two Rivers Meats (wagyu beef sliders on toasted brioche and tomahawk ribeye steak with salsa verde), Anh and Chi (which is making grilled lemongrass pork grilled with papaya and carrot slaw), Cream Pony (hot Nashville chicken sliders on honey-dipped donut bun), and Wildlight Kitchen + Bar (bison tartare in sesame cone). Then there’s Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, ¿CóMO? Taperia, H2 Kitchen + Bar, Mount Pleasant Vintage & Provision, Notch8 at The Hotel Vancouver, Paella Guys, Published on Main, and Tacofino Restaurants, to name just some. There will be nearly 60 different dishes for people to sample.
To go with grilled, slow-roasted, braised, or smoked meats, Brewery & The Beast serves chilled craft beer, cider, wine, cocktails, and zero-proof drinks. Among this year’s participants are Windfall Cider, Driftwood Brewery, Uncork the Sun (Oliver Osoyoos Wine Country), Vancouver Island Brewery, Ocaso Tequila Soda, Ardbeg Whiskey, and Bucha Brew.
The Electric Timber Company is the festival’s house band, made up of a collective of varying musicians with backgrounds in everything from roots to blues; the roster includes 28 Juno nominees and 18 Maple Blues award winners. Special guests who have arrived unannounced and sat in for a set or two in the past include Paul Pigat, Jim Byrnes, The Sojourners, Dustin Bentall, CR Avery, Nick La Riviere, The Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer, and Wide Mouth Mason.
“The end goal is to support these restaurant owners and operators, support the farms and ranches that have sustainability and responsibility behind them, and then have a ton of fun with how we’re doing it,” Gurney says. “We get to throw awesome drinks on top and live music on top of it.”
Each year, partial proceeds from the event go to organizations that foster the culinary-arts industry and support local food-focused initiatives, such as the Chefs’ Table Society of BC, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, Camosun College, and Vancouver Island University.
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