Vancouver's best-kept restaurant secrets

Directly from the VSO Press Release:

Vancouver BC – We’re hitting the home stretch, as June marks the final month of concerts for the VSO’s 2008/09 Season! We’re close to making it through another successful Symphony Season with just six performances in the month – but what a group of concerts!

June concerts begin right off the bat with pianist Benjamin Hochman making his VSO debut on June 1st at the Orpheum. VSO Conductor Laureate Kazuyoshi Akiyama conducts the orchestra in a concert that features a rarely performed Mozart piano concerto and the passionate music of Russian master Sergey Prokofiev.

Next up is a classical blockbuster featuring Schubert’s Rosamunde and Mahler’s Symphony No.6. Mahler’s deeply tragic Symphony No.6 is one of the most extraordinary pieces of music ever written, one of the great canons of the symphonic literature. This concert is sure to be an epic musical experience; live concerts with music like this is why symphony orchestra’s exist.

Recognized as one of the most beloved musical figures of our time, the great Frederica von Stade (famously known as ‘Flicka’ worldwide) makes her VSO debut teamed up with Samuel Ramey, the world’s foremost operatic bass-baritone. A concert for the ages, these two extraordinary artists at the peak of their careers perform music by Gounod, Berlioz, Boito, Offenbach, Copland and Gershwin. Bramwell Tovey conducts.

The VSO’s Season Finale is a real barn-burner: Carl Orff’s celebrated Carmina Burana. This work is a musical setting of medieval poetry, from the sacred to the profane, from piety to drinking songs and debauchery. It also happens to be one of the wildest live concert experiences you can possibly have. A wonderful Season Finale for Lower Mainland audiences, and a prelude to the excitement of the 2009/2010 Season!

Directly from the Eat! Vancouver Press Release:

EAT your way around the many food exhibiting booths at this year’s Eat! Vancouver, but stay for the wine at our Wine Pavilion.

Try out various wines, beers and spirits from numerous exhibiting companies. Try out new drinks varying in flavour and origin. There will be local beers, national ciders, and drinks from around the world.

The pavilion will be home to 30 tasting tables as well as numerous seminars such as the ones hosted by Vancouver’s own Wine Diva, Daenna Van Mulligan:  Steps to Enjoying Wine; Sparkling Wines from Around the World; Pairing Cheese + Wine. Daenna has travelled the extensively around the world exploring her love for wine and is back for her 6th year at EAT! Vancouver.

Colin Jack, Rick Mohabir and Cheryl Wilson from Just Here for the Beer.com, will provide a beer tasting session with Lambic Beer. They will also be presenting the pairing of beer and food, which will be very important for the summer sports season.

Visitors can not miss the ultimate (yet friendly) showdown between the Beer Dudes and the Wine Diva; what will come out on top, Beer or Wine?

Giffard will be mixing it up with their Expert Mixologists:

Danielle Tatarin (Designer Cocktail Company)

Jay Jones (Voya at The Loden Hotel)

David Wolowidnyk (Award Winning Mixologist)

Shawn Soole (The Liquid Revolution)

Watch as they dazzle the crowd with a little Ginger of the Indies or Sortilege cocktails.

The Dean of Caesar will also be here, bringing the Mott’s Caesar School for the first time to EAT! Vancouver. Visitors will have a chance to sit in on a 45 minute lesson and learn how to prepare the best Mott’s Clamato Caesar. Participants of the Caesar school will take home a Recipe Manual and a Caesar Bartending Kit ($75 value).

Come visit EAT! Vancouver and watch the battle between Beer and Wine. Learn how to mix funky cocktails and learn to prepare the best Mott’s Clamato Caesar and impress your friends by creating summer’s favourite drink all summer long!